第 三十 章 · THE TRAGEDY OF THE MANOR-HOUSE

THE TRAGEDY OF THE MANOR-HOUSE

At midnight all was over, and we sat in the presence of four

corpses. We covered them with such rags as we could find, and

started away, fastening the door behind us. Their home must be

these people's grave, for they could not have Christian burial,

or be admitted to consecrated ground. They were as dogs, wild

beasts, lepers, and no soul that valued its hope of eternal life

would throw it away by meddling in any sort with these rebuked and

smitten outcasts.

We had not moved four steps when I caught a sound as of footsteps

upon gravel. My heart flew to my throat. We must not be seen

coming from that house. I plucked at the king's robe and we drew

back and took shelter behind the corner of the cabin.

“Now we are safe,” I said, “but it was a close call--so to speak.

If the night had been lighter he might have seen us, no doubt,

he seemed to be so near.”

“Mayhap it is but a beast and not a man at all.”

“True. But man or beast, it will be wise to stay here a minute

and let it get by and out of the way.”

“Hark! It cometh hither.”

True again. The step was coming toward us--straight toward the hut.

It must be a beast, then, and we might as well have saved our

trepidation. I was going to step out, but the king laid his hand

upon my arm. There was a moment of silence, then we heard a soft

knock on the cabin door. It made me shiver. Presently the knock

was repeated, and then we heard these words in a guarded voice:

“Mother! Father! Open--we have got free, and we bring news to

pale your cheeks but glad your hearts; and we may not tarry, but

must fly! And--but they answer not. Mother! father!--”

I drew the king toward the other end of the hut and whispered:

“Come--now we can get to the road.”

The king hesitated, was going to demur; but just then we heard

the door give way, and knew that those desolate men were in the

presence of their dead.

“Come, my liege! in a moment they will strike a light, and then

will follow that which it would break your heart to hear.”

He did not hesitate this time. The moment we were in the road

I ran; and after a moment he threw dignity aside and followed.

I did not want to think of what was happening in the hut--I couldn't

bear it; I wanted to drive it out of my mind; so I struck into the

first subject that lay under that one in my mind:

“I have had the disease those people died of, and so have nothing

to fear; but if you have not had it also--”

He broke in upon me to say he was in trouble, and it was his

conscience that was troubling him:

“These young men have got free, they say--but _how_? It is not

likely that their lord hath set them free.”

“Oh, no, I make no doubt they escaped.”

“That is my trouble; I have a fear that this is so, and your

suspicion doth confirm it, you having the same fear.”

“I should not call it by that name though. I do suspect that they

escaped, but if they did, I am not sorry, certainly.”

“I am not sorry, I _think_--but--”

“What is it? What is there for one to be troubled about?”

“_If_ they did escape, then are we bound in duty to lay hands upon

them and deliver them again to their lord; for it is not seemly

that one of his quality should suffer a so insolent and high-handed

outrage from persons of their base degree.”

There it was again. He could see only one side of it. He was

born so, educated so, his veins were full of ancestral blood that

was rotten with this sort of unconscious brutality, brought down

by inheritance from a long procession of hearts that had each done

its share toward poisoning the stream. To imprison these men

without proof, and starve their kindred, was no harm, for they were

merely peasants and subject to the will and pleasure of their lord,

no matter what fearful form it might take; but for these men to

break out of unjust captivity was insult and outrage, and a thing

not to be countenanced by any conscientious person who knew his

duty to his sacred caste.

I worked more than half an hour before I got him to change the

subject--and even then an outside matter did it for me. This was

a something which caught our eyes as we struck the summit of a

small hill--a red glow, a good way off.

“That's a fire,” said I.

Fires interested me considerably, because I was getting a good

deal of an insurance business started, and was also training some

horses and building some steam fire-engines, with an eye to a paid

fire department by and by. The priests opposed both my fire and

life insurance, on the ground that it was an insolent attempt to

hinder the decrees of God; and if you pointed out that they did not

hinder the decrees in the least, but only modified the hard

consequences of them if you took out policies and had luck, they

retorted that that was gambling against the decrees of God, and was

just as bad. So they managed to damage those industries more

or less, but I got even on my accident business. As a rule, a knight

is a lummux, and some times even a labrick, and hence open to pretty

poor arguments when they come glibly from a superstition-monger,

but even _he_ could see the practical side of a thing once in a while;

and so of late you couldn't clean up a tournament and pile the

result without finding one of my accident-tickets in every helmet.

We stood there awhile, in the thick darkness and stillness, looking

toward the red blur in the distance, and trying to make out the

meaning of a far-away murmur that rose and fell fitfully on the

night. Sometimes it swelled up and for a moment seemed less

remote; but when we were hopefully expecting it to betray its cause

and nature, it dulled and sank again, carrying its mystery with it.

We started down the hill in its direction, and the winding road

plunged us at once into almost solid darkness--darkness that was

packed and crammed in between two tall forest walls. We groped

along down for half a mile, perhaps, that murmur growing more and

more distinct all the time. The coming storm threatening more and

more, with now and then a little shiver of wind, a faint show of

lightning, and dull grumblings of distant thunder. I was in the

lead. I ran against something--a soft heavy something which gave,

slightly, to the impulse of my weight; at the same moment the

lightning glared out, and within a foot of my face was the writhing

face of a man who was hanging from the limb of a tree! That is,

it seemed to be writhing, but it was not. It was a grewsome sight.

Straightway there was an ear-splitting explosion of thunder, and

the bottom of heaven fell out; the rain poured down in a deluge.

No matter, we must try to cut this man down, on the chance that

there might be life in him yet, mustn't we? The lightning came

quick and sharp now, and the place was alternately noonday and

midnight. One moment the man would be hanging before me in an

intense light, and the next he was blotted out again in the darkness.

I told the king we must cut him down. The king at once objected.

“If he hanged himself, he was willing to lose him property to

his lord; so let him be. If others hanged him, belike they had

the right--let him hang.”

“But--”

“But me no buts, but even leave him as he is. And for yet another

reason. When the lightning cometh again--there, look abroad.”

Two others hanging, within fifty yards of us!

“It is not weather meet for doing useless courtesies unto dead folk.

They are past thanking you. Come--it is unprofitable to tarry here.”

There was reason in what he said, so we moved on. Within the next

mile we counted six more hanging forms by the blaze of the lightning,

and altogether it was a grisly excursion. That murmur was a murmur

no longer, it was a roar; a roar of men's voices. A man came flying

by now, dimly through the darkness, and other men chasing him.

They disappeared. Presently another case of the kind occurred,

and then another and another. Then a sudden turn of the road

brought us in sight of that fire--it was a large manor-house, and

little or nothing was left of it--and everywhere men were flying

and other men raging after them in pursuit.

I warned the king that this was not a safe place for strangers.

We would better get away from the light, until matters should

improve. We stepped back a little, and hid in the edge of the

wood. From this hiding-place we saw both men and women hunted

by the mob. The fearful work went on until nearly dawn. Then,

the fire being out and the storm spent, the voices and flying

footsteps presently ceased, and darkness and stillness reigned again.

We ventured out, and hurried cautiously away; and although we were

worn out and sleepy, we kept on until we had put this place some

miles behind us. Then we asked hospitality at the hut of a charcoal

burner, and got what was to be had. A woman was up and about, but

the man was still asleep, on a straw shake-down, on the clay floor.

The woman seemed uneasy until I explained that we were travelers

and had lost our way and been wandering in the woods all night.

She became talkative, then, and asked if we had heard of the

terrible goings-on at the manor-house of Abblasoure. Yes, we had

heard of them, but what we wanted now was rest and sleep. The

king broke in:

“Sell us the house and take yourselves away, for we be perilous

company, being late come from people that died of the Spotted Death.”

It was good of him, but unnecessary. One of the commonest decorations

of the nation was the waffle-iron face. I had early noticed that

the woman and her husband were both so decorated. She made us

entirely welcome, and had no fears; and plainly she was immensely

impressed by the king's proposition; for, of course, it was a good

deal of an event in her life to run across a person of the king's

humble appearance who was ready to buy a man's house for the sake

of a night's lodging. It gave her a large respect for us, and she

strained the lean possibilities of her hovel to the utmost to make

us comfortable.

We slept till far into the afternoon, and then got up hungry enough to

make cotter fare quite palatable to the king, the more particularly

as it was scant in quantity. And also in variety; it consisted

solely of onions, salt, and the national black bread made out of

horse-feed. The woman told us about the affair of the evening

before. At ten or eleven at night, when everybody was in bed,

the manor-house burst into flames. The country-side swarmed to

the rescue, and the family were saved, with one exception, the

master. He did not appear. Everybody was frantic over this loss,

and two brave yeomen sacrificed their lives in ransacking the

burning house seeking that valuable personage. But after a while

he was found--what was left of him--which was his corpse. It was

in a copse three hundred yards away, bound, gagged, stabbed in a

dozen places.

Who had done this? Suspicion fell upon a humble family in the

neighborhood who had been lately treated with peculiar harshness

by the baron; and from these people the suspicion easily extended

itself to their relatives and familiars. A suspicion was enough;

my lord's liveried retainers proclaimed an instant crusade against

these people, and were promptly joined by the community in general.

The woman's husband had been active with the mob, and had not

returned home until nearly dawn. He was gone now to find out

what the general result had been. While we were still talking he

came back from his quest. His report was revolting enough. Eighteen

persons hanged or butchered, and two yeomen and thirteen prisoners

lost in the fire.

“And how many prisoners were there altogether in the vaults?”

“Thirteen.”

“Then every one of them was lost?”

“Yes, all.”

“But the people arrived in time to save the family; how is it they

could save none of the prisoners?”

The man looked puzzled, and said:

“Would one unlock the vaults at such a time? Marry, some would

have escaped.”

“Then you mean that nobody _did_ unlock them?”

“None went near them, either to lock or unlock. It standeth to

reason that the bolts were fast; wherefore it was only needful

to establish a watch, so that if any broke the bonds he might not

escape, but be taken. None were taken.”

“Natheless, three did escape,” said the king, “and ye will do well

to publish it and set justice upon their track, for these murthered

the baron and fired the house.”

I was just expecting he would come out with that. For a moment

the man and his wife showed an eager interest in this news and

an impatience to go out and spread it; then a sudden something

else betrayed itself in their faces, and they began to ask questions.

I answered the questions myself, and narrowly watched the effects

produced. I was soon satisfied that the knowledge of who these

three prisoners were had somehow changed the atmosphere; that

our hosts' continued eagerness to go and spread the news was now

only pretended and not real. The king did not notice the change,

and I was glad of that. I worked the conversation around toward

other details of the night's proceedings, and noted that these

people were relieved to have it take that direction.

The painful thing observable about all this business was the

alacrity with which this oppressed community had turned their

cruel hands against their own class in the interest of the common

oppressor. This man and woman seemed to feel that in a quarrel

between a person of their own class and his lord, it was the natural

and proper and rightful thing for that poor devil's whole caste

to side with the master and fight his battle for him, without ever

stopping to inquire into the rights or wrongs of the matter. This

man had been out helping to hang his neighbors, and had done his

work with zeal, and yet was aware that there was nothing against

them but a mere suspicion, with nothing back of it describable

as evidence, still neither he nor his wife seemed to see anything

horrible about it.

This was depressing--to a man with the dream of a republic in his

head. It reminded me of a time thirteen centuries away, when

the “poor whites” of our South who were always despised and

frequently insulted by the slave-lords around them, and who owed

their base condition simply to the presence of slavery in their

midst, were yet pusillanimously ready to side with the slave-lords

in all political moves for the upholding and perpetuating of

slavery, and did also finally shoulder their muskets and pour out

their lives in an effort to prevent the destruction of that very

institution which degraded them. And there was only one redeeming

feature connected with that pitiful piece of history; and that was,

that secretly the “poor white” did detest the slave-lord, and did

feel his own shame. That feeling was not brought to the surface,

but the fact that it was there and could have been brought out,

under favoring circumstances, was something--in fact, it was enough;

for it showed that a man is at bottom a man, after all, even if it

doesn't show on the outside.

Well, as it turned out, this charcoal burner was just the twin of

the Southern “poor white” of the far future. The king presently

showed impatience, and said:

“An ye prattle here all the day, justice will miscarry. Think ye

the criminals will abide in their father's house? They are fleeing,

they are not waiting. You should look to it that a party of horse

be set upon their track.”

The woman paled slightly, but quite perceptibly, and the man looked

flustered and irresolute. I said:

“Come, friend, I will walk a little way with you, and explain which

direction I think they would try to take. If they were merely

resisters of the gabelle or some kindred absurdity I would try

to protect them from capture; but when men murder a person of

high degree and likewise burn his house, that is another matter.”

The last remark was for the king--to quiet him. On the road

the man pulled his resolution together, and began the march with

a steady gait, but there was no eagerness in it. By and by I said:

“What relation were these men to you--cousins?”

He turned as white as his layer of charcoal would let him, and

stopped, trembling.

“Ah, my God, how know ye that?”

“I didn't know it; it was a chance guess.”

“Poor lads, they are lost. And good lads they were, too.”

“Were you actually going yonder to tell on them?”

He didn't quite know how to take that; but he said, hesitatingly:

“Ye-s.”

“Then I think you are a damned scoundrel!”

It made him as glad as if I had called him an angel.

“Say the good words again, brother! for surely ye mean that ye

would not betray me an I failed of my duty.”

“Duty? There is no duty in the matter, except the duty to keep

still and let those men get away. They've done a righteous deed.”

He looked pleased; pleased, and touched with apprehension at the

same time. He looked up and down the road to see that no one

was coming, and then said in a cautious voice:

“From what land come you, brother, that you speak such perilous

words, and seem not to be afraid?”

“They are not perilous words when spoken to one of my own caste,

I take it. You would not tell anybody I said them?”

“I? I would be drawn asunder by wild horses first.”

“Well, then, let me say my say. I have no fears of your repeating

it. I think devil's work has been done last night upon those

innocent poor people. That old baron got only what he deserved.

If I had my way, all his kind should have the same luck.”

Fear and depression vanished from the man's manner, and gratefulness

and a brave animation took their place:

“Even though you be a spy, and your words a trap for my undoing,

yet are they such refreshment that to hear them again and others

like to them, I would go to the gallows happy, as having had one

good feast at least in a starved life. And I will say my say now,

and ye may report it if ye be so minded. I helped to hang my

neighbors for that it were peril to my own life to show lack of

zeal in the master's cause; the others helped for none other reason.

All rejoice to-day that he is dead, but all do go about seemingly

sorrowing, and shedding the hypocrite's tear, for in that lies

safety. I have said the words, I have said the words! the only

ones that have ever tasted good in my mouth, and the reward of

that taste is sufficient. Lead on, an ye will, be it even to the

scaffold, for I am ready.”

There it was, you see. A man is a man, at bottom. Whole ages

of abuse and oppression cannot crush the manhood clear out of him.

Whoever thinks it a mistake is himself mistaken. Yes, there is

plenty good enough material for a republic in the most degraded

people that ever existed--even the Russians; plenty of manhood

in them--even in the Germans--if one could but force it out of

its timid and suspicious privacy, to overthrow and trample in the

mud any throne that ever was set up and any nobility that ever

supported it. We should see certain things yet, let us hope and

believe. First, a modified monarchy, till Arthur's days were done,

then the destruction of the throne, nobility abolished, every

member of it bound out to some useful trade, universal suffrage

instituted, and the whole government placed in the hands of the

men and women of the nation there to remain. Yes, there was no

occasion to give up my dream yet a while.