The Children of the New Forest, Frederick Marryat [best non fiction books of all time .TXT] 📗

in his bed, like a good Christian and trusting, after a blameless life, to find mercy through his Savior. Two of these who are now dead, out of the three, have been, summoned away in the height of their wickedness, and in the very commission of crime; the third has been foully murdered, and out of three lying dead, one has fallen by my own hand, and yet I feel not so much as when I attended the couch, and listened to the parting words of a dying Christian! I cannot account for it, or reason why; I only know that it is so, and I now look upon death unconcerned. Well, this is a kind of preparation for the wholesale murder and horrors of the battlefield, which I have so long sighed for: God forgive me if I am wrong! And this poor boy! I have promised to protect him, and I will. Could I fail my promise, I should imaging the spirit of his father (as I presume he was) looking down and upbraiding me. No, no, I will protect him. I and my brother and sisters have been preserved and protected, and I were indeed vile if I did not do to others as I have been done by. And now let me reflect what is to be done. I must not take the boy away, and bury the bodies; this person has friends at Lymington, and they will come here. The murder has taken place in the forest: then I must let the intendant know what has occurred. I will send over to Oswald; Humphrey shall go. Poor fellow! what a state of anxiety must he and my little sisters be in, at my not returning home! I had quite forgotten that, but it can not be helped. I will wait till sunrise, and then see if the boy will be more himself, and probably from him I shall be able to find out what part of the forest I am in.”

Edward took up the candle and went into the room in which he had laid the boy on the bed. He found him in a sound sleep. “Poor fellow,” said Edward, “he has for a time forgotten his misery. What a beautiful boy he is! I long to know his history. Sleep on, my poor fellow! it will do you service.”

Edward then returned to the other room, and recollected, or, rather, was reminded, that he had had no supper, and it was now nearly dawn of day. He looked into a cupboard and found plenty of provisions, and some flasks of wine. “I have earned my supper,” thought he, “and I will not, therefore, deny myself.” So ho brought out the viands and a flask of wine, and made a hearty meal. “It is long since I have tasted wine,” thought he, “and it maybe long ere I drink it again. I have little relish for it now: it is too fiery to the palate. I recollect, when a child, how my father used to have me at the table, and give me a stoup of claret, which I could hardly lift to my lips, to drink to the health of the king.” The memory of the king raised other thoughts in Edward’s mind, and he again sunk into one of his reveries, which lasted till he fell into a slumber. When he woke up, it was at the voice of the boy, who in his sleep had cried out “Father!” Edward started up, and found that the sun was an hour high, and that he must have slept some time. He gently opened the cottage door, looked at the bodies of the two men, and then walked out to survey the locality of the cottage, which he had but faintly made out during the night. He found that it was surrounded by a thicket of trees and underwood, so close and thick that there appeared to him no outlet in any direction. “What a place for concealment!” thought Edward, “but still these prowling thieves discovered it. Why, troops of horse might scour the forest for months, and never discover such a hiding-place.” Edward walked round by the side of the thicket, to find out the track by which the robbers had entered when he followed them, and at last succeeded in doing so. He followed the path through the thicket until he was clear of it, and again in the forest; but the scenery outside was unknown to him, and he had not an idea as to what part of the forest it was in. “I must question the boy,” thought Edward. “I will go back and wake him up, for it is time that I was moving.” As he was again turning into the thicket, he heard a dog giving tongue, as if on a scent. It came nearer and nearer to him, and Edward remained to see what it might be. In a moment more, he perceived his own dog, Smoker, come bounding out of a neighboring copse, followed by Humphrey and Pablo. Edward hallooed. Smoker sprung toward him, leaping up, and loading him with caresses, and in another moment he was in Humphrey’s arms.

“Oh, Edward, let me first thank God!” said Humphrey, as the tears started and rolled down his cheeks. “What a night we have passed! What has happened? That dear fellow, Pablo, thought of putting Smoker on the scent; he brought out your jacket and showed it to Smoker, and gave it him to smell, and then led him along till he was on your footsteps; and the dog followed him, it seems, although it has been round and round in every direction, till at last he has brought us to you.”

Edward shook hands with Pablo, and thanked him. “How far are we from the cottage, Humphrey?”

“About eight miles, I should say, Edward; not more.”

“Well, I have much to tell you, and I must tell it to you in few words before I go farther, and afterward I will tell you all in detail”

Edward then gave a succinct narration of what had occurred, and, having thus prepared Humphrey and Pablo for what they were to see, led the way back through the thicket to the cottage inside of it. Humphrey and Pablo were much shocked at the scene of slaughter which presented itself to their eyes; and, after having viewed the bodies, they began to consult what had best be done.

The proposal of Edward, that Humphrey should go over and make known the circumstances to Oswald, that they might be communicated to the intendant, was readily acceded to; and Pablo, it was agreed, should go home and tell Alice and Edith that Edward was safe.

“But now, Humphrey, about this boy; we can not leave him here.”

“Where is he?”

“He still sleeps, I believe. The question is, whether you should ride over with the pony, or walk, and leave Pablo to return with the pony and cart; for I will not take the boy away, or leave the house myself, without removing the property which belongs to the boy, and of which I will make inquiry when he awakes. Besides, there is money, by what the robbers stated in my hearing, which of course must be taken care of for him.”

“I think it will be best for me to walk over, Edward. If I ride, I should arrive too late in the afternoon for any thing to be done till next morning, and if I walk I shall be in time enough; so that is settled. Besides, it will give you more time to remove the boy’s property, which, as his father was in all probability a Malignant, and denounced man, they might think right to secure for the government.”

“Very true; then be it so. Do you start for the intendant’s; and, Pablo, go home and fetch the pony and cart, while I remain here with the boy, and get every thing ready.”

Humphrey and Pablo both set off, and then Edward went to waken the boy, still lying on the bed.

“Come, you must get up now. You know that what’s done can not be undone; and if you are a good boy, and have read the Bible, you must know that we must submit to the will of God, who is our kind father in heaven.”

“Ah me!” said the boy, who was awake when Edward went to him; “I know well it is my duty, but it is a hard duty, and I am heartbroken. I have lost my father, the only friend I had in the world; who is there to love and to cherish me now? What will become of me!”

“I promised your father, before he died, that I would take care of you, my poor fellow; and a promise is sacred with me, even if it were not made to a dying man. I will do my best, depend upon it, for I have known myself what it is to want and to find a protector. You shall live with me and my brother and sisters, and you shall have all we have.”

“Have you sisters, then?” replied the boy.

“Yes; I have sent for the cart to take you away from this, and tonight you shall be in our cottage; but now tell me—I do not ask who your father was, or why he was living here in secret, as I found it out by what I overheard the robbers say to one another—but how long have you lived here?”

“More than a year.”

“Whose cottage is it?”

“My father bought it when he came, as he thought it safer so, that he might not be discovered or betrayed; for he had escaped from prison after having been condemned to death by the Parliament.”

“Then he was a loyal man to his king?”

“Yes, he was, and that was his only crime.”

“Then fear not, my good boy; we are all loyal as well as he was, and will never be otherwise. I tell you this that you may safely trust to us. Now, if the cottage was his, the furniture and property were his also?”

“Yes, all was his.”

“And it is now yours, is it not?”

“I suppose so,” said the boy, bursting into tears.

“Then listen to me: your father is safe from all persecution now; he is, I trust, in heaven; and you they can not touch, as you have done nothing to offend them; but still they will take possession of your father’s property as soon as they know of his death, and find out who he was. This, for your sake I wish to prevent them from doing, and have therefore sent for the cart, that I may remove to my cottage every thing that is of value, that it may be held for your benefit; some day or another you may require it. The murder having been committed in the forest, and I having been a witness and, moreover, having shot one of the robbers, I have considered it right to send to the intendant of the forest, to give him notice of what has taken place within his jurisdiction. I do not think he is so bad a man as the rest; but still, when he comes here, he may consider it his duty to take possession of every thing for the Parliament, as I have no doubt such are his orders, or will be when he communicates with the Parliament. Now this is a robbery which I wish to prevent, by carrying away your property before they come over, which they will tomorrow; and I propose that you shall accompany me, with all that you can take away, or that may be useful, this evening.”

“You are very kind,” replied the boy. “I will do all you wish, but I feel