Redgauntlet [178]
is up, man, and all is right.'
'All is wrong, Captain Nanty,' cried the man to whom he spoke; 'and you are the lad that is like to find it so, unless you bundle off--there are new brooms bought at Carlisle yesterday to sweep the country of you and the like of you--so you were better be jogging inland.
'How many rogues are the officers? If not more than ten, I will make fight.'
'The devil you will!' answered Crackenthorp. 'You were better not, for they have the bloody-backed dragoons from Carlisle with them.'
'Nay, then,' said Nanty, 'we must make sail. Come, Master Fairlord, you must mount and ride. He does not hear me--he has fainted, I believe--What the devil shall I do? Father Crackenthorp, I must leave this young fellow with you till the gale blows out--hark ye--goes between the laird and the t'other old one; he can neither ride nor walk--I must send him up to you.'
'Send him up to the gallows!' said Crackenthorp; 'there is Quartermaster Thwacker, with twenty men, up yonder; an he had not some kindness for Doll, I had never got hither for a start--but you must get off, or they will be here to seek us, for his orders are woundy particular; and these kegs contain worse than whisky-- a hanging matter, I take it.'
'I wish they were at the bottom of Wampool river, with them they belong to,' said Nanty Ewart. 'But they are part of cargo; and what to do with the poor young fellow--'
'Why, many a better fellow has roughed it on the grass with a cloak o'er him,' said Crackenthorp. 'If he hath a fever, nothing is so cooling as the night air.'
'Yes, he would be cold enough in the morning, no doubt; but it's a kind heart and shall not cool so soon if I can help it,' answered the captain of the JUMPING JENNY.
'Well, captain, an ye will risk your own neck for another man's, why not take him to the old girls at Fairladies?'
'What, the Miss Arthurets! The Papist jades! But never mind; it will do--I have known them take in a whole sloop's crew that were stranded on the sands.'
'You may run some risk, though, by turning up to Fairladies; for I tell you they are all up through the country.'
'Never mind--I may chance to put some of them down again,' said Nanty, cheerfully. 'Come, lads, bustle to your tackle. Are you all loaded?'
'Aye, aye, captain; we will be ready in a jiffy,' answered the gang.
'D--n your captains! Have you a mind to have me hanged if I am taken? All's hail-fellow, here.'
'A sup at parting,' said Father Crackenthorp, extending a flask to Nanty Ewart.
'Not the twentieth part of a drop,' said Nanty. 'No Dutch courage for me--my heart is always high enough when there's a chance of fighting; besides, if I live drunk, I should like to die sober. Here, old Jephson--you are the best-natured brute amongst them--get the lad between us on a quiet horse, and we will keep him upright, I warrant.'
As they raised Fairford from the ground, he groaned heavily, and asked faintly where they were taking him to.
'To a place where you will be as snug and quiet as a mouse in his hole,' said Nanty, 'if so be that we can get you there safely. Good-bye, Father Crackenthorp--poison the quartermaster, if you can.'
The loaded horses then sprang forward at a hard trot, following each other in a line, and every second horse being mounted by a stout fellow in a smock frock, which served to conceal the arms with which most of these desperate men were provided. Ewart followed in the rear of the line, and, with the occasional assistance of old Jephson, kept his young charge erect in the saddle. He groaned heavily from time to time; and Ewart, more moved with compassion for his situation than might have been expected from his own habits, endeavoured to amuse him and comfort him, by some account of the place to which they were conveying him--his words of consolation being, however, frequently interrupted by the necessity of calling to his people, and many of them being lost amongst the rattling of the barrels, and clinking of the tackle and small chains by which they are secured
'All is wrong, Captain Nanty,' cried the man to whom he spoke; 'and you are the lad that is like to find it so, unless you bundle off--there are new brooms bought at Carlisle yesterday to sweep the country of you and the like of you--so you were better be jogging inland.
'How many rogues are the officers? If not more than ten, I will make fight.'
'The devil you will!' answered Crackenthorp. 'You were better not, for they have the bloody-backed dragoons from Carlisle with them.'
'Nay, then,' said Nanty, 'we must make sail. Come, Master Fairlord, you must mount and ride. He does not hear me--he has fainted, I believe--What the devil shall I do? Father Crackenthorp, I must leave this young fellow with you till the gale blows out--hark ye--goes between the laird and the t'other old one; he can neither ride nor walk--I must send him up to you.'
'Send him up to the gallows!' said Crackenthorp; 'there is Quartermaster Thwacker, with twenty men, up yonder; an he had not some kindness for Doll, I had never got hither for a start--but you must get off, or they will be here to seek us, for his orders are woundy particular; and these kegs contain worse than whisky-- a hanging matter, I take it.'
'I wish they were at the bottom of Wampool river, with them they belong to,' said Nanty Ewart. 'But they are part of cargo; and what to do with the poor young fellow--'
'Why, many a better fellow has roughed it on the grass with a cloak o'er him,' said Crackenthorp. 'If he hath a fever, nothing is so cooling as the night air.'
'Yes, he would be cold enough in the morning, no doubt; but it's a kind heart and shall not cool so soon if I can help it,' answered the captain of the JUMPING JENNY.
'Well, captain, an ye will risk your own neck for another man's, why not take him to the old girls at Fairladies?'
'What, the Miss Arthurets! The Papist jades! But never mind; it will do--I have known them take in a whole sloop's crew that were stranded on the sands.'
'You may run some risk, though, by turning up to Fairladies; for I tell you they are all up through the country.'
'Never mind--I may chance to put some of them down again,' said Nanty, cheerfully. 'Come, lads, bustle to your tackle. Are you all loaded?'
'Aye, aye, captain; we will be ready in a jiffy,' answered the gang.
'D--n your captains! Have you a mind to have me hanged if I am taken? All's hail-fellow, here.'
'A sup at parting,' said Father Crackenthorp, extending a flask to Nanty Ewart.
'Not the twentieth part of a drop,' said Nanty. 'No Dutch courage for me--my heart is always high enough when there's a chance of fighting; besides, if I live drunk, I should like to die sober. Here, old Jephson--you are the best-natured brute amongst them--get the lad between us on a quiet horse, and we will keep him upright, I warrant.'
As they raised Fairford from the ground, he groaned heavily, and asked faintly where they were taking him to.
'To a place where you will be as snug and quiet as a mouse in his hole,' said Nanty, 'if so be that we can get you there safely. Good-bye, Father Crackenthorp--poison the quartermaster, if you can.'
The loaded horses then sprang forward at a hard trot, following each other in a line, and every second horse being mounted by a stout fellow in a smock frock, which served to conceal the arms with which most of these desperate men were provided. Ewart followed in the rear of the line, and, with the occasional assistance of old Jephson, kept his young charge erect in the saddle. He groaned heavily from time to time; and Ewart, more moved with compassion for his situation than might have been expected from his own habits, endeavoured to amuse him and comfort him, by some account of the place to which they were conveying him--his words of consolation being, however, frequently interrupted by the necessity of calling to his people, and many of them being lost amongst the rattling of the barrels, and clinking of the tackle and small chains by which they are secured