A Reputed Changeling Page 9

  CHAPTER IX: ON HIS TRAVELS

  "For Satan finds some mischief stillFor idle hands to do."

  ISAAC WATTS.

  Peregrine went off in good spirits, promising a visit on his returnto London, of which he seemed to have no doubt; but no more washeard of him for ten days. At the end of that time the Portsmouthcarrier conveyed the following note to Winchester:--

  HONOURED AND REVEREND SIR--Seven years since your arguments andintercession induced my father to consent to what I hoped hadbeen the rescue of me, body and soul. I know not whether to askof your goodness to make the same endeavour again. My fatherdeclares that nothing shall induce him again to let me go abroadwith my uncle, and persists in declaring that the compact hasbeen broken by our visits to Papist lands, nor will aught that Ican say persuade him that the Muscovite abhors the Pope quite asmuch as he can. He likewise deems that having unfortunatelybecome his heir, I must needs remain at home to thin the timberand watch the ploughmen; and when I have besought him to let meyield my place to Robert he replies that I am playing the part ofEsau. I have written to my uncle, who has been a true father tome, and would be loth to part from me for his own sake as well asmine but I know not whether he will be able to prevail; and Ientreat of you, reverend sir, to add your persuasions, for I wellknow that it would be my perdition to remain bound where I am.

  Commend me to Mrs. Woodford and Mistress Anne. I trust that theformer is in better health.--I remain, reverend sir, Your humbleservant to command, PEREGRINE OAKSHOTT.

  Given at Oakwood House,This 10th of October 1687.

  This was very bad news, but Dr. Woodford knew not how to interfere;moreover, being in course at the Cathedral, he could not absenthimself long enough for an expedition to Oakwood, through wintryroads in short days. He could only write an encouraging letter tothe poor lad, and likewise one to Mr. Horncastle, who under theIndulgence had a chapel of his own. The Doctor had kept up theacquaintance formed by Peregrine's accident, and had come to regardhim with much esteem, and as likely to exercise a wholesomeinfluence upon his patron. Nothing more was heard for a week, andthen came another visitor to the Doctor's door, Sir Peregrinehimself, on his way down, at considerable inconvenience, toendeavour to prevail with his brother to allow him to retain hisnephew in his suite.

  "Surely," he said, "my brother had enough of camps in his youth tounderstand that his son will be none the worse squire for havinggone a little beyond Hampshire bogs, and learnt what the world ismade of."

  "I cannot tell," said Dr. Woodford; "I have my fears that he thinksthe less known of the world the better."

  "That might answer with a heavy clod of a lad such as the poor youthwho is gone, and such as, for his own sake and my brother's, I trustthe younger one is, fruges consumere natus; but as for this boy,dulness and vacancy are precisely what would be the ruin of him.Let my brother keep Master Robert at home, and give him Oakwood; Iwill provide for Perry as I always promised to do."

  "If he is wise he will accept the offer," said Dr. Woodford; "but'tis hard to be wise for others."

  "Nothing harder, sir. I would that I had gone home with Perry, butmine audience of his Majesty was fixed for the ensuing week, and mybrother's summons was peremptory."

  "I trust your honour will prevail," said Mrs. Woodford gently. "Youhave effected a mighty change in the poor boy, and I can wellbelieve that he is as a son to you."

  "Well, madam, yes--as sons go," said the knight in a somewhatdisappointing tone.

  She looked at him anxiously, and ventured to murmur a hope so verylike an inquiry, and so full of solicitous hope, that it actuallyunlocked the envoy's reserve, and he said, "Ah, madam, you have beenthe best mother that the poor youth has ever had! I will speakfreely to you, for should I fail in overcoming my brother'sprejudices, you will be able to do more for him than any one else,and I know you will be absolutely secret."

  Mrs. Woodford sighed, with forebodings of not long being able to aidany one in this world, but still she listened with earnest interestand sympathy.

  "Yes, madam, you implanted in him that which yet may conquer hisstrange nature. Your name is as it were a charm to conjure up hisbetter spirit."

  "Of course," she said, "I never durst hope, that he could be tamedand under control all at once, but--" and she paused.

  "He has improved--vastly improved," said the uncle. "Indeed, whenfirst I took him with me, while he was still weak, and moreover muchovercome by sea-sickness, while all was strange to him, and he wasrelieved by not finding himself treated as an outcast, I verilythought him meeker than other urchins, and that the outcry againsthim was unmerited. But no sooner had we got to Berlin, and while Iwas as yet too busy to provide either masters or occupations for myyoung gentleman, than he did indeed make me feel that I had chargeof a young imp, and that if I did not watch the better, it might bea case of war with his Spanish Majesty. For would you believe it,his envoy's gardens joined ours, and what must my young master do,but sit atop of our wall, making grimaces at the dons and donnas asthey paced the walks, and pelting them from time to time withwalnuts. Well, I was mindful of your counsel, and did not flog him,nor let my chaplain do so, though I know the good man's fingersitched to be at him; but I reasoned with him on the harm he wasdoing me, and would you believe it, the poor lad burst into tears,and implored me to give him something to do, to save him from hisown spirit. I set him to write out and translate a long roll ofLatin despatches sent up by that pedant Court in Hungary, and Ideclare to you I had no more trouble with him till next he was leftidle. I gave him tutors, and he studied with fervour, and madeprogress at which they were amazed. He learnt the High Dutch fasterthan any other of my people, and could soon jabber away in it withthe best of the Elector's folk, and I began to think I had a nephewwho would do me no small credit. I sent him to perfect his studiesat Leyden, but shall I confess it to you? it was to find that nomaster nor discipline could keep him out of the riotings andquarrels of the worse sort of students. Nay, I found him laid bywith a rapier thrust in the side from a duel, for no better causethan biting his thumb at a Scots law student in chapel, his apologybeing that to sit through a Dutch sermon drove him crazy. 'Tis notthat he is not trustworthy. Find employment for the restless demonthat is in him, and all is well with him; moreover, he is full ofwit and humour, and beguiles a long journey or tedious evening at aninn better than any comrade I ever knew, extracting mirth from allaround, even the very discomforts, and searching to the quick allthat is to be seen. But if left to himself, the restless demon thatpreys on him is sure to set him to something incalculable. At Turinit set him to scraping acquaintance with a Capuchin friar, a dirtyrogue whom I would have kept on the opposite side of the street.That was his graver mood; but what more must he do, but borrow orsteal, I know not how, the ghastly robes of the Confraternity ofDeath--the white garb and peaked cap with two holes for the eyes,wherewith men of all degrees disguise themselves while doing thepious work of bearing the dead to the grave. None suspected him,for the disguise is complete, and a duke may walk unknown beside awater-carrier, bearing the corpse of a cobbler. All would have beenwell, but that at the very brink of the grave the boy's fiend--'tishis own word--impelled him to break forth into his wild "Ho! ho!ho!" with an eldritch shriek, and slipping out of his cerements,dash off headlong over the wall of the cemetery. He was notfollowed. I believe the poor body belonged to a fellow whosesalvation was more than doubtful in spite of all the priests coulddo, and that the bearers really took him for the foul fiend. It wasnot till a week or two after that the ring of his voice and laughcaused him to be recognised by one of the Duke of Savoy's gentlemen,happily a prudent man, loth to cause a tumult against one of mysuite, and he told me all privately in warning. Ay, and when Ispoke to Peregrine, I found him thoroughly penitent at havinginsulted the dead; he had been unhappy ever since, and had actuallybestowed his last pocket-piece on the widow. He made handsomeapologies in good Italian, which he had picked up as fast as theGerman, to the gentleman, who pro
mised that it should go no farther,and kept his word. It was the solemnity, Peregrine assured me, thatbrought back all the intolerableness of the preachings at home, andawoke the same demon."

  "How long ago was this, sir?"

  "About eighteen months."

  "And has all been well since?"

  "Fairly well. He has had fuller and more responsible work to do forme, his turn for languages making him a most valuable secretary; andin the French Court, really the most perilous of all to a youngman's virtue, he behaved himself well. It is not debauchery that hehas a taste for, but he must be doing something, and if wholesomeoccupations do not stay his appetite, he will be doing mischief. Hebrought on himself a very serious rebuke from the Prince of Orange,churlishly and roughly given, I allow, but fully merited, for makinggrimaces at his acquaintance among the young officers at a militaryinspection. Heaven help the lad if he be left with his father,whose most lively notion of innocent sport is scratching the headsof his hogs!"

  Nothing could be said in answer save earnest wishes that the knightmight persuade his brother. Mrs. Woodford wished her brother-in-lawto go with him to add force to his remonstrance; but on the whole itwas thought better to leave the family to themselves, Dr. Woodfordonly writing to Major Oakshott, as well as to the youth himself.

  The result was anxiously watched for, and in another week, earlierin the day than Mrs. Woodford was able to leave her room, SirPeregrine's horses stopped at the door, and as Anne ascertained by apeep from the window, he was only accompanied by his servants.

  "Yes," he said to the Doctor in his vexation, "one would reallythink that by force of eating Southdown mutton my poor brother hadacquired the brains of one of his own rams! I declare 'tis apiteous sight to see a man resolute on ruining his son and breakinghis own heart all for conscience sake!"

  "Say you so, sir! I had hoped that the sight of what you have madeof your nephew might have had some effect."

  "All the effect it has produced is to make him more determined totake him from me. The Hampshire mind abhors foreign breeding, andthe old Cromwellian spirit thinks good manners sprung from theworld, and wit from the Evil One!"

  "I can quite believe that Peregrine's courtly airs are not welcomedhere; I could see what our good neighbour, Sir Philip Archfield,thought of them; but whereas no power on earth could make the younggentleman a steady-going clownish youth after his father's heart,methought he might prefer his present polish to impishness."

  "So I told him, but I might as well have talked to the horse block.It is his duty, quotha, to breed his heir up in godly simplicity!"

  "Simplicity is all very well to begin with, but once flown, itcannot be restored."

  "And that is what my brother cannot see. Well, my poor boy must beleft to his fate. There is no help for it, and all I can hope isthat you, sir, and the ladies, will stand his friend, and do whatmay lie in your power to make him patient and render his life lessintolerable."

  "Indeed, sir, we will do what we can; I wish that I could hope thatit would be of much service."

  "My brother has more respect for your advice than perhaps yousuppose; and to you, madam, the poor lad looks with earnestgratitude. Nay, even his mother reaps the benefit of the respectwith which you have inspired him. Peregrine treats her with agentleness and attention such as she never knew before from her bearcubs. Poor soul! I think she likes it, though it somewhatperplexes her, and she thinks it all French manners. There is onemore favour, your reverence, which I scarce dare lay before you.You have seen my black boy Hans?"

  "He was with you at Oakwood seven years ago."

  "Even so. I bought the poor fellow when a mere child from a Dutchskipper who had used him scurvily, and he has grown up as faithfulas a very spaniel, and mightily useful too, not only as bodyservant, but he can cook as well as any French maitre d'hotel, frothchocolate, and make the best coffee I ever tasted; is as honest asthe day, and, I believe, would lay down his life for Peregrine orme. I shall be cruelly at a loss without him, but a physician I metin London tells me it would be no better than murder to take thepoor rogue to so cold a country as Muscovy. I would leave him towait on Perry, but they will not hear of it at Oakwood. My sister-in-law wellnigh had a fit every time she looked at him when I wasthere before, and I found, moreover, that even when I was at hand,the servants jeered at the poor blackamoor, gave him his mealsapart, and only the refuse of their own, so that he would fare butill if I left him to their mercy. I had thought of offering him toMr. Evelyn of Says Court, who would no doubt use him well, but itwas Peregrine who suggested that if you of your goodness wouldreceive the poor fellow, they could sometimes meet, and that wouldcheer his heart, and he really is far from a useless knave, but isworth two of any serving-men I ever saw."

  To take an additional man-servant was by no means such a greatproposal as it would be in most houses at present. Men swarmed inmuch larger proportion than maids in all families of condition, andthe Doctor was wealthy enough for one--more or less--to make littledifference, but the question was asked as to what wages Hans shouldreceive.

  The knight laughed. "Wages, poor lad, what should he do with them?He is but a slave, I tell you. Meat, clothes, and fire, that is allhe needs, and I will so deal with him that he will serve you in allfaithfulness and obedience. He can speak English enough to knowwhat you bid him do, but not enough for chatter with the servants."

  So the agreement was made, and poor Hans was to be sent down by thePortsmouth coach together with Peregrine's luggage.