His first move was to purchase through an agent two suitable horses at Chichester fair, which were conveyed to the stables of a trusty Whig farmer living near Portchester, who was ordered to keep them until they were called for. Of these animals one was a mottled grey, of great mettle7 and power, standing8 seventeen and a half hands high, and well up to my weight, for in those days, my dears, I had not laid on flesh, and weighed a little under sixteen stone for all my height and strength. A critic might have said that Covenant9, for so I named my steed, was a trifle heavy about the head and neck, but I found him a trusty, willing brute11, with great power and endurance. Saxon, who when fully4 accoutred could scarce have weighed more than twelve stone, had a light bay Spanish jennet, of great speed and spirit. This mare12 he named Chloe, ‘after a godly maiden13 of his acquaintance,’ though, as my father remarked, there was a somewhat ungodly and heathenish smack14 about the appellation15. These horses and their harness were bought and held ready without my father appearing in the matter in any way.
This important point having been settled, there was the further question of arms to be discussed, which gave rise to much weighty controversy16 between Decimus Saxon and my father, each citing many instances from their own experiences where the presence or absence of some taslet or arm-guard had been of the deepest import to the wearer. Your great-grandfather had set his heart upon my wearing the breastplate which still bore the dints of the Scottish spears at Dunbar, but on trying it on we found it was too small for me. I confess that this was a surprise, for when I looked back at the awe17 with which I had regarded my father’s huge proportions, it was marvellous to me to have this convincing proof that I had outgrown18 him. By ripping down the side-leather and piercing holes through which a lace could be passed, my mother managed to arrange it so that I could wear it without discomfort19. A pair of taslets or thigh-pieces, with guards for the upper arm and gauntlets, were all borrowed from the old Parliamentary equipment, together with the heavy straight sword and pair of horse pistols which formed the usual weapons of a cavalier. My father had chosen me a head-piece in Portsmouth, fluted20, with good barrets, padded inside with soft leather, very light and yet very strong. When fully equipped, both Saxon and my father agreed that I had all that was requisite21 for a well-appointed soldier. Saxon had purchased a buff-coat, a steel cap, and a pair of jack-boots, so that with the rapier and pistols which my father had presented him with, he was ready to take the field at any time.
There would, we hoped, be no great difficulty in our reaching Monmouth’s forces when the hour came. In those troublous times the main roads were so infested22 by highwaymen and footpads, that it was usual for travellers to carry weapons and even armour23 for their protection. There was no reason therefore why our appearance should excite suspicion. Should questions be asked, Saxon had a long story prepared, to the effect that we were travelling to join Henry Somerset, Duke of Beaufort, to whose household we belonged. This invention he explained to me, with many points of corroboration24 which I was to furnish, but when I said positively25 that I should rather be hanged as a rebel than speak a falsehood, he looked at me open-eyed, and shook his head as one much shocked. A few weeks of campaigning, he said, would soon cure me of my squeamishness. For himself, no more truthful26 child had ever carried a horn-book, but he had learned to lie upon the Danube, and looked upon it as a necessary part of the soldier’s upbringing. ‘For what are all stratagems27, ambuscades, and outfalls but lying upon a large scale?’ he argued. ‘What is an adroit28 commander but one who hath a facility for disguising the truth? When, at the battle of Senlac, William the Norman ordered his men to feign29 flight in order that they might break his enemy’s array, a wile30 much practised both by the Scythians of old and by the Croats of our own day, pray what is it but the acting31 of a lie? Or when Hannibal, having tied torches to the horns of great droves of oxen, caused the Roman Consuls32 to imagine that his army was in retreat, was it not a deception33 or infraction34 of the truth?— a point well brought out by a soldier of repute in the treatise35 “An in bello dolo uti liceat; an apud hostes falsiloquio uti liceat.” And so if, after these great models, I in order to gain mine ends do announce that we are bound to Beaufort when we are in truth making for Monmouth, is it not in accord with the usages of war and the customs of great commanders?’ All which specious36 argument I made no attempt to answer, beyond repeating that he might avail himself of the usage, but that he must not look to me for corroboration. On the other hand, I promised to hold my speech and to say nothing which might hamper37 him, with which pledge he was forced to be contented38.
And now at last, my patient listeners, I shall be able to carry you out of the humble39 life of the village, and to cease my gossip of the men who were old when I was young, and who are now lying this many a year in the Bedhampton churchyard. You shall come with me now, and you shall see England as it was in those days, and you shall hear of how we set forth1 to the wars, and of all the adventures which overtook us. And if what I tell you should ever chance to differ from what you have read in the book of Mr. Coke or of Mr. Oldmixon, or of any one else who has set these matters down in print, do ye bear in mind that I am telling of what I saw with these very eyes, and that I have helped to make history, which is a higher thing than to write it.
It was, then, towards nightfall upon the twelfth day of June 1685 that the news reached our part of the country that Monmouth had landed the day before at Lyme, a small seaport40 on the boundary between Dorsetshire and Devonshire. A great beacon41 blaze upon Portsdown Hill was the first news that we had of it, and then came a rattling42 and a drumming from Portsmouth, where the troops were assembled under arms. Mounted messengers clattered44 through the village street with their heads low on their horses’ necks, for the great tidings must be carried to London, that the Governor of Portsmouth might know how to act. [Note B, Appendix.] We were standing at our doorway45 in the gloaming, watching the coming and the going, and the line of beacon fires which were lengthening46 away to the eastward47, when a little man galloped48 up to the door and pulled his panting horse up.
‘Is Joseph Clarke here?’ he asked.
‘I am he,’ said my father.
‘Are these men true?’ he whispered, pointing with his whip at Saxon and myself. ‘Then the trysting-place is Taunton. Pass it on to all whom ye know. Give my horse a bait and a drink, I beg of ye, for I must get on my way.’
My young brother Hosea looked to the tired creature, while we brought the rider inside and drew him a stoup of beer. A wiry, sharp-faced man he was, with a birth-mark upon his temple. His face and clothes were caked with dust, and his limbs were so stiff from the saddle that he could scarce put one foot before another.
‘One horse hath died under me,’ he said, ‘and this can scarce last another twenty miles. I must be in London by morning, for we hope that Danvers and Wildman may be able to raise the city. Yester-evening I left Monmouth’s camp. His blue flag floats over Lyme.’
‘What force hath he?’ my father asked anxiously.
‘He hath but brought over leaders. The force must come from you folk at home. He has with him Lord Grey of Wark, with Wade49, the German Buyse, and eighty or a hundred more. Alas50! that two who came are already lost to us. It is an evil, evil omen51.’
‘What is amiss, then?’
‘Dare, the goldsmith of Taunton, hath been slain52 by Fletcher of Saltoun in some child’s quarrel about a horse. The peasants cried out for the blood of the Scot, and he was forced to fly aboard the ships. A sad mishap53 it is, for he was a skilful54 leader and a veteran soldier.’
‘Aye, aye,’ cried Saxon impatiently, ‘there will be some more skilful leaders and veteran soldiers in the West presently to take his place. But if he knew the usages of war, how came it that he should fight upon a private quarrel at such a time?’ He drew a flat brown book from his bosom55, and ran his long thin finger down the table of contents. ‘Subisectio nona’—‘here is the very case set forth, “An in hello publico provocatus ad duellum privatae amicitiae causa declinare possit,” in which the learned Fleming layeth it down that a man’s private honour must give way to the good of the cause. Did it not happen in my own case that, on the eve of the raising of the Anlagerung of Vienna, we stranger officers having been invited to the tent of the General, it chanced that a red-headed Irisher, one O’Daffy, an ancient in the regiment56 of Pappenheimer, did claim precedence of me on the ground of superiority of blood? On this I drew my glove across his face, not, mark ye, in anger, but as showing that I differed in some degree from his opinion. At which dissent57 he did at once offer to sustain his contention58, but I, having read this subsection to him, did make it clear to him that we could not in honour settle the point until the Turk was chased from the city. So after the onfall —’
‘Nay59, sir, I may hear the narrative60 some future day,’ said the messenger, staggering to his feet. ‘I hope to find a relay at Chichester, and time presses. Work for the cause now, or be slaves for ever. Farewell!’ He clambered into his saddle, and we heard the clatter43 of his hoofs61 dying away down the London road.
‘The time hath come for you to go, Micah,’ said my father solemnly.’ Nay, wife, do not weep, but rather hearten the lad on his way by a blithe62 word and a merry face. I need not tell you to fight manfully and fearlessly in this quarrel. Should the tide of war set in this direction, you may find your old father riding by your side. Let us now bow down and implore63 the favour of the Almighty64 upon this expedition.’
We all knelt down in the low-roofed, heavy-raftered room while the old man offered up an earnest, strenuous65 prayer for our success. Even now, as I speak to ye, that group rises up before mine eyes. I see once again your ancestor’s stern, rugged66 face, with his brows knitted and his corded hands writhed67 together in the fervour of his supplication68. My mother kneels beside him with the tears trickling69 down her sweet, placid70 face, stifling71 her sobs72 lest the sound of them make my leave-taking more bitter. The children are in the sleeping-room upstairs, and we hear the patter of their bare feet upon the floor. The man Saxon sprawls73 across one of the oaken chairs, half kneeling, half reclining, with his long legs trailing out behind, and his face buried in his hands. All round in the flickering74 light of the hanging lamp I see the objects which have been so familiar to me from childhood — the settle by the fireplace, the high-back stiff-elbowed chairs, the stuffed fox above the door, the picture of Christian75 viewing the Promised Land from the summit of the Delectable76 Mountains — all small trifles in themselves, but making up among them the marvellous thing we call home, the all-powerful lodestone which draws the wanderer’s heart from the farther end of the earth. Should I ever see it again save in my dreams — I, who was leaving this sheltered cove10 to plunge77 into the heart of the storm?
The prayer finished, we all rose with the exception of Saxon, who remained with his face buried in his hands for a minute or so before starting to his feet. I shrewdly suspect that he had been fast asleep, though he explained that he had paused to offer up an additional supplication. My father placed his hands upon my head and invoked78 the blessing79 of Heaven upon me. He then drew my companion aside, and I heard the jingling80 of coin, from which I judge that he was giving him something wherewith to start upon his travels. My mother clasped me to her heart, and slipped a small square of paper into my hand, saying that I was to look at it at my leisure, and that I should make her happy if I would but conform to the instructions contained in it. This I promised to do, and tearing myself away I set off down the darkened village street, with my long-limbed companion striding by my side.
It was close upon one in the morning, and all the country folk had been long abed. Passing the Wheatsheaf and the house of old Solomon, I could not but wonder what they would think of my martial81 garb82 were they afoot. I had scarce time to form the same thought before Zachary Palmer’s cottage when his door flew open, and the carpenter came running out with his white hair streaming in the fresh night breeze.
‘I have been awaiting you, Micah,’ he cried. ‘I had heard that Monmouth was up, and I knew that you would not lose a night ere starting. God bless you, lad, God bless you! Strong of arm and soft of heart, tender to the weak and stern to the oppressor, you have the prayers and the love of all who know you.’ I pressed his extended hands, and the last I saw of my native hamlet was the shadowy figure of the carpenter as he waved his good wishes to me through the darkness.
We made our way across the fields to the house of Whittier, the Whig farmer, where Saxon got into his war harness. We found our horses ready saddled and bridled83, for my father had at the first alarm sent a message across that we should need them. By two in the morning we were breasting Portsdown Hill, armed, mounted, and fairly started on our journey to the rebel camp.
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1
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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whit
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| n.一点，丝毫 | |
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mettle
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| n.勇气，精神 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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covenant
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| n.盟约，契约；v.订盟约 | |
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cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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smack
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| vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍 | |
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appellation
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| n.名称，称呼 | |
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controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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outgrown
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| 长[发展] 得超过（某物）的范围( outgrow的过去分词 )； 长[发展]得不能再要（某物）； 长得比…快； 生长速度超过 | |
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discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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fluted
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| a.有凹槽的 | |
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requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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infested
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| adj.为患的，大批滋生的（常与with搭配）v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 )；遍布于 | |
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armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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corroboration
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| n.进一步的证实，进一步的证据 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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truthful
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| adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的 | |
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stratagems
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| n.诡计，计谋( stratagem的名词复数 )；花招 | |
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adroit
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| adj.熟练的，灵巧的 | |
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feign
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| vt.假装，佯作 | |
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wile
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| v.诡计，引诱；n.欺骗，欺诈 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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consuls
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| 领事( consul的名词复数 )； （古罗马共和国时期）执政官 （古罗马共和国及其军队的最高首长，同时共有两位，每年选举一次） | |
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deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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infraction
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| n.违反；违法 | |
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treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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specious
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| adj.似是而非的；adv.似是而非地 | |
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hamper
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| vt.妨碍，束缚，限制；n.(有盖的)大篮子 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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seaport
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| n.海港，港口，港市 | |
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beacon
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| n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔 | |
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rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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clattered
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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45
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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46
lengthening
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的现在分词 )； 加长 | |
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eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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wade
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| v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉 | |
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50
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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51
omen
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| n.征兆，预兆；vt.预示 | |
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52
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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mishap
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| n.不幸的事，不幸；灾祸 | |
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54
skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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dissent
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| n./v.不同意，持异议 | |
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contention
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| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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blithe
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| adj.快乐的，无忧无虑的 | |
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implore
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| vt.乞求，恳求，哀求 | |
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almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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writhed
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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supplication
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| n.恳求，祈愿，哀求 | |
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trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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sprawls
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| n.（城市）杂乱无序拓展的地区( sprawl的名词复数 )；随意扩展；蔓延物v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的第三人称单数 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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76
delectable
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| adj.使人愉快的；美味的 | |
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77
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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invoked
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| v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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79
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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80
jingling
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| 叮当声 | |
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81
martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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82
garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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83
bridled
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| 给…套龙头( bridle的过去式和过去分词 )； 控制； 昂首表示轻蔑（或怨忿等）； 动怒，生气 | |
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