Moor.
Take my horse, and dash a bottle of wine over him. 'Twas hot work.
---SCHILLER: The Robbers.
We will now make inquiries1 after Mr. Coates and his party, of whom both we and Dick Turpin have for some time lost sight. With unabated ardor2 the vindictive3 man of law and his myrmidons pressed forward. A tacit compact seemed to have been entered into between the highwayman and his pursuers, that he was to fly while they were to follow. Like bloodhounds, they kept steadily4 upon his trail; nor were they so far behind as Dick imagined. At each post-house they passed they obtained fresh horses, and, while these were saddling, a postboy was despatched en courrier to order relays at the next station. In this manner they proceeded after the first stoppage without interruption. Horses were in waiting for them, as they, "bloody5 with spurring, fiery6 hot with haste," and their jaded7 hacks8 arrived. Turpin had been heard or seen in all quarters. Turnpike-men, waggoners, carters, trampers, all had seen him. Besides, strange as it may sound, they placed some faith in his word. York they believed would be his destination.
At length the coach which Dick had encountered hove in sight. There was another stoppage and another hubbub9. The old gentleman's nightcap was again manifested, and suffered a sudden occultation, as upon the former occasion. The postboy, who was in advance, had halted, and given up his horse to Major Mowbray, who exchanged his seat on the box for one on the saddle, deeming it more expedient10, after his interview with Turpin, to return to Rookwood, rather than to proceed to town. The postboy was placed behind Coates, as being the lightest weight; and, thus reinforced, the party pushed forward as rapidly as heretofore.
Eighty and odd miles had now been traversed--the boundary of another county, Northampton, passed; yet no rest nor respite11 had Dick Turpin or his unflinching mare12 enjoyed. But here he deemed it fitting to make a brief halt.
Bordering the beautiful domains13 of Burleigh House stood a little retired14 hostelry of some antiquity15, which bore the great Lord Treasurer's arms. With this house Dick was not altogether unacquainted. The lad who acted as ostler was known to him. It was now midnight, but a bright and beaming night. To the door of the stable then did he ride, and knocked in a peculiar16 manner. Reconnoitering Dick through a broken pane17 of glass in the lintel, and apparently18 satisfied with his scrutiny19, the lad thrust forth20 a head of hair as full of straw as Mad Tom's is represented to be upon the stage. A chuckle21 of welcome followed his sleepy salutation. "Glad to see you, Captain Turpin," said he; "can I do anything for you?"
"Get me a couple of bottles of brandy and a beefsteak," said Dick.
"As to the brandy, you can have that in a jiffy--but the steak, Lord love you, the old ooman won't stand it at this time; but there's a cold round, mayhap a slice of that might do--or a knuckle22 of ham?"
"Raw meat!" echoed Ralph, in surprise. "Oh, yes, there's a rare rump of beef. You can have a cut off that, if you like."
"That's the thing I want," said Dick, ungirthing his mare. "Give me the scraper. There, I can get a whisp of straw from your head. Now run and get the brandy. Better bring three bottles. Uncork 'em, and let me have half a pail of water to mix with the spirit."
"A pail full of brandy and water to wash down a raw steak! My eyes!" exclaimed Ralph, opening wide his sleepy peepers; adding, as he went about the execution of his task, "I always thought them Rum-padders, as they call themselves, rum fellows, but now I'm sartin sure on it."
The most sedulous24 groom25 could not have bestowed26 more attention upon the horse of his heart than Dick Turpin now paid to his mare. He scraped, chafed27, and dried her, sounded each muscle, traced each sinew, pulled her ears, examined the state of her feet, and, ascertaining28 that her "withers29 were un-wrung," finally washed her from head to foot in the diluted30 spirit, not, however, before he had conveyed a thimbleful of the liquid to his own parched31 throat, and replenished32 what Falstaff calls a "pocket-pistol," which he had about him. While Ralph was engaged in rubbing her down after her bath, Dick occupied himself, not in dressing33 the raw steak in the manner the stable-boy had anticipated, but in rolling it round the bit of his bridle34.
"She will now go as long as there's breath in her body," said he, putting the flesh-covered iron within her mouth.
The saddle being once more replaced, after champing a moment or two at the bit, Bess began to snort and paw the earth, as if impatient of delay; and, acquainted as he was with her indomitable spirit and power, her condition was a surprise even to Dick himself. Her vigor35 seemed inexhaustible, her vivacity36 was not a whit37 diminished, but, as she was led into the open space, her step became as light and free as when she started on her ride, and her sense of sound as quick as ever. Suddenly she pricked38 her ears, and uttered a low neigh. A dull tramp was audible.
"Ha!" exclaimed Dick, springing into his saddle; "they come."
"Who come, captain?" asked Ralph.
"The road takes a turn here, don't it?" asked Dick--"sweeps round to the right by the plantations39 in the hollow?"
"Ay, ay, captain," answered Ralph; "it's plain you knows the ground."
"What lies behind yon shed?"
"A stiff fence, captain--a reg'lar rasper. Beyond that a hill-side steep as a house, no oss as was ever shoed can go down it."
"Indeed!" laughed Dick.
A loud halloo from Major Mowbray, who seemed advancing upon the wings of the wind, told Dick that he was discovered. The major was a superb horseman, and took the lead of his party. Striking his spurs deeply into his horse, and giving him bridle enough, the major seemed to shoot forward like a shell through the air. The Burleigh Arms retired some hundred yards from the road, the space in front being occupied by a neat garden, with low, clipped edges. No tall timber intervened between Dick and his pursuers, so that the motions of both parties were visible to each other. Dick saw in an instant that if he now started he should come into collision with the major exactly at the angle of the road, and he was by no means desirous of hazarding such a rencontre. He looked wistfully back at the double fence.
"Come into the stable. Quick, captain, quick!" exclaimed Ralph.
"The stable!" echoed Dick, hesitating.
"Ay, the stable; it's your only chance. Don't you see he's turning the corner, and they are all coming? Quick, sir, quick!"
Dick, lowering his head, rode into the tenement40, the door of which was unceremoniously slapped in the major's face, and bolted on the other side.
"Villain41!" cried Major Mowbray, thundering at the door, "come forth! You are now fairly trapped at last--caught like the woodcock in your own springe. We have you. Open the door, I say, and save us the trouble of forcing it. You cannot escape us. We will burn the building down but we will have you."
"What dun you want, measter?" cried Ralph, from the lintel, whence he reconnoitered the major, and kept the door fast. "You're clean mista'en. There be none here."
"We'll soon see that," said Paterson, who had now arrived; and, leaping from his horse, the chief constable42 took a short run to give himself impetus43, and with his foot burst open the door. This being accomplished44, in dashed the major and Paterson, but the stable was vacant. A door was open at the back; they rushed to it. The sharply sloping sides of a hill slipped abruptly45 downwards46, within a yard of the door. It was a perilous47 descent to the horseman, yet the print of a horse's heels were visible in the dislodged turf and scattered48 soil.
"Confusion!" cried the major, "he has escaped us."
"He is yonder," said Paterson, pointing out Turpin moving swiftly through the steaming meadow. "See, he makes again for the road--he clears the fence. A regular throw he has given us, by the Lord!"
"Nobly done, by Heaven!" cried the major. "With all his faults, I honor the fellow's courage and admire his prowess. He's already ridden to-night as I believe never man rode before. I would not have ventured to slide down that wall, for it's nothing else, with the enemy at my heels. What say you, gentlemen, have you had enough? Shall we let him go, or----?"
"As far as chase goes, I don't care if we bring the matter to a conclusion," said Titus. "I don't think, as it is, that I shall have a sate49 to sit on this week to come. I've lost leather most confoundedly."
"What says Mr. Coates?" asked Paterson. "I look to him."
"Then mount, and off," cried Coates. "Public duty requires that we should take him."
"And private pique," returned the major. "No matter! The end is the same. Justice shall be satisfied. To your steeds, my merry men all. Hark, and away."
Once more upon the move, Titus forgot his distress50, and addressed himself to the attorney, by whose side he rode.
"What place is that we're coming to?" asked he, pointing to a cluster of moonlit spires51 belonging to a town they were rapidly approaching.
"Stamford," replied Coates.
"Stamford!" exclaimed Titus; "by the powers! then we've ridden a matter of ninety miles. Why, the great deeds of Redmond O'Hanlon were nothing to this! I'll remember it to my dying day, and with reason," added he, uneasily shifting his position on the saddle.
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1
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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ardor
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| n.热情，狂热 | |
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vindictive
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| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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jaded
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| adj.精疲力竭的；厌倦的；（因过饱或过多而）腻烦的；迟钝的 | |
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hacks
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| 黑客 | |
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hubbub
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| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
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10
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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domains
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| n.范围( domain的名词复数 )；领域；版图；地产 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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knuckle
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| n.指节；vi.开始努力工作；屈服，认输 | |
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knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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sedulous
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| adj.勤勉的，努力的 | |
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groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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chafed
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| v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的过去式 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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ascertaining
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的现在分词 ) | |
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withers
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| 马肩隆 | |
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diluted
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| 无力的，冲淡的 | |
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parched
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| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
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32
replenished
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| 补充( replenish的过去式和过去分词 )； 重新装满 | |
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dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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34
bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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vivacity
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| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
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whit
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| n.一点，丝毫 | |
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38
pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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tenement
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| n.公寓；房屋 | |
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41
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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42
constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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43
impetus
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| n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力 | |
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44
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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45
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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46
downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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47
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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48
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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49
sate
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| v.使充分满足 | |
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50
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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51
spires
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| n.（教堂的） 塔尖，尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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