By Stroke of Sword: a romance, etc

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BY STROKE OF SWORD a THERE AND THEN I HAD MY FIRST LESSON IN THE ART Page BY STROKE OF SWORD A Romance, taken from the Chronicles of Sir Jeremy Clephane, King's Justice and Knight of the Shire of Fife, overlooked by Master Judas Fraser, Dominie of the Parish of Kirktoun, and rendered into a more modern English dy Andrew Balfour LONDON: METHUEN AND COMPANY 36 ESSEX STREET, STRAND: SIR JEREMY CLEPHANE HIS PREFIX HAVING lived long, and seen much of this world's ways, I know full well that some, perchance it may be many, who read this tale will assuredly say, — ' This fellow lies. Did anyone see the like ; for how could things come to pass with such quickness, and to such good purpose ? ' Now, here is the very point ; for had my adventures been as those of other men, then truly I should have by no means taken the trouble of setting them down in order, as I have done, for it has been a weary task.

Howbeit, I will confess that there is one matter in which I have lied ; but the lie had passed without note after I had vowed not to set pen to paper again ; for it was not, as I have stated, Sir Jaspar, but Simon Grisel, who threw the stone at the cur and stopped its singing as we waited for the hour of six in the street of Saint Mary Axe. GIVEN UNDER MY HAND, AT CROOKNESS, THIS I2TH DAY OF AUGUST, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD l6 — . LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS By W. Cubitt Cooke There and then I had My First Lesson in the Art, . Frontispiece Scarce a Hundred Yards from the End of the Line of Reef was a Great Ship, page 8 Very gently We crept to the Margin and looked through the Leafy Screen, . . . . . ,, 168 The Finding of the Skull, . . . . ,, CHAP. I. II III. IV. V. VI, VII. VIII, IX, X, XI, XII XIII, XIV.

XV. XVI CONTENTS PAGE Of My Birth and Manner of Growth, I Of the Strange Man who dwelt upon the Shore, 7 Of the Naked Man and the Mark of the Fire, 16 Of the Second Man, the Brown Box, and the Madness that came upon Kirktoun, .... 26 Of Maid Marjorie and the Charge of the Wild Cattle 34 Of the Fight in the Wood and What I saw in the Well, 43 Of the Seller of Unicorn's Horn and the Brawl in the Tavern, ...... 52 Of the Slaying of De Papillon and the Finding of the Box, ...... 63 Of the Crawl upon the Roof, the Plot and Counter Plot, 7i Of the Crew of the Galley and the Silent Man who squinted, ...... So Of the Steering of Phil Bartelow and the Fight with the Queen's Ship, ..... 89 9S Of the Golden Dragon and Ihe Sentence of Death, Of What I heard in the Chimney, and the Man in the Archway, ...... io8 Of the Tightening of the Rope and the Coming of Simon Grisel, ..... nS Of the Men in the Thicket and the Horseman who Rode from Exeter, . ... 126 Of the Story of Simon Grisel, '36 CONTENTS CHAP. XVII, PAGE Of the Doings of Captain Hocus Pocus and the Crew of the Water Sprite, .... 145 XVIII Of the Taking of the Donna Bella, 154 XIX, Of the Order to Fire and the Ending of the Water Sprite, ...... 164 XX, Of Our Lady the Virgin and the Gathering of the Sharks, ...... 176 XXI, Of the Bursting of the Bonds, the Upturned Boat, and the Coming of the Golden Dragon, . 187 XXII, Of the Tale as told Me by Sir Jaspar, and My Swim in the Night, ..... 197 XXIII, Of the Sinking in the Lake of Pitch and the Man with the Pike, ..... 209 XXIV.

Chapter I Of My Birth And Manner Of Growth It

seems strange to me, Jeremy Clephane, that at such an age as it hath pleased God that I should reach — and he knows it is not a small one — I should take upon me to set on paper those strange wanderings and yet stranger escapades which have fallen to my lot. I say it passes my comprehension that it should be so, and would, without doubt, have passed that of many I once knew, though truly but few of them had much at the best, but as it happens they have one and all gone to their own place, albeit many a one of them hath wagered with me that I should go before him ; but whither am I wandering ? Of a truth an' my worthy father, though more given to Latin than the King's English, had witnessed how I have gone off my course, he would have made my nether parts tingle as if a meduse had trailed its streamers over and about them ; but he sleeps these fifty and more years in the kirkyard on the hill, and in his stead have reigned two dominies, more gifted mayhap in the classics, but in tingling powers mere babes to old Hal Clephane, albeit it seems to me that hides are more tender than was their wont.

But I am off at a tangent again, as Phil Bartelow would have said. In short, then, it is the present dominie, Master Judas Fraser — though why he should be called Judas I know not — who hath urged me to set pen to paper, and I was the more willing as I have but little wherewith to pass A the time on these long summer evenings, save to smoke a pipe of good Indian weed from the old skull jar and to listen to the waves as they make rippling noises on the shingly beach. Now is this prefix come almost to a close, save only for what I shall here set down. I am a Scotchman to the backbone — ay, and further, if you will — and so it haps that I have little ease in the writing of such English as Master William Shakespeare affects, though it is said to be very fine and wonderful withal, so I must even write as I have learned, but as this book will deal much of Englishmen, not to speak of Spaniards, and as, perchance, it may be read by some in England, for stranger things have come to pass to my certain knowledge, the dominie has promised to change what may be in need of change, for there are some folk who cannot make head or tail of a haddie, know not what it is to yammer, and have never heard tell of wheen, or muckle, and many another good word of the Scot's tongue — but to my tale.

I have heard my father say, when he had stowed away under his waistband a goodly cargo of what was in those days well known as ' the kingdom,' that I, owing to my great modesty and backwardness in appearing on this earth, had, beyond all doubt, been the death of my mother, and after so saying he had a habit of taking me tenderly on his knees, and with tears in his eyes rewarding me in a fashion more lavish than pleasant. Now, of this I could by no means see the justice, as if I was what the dominie calls a matricide, then was I one without intent, and the sad demise of Mistress Clephane should more rightly have been laid to the charge of Betty Muckready, who, though she had piloted many a little craft safely into life, yet had managed to land not a few in the port of heaven with their mothers to look after them ; which, after all, was but right and proper, as this world is but a small place, and were it not for Betty and her kind might in time become overfull, the which may Providence forbid ! for as it is, it is not large enough for both Englishmen and Spaniards as /have seen.

However that may be, I some times think that had there been room enough for both my mother and myself I might have been a somewhat different OF MY BIRTH AND MANNER 3 being, though whether that had been for good or evil the reader must himself judge, for as I was a modest babe, so I have ever been a modest man, and hope so to remain till the end. Now it is well known that children grow, and, moreover, that their growth is more to length than to breadth, but for some cause or other it was not so with me, and while I by no means added cubits to my stature, I grew in breadth till, when I was of such an age that I might go to school, I was, so all said, the strangest looking mortal in Kirktoun, and though I trusted they lied to me, for some of the Kirktoun folk were queerly-built craft, yet I much feared they spoke the truth, and many a time sobbed myself to sleep to think that such a curse should have fallen upon me, though thereafter I had reason to bless the days in which I did not grow in length.

Now, though I was broad as I was long, and mayhap broader, I would not have you think I was in anywise deformed or misshapen, for my face was as other boys', and, I thank God, better than some — to wit, Dick Ramsay, whose teeth stuck out before him as if to reach his dinner first, and Timothy Rotgut down whose nose one might look as he came forwards, and there were others, but these will serve. Nor was my back rounded or my shoulder hunched as was the way with some, and though my arms were long, yet, what of that, better be long in some parts than short in all. It is no wonder then that, on my going to school, I should have been given a name, for no boy is content with another's name and rests not till he has dubbed him afresh. Now the manner of my dubbing was in this wise. My father had taken me at the ripe age of eight years to the school upon the hill, and on my first day there, to show no doubt that he favoured not his offspring one whit, had thrashed me twice, once at the opening of the lesson and once at its close, to the great joy of all save myself.

Indeed, one youth was so overjoyed at the sight that, in a hapless moment for himself, he chuckled and laughed aloud, which he had better have left undone, for my worthy father straight way pounced upon him and dragged him forth; and to judge by his writhes and howls my father's arm had lost none of its vigour in the flogging of his son. I was secretly glad at this sight, which, indeed, comforted my sores in wondrous fashion, but when the day's work was over I bethought me to steal home quietly, for there were signs which made me think that Dick Honeyman — for such was the boy's name who had been beaten — had something in store for me. Therefore I strove to be gone first, but, as luck would have it, I tripped in my haste and was quickly seized by him, and he would have proceeded to buffet me on the spot had not the other boys come up, and seeing promise of fair sport, haled us both to a little clearing in the wood, where they formed a ring around us and set us opposite each other.

I was not long in finding out that I was no favourite, and this not so much on account of my strange form and build as because I was old Hal Clephane's son. And once again I could by no means see the justice of it. Here was I, beaten by my father on account of my mother, and now I was to be beaten by a schoolfellow on account of my father. The thought galled me, and I plucked up heart and looked at my opponent. He was a big boy, nigh twice as tall as I was, but I thought his shoulders lacked firmness, and his calves sub stance ; while I, though both younger and smaller, had a strange thickness for a boy of my age, and, moreover, was used to being buffeted, and what brought comfort to me was the remembrance of his howls and twists under the leathern strap. Therefore, I say, I plucked up heart and doubled my fists. 'Now,' cried a big boy, who directed the proceedings, ' fair dealing, my young cocks, and he who hitteth under the belly-band shall be hit,' and ere I knew where I was we were at each other, and I was struck upon the face.

This, however, while rousing me, served but to make me cautious, therefore I stood and warded off his blows, watching my chance the while. ' Into him, Dick,' the boys shouted, ' give old Leather hide's spawn a heavy one. He has no fight in him. One upon the mouth, Dick ! Bravo, lad ! A body-blow ! A body-blow ! ' I felt miserable and sad when I saw how they were set against me, but I was resolved all the more to die rather OF MY BIRTH AND MANNER 5 than be beaten, and, ever watching his eyes, I waited for my chance. At last it came. Thinking he had tired me out, for my lip was bleeding and one of my eyes had ceased to be an eye, he rushed upon me quickly, waving his arms like a flail. Then I let out upon him, and in less time than it takes to set it down I had him on his back, and being now all but mad with rage and pain, I had half-choked him ere they dragged me off.

While some looked after the fallen champion, the most gathered round me and stood staring at me in surprise, then the big boy, of whom I have already made mention, spoke. ' How are you called ? ' he asked me. ' Jeremy,' I mumbled, for my lip hurt mightily. 'His name is Jeremy,' shouted the big boy, 'but what shall we call him ? ' ' The wild cat,' said one, 'for he fights like nothing else on earth.' 'The toad,' shouted another, 'for he is like one.' Now it had been better for that boy had he not spoken, as he found ere many days were gone. ' Call him what he is,' said a boy with a pale face, a streak of a mouth and a thin body. ' And what may that be ? ' said their leader. ' Squat,' said the thin boy, and turning on his heel, he walked away. Thus it was that I received this name which verily has stuck to me ever since, there having been no occasion for the changing of it, as Providence never saw occasion for changing me.

Now, you who read this may perhaps wonder that a small place like Kirktoun, which, to say truth, is more taken up with the catching of fish than of knowedge, should be furnished with a school, but you will do well to remember that the reformed religion had made great strides even in those days, and that the rule of the priests and of ignorance was come to an end, for the which you will do well to return thanks. No doubt many in the land, and among them the queen herself, though she was but a queen in name, still clung to the old ways, but most of the nobles, and more of the common folk, had gladly embraced the new faith. My father had been a close follower of the great Knox — whose house, indeed, I have seen with my own eyes — and the Reformer had ever urged that the only way of dealing with the evil was to teach something better, and that more especi ally to the young.

Thus it came about that Hal Clephane, who, to tell the truth, had been somewhat of a ruffler in his youth, settled down in his middle age to the quiet life of a dominie, for he was not without learning, and knew well how to impart the same. Few came to his school at the first, but in a little time the fame of it spread as far as the town of St Andrews on the east, and Dunfermline on the west, and a boy would walk twelve long miles and more to sit under Hal Clephane of Kirktoun, in the parish school. Now, after I had grown in years, though but little in height, having somewhat of a love for book-lore, all Kirktoun looked to see me fill my father's shoes, and when I was not called ' Jeremy, the Squat,' I even went by the name of the ' the wee dominie ' ; and though, mark you, I was ever modest, yet I took no small pride to myself on this account, and looked for nothing better than to have the teaching and flogging of a future progeny.

But, as you may have guessed, it was willed in other fashion, and of the events which led to my becoming a wanderer on the face of the earth, not to speak of the sea, I shall now make mention, and in the first place, of the strange man who dwelt upon the shore.

Chapter II Of The Strange Man Who Dwelt Upon The Shore Ten

years had passed away since I had thrashed Dick Honeyman and been called the Squat, and yet there were few changes in Kirktoun. In the world outside us there had been stirring doings — plots and counter-plots, wars and rumours of war — but all this stir and bustle scarce touched our little town, save only to give cause of talk and gossip to those who had nothing better wherewith to occupy themselves. As for me, when I was not poring over Virgil, Homer ox the books oiLivy, I cared for nought except adding to my strength, for I was resolved if I was not to grow in height, at least to develop what there was of me to the utmost, and for this purpose I would twirl and twist upon the bough of a tree for a full hour, or row half-way across the Firth, although, by reason of doubtful craft and English ships which played the spy, it was not over, safe to venture far from shore ; or I would seek birds' eggs and try to shoot sea-fowl with a pistol I had stolen from a drawer in my father's bureau.

Above all, however, I loved to strip, and disport in the clear, green depths which washed the rocky beach, till I became almost a fish and could dart and turn and dive, I say it though I am a modest man, in wondrous fashion. I had none with whom to share these pleasures, however, for the other boys held aloof, though I tried for long to join in their games and sports. They had a fear of me, and some even whispered I had the evil eye, and at last I grew to hate them, and in the bitterness of my heart I would go off for some long ramble in solitary state, brooding, ever brood ing, on my trouble, and strengthening my arms against the time when I should have the flogging of their children. Thus it came about that one day in late autumn I started for a walk by the shore, but I might have known better than to go, for signs of a gale were not wanting.

In the early morning it had been over clear across the Firth, and the lion hill, which stands near the town of Edinburgh, had shown up distinctly, as though but a few miles off, while the Law of Berwick was plainer still. The clouds had gathered as the day wore on, and the wind, coming in gusts and rain squalls at the first, had gained in force till, when I had been an hour upon the road, it was roaring on shore, and shrieking and whistling through the tree tops, the dying leaves whirling in clouds before it. I was in a bitter mood that day, for the next week sports and a bull-baiting were to be held upon the green, but when I had offered to run in a foot race, being anxious to gain a prize, the folk had laughed at me mightily and taunted me with my short legs, till I had much ado to keep my fists quiet.

No wonder, then, that I felt a wild joy in buffeting and striving against the wind blasts and cared not a jot for the slash of the rain and the nip of the sea spray. I battled on heedless of it all, with head bent and teeth set, till I was eight miles away from Kirktoun at a place where the shore was wild and rugged with great rock reefs running seawards, jagged and evil looking. Even I was thinking of seeking shelter, for the mist was gathering thick and it was growing colder, when, on a sudden, from the Firth there came the boom of a gun and then another. I strained my eyes seawards and strove to pierce the gloom, but I could see naught, and was turning to reach the woods, when I caught sight of a gleam of light like a flash of flame, and then again there came the sullen boom. At the same moment the mist seemed to lift and lighten, and there, scarce a hundred yards from the end of the line of reef, was a great ship with two tall masts, square rigged and high pooped, tossing and rolling on the grey and angry sea.

As I stared at her in wonder there came a wild cry across the water, and she swung heavily round till I could see the guns grinning from her ports and the yellow streak which ran along her hull, till she lay washing and wobbling in the trough of the waves, and her sails taken aback were SCARCE A HUNDRED YARDS FROM THE END OF THR LINE OF REEF WAS A GREAT SHIP flattened against her masts. Then slowly answering to her helm her head swung outwards and rounded away from me, her canvas filled and flapped again, and then there came a furious blast driving the mist and rain before it and shrouding the great ship from my sight, but I stood waiting in horror, for, ere the mist had closed around her, I had seen her head falling off again, and knew that if the blast lasted she was lost. The wind lulled, but only for a moment, and then down it came again more wild and fierce than ever, and borne on it there came to my ears that which sent me scrambling and staggering out upon the long, black reef which ran seawards between the great, grey, froth-topped waves, for a wild cry of dismay, the shriek and wail of lost souls came shoreward on the wind, rising above the howling of the gale and the boom and splash of the billows on the weed grown rocks.

I clambered on, soaking and breathless, but had scarce managed fifty yards, when, from the gloom in front, there came a crashing, grinding, rending sound, and then another cry, and then silence save for the voice of wind and waves and the screech of frightened sea-fowl blown like feathers before the tempest. I crouched under the lee of a rock, for the tide was nearly full and the water formed a belt cutting the reef in two, across which I must needs swim if I wished to go onwards. I was minded to go, for I felt strangely excited and the breath was come back to me, but, as I crept from behind my shelter I saw sure sign of the deadly work of reef, and wind, and wave. Pieces of wreckage warped with tangled rope were surging shoreward, hurrying forwards on the rollers, and slipping back into the hollows, driven hither and thither and vanishing into the mist which lay low upon the sea.

I watched them come and go from sight, mostly timbers from the ship's upper works with stays and ratlines streaming from and round them, but after a little while a mast with broken cross-trees came into view, washing and slobbering heavily, the breakers bursting in spray upon it and hurling it forwards like a drunken thing. I was likening it in my mind to Geordie Ramsay half-full of ' the kingdom ' being pushed and hustled homewards by the worthies who formed the night watch of Kirktoun, when my heart gave a bound, for I could have sworn something moved upon the mast. Forming my hands into a shield for my mouth I hulloaed with all my might, and waited. I had not been mistaken. A dark form clinging to the cross-trees moved again and waved an arm in the air, but at that moment the heavy mast was lifted by the swell, and then came thumping downwards, pitching over the while, and I could almost fancy, though it was seventy yards away, that I could hear it splash and gurgle.

When it righted again — if indeed you can call it righting — the figure was gone, but close to the mast was a black spot which I took to be a man's head. Now, I saw that the swimmer had but little chance of gaining his refuge again, and, moreover, I thought that if Providence let him get near the heavy mass of timber it might crack his skull and send him to the bottom, therefore being, as I say, excited and still a trifle bitter in my mind, I did what at any other time I should have shrunk from doing, I doffed my doublet and kicking off my heavy shoes, I jumped clear of the weed and wrack into the sea. Good lack ! an I had known a tenth part of the breaker's strength I would have thought twice before venturing amongst them, but, being in, I was not minded to turn back, and truly I think my shortness helped me, there being less of leverage for the waves to work upon.

My plan was to get the drowning man, for clearly he must have drowned if left to himself, to the strip of quiet water intersecting the reef and there to land him, but I had much ado to find him in the first place, catching glimpses of his head only when I let myself rise upon a roller, for, as a rule, I dived through the walls of water, finding it easier and being more used to it. At last, after being half choked and deafened by the surge, I got close to the swimmer and saw he was a man, and an old one. He was saving himself, lying on his back and but barely keeping himself afloat, so that I took care to come upon him quietly from behind. He started mightily when I took him below the shoulders, but I shouted in his ear that I would save him if he kept as he was, and he said not a word but lay still.

I soon found, fool that I was, that I would have little to do with the saving, for I could make no headway towards the reef, and the great waves washed us like wreckage nearer and nearer to the shore. 'Two lives instead of one,' I thought, and then fell to wondering if any would grieve for the loss of Jeremy, the Squat, but having made up my mind that none would, I straightway resolved that, God willing, none should have the chance, and braced myself for a struggle when we reached the rocks. Nor were we long in reaching the same, but to me it seemed a year, for the weight of the body on my arms grew every moment greater, and it was hard to breathe, and harder still to keep the surface. But I was not born to be drowned — at least, not then — and as the boom of the breakers sounded louder, I half turned, and to my joy, away to the right, I saw a spot where the line of foam was broken.

Clearly a gully ran in between the rocks, but how it ended, whether in cliff or sand I knew not, all I knew was, that reach it I must or be ground to pulp. I kicked out vigorously, and struggled and battled, and at last found that I had worked my way opposite the place, and that the waves were carrying us fast towards it. I remember seeing the black rocks on either hand as we rolled into the gully on a breaker's crest, and then there came a swirl and a back-draw, something struck me on the head and I knew no more. When I came to myself it had grown dark, and I felt a dizziness in my head and a strange sick feeling, but for all that I made out that I was lying under an overhanging crag, and some distance off a man was sitting on the ground rubbing away at something in his hands. He turned, and rising, came close to me, and then I saw he was the man who had been upon the mast, and that he had been polishing a long rapier with a handful of wet sand.