Mrs. Curgenven of Curgenven [A novel.] ... Second edition

Front matter

MRS. CURGENVEN OF CURGENVEN VOL. MBS. CUBGENVEN OF CURGENVEN BY S. BARING-GOULD AUTHOR OF 'IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA,' 'URITH,' ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. II. SECOND EDITION iflctfjucn & Co. 18, BURY STREET, LONDON, W.C. 1893 {All riyhts reserved] Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungat. CONTENTS OF VOL. II. CHAP. PAGE I. ALICE 1 II. TOLMENNA ... ... ... ... ... 13 in. a eebellion ... ... ... ... ... 27 iv. wanted: an address ... ... ... ... 39 V. THE GHOST OF A WILL ... ... ... ... 50 VI. THE FOURTEENTH ... ... ... ... 62 VII. IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM ... ... ... ... 72 VIII. A BROKEN BREAKFAST ... ... ... ... 84 IX. A SECOND DISAPPOINTMENT ... ... ... 96 X. A RUINED HOME ... ... ... ... ... 108 XI. TAKE CARE! ... ... ... ... ... 119 XII. A FATHER'S HEART ... ... ... ... 132 XIII. A MENACED HOME ... ... ... ... 144 XIV.

PAX ALL ROUND ... ... ... ... ... 156 XV. IN THE OFFICE ... ... ... ... ... 168 XVI. AN ENCOUNTER ... ... ... 183 XVII. INVENI PORTUM ... ... ... ... ... 197 XVIII. CIVILIZATION AND SAVAGERY ... ... ... 208 XIX. TRYING THE PISTOL ... ... ... ... MES. CURGENVEN.

Chapter I. Alice

Justinian Curgenven experienced none of those vexations, in taking possession of the Curgenven estate, that marred the satisfaction of his father. He was not called upon for sub scriptions, nor harassed for repairs. No one wanted him to speak at political meetings, and take the chair at missionary gatherings. He was as much courted as a prince, and felt all his consequence as heir-apparent to the principality of Curgenven. Justinian had never thought disparagingly of himself, and now he was inclined to consider himself very highly indeed. He tossed his head, walked erect, was a little more careful about his dress — not to run about with his boot strings untied, nor out-at-elbows. He cocked his cap consequentially, and stalked in the middle of the road. For the VOL. II. B first few days Justinian was perfectly happy, as there was novelty in the situation, and variety in the objects presented to his eyes.

What formerly he had looked at with curiosity, but had never been suffered to touch by Mrs. Curgenven, he now handled freely. Portions of the house to which he had never been invited he explored at will. But after a few days he betran to feel bored. He had not fitted into the new surroundings so as to feel comfortable in them. He lounged in a chair and yawned. He pulled down book after book in the library, and found them alike old dull stuff. He gravitated to his father, his wonted companion, and found his father's time taken up with business. The hilarity and offhandedness of Mr. Percival were gone ; he was fagged, vexed, uneasy, and the boy's humour took the same tinge of discouragement. Curgenven was large and splendid, but the Pill-box was cosy. ' After all,' thought Mr. Percival, ' on my hundred and fifty I was jollier in the Pill-box.' Justinian had not reached this depth of repining, but he began to admit that he regretted the free-and-easy, slouching, sufficient-unto-the-day life in the Pill-box.

Unkind to Justinian Mrs. Curgenven had never been. She had felt interest in the boy, and regret that his education had been neglected. She had spoken to his father on this matter. Mr. Percival readily admitted that Justinian had ALICE. 3 not been kept to his books, nor taught submission to control. But this admission led to no results. Percival did not fret himself over his son's deficiencies, and he took no active steps to rectify what he knew was amiss. Mrs. Curgenven had never liked Percival, but she had never quarrelled with him. She was a woman of strict views as to the conduct of life, and her own ways were orderly in accordance with her principles. The easy indifference of Percival offended her. In her opinion, he exaggerated into defects the weaknesses of her husband. Lambert, if left to her, might have been kept in order, but he broke away from restraint and relapsed under the influence of his cousin.

She had not openly discouraged the visits of Percival to Curgenven, but she had received him without warmth when he came, and had expressed no wish to see him again when he left. Her manner towards him had been civil and distant. Now that Percival was squire of Curgenven Jane kept aloof, partly, perhaps, because it would be painful to her to revisit her former home, where she had been happy ; yet Mrs. Curgenven was not the woman to consider her own feelings ; the main reason for her abstention was that the negative feeling towards Percival she had entertained in the past was converted into positive aversion since he let her understand that he believed in the marriage of Lambert with Theresa, and that consequently her own position had been equivocal. She resolutely set her face against all inquiry into this matter, as she would have set it against an investigation into the authenticity of the Pentateuch, or into the legitimacy of the authority of the Crown.

When she met Mr. Percival, as she needs must, it was with the same tolerant condescension with which she would have conversed with a Dissenting grocer or a Radical plumber. Percival, by admitting the possibility of a doubt as to her position being morally and legally unassailable, had fallen from that sublime sphere in which she moved, and in which were her convictions. She could stoop to speak with those who belonged to an inferior order of beings, but such converse must be carried on upon conditions. Of these there were two — either the member of that inferior order must be carried up in a brief ecstatic trance into her seventh heaven, there to be dazzled by her transcendent glory ; or she must herself descend, and be recognized as graciously descending, also for a brief space, to be a prophet of the truth and angel of revelation to those below.

With Alice, Justinian had been on excellent terms. She was a bright, charming girl, oppressed by her mother, and effervescing with happiness when the pressure was for a while removed. She was delighted to associate with a cousin of about ALICE. 5 her own age, as she had no companions in the neighbourhood for whom she cared greatly. The independence of Justinian, his self-confidence, his unflagging good-humour, affected her girlish imagination. She was disposed, in rebellious moods, to dis pute the reiterated assertion of her mother that the young fellow was uneducated and ignorant as a boor. She admired his readiness of resource, his experimental knowledge of the world and of men, rare in a youth. But, indeed, Justinian's years had been passed in scenes various, and among many strange persons ; he was intelligent, he had observed much, and had acquired much from his father's conversation — and his father had knocked about over all the quarters of the globe.

Among the many methods adopted for stunting the intel ligence by the directors of education is that of teaching geography by rote. Alice had been required to learn that of the United States in the approved manner. She had acquired a list of cities, states, rivers, mountains, the population of the towns, the altitude of the mountains, and the amount of cubic feet of water rolled down by the rivers. Her head had been stuffed with these solid and uninteresting facts, which happily a healthy and vigorous nature enables children so taught to reject immediately after their examination — as healthy and vigorous stomach? reject unwholesome, indigestible food. But Justinian had been in the ' States.' He had tarried more or less briefly in several of the towns, could describe them, could tell some incident that had befallen him or his father in them.

At once the girl became interested, looked these places out on the map, and never after forgot them or their position. The Cape, New Zealand, China — Mr. Percival Curgenven had been everywhere, and had had droll experiences everywhere, all which had been retailed to his son, and his son retailed them to Alice, who laughed and identified these locali ties thenceforth. It was wonderful to her how readily Justinian could calcu late, by ways of his own, in his head, and reach a result quicker and with more correctness than could she by rule on the slate. In a knowledge of history Justinian was deficient. But one rainy day, when he and his fatherwere staying at Curgenven, he had asked Alice to tell him what she knew about the family portraits. Unhappily the traditions had been broken by the transfer of the estate from the old squire to Captain Lambert, so that what she knew she derived partly from stories her father remembered to have been told when he was a child, but chiefly from her mother, who, with somewhat pedantic pre cision, had remembered what had been told her by Squire Justinian in past days relative to the ancient Curgenvens.

ALICE, 7 The young Justinian had a tolerably high opinion of his family, and was interested to hear about its past. But he became greatly confused in the history — he could not tell the order in which the English kings came, and was sensible of a little shame when Alice caught him out in an egregious chro nological blunder. 'The first portrait we have,' said she, ' is of a Ralph Cur genven in the reign of James I.' 'Yes,' said Justinian, 'I must read up that reign. Of course he did great things in it— fought in the Crusades, no doubt.' ' How can you say such things, Justin ? There had been no Crusades since 1270 — that under Saint Louis, in which he died at Carthage. James I. of England and VI. of Scotland came to the throne in 1603 and died in 1625.' ' To be sure,' said Justinian, abashed. ' But there were Curgenvens before that.' ' Oh, there were Curgenvens of Curgenven before the Conquest ! ' ' I must read up the Conquest.

No doubt they were most important people, and there is lots about them in history.' ' There were Curgenvens before the Heptarchy,' said Alice ; ' there must have been — the name is British.' ' I'll grind away at the Heptarchy,' said Justinian. ' I really don't know when there were not Curgenvens,' said Alice. ' I say, lend us your Universal History. I'll have a good sweat at it, and then I shall know exactly where all the Cur genvens come.' Thus, unconsciously, the two minds acted on each other, each opening the other to new interests. Alice exerted a softening and refining influence on Justinian, whose home was without a woman in it ; and to Alice association with her cousin saved her mind from the paralyzing effect of her mother's unremittent drill. Since his arrival along with his father at the Manor-House Justinian had seen little of his cousin.

He had been too much engaged in exploring the house and the stables and gardens to give her a thought. Mrs. Curgenven had not been to the house, and he had not been to the rectory. At last, believing he had run through the gamut of the novelties, and becoming weary of having nothing to do, with his hands in his pockets Justinian sauntered to the stables — that place to which every idle boy gravitates instinctively. His father was out — the coachman had driven him into Liskeard — so that he knew he would not find him there, but he expected to find the groom, with his coat off and braces relaxed and cast ALICE. 9 down, sleeves turned up, currycombing a horse or washing a carriage. No one, however, was in the stable-yard, and Justinian strolled into the stables, and there heard a gentle voice speaking in terms of endearment to a grey pony in the loose-box.

Justinian knew the voice at once, and his heart gave a leap. Alice was in the loose-box, coaxing her favourite riding cob, Whinny, and the young fellow went to her at once. If the truth must be told, his delight at hearing her sprang from selfishness. He desired to have some one to talk to, and some variety to the wearisome exploration of the contents of the house. He found Alice with her arms round the neck of the grey, caressing the beast, with her cheek laid against the head of Whinny, who was content to be fondled by her mistress. When Justinian entered the loose-box Alice looked up ; her eyes were moist. She coloured slightly, tossed back her hair from her face, and said apologetically, ' I ventured here to say good-bye to Whinny.' ' Why say good-bye ? ' 'Because Whinny is no longer mine.

She belongs to you now — so mamma says.' ' Oh, stuff ! She has always been yours, Alice. Of course she remains yours.' ' But you will want a cob.' ' Not such a cob as that,' said the boy disdainfully. ' I want a creature fourteen and a half hands high, and with more spirit than the old grey.' ' Thank you, Justin, but I don't fancy we can afford to keep her now.' ' Rubbish ! Of course you can. I will keep her here for you if your mother makes any demur. She is always at your service, she is yours, not mine ; and as for the bit of grass she eats, and the oats — who thinks any odds of that ? ' ' You are a good, kind cousin,' said Alice, putting out her hand to him over the back of the cob ; ' I shall always feel thankful to you. I didn't want my darling pet to get into bad hands. You will see to that.

As to my keeping Whinny, that must be as mamma and grandpapa think. You know grandpapa has a mission woman and a Scripture reader, and so can't also keep a pair. He says if he could do with one only then he might have a second horse, but people might object, and so he is obliged to do with one horse to hack at every thing. Perhaps,' considered Alice, ' if he could have a mission child, a ministering angel, that wouldn't cost more than half, then he might allow me to keep a pony. You see the Scripture reader has to deliver tracts, and the cost of the tracts adds to the expense.' ALICE, 11 ' Come along, Alice,' said Justinian, ' let us go for a ride on the moors. I'm so dull and stupid at the Manor, and papa is away, gone to see old Physic, so I have no one to talk to, and away from the Pill-box, nothing to do.' ' I shall be delighted.

Mamma is about collecting pennies from the old women for Anglo-Israel. She says that the sub scriptions have got behind since dear papa's death. She could not attend to them for a quarter. But what are you going to ride ? ' ' My horse has not come yet. Pike is going to get me a beauty, one that will turn over a stone wall without blinking. You ride and I will run by your side. I'll saddle Whinny for you. Never mind the groom.' All Justinian's good spirits had returned ; he laughed and chattered, as he walked beside Alice mounted on her cob. They went out through the gates that led from the grounds and the birch-woods upon the furzy moor. The land rose rapidly, con sequently there was no question of Alice putting her pony to the trot and of Justinian running. At her side he kept looking up into her bright face, and making her laugh with his odd sallies.

The fresh air blowing over the moors fluttered Alice's hair about her face, and made her cheeks glow and her eyes sparkle. ' ' I say, cousin,' said Justinian, ' this is jolly ; now I am at the Manor, we shall go about together and see all that is to be seen on the moors.' Then it flashed on him that he had spoken unfeelingly, not considering her loss in the thought of his gain. He became red and confused : ' You know what I mean, Alice, I'm not such a cad as to mean anything that may give you pain. All I want to say is, that I'm awfully glad we are near each other now instead of being as before, nine miles apart.' ' I am quite sure you never intended to say, never thought even, anything but what was kind and courteous.' ' I say, Alice, by George, who is that ? ' They had reached a broad sweep of fairly level down, and over this was galloping a girl on the back of a wild moorland pony, without saddle or bridle, astride, directing her horse by a halter, and with shouts.

Her hat had fallen between her shoulders and her red hair was flying about her head. She was directing her pony to leap the gorse bushes, and thread its way at a canter among masses of dispersed granite. ' That ? ' said Alice. ' Oh, Esther ! ' It could be none other. ' To be sure. I thought I had seen her before somewhere.'

Chapter II. Tolmenna

No sooner did Esther Morideg catch sight of Justinian and Alice Curgenven, than she turned the head of her horse, lashed it with a bunch of furze she held in her left hand, and came plunging toward them over all obstacles, at headlong speed, in a manner impossible with any steed not reared on the rugged granite moors. When she reached them she drew up. 'What are you doing here? Why are you come to the moor ? ' she asked. ' Esther,' answered Alice, ' may we not visit your kingdom without a passport ? ' ' I don't know what you mean.' ' I am coming on your own invitation,' said Justinian, ' to see your house and make the acquaintance of your grand father.' ' Our house you can see, as long as it is ours,' answered the girl, leaping from the back of the horse, withdrawing the halter, and with a cut of the furze bush dismissing the creature from bondage, as an ancient Roman manumitted a slave. ' But gran's er, he's in prison and don't come out till the end o' the week.' ' In prison ! ' repeated Justinian. ' Yes,' said the girl, striding along by the side of the boy. ' And I reckon he'll go there ag'in afore long for sum'at better nor last time.' ' What has he done ? ' ' Oh ! ' said Esther, putting her hands behind her head, twisting her red gold hair into a knot, then stooping and rending sprigs of heather, and pinning up her locks with them. ' Oh, it's all along o' Lawyer Physic.

Gran'fer he knocked 'n down, he did.' ' Why, what had Mr. Physic done ? ' ' Done — iverything what he oughtn't to ha' done, sure.' She turned and looked full in Justinian's face. ' I'd like to have thickey fuzz-bush i' my hand, and beat old Physic wi' it, I would, and for sure I wad'n spare him. I'd cut him over the back and right across the face.' ' But what is this all about ? ' ' It's all about Tolmenna. About what else shu'd it be ? ' ' Is that your house ? ' TOLMENNA. 15 ' Yes, it be — sartain sure, if us can keep it. But Lawyer Physic he sez, sez he, he's gone and bought the land, and is a-going to hev a mine there. I know th' ou'd volks were arter tin hereabout, ages agone. I know it — there be their works, and the pixies' hammers you can hear now i' the adits, and where you hear the pixies at work, there for sartain be a lode.' ' He has bought the land, do you say ? ' ' I believe the matter stands thus,' said Alice. ' Mr. Physic has purchased some of this moorland, and wants to get up a company to work the tin on it.

He has given Roger Morideg notice to quit his cottage.' ' And he's not going to quit,' said Esther, savagely stamp ing on the short turf. ' Gran'fer, his vayther, he built the house, and gran'fer were a little boy at the time and helped 'n to roll the stones and cut the faran ' (fern) ' for the thatch.' ' Then you think the house belongs to you ? ' ' For sure sartain. Gran'fer's vayther he built 'n. Don't that mak' it his ? ' ' Not unless the land were his on which he built it.' ' Oh, the land ! ' said Esther impatiently ; ' gran'fer's paid a shillin' every Lady ' (day) ' for that, an' he don't deny he'll go on paying — he's never got hinder-most i' his paying.' ' Then, Esther,' said Justinian, ' I am sorry for you, but as far as I can see you have no redress. However, I will speak to my father about it — he has, of course, great influence with Mr. Physic — and he will see whether he can prevail on him not to press you to quit.' ' Us won't quit.

Us'll stick there like moss to the stoans.' ' But what has that to do with your grandfather's being in prison ? ' asked the boy. ' Why, gran'fer knocked Lawyer Physic down, when he came to say he'd turn 'n out, and hav' th' ou'd house down.' ' He had no right to lay his hands on him.' ' He didn't, he knocked 'n down wi' a stone ; a stone I reckon bean't so soft as is a hand.' ' I am afraid this will create a prejudice against him.' ' He'll knock 'n down wi' sum'at harder nor a stone if he comes here again ; and if gran'fer don't, I will.' ' I'll tell you what I will do,' said Alice, ' I'll get my grand father, the rector, to interfere.' ' I don't want he,' retorted Esther somewhat contemptu ously. ' I know very well what he'll do. He'll go and give six very good reasons for Roger be in his right, and then he'll turn about and give half-a-dozen why Lawyer Physic be all i' his right ; and then he'll go away thinking he's a peacemaker and the blessing on peacemakers be his — and he's left the muddle jist where he found it, not a bit and crumb better.

TOLMENNA. 17 But, there, I niver meant to say nothing to cross you, Miss Alice, us be too good friends for that. Gran'mother sez as some volks be good granite and some volks be elvan, and some be tin.' ' What is elvan ? ' asked Justinian. ' Elvan ! I thought every fool knowed that. Elvan be a sort o' stone as is no good at all, goes to powder, but where elvan be there be tin, for sure sartain. You can't do nothing wi' elvan ; 'tain't builder's stone, 'tain't metal, but it be be tween the two, and no good for naught but to say that where it be, there be tin. I reckon Pass'n Pamphlet be elvan. If you want to find this or that, you mun look o' one side o' him or t'other.' 'Well, never mind about my grandfather,' said Alice, some what annoyed, but also not a little amused, for children and the ignorant take the measure of a man and discover his weaknesses with marvellous acuteness ; ' what is to be done with regard to Tolmenna ? ' ' Knock Lawyer Physic on the head,' said Esther with con fidence, 'and do't better next time than did gran'fer wi' a stone.

I reckon,' she added with a laugh, ' he knocked 'n wi' a bit o' elvan by mistake.' ' You should not harbour such thoughts, Esther,' said Alice gravely. i VOL. II. C ' Why not? He'd turn us out o' our house as gran'fer and his ou'd vayther builded, and where I've a lived a' my life, and I love every stone o' it — every stone as he'd tear down.' Then defiantly, ' I don't care if I do it. Nobody never would catch me and put me i' prison. I could run and hide. I know these moors, and there's scores and scores o' places for hiding. Why, looky' here.' She pointed. They had reached a depression in the surface of the moor between two eminences, there were heaps and hollows in a line from the highest point to the bottom of the valley. ' See ! all this the ou'd volks ha' streamed for tin, and they've made their adits and their levels, and it's a reg'lar rabbit-burrow to them as knows it.' The moor was furrowed as though it had at one time been subject to the rush of furious torrents at the melting of masses of snow.

This was now all, or nearly all, clothed with scanty turf and dense grey moss, and the stones were so belichened as to assimilate with the moss in one tone of silvery grey. ' Look here,' said Esther. ' I know well what the old men did. First they grubbed the elvan after tin as far as they could down wi'out going underground. Do'y see now where their works be ? Well, then they got a bit boulder, and they sunk prospectin' pits. Thickey there be one.' She pointed to a hollow like a pock-mark in the face of the moor, but TOLMENNA. 19 with a grass-covered heap thrown up on the lower side of it. 'They dug down there, till they hit a lode, and then they went bouldly on after it for a way, and then they got feared, they was too long i' the dark, and up they worked to the light again. Look ! There's one of the places they came up at.

There's most o' these here prospectin' holes be choked up wi' rummage. But there be some as I knows as bean't. I can go down 'n and run along underground — like a rabbit or a rat, and nobody could niver find me — and come up just when I'd a mind to.' In another moment the house was reached. It was a low one-storey erection of the rudest description ; great granite un shaped blocks piled one on another, bedded in clay and moss ; no mortar had been used. The walls were thick — six feet, rudely faced outward and inward, and filled in with rubble in the middle. A brush of whitewash had been given to the door-jambs, and to the window-frames. The roof was thatched with ferns only, or ferns and turf together, and was nearly as thick as the walls ; it was supported on massive oak rafters. A high wall or hedge of stones enclosed a space before the cottage, cutting off all prospect and excluding much sun ; but such walls were erected to screen the fronts of houses from wind and rain, as well as to protect them from invasion by the half-wild horses and cattle that roamed the moors, and which, in stormy weather, or out of wanton curiosity, unless kept at a distance, would drive their heads through windows, and thrust themselves wholly in at doors.

The cottage interior was gloomy ; the entrance was not immediately into the sitting-room, but into a sort of stable occupied by poultry, a cow, a rude cart, and a number of old barrels and more or less fragmentary articles of husbandry. A side door by a granite step admitted to the kitchen-chamber. In this room there was a ceiling of boards, and below the boards the entire surface was ribbed with rods, extending the width of the apartment, fastened to the rafters, and this rack that occupied the superficies constituted the wardrobe, store closet, and treasury of the household. Guns, tools, garments, boots, shoes, groceries, were immediately overhead, reached readily by the hand, as the room was but six feet high. No drier or more accessible spot could have been desired, and such contrivances were general on the moors till of late years.

In the moist atmosphere goods thus held aloft overhead were kept from moth and mildew, and became impregnated with peat smoke, that gave them a peculiar colour and savour. On entering the room, which was unoccupied, Justinian and Alice could at first discern little after having been out in the full glare of day. But by degrees their eyes became accus tomed to the dusk, and then Justinian exclaimed, as he TOLMENNA. 21 pointed to a line hanging by the great fire-place, into which feathers were knotted, ' Why, what in the name of wonder is this ? ' Esther went up to the line. It was composed of black wool, white and brown thread entwined, and at every two or three inches was looped about a bunch of cock's or pheasant's or moorhen's feathers, set alternately. The line had been fast ened to the rail overhead, and a low stool was at the hearth stone below it ; the plaiter of the chain was away, and the web was incomplete.

Esther laughed. ' This be a witch-ladder,' she said. ' Gran'mother be a making on't. Her don't hold wi' gran'fer's ways, knocking Volk about the head wi' a stone. Her say, " Leave it to me, and I'll finish 'em my way." I reckon thickey witch-ladder be a-made for Lawyer Physic' ' And what will Lawyer Physic do with it when he gets it ? ' asked the boy. ' He'll never get it, but it'll get him,' answered Esther. ' Do'y mean to tell me you don't know what a witch-ladder be ? Lor'-a-mussy — what be the good o' schules when it leaves scholards so tottle ignorant ? I'll tell'y what it be. Her hev' wove and knotted into thickey ladder every ill her can men tion. There be every kind o' pains and aches in they knots and they feathers ; and when gran'mother hev' done the ladder her'll tie a stone to the end and sink it i' Dosmare Pool, and ivery ill wish ull find a way, one after the other, to the j'ints and bones, and head and limbs, o' Lawyer Physic.