Concealed for Thirty Years, being the narrative of one E. Grey

Front matter

CONCEALED FOE THIRTY YEARS CONCEALED FOR THIRTY YEARS BEING THE NARRATIVE OF ONE EDWARD GREY "goabavi REMINGTON & CO PUBLISHERS HENRIETTA STREET COVENT GARDEN [ 80,0 [All Rights Reserved] CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. New Scenes ... ... ... ... i II. A Strange People ... ... ... 12 III. A Comfortably-housed Prisoner ... 25 IV. The Interrupted Council ... ... 37 V. Initiated... ... ... ... ... 50 VI. Hugh, tbe Giant 61 VII. The Five Fair Ones 72 VIII. Kate's Warning 85 IX. The Counsellor... ... ... ... 96 X. An Afternoon's Sport ... ... ... 108 XI. Mistress Clemency ... ... ... 119 XII. The Brothers Carthwrite 130 XIII. The Third Law of the Land 140 XIV. Hugh Bomont's Trial of Skill 150 XV. The Fete 159 XVI. The Night-Revel 169 XVII. Clouds Overhead i8i XVIII. The Wail of Agony 191 XIX. The Decree Issued 201 XX.

Tbe Eve of the Council ... ... 21° XXI. Treachery 220 XXII. The Plot Unfolds 230 XXIII. Flight to the City 240 XXIV. We Plead in Vain 248 XXV. The Vow Wrung from Us 258 XXVI. The Hour before the Council 269 XXVII. Duped 279 XXVIII. A Foul Tragedy 289 XXIX. Adrift 29S XXX. Desolation 3°9 Conclusion ... ...

Preface

OF SOME IMPORTANCE TO THE FOLLOWING NARRATIVE. The period of thirty years is past, and the vow that has sealed my lips no longer binds me. No word, no hint has dropped from me during these many years, though I have burned to tell abroad the strange and marvellous experiences of those few long past months of my life. But solemnly have I kept the vow which I swore to keep sacred, as I knelt by the side of my dying friend, Joseph Carthwrite. I am growing an old man now, but I remember in the time far back that once I bent my head and prayed bitterly, " Let me die, for surely there is nothing but sorrow and separation in living ; " but now I am asking earnestly, " Let not the span of my life be shortened ; spare me, oh ! spare me a little longer." And why ? Because now I am unfettered and unshackled, and freely may I tell forth of that sunny, unknown Island, on which I spent some of the happiest days of my life, and in leaving which I bowed low under the storms of desolation and regret that passed over my soul ; because now I would tell you of the fair, gentle women, and of the fine, noble men who lived there.

I would tell you of their ways and customs, and aye — of the change in the old faith, in the universal love that brought about that terrible . . . But the shadows of evening are closing around, and I must not delay ; maybe there will be time enough to muse when my tale is told, and you have ceased to listen. EDWARD GREY.

Chapter I. New Scenes

How long I lay on that shore in a drowsy, half conscious state, knowing that I was a living being, and not, as in the last moments of con sciousness I had pictured myself, a dead man with hueless face floating helplessly upon a dreary waste of heaving waters — I know not. It may have been hours, it may only have been minutes, and what at length induced me to rouse myself from this stupor I cannot tell, for it all lies in the wide land of mystery. Certain it is that when I did make this stupendous effort, the first thing that surprised me was — not that I was on land, not that a brilliant sun was shining down on a glistening beach, and that some idle, glancing waves were steadily making their way towards me; not that at a little distance off the surf broke lazily over a reef of coral ; none of these, at first, made the least impres sion upon me ; but I was surprised to find I was minus coat and waistcoat, that my shirt was in rags, and that my feet possessed no covering at all.

I had always been rather a particular man, not B liking any article of my clothing to be out of place. Therefore this discovery would, in all probability, have elicited the mild exclamation of, " Hang it ! What on earth has become of my socks ! and what, in the name of all that is linen, has possessed my shirt ! " But I did not remark this, simply because my mind was gradually expanding itself ; the sea water was oozing slowly, yet beneficially, out of my ears, nostrils, eyes and mouth ; therefore (carrying on the assumption) the channels and interstices connecting these valuable organs with the brain were being lightened of their superfluous load, and were thus enabled to emit some more useful cargo in the way of elucidation. Thus it w-as I suddenly sprang to my feet, for it dawned upon me that I was in a most singular position, and surrounded by objects quite different to what I had been, some hours — or it might be days — ago.

I jumped up. Oh! that I had not! The pain that violent effort cost me, the contortions I went through, and the sublime endeavours I made not to subside again with many a deep-toned groan ! I came out of the trial successfully, but, in doing so, I carefully felt myself all over, for I did not only expect to find one bone broken, but several. How ever, happily it was not so ; I surveyed my arms — true, their colour was changed from that of flesh to black and green ; but they did not hang helplessly at my sides. I felt my legs ; their hue, also, was changed, but they did not give way. I carefully applied my hand to my ribs ; with great relief I found none were bent, or out of place. And now (yes, and high time ! you will say, but remember a man's first idea after passing through peril, and feeling the effects of it, is for himself, providing there is no other human being on whom he can exercise his valour or charity) the marvel lousness, the peculiarity, and the isolation of my position bore down upon me in all its awfulness.

I stepped to the very water's edge and noted, as I did so, how smooth the wide sea was, how gentle and low the sound of the approaching little waves. Then, shading my eyes with my hand, I looked far out along that broad expanse, scanning eagerly the glistening, brilliant blue waters, for some token to tell me where it was that only the night before I had been, with some fourteen or fifteen companions, in instant expectation of death. Solemn thought ! Fifteen men passed away into the unknown future ; I only, out of the crew, saved ! No sign of any dark object in that boundless blue, and my eyes ached as I looked again and again over the same parts. Could it be possible that not a beam or timber, not a remnant of any sort, of the stout little Ire should remain ? I looked closer down on the pebbles near by, in the interstices of rock lying a tew feet off, by the edge of that reef of coral, then, closer still, on the soft sandy mud at my feet, and there I saw what I had failed to note when looking further off — some broken planks and chips of wood, small and few, but surely some minute tokens of what had been.

I then paced the stony shore eagerly ; if these pieces were here, and if I myself had been washed ashore safely, was it not possible that some of my late companions might be here too ? I walked steadily on for, I suppose, about a quarter of a mile, then the beach suddenly ended, and right down to the water's edge grew a thick maze of bushes, growing luxuriantly about the height of four or five feet. No sign here ; no more broken, battered planks ; so I retraced my steps back to my starting-place, and looked again close around. Yes, it was as I thought — a few pieces of timber and myself dashed straight into this inlet, and nothing else. That dark, stormy night a great command must have passed forth, " All must die, save one," and / was that man. I turned away from the lapping, rippling waves; they appeared to me cruel and mocking ; they seemed to be singing the death-knell of my companions ; their music was full of sadness, and, though deeply thankful for my own deliverance, I could not as yet forget the untimely end of those with whom I had been living for so many weeks, Overhead a smiling blue canopy, with a globe of brilliancy lighting up the beach whereon I stood with dazzling reflections, and inland a scene of rich beauty — thick brushwood, indeed, close by, but bevond, large well-grown trees, clothed with the brightest verdure, and behind them again long, low ascending hills, interspersed here and there by sharp, rocky peaks.

Yes, there could be no doubt the scene was very beautiful, but, unfortunately, human beings are always obliged to pass from the æsthetic and contemplative to the material and realistic. True, some people talk in their supreme moments of unfettered genius of " living upon Beauty," and even thev launch forth into plainer and more practical terms still, and add with emphasis, " Friends, what should prevent us from feeding on Art and Beauty ? " Ah ! a fair statement, an undeniably noble idea, //"said at a time when one has eaten one's full, and feels at ease, and in good humour with all ; but imagine the incongruity and insensibility of the plan when you are hungry. And not common hunger, either, not only when you have waited perhaps an hour for your dinner, but when a matter of twenty-four or thirty hours have passed by, and you have had nothing to replenish that warrantable and unmistakable void.

Such was my case ; rare loveliness all around, but a cruel, gnaw ing pain close by, and nothing to stav it, nothing to do but to continue marching wearily forward in hope. Hope ! not much of that clung to me then, for there is nothing like hunger for promoting lowness of spirits, and as I trudged on through a track of short, coarse grass, it seemed to me that I was in a far more miserable state now than I had been even the night before. Then, there was a death by drowning facing me ; now, there seemed nothing but the slowest and most dismal idea of all — death by starvation. Wearily I plodded on, following my winding, ascending path, and caring neither to look to the right hand nor to the left. At length my track grew suddenly much wider and steeper, consequently I moved slower and slower, murmuring inwardly, " If this continues for long there is no hope for me.

I shall simply lie down and wait for the inevitable." Fortunately, however, I was not obliged to carry out this gloomy determination, for the path had led me to the summit of a hill, and there what lay within a few furlongs off, so startled and bewildered me, that I believe I stood with one leg half lifted from the ground, my right hand midway between my chest and my chin, stopped short in its passage to remove the damp hair from my forehead, and my mouth in the act of closing after a prolonged empty yawn. Conceive that which is least possible ; shut your eyes, open them again, and find yourself in the last place at which you would think of being ; calculate carefully, and arrive at that which, humanly speaking, is not ; run a mile, look back, and find you have stirred an inch ; look at yourself and find yourself someone else — in fact, to sum up, think of that which cannot be, and find it — pictured in living characters.

Such was my position when I suddenly saw before me a small English town. An English town found on an unknown island in the vast Pacific ? " Impossible ! " I exclaimed, but it was of no use my exclaiming that, for the impossibility still remained. For there, before me, were English houses ; not gleaming red-brick rows of houses, truly, but some buildings of a greyish hue ; not built in exactly the same style and architecture that England now boasts, but still certainly not the work of Aborigines, or even semi-civilized Indians. I stared open-mouthed ; I blinked, lest perhaps a slight obstruction to the sight had caused _ this mysterious appearance; I ransacked my brain to prove to myself that I was not myself, but some one at home in old England. Useless — for there beside me were my bruised, blackened arms ; below two sockless feet, and, perhaps more certain still, inside the gnawing hunger.

Then, brilliant idea ! It was a mirage, " a tantalizing phenomenon fre quently seen in the desert regions of warm countries," remarked I aloud, this being a definition learnt as a boy, and which, strange to say, I had retained. But where was the desert? Where, again, the parching heat which generally betokens the possibility of this most eccentric of phenomena ? But it must be proved, so, almost shaking with suspense and excitement, my right leg dropped into a more natural position on the ground, my raised hand fell to my side ; I closed my eyes firmly, and proceeded slowly, warily, and very seriously to turn round and round in the same way, I suppose, as a dog does when he has made up his mind to make himself perfectly comfortable, and yet can not fix upon which particular spot he shall lay his head or tail.

For how long I pursued this mysterious circular course, this minute perambulation round a central mythical pole, which was calculated to produce the complete alteration of a series of unalterable visions and facts, is doubtful, but my course was abruptly terminated, my wandering, disconnected, failing ideas were suddenly and pro pitiously corded within the limited arena of sense by the occurrence of an event. A loud hearty laugh greeted my ears, loud and long and full, and redundant with merriment, and then it ceased, and a broad, strong voice broke out with — " Even as the sun shineth above in the heavens, so true must it be that either this sockless, vivid coloured man be bereaved of his powers, or other wise must he be under some hidden charm caused by the Evil One. Man ! awake, I say ; thou shalt not continue thine unwarrantable course, but thou shalt speak, if tongue thou hast, and say from whence thou art sprung, and wherefore this strangeness of mien and untowardness of action ?"

Ere this speech with its conclusive command was half-finished, I had ceased my attempt to prove what was, was not ; if one miracle had taken place, and had caused me surprise and partial unbelief, here was another which quite dispersed the wonder of the former. I opened my tightly-closed eyes, I raised my bent head, and looked before me. I should not have been now surprised if I had seen St. Paul's or the Tower of London, I should even have thought it commonplace if my greatest friend was standing near, trying to lead me back from the mysterious and unfathomable to the logical and reasonable. Hardly, however, need I say that I saw none of these, but what I did see were two men with fair English countenances; the one, young and broad, with astonishment depicted in every line of his face, and the other, middle-aged and keen-looking, who maintained a half-suspicious and fearful silence.

I did not speak ; I was getting more and more faint for want of food, the ground around me seemed to swim in swelling, upward movements, the men to assume hideous, distorted shapes, and, with a groan, I sank into the blank of unconscious ness. When I awoke from the fainting attack, under which in my weakness I had yielded, the brilliant sun was still shining all around, lighting up the herbage and luxuriant foliage with dazzling colours, and beside me were the two men, to whose benevo lent efforts I owed the comparatively speedy restora tion of my senses. The younger one was kneeling beside me, administering something that was warm and strengthening to my over-taxed powers and system ; the elder one was standing a few paces off, surveying me critically, with occasionally a few rambling words of counsel or warning.

" Thou art, as ever, being somewhat over-hasty, Charles," he was saying, " and I trow it would be more truly philosophic, and calculate to show thy desire for that poor bruised one's welfare, if thou didst warily administer thy draught, and recall to thy mind the ancient and ever wise saying that ' Kindness without discretionment be as wisdom in fool's mouth,' for thou shouldst- — -" " If thou didst not boast thee of thy years and knowledgment," interrupted the younger man, kneeling near to me, "then I would say to thee that thy tongue has grown over long of late, and ' long tongue meaneth short cunning,' were ever a truth which none could countersay. See what thou in thy unwisdom hath done; the sonorous ring of thy voice hath raised this needy friend from his — " I had risen from the ground ; a multitude of un defined ideas had rushed into my brain, and rapidly as a glare of lightning flashed across me my peculiar situation, my extraordinary discoveries, and the incomprehensible, yet now no longer delusive facts.

I interrupted my kindly helper eagerly, in coherently, almost breathlessly — " Is it possible that you can be my countrymen ? You come from England, the mother-country ? Have you, also, been cast upon this island ? And are you, like me, in hapless — " I stopped suddenly. What was I saying ? Be fore me stood two men, gracefully and well-clad with doublet and hose of bright and rich material, and with light cloaks thrown aslant the shoulders ; boots high and tight-fitting, and upon their heads broad-brimmed hats, from underneath appearing well-trained curling hair. No wonder the muscles in their faces tightened with a look of wonder at my words ; no wonder that I stopped short in my mad conjecture, and gave vent to a short hoarse burst of laughter. " Pardon me," I said, on recovering myself, and stepping forward a few paces, " the ideas of a hungry man are often wanting in reason, his words ill-chosen, and his conclusions rash and hasty.

Thank you for your speedy kindness and help, and I can only add to this, that if you would wish to complete in full your act of charity, would it not be as well to conduct me to — " "Thou lackest not boldness, in good truth, though thou sayest the vacancy within thee be great," broke in the younger man, laughing, and standing before me, he surveyed me from head to foot. At the time, I know, I thought it scarcely kind of him to do this ; my sorry appearance was grievous to me, my sockless feet seemed doubly bruised and cut, my tattered shirt and torn trousers more and more disreputable. But my ordeal only lasted a few moments, and then he changed his tone, and said almost gravely, with a mixture of reticence and curiosity — " But whence thou comest, and how, when, and for what, is to me as complete with mysteriment as the whitherabouts of the sudden gust of stormy wind, or the quick uprising of the fungus.

But surely thou shalt be led in all haste to the city, and there being replenished with food and clothing, whereof thou needest sorely, thou shalt tell us in good truth and faith how thou soundest thyself in this sorry plight, and much more how it be that thou art here upon this Isle of Solterra, on the which no stranger's foot has crossed for many several long years." I stared blankly at my companion; his speech seemed to me peculiar and roundabout in its word ing and meaning. Yet, as we walked on a few paces in silence, and I had time for a moment's thought, these men's language, though not the English of the present day, appeared to have the same foundation, only the phraseology differed slightly. There was a singular use of similes and references even at these moments of most extraordinary contretemps, which seemed very strange, and made me think that, though I must have dropped upon Englishmen, they were certainly not my countrymen of the present century ; they be longed, perhaps, to the old trunk, but they were part of a branch which, long before this, must have been sharply severed from the whole, and had then taken root, unbeknown and unrecognized, elsewhere.

We had not walked much over a quarter of a mile, I suppose, when, on raising my eyes, I saw, close at hand, the irregular outlines of a wide spreading, grey-built — what looked to me — fair sized country town. There were gates to the " city," as my companions had termed it, and, as we were approaching them, the elder of the two men, who had rather hung back, and until now had not addressed a single word to me, came quite close, and whilst unfastening his cloak, said in a hoarse, hard whisper — " Place this on thy shoulders ; the brothers and friends be scarce, I trow, prepared to view such as thee, and it were alway said that ' Caution should be twined with valour,' and mind thou if any speak unto thee, answer him in brief, and mark thy words that they be not over keen ; so shall it be best with thee."

We entered the city as he finished speaking. I glanced one moment at my friendly warner, and thought I read on his lowered brows and in the gloomy lines on his forehead that all was not right in the haven to which I was speeding. So, taking his caution to heart, I stepped on, wondering if my miraculous deliverance might not, after all, prove no deliverance at all, but only a passing into some dark mystery, a being enveloped in some sombre shroud, more terrible and more protracted than what had before threatened me.

Chapter II

A STRANGE PEOPLE. Men and women were passing in and out of the large massive gates of the city as my two com panions and I stepped hastily on. I was surprised that my peculiar appearance had not been espied further off, but I noticed that the few people who wrere walking about had their heads rather lowered, and their eyes bent on the ground. Thus it was not until we were silently passing in through the city that exclamations of surprise and wonder arose from all around. " What in the name of all that hath power to be and to live hast thou brought ? " called out several, as they hurried towards us ; "a stranger dropped from the wide heavens into our community ? Is this decreed possible ?" " Even as a drop of rain falls to the earth," quickly answered the elder of my two companions, standing well in front of me as he spoke, " and as a loosed leaf lights on the ground, even so it be that we have found this stranger, come from virtue scarce knows where, but truthly he be in so sorry plight that we must needs withouten say of any sort hasten — " " If it injure thee not to be interrupt, friend Colett, I'll just place thee a pace or two off from the fore-front," called out a tall, broad man, who stood fully a head and shoulders above all the rest around ; and, as he spoke, he pushed his way up to Colett, and, with a quick, deft movement, removed him several feet off as easily as if he had been a child, and himself returned, and surveying me with great curiosity, resumed — "Thou lookest as if in thy flight hitherward thou hast grappled with somewhat not over soft.

Nathless, thou shalt in no wise be hastened onward in so brief fashion as George Colett would have ; but tell us in all verity how thou earnest here, and for what, for we have no great liking to see strangers lighten down in our free land." " Yea, yea ! tell us with all speed ; tell us ! " called out the other men, closing in nearer around us, and marks of distrust mingling with the surprise on their faces. " It is with — •" I began boldly, but Charles, the younger of my two companions, interrupted me with a quick laugh, and said, facing the giant — " How now, Hugh, thee thinks, indeed, that by thy long inches thou canst do all thy will, and forgettest that long inches show short wisdom, and brute force but low mind. If thou wouldst spare three of thy inches for three good manners, and not so easily forgetten that ' Whoso findeth even a stranger, he takes him for guest,' and reminden thee that Colett's years be twice thine own, and that strangers care not to be goggled on by thy great eyes, thee'd have a chance of being as fine as thou lookest."

" In good sooth, Charles, thou art even with me now, for thou hast had thy entire say, as I had mine not many days agone," laughed Hugh the giant, good-naturedly, for he was but a young chap, who, I suppose, liked to make as much of his great height as possible. " But our minds be not quite so easy assuaged," grumbled two or three men from the back of the semi-circle that was arranged around us ; " if Hugh Bomont's prowess lies only with his inches, then we will just pluck him adown, and demanden now — " " It behoveth ye to give ear unto me some moments, friends," interrupted Colett, who had edged himself into his former position, and with a dark frown on his brow again stood in front of me, " as it hath been undoubtedly willed, or, as some of ye might sayen, as the great fates have decreed, so it came to pass that Charles Randen and I, who now speak, have founden in all unknoweness and great wonder this same stranger.

Whither he has come, or how, we know no more than ye, no more I rightly think, than those walls that lie yonder, or these gates close by ; but of this we do know, that the sun will be descending low in slumber long ere ye will end your queries, or we the answers, other whyles we might seek wisdom in pausing." " The stranger be my guest," quickly went on Charles Randen, as there was no move made, " and it be my righten duty to house and hospital him, and then straightway I go to our Law and give him due cognizance of that which has come to pass. So, in all good part, I say let there be no more dallying, for he that dallies for nought will never gain ; and, former times, we did hold ourselves not lightly great in courtesy, though this stranger would scarce vouch for it now, I fear me." The last appeal gained the day, and with only a few more questions and exclamations, a move was made, and we were able to pass on.

I had listened to the conversation more as heard in a dream than if it was real, for I was faint and weak from fasting, and my mind was much unhinged and dis traught by the strange situation in which I found myself, and the new scenes and faces by which I was surrounded. I suppose both my supporters saw how unfit I was to talk, and so they, for the rest of the walk, conversed in low tones to each other, and left me alone. Thus it was I had some short time and opportunity to look around me, and note what I saw. The city, into which I had entered, was something like one of our large well-built villages, for it had none of the marked regular architecture of a town. Yet, the houses, built for the most part of a large, grey-toned brick, wrere fair-sized and convenient looking, only having that awkward appearance which buildings always have when the second and third storeys protrude outward, and one imagines that the builder began building at the top instead of at the bottom.

We passed by shops or stalls, but there seemed a dearth of shop-keepers to watch the wares or offer them for sale. Above the stalls were boards, upon which, with various painted signs and brilliant adornments, were inscribed in large and clear tracing what I thought to be the names of the possessor of the house, or the wares, or both. The men, who had gathered round me at the city gates, I had noticed, were dressed not only well and gaily, but richly and handsomely, all very much in the same fashion and cut as Colett and Charles Randen's costumes ; some of them seemed to have dispensed with the light cloak, but all wore the same kind of broad-brimmed hat. I had scarcely noticed the women, for when my quiet passing through the gate had been remarked on and disputed, the few whom I for a moment had just caught sight of, had all disappeared before we resumed our onward course.