Joshua Haggard's Daughter. A novel. By the author of 'Lady Audley's Secret,' etc, etc

Front matter

LONDON ROBSON AND SONS, PRINTERS, IANCRAS ROAD, N.W. % \\m\ BY THE AUTHOR OF 'LADY AUDLBY'S SECRET' etc. etc. etc. IN THBEE VOLUMES VOL. I. LONDON JOHN MAXWELL AND CO. i SHOE LANE, FLEET STREET 1876 [All rights reserved] THIS STORY IS DEDICATED TO CAPTAIN THE HON. JOHN CAHNEGIE, R.N. IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS KINDLY INTEREST IN THE AUTHOR'S WORK AND OF HIS HEARTY COOPERATION IN THE OPENING SCENE. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. CHAP. PAGE i. The cruel crawling Foam . . . . i ii. The Family Circle . . . . . 52 in. Father and Son . . . . . .72 iv. Wood and Wilderness 90 v. The Minister goes on a Journey . . -131 ai. Cynthia goes into Service . . . .169 vn. Naomi's Holiday 205 viii. The Squire makes a Bargain . . .253 ix. ' Loa-e in one Hand his Bow did take' . .283 JOSHUA HAGGABD'S DAUGHTER

Chapter I. The Cruel Crawling Foam

There was darkness over the land — darkness that might he felt. In the midst of the ripe warm harvest-time, when all things were at their fairest, and the farmers about Combhaven were congratu lating each other on the glorious weather, the storm came : a strange bluish blackness overspread the sky — metallic, tempest-charged, not one cloud or many clouds, but a darkening of the face of heaven. It was hke a sudden twilight at noon. 'It mun he a 'clipse, I think,' said old Jabez Long, the fisherman, contemplative of that awful horizon yonder, where one streak of copper-coloured light made a narrow rent between sea and sky. B VOL. I. ' 'Clipse, man!' cried his neighbour; 'how can it be a 'clipse, when there ain't none in the alma nick? It's more like a judgment than a 'clipse, to my mind — a judgment agen the farmers for making bread so dear last Chrisselmas.

Sarve 'em right if their corn's drownded afore they can get it under cover.' There was no rain yet, but when the rain came by and by, it would be a flood, thought that httle group of awe-stricken fishermen gathered in front of the Ring of Bells public-house, at the fishermen's end of Combhaven. ' Look at the sea,' exclaimed Jabez, pointing seaward. It had a curious look, the ocean — that sea which in summer-time was wont to seem an emerald lake dappled with purple shadows. To-day the water was a dull red, darkened to indigo here and there. There was a strong ground-swell, and the sea heaved hke a passionate bosom stirred with deepest an^er. White surf came creeping up the sand, and with every receding wave there rose a roar like distant thunder. ' An angry sea,' cried Jabez. ' I hope the young Squire won't try to come in from Clovelly upon such a tide as this.' ' Has he gone to Clovelly ?' asked Mike Durran, the younger of the two men.

Both were old and gray and rugged, and had a look of having aged rather from hard weather than from the flight of years. Time had crawled for these villagers, winters and summers creeping slowly on their sluggish course ; much labour, little pleasure. They must have felt a century old at least. ' Yes, he sailed yesterday morning, and was to be back to-day. Him and Jack and the lad Peter; not enough of 'em to manage that clumsy old tub of his, to my mind. He'll get into trouble some day, I'm afeard.' ' Money's scace with him, I'm thinking,' said Mike. ' Money'll never be anything but scace while the old Squire's alive,' answered Jabez. ' There's money enough and to spare hid away somewheres; but nobody'll ever see the colour of it while he's alive.' ' Not they,' groaned Mike Durran ; and there was a general groan from the little group of idlers, by way of tribute to the Squire. ' Hard upon everybody,' said Jabez. ' Hardest of all upon his own flesh and blood,' said another man. ' His cruelty drove his second son to sea.' 'Arnold,' said Jabez. 'Ah, a fine lad that!

I remember 'im ; a fine out-spoken lad, with a kind word for every one.' 'Ah, he were the right sort, he were,' said Mike ; ' not like Mr. Oswald'. He haven't a word to throw at a dpg, wrapped up in his-self, and proud as Luci fus; and as for the colour of his money — well, I never see it.' This implies the deepest depth of unpopularity — a man unable or unwilling to give. At this juncture there came a silence in the little assembly, and all eyes were turned in the same direction to look at a man who came round the sharply-jutting cliff which ran out seaward into a dangerous reef, and cut off this straggling bit of sea shore from the tidy little town that nestled in a cleft of the fertile Devonian hills. On this side of the promontory there was the original fishing village, a row of ancient thatched cabins built against the cliff, and that popular house of entertainment, the Eing of Bells, a low-roofed, old-fashioned dwelling, with steep gables and curious abutments and ceil ings whose rough-hewn beams scarcely cleared the heads of its tallest customers.

The person whose approach commanded the geueral attention was a man of somewhat striking appearance. Tall, broad-shouldered, Avith a head nobly mounted on the throat of a gladiator, pene trating black eyes, boldly-cut features, a swarthy complexion, a square lower jaw, and a capacious strongly-marked brow — he was a man to attract attention anywhere. Intellect and power had set their seal upon his face, and his bearing was that of one accustomed to command. A man of superior mind, stranded for life in such a place as Comb haven, might naturally think himself a king. The new-comer's costume was that of the yeoman class. He wore knee-breeches, coarse gray knitted stockings, and stout buckled shoes. His only distinguishing characteristic was a white cravat, but this was a symbol which marked his power and authority over that little group of rough fishermen ; and Mrs. Jakes, the landlady, who stood at her door listening to the discourse of her customers, dropped a low curtsy at sight of the man in the white neckcloth.

Joshua Haggard was a strong influence in the little town of Combhaven, being chief custodian of the souls of its inhabitants, from Miss Tremaine, the rich maiden lady at Tremaine Place, to the grubby kitchen - wench at the Ring of Bells, who cleaned herself once a week, and, with face smarting from the vigorous application of mottled soap and coarsest huckaback, went to Little Bethel to hear Mr. Haggard preach. It was over the womankind of Combhaven, doubtless, that Joshua was most potent ; but the men, if they went to any place of worship, did it for the most part to please their womankind ; and thus was Little Bethel crowded to overflowing on warm summer evenings ; while the white - haired vicar of Combhaven preached his drowsy orthodox sermon to the school-children, the pew-opener and beadle, and the half-dozen stanch followers of the Established Church who had not overeaten themselves at dinner, or drunk too much after that ponderous and hearty meal.

Fifty years ago the Established Church was nowhere in Combhaven, as compared with Joshua Haggard and Little Bethel. The great Anglican revival has doubtless awakened that slumberous old parish-church into new life and vigour, and left Little Bethel in the rear ; but in those days Bethel was dominant, and to sit under Joshua was to be in the right away to salvation, in the opinion of Comb haven ; always excepting certain old families of landed estate, and the more substantial of the tenant-farmers, who clung to the Established Church like barnacles to a ship's bottom, and with little more ability to reason upon their faith than the barnacles. They stuck to the Church of England chiefly because their fathers had done so, and they looked down upon Joshua as a ranter, and follower of that low person, John Wesley.

Mr. Haggard had his temporal avocation and business in life as well as his spiritual profession, and a man of less energy and intellect would have hardly fared so well as he did with both. The business he had inherited from his father. His clerical position he had made for himself. He had received no collegiate education ; he was a member of no con vocation. If he followed any other light than his own it was assuredly that lamp which John Wesley lighted nearly a century earlier ; yet the Wesleyans would haA-e disowned Joshua Haggard. Early in life he had taken to field-preaching, and had made as great an impression upon his benighted hearers as Whitfield made in the woods near Bristol. When his father died, reconciled to his only son at the last, and leaving Joshua his business and a nice little lump of money in the bargain, Joshua built him self a chapel, and settled down after his wanderings in his native town.

He belonged rather to the order of Primitive Methodists, founded by Vincent Bourne, than to am" other denomination ; but he was a man of more original mind and broader views than are common to Methodist preachers, and a loving student of the old Puritan Divines. Haggard's was one of the best shops in Comb- CRAAVLING FOAM. haven. Ostensibly devoted to groceries, it gave a counter to linen-drapery, supplied its customers with stationery, and was generally willing to procure any article that might be wanted in Combhaven from the larger resources of Barnstaple or the illimitable storehouses of Exeter. Enthusiast as Joshua really was in religion, he never neglected his trade ; order and attention marked the conduct of his business ; a scrupulous honesty recommended him even to careful housekeepers.

No adulterated coffee, no sanded sugar, came from his stores ; to say that any article came from Haggard's was tantamount to saying it was the best that money could buy. Haggard's eight shilling mixed tea was a specific for nervous headache, and for plasters in urgent cases no one thought of using any mustard but Haggard's. Joshua being a widower of some years' standing, the feminine element in the business was supplied by his maiden sister Judith, a woman of commercial mind, frugal housewifely habits, and energy as inex haustible as her brother's. She was of Joshua's temperament as regarded mundane things, but lacked his loftier aspirations and spiritual views. Piety with her was of rather a mechanical order, dependent upon the number of her attendances at church. She took an ascetic view of life, especially as regarded the lives of other people, and was continually cutting off some small enjoyment or gratification of mind or senses as ' a snare.' She was the sole and despotic ruler of Joshua's household and family, the family consisting of one son and one daughter, the house hold of a sturdy maid-of-all-work, a shopman, and a boy who carried out goods in barrow or basket, and occasionally came to grief by upsetting a box of eggs or breaking a vinegar -bottle.

Joshua Haggard's house and garden were always the pink of neatness, his shop was a model of cleanliness and precision ; and his life altogether was so wisely ordered, so temperate, regular, and honour able, that he himself seemed the highest example of that sober Christian life he preached to others. When he read the first Psalm, in that rich sonor ous voice of his, his congregation thought of him as the man whose ' delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night. CRAWLING FOAM. ' And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; his leaf also shall not wither ; and whatso ever he doeth shall prosper. ' The ungodly are not so — ' Ah, with what pious unction, with what a tri umphant sense of superiority, with what confidence and security against the possibility of temptation assailing him, used Joshua Haggard to roll out the denunciatory verses that follow !

The minister, as Joshua was called in Comb haven, did not come to the Ring of Bells to drink or make merry. He was the most sober of men, without being an absolute abstainer, and, except a mug of small-beer with his dinner and supper, rarely tasted anything stronger than water. He came to the water-side tavern to reprove and exhort. Mrs. Jakes had absented herself from chapel for the last two Sabbaths, and this backsliding was a fact to be inquired into by a shepherd solicitous for the welfare of his flock. ' The Saturday nights have been so trying, Mr. Haggard,' replied Mrs. Jakes to her pastor's grave remonstrance. ' The fishermen will sit so late and get so quarrelsome. It's enough to make one feel tired and addled-like next morning.' ' If you were more careful of the good of your soul than of filthy lucre, Mrs. Jakes, you wouldn't let the men stay late enough to tire you, or drink enough to get quarrelsome.' ' Ah,' sighed the landlady, with a doleful shake of her head ; ' it's lucky for they as was brought up to a virtuous business.

I was brought up to mine by they as went before me, and I'm obliged to abide by it.' ' Put it away, if you find it a snare, Mrs. Jakes. Put it away, if you see that it leads others to evil ways. Selling drink to the intemperate is like go ing into partnership with Satan. Dissolve the firm, my dear woman, and put your trust in God.' ' I might do that, Mr. Haggard ; but how should I face the tax-gatherer, or the brewer's man, or the old Squire's bailiff when he calls for my rent ?' ' Have you forgotten how the sparrows are cared for, Mrs. Jakes ?' CRAAVLING FOAM. 13 ' Ah, sir, it's well for the sparrows ; yet I've seen a many o' they tumble out of their nestes, poor things. Sparrows is made without much sense, and there'd need be somebody to look after 'em. But I fancy Providence meant us to do for ourselves, and do the best we can in the business we're brought up to.' ' You remind me of the young man in the Gospel, Mrs. Jakes, who went away sorrowful because he clung to his great riches.' ' It isn't riches as I cling to, Mr. Haggard.

It's bread - and - cheese. The leopard might as easy change his spots as I go out of the public line ; and if I could take to another business maybe my neighbours wouldn't like it. You wouldn't care to see me open a grocer's shop, now, would 'ee, sir ?' Joshua Haggard smiled — a comfortable self assured smile. He knew that his business was established upon a basis not easily assailable. Plenty of capital, shrewd judgment, long experience, unflinching industry, and the special protection of Providence. Who should prevail against these ? ' Look,' cried Jabez Long, taking his pipe out of his mouth, and pointing to the livid horizon line. ' Look, lads, there she be — the Dolfing.' A patch of white sail — ghastly white against the leaden sky — glimmered on the edge of the sea. All eyes turned to it in anxious if not affrighted scru tiny.

Poor struggling sail, how it wavered and dipped, now vanishing, now reappearing ! It was like a human soul battling with the troubled waters of sorrow and sin. The wind had risen while Joshua Haggard had been standing just inside the stone-paved kitchen discoursing the words of wisdom to Mrs. Jakes — a mighty wind that came shrieking up from the sea, and swept over the fertile hills, and into the wooded gorges, like an evil spirit intent upon the ruin of mankind. But the wind was not yet at its worst, for far away to seaward a line of foam showed like a white rift between the black darkness of sky and sea. Well did the fishermen know what this portended. A heavy squall was coming. ' He ought to ha' stayed at Clovelly,' said Mike Durran ; ' none but a madman would sail in yon cockleshell with a gale coming.

Why, she'll be swamped by the sea, or have the mast taken clean out of her and be druv on they rocks. That there boat'U he smashed like a nutshell agen they rocks if he don't take care.' ' He's a good sailor, isn't he ?' asked Joshua Haggard. ' Good sailor ! ay, to be sure. If he warn't he'd never be able to manage the boat as he is doing with such a sea running. There isn't a better in these parts. He and his brother allus hankered after the sea. But if he don't get too much of it this time, I'm a Dutchman.' There was a coolness in the speech that astonished Mr. Haggard ; but hfe is cheap on these rocky shores, and a man drowned, more or less, makes no great sensation. The young Squire was no favourite with these fishermen. He was reserved, and they gave him credit for pride. He felt the restraint and injustice of his position as the son of a miserly father.

He had nothing to give his fellow-men, and was thought mean. ' What !' exclaimed Joshua ; ' do you think that boat is in danger ?' ' Ay, danger enough,' answered Jabez. ' See, the squall is a'most upon her. If we see her agen when it clears, I shall be surprised.' Nearer and nearer to the Dolphin came that line of white foam with its black background of wind and rain. Another moment and it was on her. They could see her heel over to the first gust of the storm. The next instant the white sail vanished. ' She is gone !' exclaimed Haggard. ' No ; but the mast has gone — snapped off like a carrot. Nothing can save her now. She will be swept on the rocks, and the sea will make short work of her.' ' And you stand here quietly, smoking and drinking, while a fellow-creature's life is in jeopardy — you — seamen !' The squall which had settled the fate of the Dolphin was by this time upon them, the blinding rain driving into their eyes, so that they could hardly distinguish anything to seaward.

What they could see was not encouraging, for the huge waves came leaping up the beach, roaring and hissing at them like sea-monsters thirsting for their blood. Most of their boats were securely hauled up on the beach, aboA-e the estuary of a small stream that falls into the sea a short distance from the town. Thus they might launch them with safety ; but could they, dare they, pull out to sea in the teeth of the wind, and in such a sea ? And even if they did, could they be in time ? The Dolphin was drifting fast towards the reef. Would it not be a useless hazard of their lives ? The fishermen looked at each other, aud then at Joshua Haggard, doubtfully. They were none of them young men — declined into the vale of years rather, and much weather-beaten. ' We've wives and families to think about,' said Durran. ' They're o' more account to us than the young Squire.' ' A deal we should get by it if we risked our lives to bring the Dolfing safe ashore,' added Jabez. 'And you would see a fellow-creature perish!' cried Haggard, horrified at this inhumanity.

These were of his flock; it was to these he preached the VOL. i. c gospel — self-abnegation, love of one's neighbour — sometimes of a Sunday evening. 'No talk of perishing yet a while,' said one. ' He ought to ha' stayed at Clovelly,' said another. Joshua Haggard arched his hands above his eyes and looked out seaward. The squall had spent its force, though it was still blowing furiously. The rain which had been driven before the blast had cleared off, and the Dolphin was to be seen, a black spot upon the troubled sea. To leeward of her, between her and the spot on which they were stand ing, a line of black rocks and seething foam denoted the reef which ran from the point at the west of the bay into the sea. It was a narrow ledge of rocks, which was uncovered at low water, terminating in one larger and higher than the rest, which showed its head above water even in the highest tides.

Now the tide was nearly out, and the whole line of reef could occasionally be seen as the huge waves rose and fell, inky black against the white foam which covered the reef, and streamed over the leeward side like a cataract. A little to the westward of the Ring of Bells, and close to the rocks at the point, a single boat was hauled up. It had been a merchant vessel's dingey. Small and old, but yet strong, it could be launched under the shelter of the cliff into almost smooth water. Joshua glanced at the dingey, then at the Dolphin, which was drifting fast to her fate. ' I can handle a pair of sculls with any man in Combhaven,' he said; 'lend me your dingey and a coil of rope, Jabez.' ' What ! ye're not going out in the teeth o' such a wind, Master Haggard ?' cried Long. ' I'm going to save human lives, if I can,' answered Haggard. ' He who walked the waters and stilled the tempest will be with me !' ' Nay, master, but we'll go instead of 'ee,' cried Jabez. ' Ay, to be sure we will,' said Durran ; and there was an assenting murmur from the rest of the group, and a move towards the little estuary, where the boats lay bottom upwards, trembling and groaning as the wind shook their battered old timbers. ' No,' cried Joshua decisively, ' you have wives and families unprovided for.

Mine will be well sup plied with temporal blessings if the waters should swallow me ; and if they were penniless I could trust them to Him who rules on sea and land.' Joshua ran to the dingey and pushed it down to the water amidst the remonstrances of the fishermen, now all eager to rush to the rescue. ' Not one of you shall go with me,' he cried, with that fiery enthusiasm which gave him his strongest influence on his flock. ' The Lord has given these lives into my hand. I am going alone. Give me the rope and the sculls.' They obeyed him submissively; but farther down the beach a larger boat was being got ready for sea at the same time. There was no question now of wives and families to he left to the tender mercies of the parish. Joshua had not boasted when he called himself a good oarsman.

He was a man skilled in many things — a man who must needs have been dominant in any station. Fate had made him a dissenting parson, but if Fate had chosen to make him soldier or sailor, he would haA-e come to the front. He had no easy task before him. For a short distance he was sheltered by the cliff; but when that was cleared, he felt the full fury of the wind sweeping down on him. From the waves he was still sheltered by this reef, which acted as a natural breakwater. Still, as the heaA'ing seas dashed on and over it, they made a seething caldron of foaming and perturbed water, which rendered Joshua's pro gress a matter of extreme difficulty, the little boat being rocked to and fro, so that he could hardly handle his sculls with any effect. Joshua glanced over his shoulder as he desper ately pulled on.

About a hundred yards from him he saw the Dolphin, not yet in the breakers, but drifting down on them a little on the shoreward side of the large rock at the end of the reef. Her crew had not given way to despair. Hopeless as it seemed, they had got out a small pair of oars, Avhich were always kept in her, and had endeaAToured with them to propel her past the reef; but finding that im possible, and seeing the gallant little boat coming to their rescue, they were steering for a place where a slight cleft in the reef gave them the best chance of being washed OA-er without their lives being dashed out of them on the rocks. Away to leeward they could see a larger boat, manned by six vigorous fishermen, struggling against the wind and sea ; but their fate must be decided before she could reach them.

The little boat was their only chance. Joshua gave but one glance, and then, with a heartfelt prayer upon his lips, gave all his energies to the task before him. ' The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea,' cried Joshua. He was not a moment too soon. He had hardly got abreast of the spot where he had last seen the Dolphin, when she struck. Carried on the crest of a wave she lighted on the top of the reef, and that one shock destroyed the slightly-built old pleasure boat. In a moment more two forms were seen struggling in the foam on the lee-side of the reef, half stunned by the shock, half choked by the water. One after the other Joshua pulled these two into the rocking dingey. The first was the lad Peter, the second Jack the skipper.

But where was the young Squire '? Joshua's keen eyes scanned surf and rocks, and at last discovered him. There he was on the highest part of the reef. The wave that had thrown him there had not had power to carry him over, but had left him stunned apparently, with just life enough to cling instinctively to the ridge of the rock. As every seaman knows, the waves succeed each other with varying bulk and power ; first a series of medium-sized waves, then a few higher ones, culmi nating in two or three that overtop all the rest. The young Squire had been thrown up by the last big wave of the series. The next big wave would either wash him over to the lee-side of the reef, or else the backwash would draw him into its vortex, and the returning wave would dash out what little life he had remaining.

To go to his assistance was to risk sharing his fate. No personal danger would prevent Joshua from at least trying to save him ; but to get to him was no easy task. To land on the rock was not only difficult in the extreme, but hazardous, not only of Joshua's own life, but of the lives of those two he had already rescued. These had now in somewise recovered from the immersion and the shock they had sustained while carried along by the vast bulk of water, and had almost come to their wits. The boat lying, as she did, under the lee of the reef was much sheltered ; but still the rise and fall of the large waves rendered any attempt at landing on the reef full of peril. Joshua gave the sculls into the hands of the skipper and his mate, then steadied himself in the bow, and prepared to leap on the reef.

No easy matter. One moment the boat was on a level or almost above the rock, the next it was many feet below. If the bow of the dingey caught the rock as the water fell, the boat was doomed. If Joshua sprang and missed his footing, his destruction was almost inevitable. But upon Joshua Haggard the knowledge of this peril had no deterring influence. Long-familiar texts were in his mind even at this moment ; his heart, amidst the roar of the waves, lifted up its voice to his God. What if death came in the effort to do this good work ? It was but a plunge into the dark dividing stream that parted the Christian from his eternal country. ' But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ships pass thereby.

For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King ; He Avill save us.' He thought of the poor fellows he had rescued rather than of himself. Their calling and election might not be sure. Here, perchance, were two sinners still unreconciled with then- God. ' Pull your starboard scull,' he cried. ' That will do. One stroke together — back-hand.' As the last order was given, Joshua sprang on the rock— just a little too late. He had timed it well too ; but even the most practised sailor would have found it difficult to steady himself for the spring in that cockleshell of a boat, tossed about like a cork in the seething foam. As he raised himself on the how-thwart he staggered back, and though he recovered himself instantly for the leap, the favourable moment had passed.

Instead of springing from a rising motion, he sprang from a falling one ; and though he lighted on the rock, it was not on his feet. He fell heavily against the edge of the reef, bruising and wounding himself severely; but he clung to the reef with his fingers, and succeeded after a hard struggle in gaining a foothold on the rock. He was bleeding and exhausted ; but only a few yards of slippery reef now separated him from the object of his hazardous attempt. A few yards ; but they were yards not easily passed ; the seas were still dashing over them ; and though the broken wave shivered before it dashed against the surface of the reef, still to keep his footing was more than Joshua could do. Twice the wash of the waves carried his feet from under him ; but each time he clung with bleeding hands to the rock, and held on hke a limpet till the wave had passed and he was able again to struggle on.