Esther Pentreath, the miller's daughter. A study of life on the Cornish coast

Front matter

ESTHER PENTREATH THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER a StuOs of Xife on tbe Corntsb Coast B, J. H. PEARCE AUTHOR OF " BERNICE," ETC. Xon&on T. FISHER UNWIN PATERNOSTER SQUARE CONTENTS. Mook tbe jFirst. WHO WAS TO BLAME ? CHAP. P4GK I. THE PBELUDE IN THE MINE . . . . . . 7 II. THE MEETING ON THE MOOR 1 7 III. A SHADOWED HEAETH 22 IV. THE MILLER'S DAUGHTEE 35 V. ESTHER IS PERPLEXED 49 VI. WHEN SWEETHEARTS MEET 56 JBoofc tbe Second. THE PERSISTENCE OF THE PAST. I. HOPES AND FEAES 64 II. DREEING HIS WEIRD 71 Ut. A CHANGE OF POISE : AND HOW IT OCCUBEED . . 82 IV. THE REVIVAL AT p'NGWAREY .- . . -87 V. THE FIGHT OX THE MOOR IO4 VI. BRIDGET VISITS THE WITCH I iS VII. DE PROFUNDIS 1 34 VIII. FLOTSAM VI CONTENTS. J6ook tbe Œbirt>. PAIRING-TIME. CHAP. PAGE I. SEEDTIME: A CHAPTEE OF HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 1 52 II.

WONDERMENT DATS '65 III. APHRODITE ANADYOMENE I72 IV. EL DORADO '8l V. FUN IN THE HAYFIELD I91 VI. FIXING THE DATE 197 VII. WOOED AND MARRIED AND ALL ! 204 VIII. SUNSHINE AND SHADOW AT THE MILL . . . 2IO IX. HABET ! 219 X. THE COMPROMISES OF LIFE 228 JSook tbe ffourtb. THE SORROW OF LIFE. I. FORTUNE'S WHEEL 236 II. ICHABOD! ICHABOD! THE GLORY IS DEPARTED! . 242 III. IF I HAD KNOWN ....!. 250 IV. I'LL NEVER, I'LL NEVER, I'LL NEVER RETURN! . . 26t V. THB "KEENING" FOR ESTHER 267 VI. ABSY IS SENT FOE 275 VII. A CASE OF CONSCIENCE : AND HOW IT WAS SOLVED . 28 1 VIII. INAETICULATE LIVES 2S9 IX. THE OUTCAST 295 X. DEATH THE FRIEND 30 1 XI. FROM REVOLT TO EECONCILIATION .... 309 XII. HERE IS REST 3!4 Boofe tbe fftrst. WHO WAS TO BLAME?

Chapter I. The Prelude IX The Mine

In one of the lowest and gloomiest levels of an ancient mine in the Land's End peninsula a couple of grimy human moles were busily engaged in drilling through the granite that at this point thickly encrusted the lode, Tbe low roofed tunnel in which they were working was so impe netrably flooded with blackness that absolutely nothing was visible to the eye except within the couple of hazy circles that were lighted up by the candles in their hats : but Dick Bostrase and his youthfuller comrade, used as they were to the galleries of the mine, toiled on as steadily in the oppressive darkness as if they were working on the hillside above. At last the laborious drilling was over ; and Dick, having charged the hole with powder, set fire to the train with a " snoff" from his candle, and the two men hastily took to their heels.

Before, however, they had run very far, the huge though muffled roar of the explosion bellowed and resounded through the narrow tunnel ; the splintered rock rattled down in cartloads; and the level was filled with acrid smoke. Meanwhile Dick Bostrase and Aichel waited in a sheltered nook near the sollar till the smoke should have gradually dispersed in the gallery or rolled away towards the open shaft; and seating themselves on a couple of boulders drifted soon into earnest talk. " Ef this month's pitch do turn out seer we could buy a boat clain off, I should think," quoth the older man to his comrade as he trimmed the " dip " in his hat. " Iss .... I s'pose we could," was the rather loth reply. The idea of buying a boat between them in order to be able to go a-crabbing " out o' coor," and to thereby add to their earnings a few more shillings a week, was one which Dick and Aichel had often discussed before.

But evidently Aichel at present had something else in his thoughts. " There's that putty little crabber Nick Velnoweth got for sale : we could git she cheap, I reckon," quoth Dick in ;i wheedling way. " Iss .... so I s'pose," said Aichel, who was nervously biting his nails. Wha's up weth 'ee now _ " asked Dick, who saw there was something wrong. " I'm sorry, Dick, to ha' to disappoint 'ee," said Aichel speaking with an evident effort ; " but I caan't go shares in th' boat .... or, laysteways, not just now." " Why not ? " growled Dick impatiently ; " wha's in the wind weth 'ee now ? I thought by all accounts thee'd sot thy heart upon this. Anyhow," he surlily grunted, " thee'st been talkin' 'bout it months enough." " Iss .... I know I have . . . ." mumbled Aichel. " Well : an' what do stan' in th' way ?

" " There's Esther, Dick," quoth Aichel. " Umph ! " growled Dick in disgust. " So she've managed to make a fool of 'ee, same as she have o' th' rest." " I doan't knaw 'bout makin' a fool o' me." " What do 'ee call it else ? Thee doan't think she mayne to mar-rry 'ee ? " "Why not?" Aichel asked. And Dick, looking grimly at him, laughed out full in his face. Heavy-featured, swarthy, and noticeably undersized ; with harsh black hair and dull black eyes, and a quite peculiar coarseness of outline — big-footed, bighanded, bony throughout — Aichel's appearance was by no means pre possessing as he crouched on the boulder biting his nails. Naked to the waist, with only a pair of woollen trousers covering the lower part of his body ; his stock ingless feet protected from the stones by a rusty pair of hobnailed boots ; while his hands and his face and his whole form were grotesquely stained and discoloured by the rocks amid which he worked ; Aichel looked far more like a kobold, surprised while enduiing his doom, than a young fellow human enough to be courting his girl like the rest.

And Dick, as he glanced contemptuously at him, growled out gruffly, " Lad, thee'rt a fool." "She's thy awn niece, Dick," urged Aichel. " Awn niece ! rat her bones ! Lev' her fool round weth Casy ! What do she want o' thee ? " " Come, Dick, thee'rt goin' too fur." " Goin' too fur ! Why, cuss me ! han't she ben runnin' round with both ? 'Twas a toss-up which she took. Thee knaw that better'n I." Aichel rose to his feet in silence, scratching his head the while. " I doan't keer for that," he muttered : " she's goin' to stick to me." " Thee'rt waik, lad ! waik ! " Dick grunted. " Doan't keer ef I am," growled he. By this time Dick was hobbling down the tunnel in order to see how the blasting had succeeded ; and Aichel, feeling hot and extremely uncomfortable, followed close at his comrade's heels.

They found the blasting had been thoroughly successful. A tremendous gap had been torn in the rock — the debris consisting of many tons — and the lode was again recovered at its best. Accordingly, as their coor was now about ended, the pair began to leisurely gather up their tools in order to return to the surface at once. Suddenly Dick, with a smothered exclamation, began to hobble away to the shaft. " Where 'ee off to, Dick ? " asked Aichel. " Coin' up in th' kibble," growled Dick. " Doan't, Dick ; I wedn' risk it ! " " Shall ! " snarled Dick with a snap. Already they could hear the rattle of the kibble, which was now coming slowly up the shaft, and Dick hurried on as fast as he could hobble with Aichel Tregenza close at his heels. Just as the ponderous bucket was abreast of the tunnel where he stood, Dick Bostrase, measuring his distance, vigorously leaped towards the chains.

The poor fellow managed to clutch at the kibble but his hand slipped down its slimy side .... and he fell with a horrible screech through the darkness .... and was lost in the deep well of blackness beneath ! The old man's fall was witnessed by Aichel — who had that moment gained the edge of the shaft — and also by two or three others who were peering out into the pit from the mouth of a tunnel overhead. The men in the level above at once ran off to the sollar to carry the news to grass,* in order to get together a party to search for the body in the shaft : while Aichel as ex citedly rushed to the ladder and began to descend to the bottom of the mine. In what appeared almost an hour — although in reality it was but eight or ten minutes — Aichel had descended the couple of ladders that lay between the level where he worked and the doleful bottom of the mine, and had just begun to wade through the lowest tunnel (where the slimy water came up to his armpits), when suddenly the moisture dripping from the roof put out his remnant of candle and left him buried in the dark !

Fumbling with breathless eagerness for his matches, he soon discovered, to his unspeakable dismay, that the box was deep in his trousers' pocket and all the matches were utterly spoiled. There was no time to waste in vain lamentations : so wading onward in the revolting darkness he managed to creep to the bottom of the shaft, and, groping about in the turbid water, he soon found poor Dick's body lying all-of-a heap in the slime. Lifting up the body as best he could, he raised the head and shouted to his comrade even though he felt that life was extinct. But Lick was limp and silent: and Aichel's heart stood still. Nevertheless, he tremulously held up the corpse, and, wading slowly back to the tunnel, stood there in the gross and loathsome darkness, with the slimy water up to his armpits and with poor Dick's face lying white on his shoulder, while he waited in a nightmare of nervous appre hension until help of some kind came from grass. * The miner's term for " the surface."

Apparently it is utterly impossible for a peasant to be other than a pagan in the article of fear. Christianity being only a matter of adhesion, not an inheritance mingled with the blood, a man may be a Christian or not, according to the drift of his moods : but in his inherited superstitions and awe he is at the mercy of tendencies outside the region of choice, and over which, even if educated, he has only a partial control. And the blood-gift in Aichel Tregenza had sown in him ominous seeds. How many or how few of the superstitions he had inherited were actively potent within him and pertained to the basis of thought, and how many were merely parasitic and vital in no way at need, was revealed in the gruesomest manner as Aichel now faced the Unknown. Only the darker and crueller beliefs — the primitive terrors and apprehensions of the pagan — appeared to survive in his mind in this nakedest hour of his life, when all that was not his by blood-gift slipped out of his thoughts and was lost.

Those shadowy grotesques called the Angels, the grand human myth of the Christ, were as futile in helpful sugges tions as the swing of the round earth in space : while the vaguer, more primitive surmises insidiously lodged in his thoughts, seemed to strengthen with every pulse-throb and gnaw his brain in to the quick. And consequently the corpse of his comrade, so rigidly lying in his arms, became to his unbridled imagination a burden so hideous and ghastly, so unspeakably weighted with fear, that the loath ing poor Aichel experienced seemed wasting his strength like a wound. Yet compelled by the sentiment of comrade ship, and a groundswell of undefined dread — lest if he should now drop the body the spirit might haunt him hereafter, or might even wreak its anger at once — Aichel stuck to his post in the darkness and held up the corpse through it all.

Meanwhile, up on the hillside above, the floors of the mine with their squalid toilers were full of a busy com panionable life ; the gigantic bob was rising and falling in response to the throb of the engine at its back ; the stamps were noisily pounding and grinding ; the horse at the whim trudged round and round ; and the strangely picturesque life at the surface went cheerily on with its clatter and buzz. Beyond the floors and the towering chimneys, and beyond the burrows or heaps of deads, the linnets and whinchats chirped among the heather that had managed to grow between the huge grey blocks ; while high overhead in the wide spring sky, far above the smoke of the giant stacks, the sea-gulls wheeled to and fro in the sunshine and the wee brown larks were singing by scores. Suddenly the miners who had witnessed the accident emerged at the surface not far from the engine-house, and excitedly rushed across the crowded floors.

Almost out of breath with agitation and the strain of their toilsome ascent, the three men hurried past their gaping comrades — merely shouting, "vi man in tke shaft!" — and bursting into the 'count-house clamoured out the news to the captain, who happened to be on the spot. The news of the accident spread like wildfire among the buddlers and jiggers, the stamps' -men and spallers, and the other gregarious workers on the floors ; was as rapidly con veyed to the engine-room and the solitary driver of the whim ; and before tbe men emerged from the 'count-house was practically known all over the mine. Quite a little crowd of white-aproned " maidens " excitedly gathered around the mouth of the pit as the men-folk and youngsters who worked on the floors clamorously offered their services to the captain, who was picking out men to search the shaft : and when the men for the task were selected and the order was given to descend at once, the TIIE MILLER'S DAUGHTER. 14 " maidens" were as loud and lusty in their cheering as if they had obtained a favour for themselves.

Accordingly the searchers jumped in the kibble with blankets and other appliances in their arms, and with thick dips smokily flaring in their hats; the signal was imme diately given to the driver, and the kibble went rapidly down the pit. Aichel was standing near the mouth of the tunnel, with Dick's dead body still in his arms, when he heard the rattle of the descending kibble, and saw the eerie flicker of the candles reflected on the huge black sides of the shaft. But his dry tongue clove to the roof of his mouth, and the fatal "apple" in his throat so choked him that he could not articulate even a word. So when the men peering over the kibble began to excitedly shout out questions as they gradually neared the bottom of the shaft, Aichel — though he heard their words distinctly, and could even see their red-lighted faces and the blankets they held in thenarms — was unable to indi cate his presence by even a ghost of a sound.

His limbs refused their customary offices — though he still stood planted as firmly as a rock — and he could no more advance a step towards the kibble than the dead man could who hunc on his arms. Of course the searchers when they reached the bottom began to grope around in the revolting darkness, and then it was they discovered poor Aichel standing in this weird cataleptic fashion, with the slimy water up to his armpits and with Dick's white face within an inch of his own. They shouted to Aichel, and shook him by the shoulder : but he glared in their faces like one demented, and neither stirred nor made any reply. " Es 'a dead, you ? " they clamoured— two or three at once. But Aichel only stared blankly before him, with affrighted eyes distended to their utmost, and full of a dazed and overwhelming horror that at last infected the searchers themselves.

So, finally comprehending the position of affairs, one of the party took Dick's dead body out of the poor fellow's rigid embrace, while a couple of brawny six foot sump-men managed to lift Aichel into the kibble : and the awe-stricken party, thus dismally augmented, was rapidly hoisted up the shaft. When the party by-and-by arrived at the surface, the excitable group that had gathered around the pit assisted to lift out Dick's limp body, and then were about to help out Aichel ; when suddenly the young fellow seemed to recover — he shivered, and the hard stare melted from his eyes. Clambering shakily out of the kibble, he " plunked-down " all-of-a-heap on a neighbouring balk of timber, and burst into loud and violent sobbing : accompanied, after an interval of shuddering, by an equally violent burst of tears.

Immediately one of the sympathising bal-girls poured out a glassful of brandy from the flask which the captain had supplied to the searchers, and when Aichel managed to at last gulp it down he gradually began to thaw back into life. To the clatter of tongues that went on around him he appeared to, however, pay scarcely any heed. He now began to tremble as though stricken with the cold — having nothing on at present except his saturated trousers — and at times would glance over his shoulders with a terror stricken shiver and girn which made more than one grow alarmed. And when the folks asked him a question he merely gave a shudder and stared. By-and-by he rose of his own accord and made his way, not without a tell-tale tremulousness, to the long, rude shed called the dry — where the miners change their underground Garments for those they usually wear when at grass.

Here Aichel temporarily mastered his agitation ; and so far re covered from the effects of the shock as to be able to relate to his comrades the particulars of what had occurred, but in such a fragmentary and incoherent fashion, and with so many twitchings and starts, that his hearers shook their heads at him sadly. " He's skeered out of his wits ! " they remarked. About an hour afterwards — when poor Dick's body was silently borne away upon planks, with the white face carefully covered by a coat — Aichel Tregenza also left the mine (with a strangely suspicious shakiness in his limbs), and feebly trudged home through the sunset alone with his melancholy thoughts.

Chapter II. The Meeting Ox The Moor

The three or four miles of famine-stricken downs that lay between Wheal Trebarvah and Aichel Tregenza's home f-formed as bleak and desolate a tract as could be found in the whole of the peninsula — gaunt and rugged though it is. This dreary, wind-haunted terrace by the sea was not only studded with cairns and barrows and other equally rude memorials of a vanished people and a mysterious past, but, according to the hearthside traditions of the peasants, was " hunted " by Owld Uncle Nikklus himself ! More than one tale of meetings on the moor between the Owld Gentleman and sore-tempted mortals had Aichel heard the droll-tellers* whisper in the chimley^ when they gathered around the fire in the long winter nights. And, unhappily, suggestions of this kind kept constantly recurring in his thoughts.

He was still so weak from the shock to his system that several times he had to sit down on the boulders which were plentifully strewed across the surface of the moor, so that by-and-by the treacherous twilight stole on him before he was aware. And now, with the wind sighing mournfully over it, and the shadows huddling closer together among * Story-tellers: droll = story. f The large open fireplace in a cottage. B the rocks, the great moor awoke to a ghoul-like existence, sucking out of the wind and the twilight the cne touch of life that it lacked. And to Aichel trudging heavily homeward — overworn both in body and mind — the eerie old tales in his memory produced an illusion so real that he felt as though spectres and goblins were lurking round every rock ; till he grew at last so wretchedly timorous, so abound ingly full of unrest, that the quick, panting throbs which he ached-to seemed to drain the very life from his heart.

Under the influence of this hysterical agitation he by and-by lost all control of himself ; and at last, in an access of terror, precipitately took to his heels. Panting, perspiring, and aguishly shaking, with his mind dark with fear and his heart in his mouth, he ran home across the dumb moorland as fast as his fright would permit; and moaned, as he ran, in such anguish as few could have witnessed unmoved. Unhappily the sullen sweep of moor sloped considerably from its windy shoulders down to the edge of the unfenced road, so that Aichel, as he was running down the brae, at intervals stood out with the distinctness of an etching* o against the dusky pallor behind. And Casy Polglaze, who was toiling up the slopes on his way to Wheal Trebarvah — in which he was "last coor by night," to his not unnatural disgust — seeing Aichel runnin" down the hillside as though he were chased by a ghost, conceived the capital idea of frightening him out of his wits.

An idea in which, in addition to the predominant love of fun, there was more than a hint of the rivalries and passions which in pairing-time play such a large part in life and were actively tingling at present in Casy's undisciplined thoughts. For Casy had been rather " sweet " on Esther before she had succumbed to Aichel ; and the ache of his recent disap- THE MEETING ON THE MOOR. 19 pointment had not yet died out of his heart. In fact Mistress Esther — demure though she seemed — had oscillated between her lovers in such a tantalising fashion all through her troublesome teens, that it seemed to be quite a chance matter as to which one would win her at last. At one time mag netised by the strength of the one, and then again attracted by the pliancy of the other, Esther — with the capricious waywardness of a young girl testing her heart — appeared to be wholly unable to make an irrevocable choice.

In the last few weeks, however, for some inexplicable reason — or perhaps because Casy, growing somewhat dis heartened, had revealed a man's fibre a little too soon, and had tried to fall back on himself ; thus piquing the wayward young Miss into showing her power to them both — Esther had been " running round " with Aichel, and Casy was quietly dropped. Only yesterday evening, in fact, she had walked through the village with Aichel, looking joyously up in his face with the prettiest laugh in the world as Casy went lumbering by blushing up to the roots of his hair. Consequently, Casy Polglaze felt a little malicious delight at the idea of frightening Aichel — who was known to be rather weak-nerved — and by-and-by telling the tale in the village to raise a good laugh at his rival's expense.

Being a shapely and powerful young fellow — the acknow ledged champion of the parish in wrestling and throwing the quoit ; and in climbing the cliffs, or in fighting, a match for " the best wan about " — Casy felt not a little contempt for the undersized, timorous young miner who could neither "wrastle" nor fight, nor do anything else (that he knew of) except traipse about with the girls. " And to think that this gayte bucca-davy, all'ys geekin' round arter a gook,* * Prying round after a sun-bonnet. should be choosed for a shiner* by Esther ! She ought to be 'shamed of herself ! But there ! she would soon see that bussa-brains warn't wuth 'es salt as a man ; though 'a had slocked her in to go weth un— the palched little smulk that 'a was ! He would give un a good fright to skeer un, an' see what a fool 'a would look !

" And unfortunately a most potent accessory for the pur pose at that instant happened to attract Casy's eye. Ri»ht in front of him was an ancient cromleh, commonly called the Giant's Grave, and naturally believed by the superstitious peasants to be haunted by all kinds of goblins by night. And Casy on the spur of the moment determined to climb to its capstone and terrify Aichel from there. Being a daring young fellow, the haunting superstitions of the neighbourhood were at present submerged in his mind by the rush of malicious satisfaction with which his thoughts dwelt on the fright he intended to inflict on the rival who had stolen the one girl he loved ; so creeping up stealthily to the cromleh he at once began scaling its sides. In two or three minutes (being used to climbing) he had mounted to the top of the capstone and had stretched him self flatly upon it, with his head peering over its edge.

The wind was still whooing and whittling across the vague wastes of the moor : and the dolorous twilight hung heavily over the great lonely world. It was almost worse now than at midnight — such spectral sights startled the eye as the boulders and thorns on the hillside peered eidritehly out through the gloom — and Aichel's teeth chattered with terror till liis hair bristled under his hat. And meanwhile his mischievous rival, perched hio*h on the hoary great slab, was waiting with hungry impatience to frighten him out of his wits. * Lover. THE MEETING ON TIIE MOOR. 21 When Aichel — almost breathless with over-exertion and the exhaustion of his terrible experience in the mine — was within about half a dozen yards of the dolmen, Casy suddenly lifted his head and flung out the shrill, grueing shriek : " Help ! . . . .

Help me drive off the Devil ! . . . . Help !!.... Help me out o' me grave ! " As he heard the great voice from the cromleh, Aichel staggered .... gave an agonising screech, as though something had snapped in his brain .... and reeling with a heart-rending moan, like an animal wounded to death, he fell down on the ground on the instant and grovelled there torn by a fit. When Casy saw Aichel fall prostrate, and heard the loud shrieks he emitted in the violent throes that convulsed him, the reflex horror of the fright that had told so calamitously on his rival infected Casy himself to a really alarming degree. He remained where he was for a moment, though he trembled in every limb, and his heart began thudding so loudly that its throbs seemed to rise to his ears. But when he found Aichel still continued in the fit — shrieking at intervals Hke one demented, and rolling about on the grass and stones — he crawled down tremblingly from the capstone of the cromleh and ran away over the moor as though he had murdered a man and heard the pursuers behind him .... and one Greater Voice over all !

Chapter III

A SHADOWED HEARTH. The early twilight of the April evening was darkening apace even here by the sea, and the wind was beginning to sigh with a mournfullest sound round the house as Bridget and Tom Tregenza — having finished their work for the day — sat close to the big kitchen chimley quietly drinking their tea. The earthenware, ranged on the shelves of the dresser, twinkled cosily in the glow from the fire — which was built up entirely of driftwood and turfs — and the dusk that hung over portions of the kitchen was constantly pierced by glifl*s of light as the tinware, hanging from nails in the rafters, caught the occasional flicker or flash. In the corner of the kitchen the tall Dutch clock kept up a drowsy tick ! tick ! tick ! filling the air with its sociable murmur, like the babble of an infant cooing to itself ; and Bridget Tregenza and her grey-haired husband sat close to the glowing fire on the hearth, every now and then, however, looking up with a start as the wind whistled shrilly around the dim windows or moaned more lugubriously under the door.

" Aichel ought to be home afore now : where's 'a got-to, I wonder 1 " quoth Bridget, as one of these blustering flurries was rattling the windows and door. "I hope he han't mit weth no accident " " Jus' thy way, mawther ! " said Tom ; " lookin' ower thy showlder for trouble, as ef we wur short as it es. The boy's safe enough, never fear. He's gone to see Esther, I s'pect." " Thee gone to see Esther ! " quoth Bridget, in tones of impatient contempt. " Do' ee think he'd go there in his bal clothes ? He esn' so fur gone as that." And then, as the wind wailed and moaned, she began to grow restless again. " I wedn mind so much," she kept muttering, " ef I hadn' brok that looking-glass on Sunday : we're sure to have poor luck for that ! And a robin was flyin' round this morning and tapped at the panes wance or twice !