Across the Marsh. A tale of the Kentish levels. By C. R. S

Front matter

ESB3 A tale os H)e KeO^'sb Levels by C.^ LEWE5- VV. E. BAXTER, L-T.o ____^__a_. 1897. Lewes : Printed by W. E. Baxter Limited, 35, High Street. A TALE OF THE KENTISH LEVELS. BY C. R. S. getties : VV E. Baxter Limited, 35, High Street sold at all Bookstalls. 1897. CONTENTS. Clmp- Page. I. A Corner of Romney Marsh .. 11 Fellow Travellers 9 111. The Dwellers on the Marsh ...... ,., IV. Great Chantry Court V. At Little Chantry .... , „ VI. Madame La Lynde .. .. .. ., VII. The First Heart-Ache 5C VIII. How the Promise was Kept . . IX. A Saxon Princess ... n~ X. Cloudy Weather . . . . . . , _ g XI. Drifting 92 XII. Ina's Secret IO XIII. The Luck of Little Chantry ri, XIV. Her Cousin's Wife .. .. .. .. 12, XV, Jonathan's Centenary . . . . . . . . . . . . I2_ XVI. A Rift in the Lute ,,g XVII. An Awkward Meeting. . .. .. .. ,-, XVIII.

Cross Purposes. . .. . . .. .. t6_ XIX. In the Toils ... T„ T/7 XX. The Rift Widens l8o XXI. The Fatal Letter .. . Tn- XXII. she Awakening 20q XXIII. Hinc Illæ Lachryinæ .. . .. .. ,. 2i i XXIV Beyond Recall 22B XXV. Ill News Flies Apace .. .. .. .. .. ., 241 XXVI. Reparation . .. .. . , „-Q XXVII. Expiation 26:. XXV"I- 276 XXIX. De Profundis 2g7

Chapter I

A CORNER OF ROMNEY MARSH. " O, Nap, will he never come ?" The girl raised herself once more, and looked anxiously along the dusty road, while the dog yawned, stretched himself, and poked his cold nose sympathetically into her hand. It was a sultry evening in July ; the rays of the setting sun flooded the wide marsh, and were reflected back from every ditch and channel that divided the various pasture lands. The rich grass plain, although looking somewhat dry and brown just now, vvas dotted with countless sheep, and here and there, in the fields nearer the river, handsome red oxen stood knee-deep among the flags and rushes. The girl had evidently come along the towing path beside one of the dykes which empty themselves into the Military Canal, and she was now resting in a patch of shade cast by a group of trees at a spot where this path joined the main road.

White and dusty the highway lay to right and left, and, as far as the eye could reach, not a living thing was to be seen upon it. The girl's gaze wandered anxiously around. On one side was the wooden bridge over the dyke and the road stretching away in the level distance. To the right also stretched the road, on either side a ditch, some eight or ten feet wide, full of water shimmering in the sunlight, fringed with sedges and macereeds, here and there shaded by E a clump of thorns or stunted alders, and occasionally beautified by pink-flowered willow herb, known locally as coddlings and cream, and by the scented meadow sweet. A long, low spur from the upland on the north encroached on the plain, like the foot of a giant octopus put forth to suck up moisture and nutriment out of the rich soil ; and so well had it fulfilled its purpose that the sides of the slopes were clotted with trees, cornfields, and hop-gardens, while the slender spire of a church and the blue wreaths of smoke ascending into the still air, testified that man had seen the spot was fit for habitation.

But the girl could not see this from where she sat ; the village of Netherden was nearly three miles away, but still it was this very place she was bound to reach before night-fall. And yet she sat on the grass, turning her head restlessly from side to side, and every few minutes making observations to the Skye terrier who sat up and flapped his tail and winked his bright eyes and did everything but answer her back again. All around her stretched acres of marsh-land, open to the east, but on the other hand contracted by spurs of the low hills running down into it and eventually taking a wide sweep round to the west. Before her, more marsh, more ditches, more sheep, and finally, far, far away the sea. This great level plain was broken in the dim, hazy, golden dis tance to the south, by the mass of trees surrounding the town of Lydd, the square tower of the church being discernible above them ; and to the far south west by the steep rock on which the picturesque and ancient town of Rye is built.

She could not see the Martello towers which dot the coast line at irregular distances — very irregular now, alas ! since so many have been blown up ex perimentally of late years — but there they are sure enough, " all that is left of them," left of over a hundred. It strikes one as one of the strangest ironies of the world that these towers, copied from a fort in Corsica, should have been constructed along the English coast as a defence against the " Little Corsican !" Ina Athalyn, sitting on the dusty grass, in her white gown, apparently unable to continue her journey, like Galleo, cared for none of these things. All her thoughts were concentrated on the hope of succour, and she felt alone and deserted of mankind. There is a legend still extant— at least so a certain book informs one — that the good people of Sussex used to say that the world was divided into five parts : Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and — Romney Marsh.

And truly it seems to belongs to none of them, cut off as it is by the Military Canal. One is tempted perhaps to smile now-a-days at the thought of our forefathers trusting that such an obstacle would ore vent Bonaparte — who, of course, would land on the low shore somewhere between Hythe and Pevensey — from over-running England. Never was a War Office scheme so severely criticised. " If you cannot prevent the French crossing thirty miles of sea," asked one party, " how can you stop them by a thirty foot ditch ?" " Concentration," replied the other side, briefly. The canal, as everyone knows, is cut at obtuse angles, and not a single yard of it is out of range of the guns that were then placed at each fork, and no pontoon, we are told, could have been constructed for the passage of the French Artillery at any given point, without being subjected to a murderous cross fire.

Moreover, time would be gained, while the enemy was detained here for the troops to be hurried up and concentrated behind this line of defence. Well, well— the ditch was dug, and the earthworks were thrown up, and the guns were placed in position, but the French never did land ; so it remains an open question to this day whether the canal would have saved London or not. "What can make Moses so late?" Miss Athalyn said for the twentieth time, and the terrier flapped his tail lazily in response. For at least fifteen times he had taken the trouble to get up and walk a few steps out into the dust to survey ; but he had given it up as a bad job, and now contented himself with a less exhausting form of reply. " The sun is setting," she went on. " Father will be getting anxious, and Geoffrey — I wish Geoff had not advised me not to attempt the walk.

It is not really a bit too long, and we don't mind the heat, do we, Nap? It would have been all right, but for that horrid — oh, there he is at last !" The dog jumped up at the sudden change of her voice and rushed forward barking. Miss Athalyn's eyes, fixed on the vanishing point of the road to her right, beheld the first moving thing that had appeared on it for the last hour, and this was nothing more nor less than a carrier's van. Succour at last, emerging from the dim distance and creeping along the level road towards her, just as the sun sank behind the hills ! Taking up her white sunshade from the grass, she rose, with difficulty, and gave a little groan as she leant against the bar-way through which she came such a weary time before. " Oh, how slow he is !" she exclaimed, impatiently, and indeed she might well say so.

It was a very old cart, drawn by a very old horse, and driven by a very old man, and the reason of its snail-like progress vvas soon apparent. Overcome by the heat, and having no passengers to keep him up to the mark, the carrier's head had sunk on his breast, and he was placidly slumbering; while Peter, the horse, finding the reins lying loosely on his back, and the whip safely stowed away in a corner, was taking his time over the journey. " Moses, Moses, stop !" cried the girl, as he came slowly up on to the bridge ; " why ! he's asleep. Woa, Peter, woa, there's a good horse. What shall I do if he won't stop ?" But Peter hearing himself called did stop, and the cessation of movement aroused the carrier. "What the blazes be ye at?" he growled, sleepily, groping for the whip, while he gave the loose rein a flap on the horse's back* " Moses, Moses Wetherbee !

" shrieked Miss Athalyn, in despair at the thought of his going on and never noticing her. " Help, Nap, bark at him !" " Ah ! ye varmint, would 'ee ? " exclaimed the carrier, roused into full consciousness by the yapping of the terrier, who was dancing excitedly before the horse as if he quite understood the situation. " Why, blest if that ain't Miss Ina's dog. What the blazes be ye doing out here? Holloa! then, did any one call ? " and he leaned forward to peer round the tilt of the cart. "Yes, Moses, I called. Do stop," said Ina. breathlessly, " I want you to give me a lift." " You doan't say so ! Mussy on us, what's happened ? I thought you told me oncet as you'd never ride so long as you could walk no-hows-de vvurreld." " But I can't walk. I have sprained my ankle and I want you to take me home.

Will you, Moses ?" " Will I ? Dear sakes, Missy, you know you're as welcome as the birds in May," answered the old man, part of his pretty speech, however, being lost amid the grunts he vvas constrained to give as he clambered laboriously down from his seat, " Butter my wig ! " he went on, as he came close beside her, " so you've put your ancliff bone out, my pretty. Shall I carry you to the cart ? " "If you would let me take your arm — so. Thank you, Moses. It is good of you." " Where will you set ? " enquired the carrier, as he pushed his parcels about to make room for her. "Not in front, thank you. I think I have got rather chilly sitting on the grass so long. I'll get behind here," and she sank down on a temporary seat that Moses made as comfortable as circumstances would allow vvith a sack of oats.

" Ay, ay," he answered. " No sooner does the sun go down than up comes the reek from the mersh. 'Tis always the time for the axey (ague). We'd best be getting on." " I began to fancy you were never coming, Moses," Ina remarked, when the old horse had been coaxed into a very respectable trot, and Nap was bounding on in front. "Did 'ee now? Well, I thowt luff* I had got a bit behint. Peter, too, he wor regular beazled* with the heat and would'nt hurry no-hows-de-wurreld. Howsumdever it wor tollable lucky I did happen along to-dee." Moses said this as if it were the merest chance he had come, whereas he knew he had done that journey regularly every day for the last thirty years. " Indeed, it was," replied Miss Athalyn, smiling to herself in her dusky corner. " I don't know how I should have got home if you had not.

I could never have walked those long three miles." " How did 'ee happen to lame yourself? " " I had been over to see old Mrs. Gasson at the Moat Cottage, and I got through all the gates safely till the last, and as I climbed over " " Shouldn't," interrupted the carrier, " it goes agin nature to climb over when you can walk through." " But I could not get through. It vvas fastened somehow, and I had to climb over, and I twisted my ankle as I got down." " Well, well, you should have some of my missus' stuff to put on it. That do just set comferable." 'How is Mrs. Wetherbee?" enquired Miss Athalyn ; " I have not been to see her for a fortnight ; it a Like as if. b Completely tired out. has been so hot. She was not in church last Sunday." " Trust you, missy," chuckled the old man, " though Passon, he may oversight a body, your eyes be as sharp as Muss Reynold's'.

If I could have got speech of Passon, I'd have ased him to come and see my missus, but I only see him back turned d , and I'd no call to go trapseing after him." Has the reader ever noticed the custom, which is very general among the peasantry of the southern coasts, of employing two nominatives before the verbs : a pronoun to supplement, as it were, the noun. " Parson, he be a-going." " The old sow she be very ornary to-day," and so on. One wonders when the custom arose. Is it merely due to intercourse with their French neighbours ? Is it a survival of Norman times, or was it introduced by the many Huguenot refugees who settled in these parts after the Revoca tion ? It must surely come from the French somehow. Across the " silver streak," one says : " Mon pere, il n'est pas venu. Mademoiselle Marie, elle s'est mariee," does one not ?

" My missus," continued the carrier, " she be just ornary ' she be." " But what is the matter with her ?" " Well, she were properly frowtened on Saddaday. Miss Jempson's little girl come in for two eggs, she did, and my missus she warned her of the bricks, and the child must needs go and slip up and I rackon she did keep all on making a screach. She's a terrible rafty/ child, and her mother came in and was middling abuseful to my missus." " Was she much hurt ? " " Nor a bit of it. She'd grubbied herself and was afeared of a bannicking. 8 But what with a skeer, h and vvith an amper-ang' that has been punishing her pretty middling lately, my missus said her head was c The popular name for the fox. d Going away from the speaker. e Unwell. /Ill-tempered, g A beating, h Fright, i A decayed tooth. all in a miz-maze,> and she felt so ornary on Sunday that she lay a-bed."

" But can't she have the bad tooth out ? " " I'm just about dubersomc1' of that, but holloa ! then, that just did just give me a start," Moses broke off, suddenly. "What is it ? " enquired Miss Athalyn, leaning for ward. " Only an old jack-hearn ' Missy, a standing so still, I took 'un for a postie ; and just as we come behither m him, up he gets all of a suddint and flops away." " It seems to be getting very dark, doesn't it ? And rather cold too. It must be late. Why, what are you stopping for ? " The carrier had pulled up, and had climbed over his seat and was stumbling towards her. " The wind is getting bleat, and I rackon you are all of a chill," he said, and then with many apologies for offering her such a thing, he eventually persuaded her to accept his spare coat, and the girl was really glad to draw it over her knees.

The mist was rising from the ditches, and she found her white cotton gown was already beginning to feel damp, and she withdrew as far as possible into the dim corner to avoid the fresh air that was now stealing across the marsh. j Confusion, k Doubtful. /A heron, m On this side.

Chapter II. Fellow Travellers

" Holloa there ! Stop a minute, can't you ? " The voice hailed them sharply from the roadside when the van had lumbered along another half a mile or so. '■ What the blazes be the matter now?" grumbled the carrier, pulling up. " What do you want ?" " I've lost my way on this infernal marsh, and I want to know where this road leads to," replied the voice, which Ina Athalyn, who could see nothing from her corner, guessed must belong to a very young man. " Depends which way you take it," said the carrier, deliberately. " That way," jerking his thumb back wards, " leads to Appledore." " I know that," retorted the stranger, ungraciously. " I have come from there, and I want to get to Hythe." " Why the rabbits 1 didn't you go by train ?" enquired Moses, leaning forward and apparently enjoying the gossip ; while Ina longed for him to give the necessary information and go on.

" O, hang it all !" The voice became more irritable every moment. " I missed the 4. 15 at Appledore and found there vvas no other up-train till nearly eight o'clock in these infernal regions ; so as I don't care to kick my heels in a beastly little hole like that all that time, I thought I'd walk." " Ah ! you've got a few miles astray, I rackon," said the carrier, consolingly. " You should have kep' more to the south like." " I daresay I should. Now, are you going to Hythe or are you not ?" " No ; I bean't, and I be main glad I bean't." "Well, you are going part os the way." The voice was not nearly so imperious ; it sounded as if the young man had pulled out the wrong tap by accident and had somehow got a douche that he did not expect. " Yes ; may be a matter o' two mile furrader." " Then you can give me a lift anyway for these two miles, and then put me in the right road ?"

" Surely," answered Moses, with a long drawn, nasal emphasis on the last syllable, " step up here," and he made room on the front bench beside him. " All right. Fire away," the young man said, drawing out his cigar case. " Have a smoke?" The carrier leant forward and regarded the cigars suspiciously. " No,no,"he replied, turning away virtuously," I've no girt liking for'em. They doan't just sitcomferable on the stomach. Give me a good honest pipe now and a- " " Sorry," interposed the stranger, nonchalantly, " I have not such a thing about me." Miss Athalyn could not forbear a smile, though she hardly dared breathe for fear of being discovered. "What will father say ?" she thought, "here is a real true adventure, and I was only saying yester day that nothing ever happened to one down in the Marsh.

To think of me riding in Moses' van with a mysterious stranger — a gentleman, I fancy." Meanwhile the carrier, seeing his new passenger was about to light his cigar, jerked his thumb over his shoulder and remarked, " Young lady in there." " Is there ?" returned the stranger, quickly. " Some servant girl or farmer's daughter, I suppose," he added to himself; then turning half round and peering into the dim recess behind him, he said carelessly, " Don't mind me smoking, my dear, I suppose ? " " Not at all," replied Miss Athalyn, very frigidly, drawing still further back, as she decided on the spot, " Certainly not a gentleman." ACR0S.-. THE MARSH. 11 " Phew !" whistled the young man, " not a servant girl, by jove ! Wonder who she can be? What a cold, proper, well-bred voice. Thanks," he said, aloud, raising his cap, and proceeded to light his cigar.

" You be one of they hosifers from the camp, I rackon," remarked Moses, after a pause. " Yes, worse luck ! for of all the infer — ahem ! beg pardon," he broke off suddenly, remembering there was a lady present. " That's a jolly little dog of yours, my friend. Does he always run vvith you ?" " Bless yer heart, no. He ain't mine. He belongs to Miss Ina there." " O, it is yours?" he asked, pleasantly, only too glad of the chance of addressing his invisible com panion. " He looks thoroughbred, and must be valuable." " I believe so," replied Miss Athalyn, coldly. " Little beggar ! look how he cuts along. He is quite a young dog, I suppose ?" " About a year old." " She's got a pair on 'em," put in Moses. " Have you? You are fond of dogs?" " Very." " The pair must look awfully jolly together. " Yes."

" Wish she were not so monosyllabic," thought the stranger, who was a genially disposed young man ; " and hang me, if I don't wish I could see her face. Here's a lark to tell the fellows. Little did I think, when I saw this lumbering old ark coming along, of the adventure in store for me. Queer old fossil, to play propriety, and an invisible fair — of course she is fair. All the girls hereabouts are more or less good looking." He was sitting sideways, leaning his head against the rough frame-work of the tilt, and glancing from time to time into the dim corner, where he could just make out the outline of a white clad shoulder, little dreaming that the girl was thinking at the same moment what a good profile he had, as she could see it, clearly cut against the evening sky. He was wondering on what pretext he could address her again, when he put his cigar between his lips, only to find that it had gone out.

" Do you never smoke when you are driving ?" he asked the carrier, pulling out his silver match box and striking a light. " I thought you Sussex fellows were such great smokers." " I bean't Sussex," returned Moses, gruffly ; " I be Kentish born and bred," and Miss Athalyn thought he must be a very ignorant young man not to recog nize the Kentish burr. " Ah !" murmured the stranger, indifferently, " per haps you can tell me if that tale is true about an old man who took a holiday, after twenty years of hard labour, and could not think how to spend it, till he hit upon the plan of buying four ounces of tobacco and sitting on a manure heap till he had smoked it, bah !" "Well, and why shouldn't he?" replied the carrier, stoutly: "a holiday is a thing for a man to spend howsumdever he likes. 'Twas not a bad way, behowtell!a I dessay now you think a mixen is a middling disagreeable place."

" Rather !" "Ah ! that shows you want laming about it," said Moses, superciliously. " Now I've got a mixen at the bottom of my garden, and a sweeter smelling place it 'ud be hard to find no-hows-de-wurreld. It has been topped up vvith ammut-castes b as I pecked up in the field, and all over one side is a vegeble marrer, real good seed that Miss Ina there give me, and a beth vvine^, and some marygurls. You see, sir, my missus she is partial to her bit of gay-ground d , and the seeds have blowed across I rackon. And right on top a Let it be how it will. A very usual expression, b Ant hills, c Clematis. (tf Common name for the flower garden. there's poppies — why, missy there said to me only t'other day marning, Moses, sez she, there's no such poppies nowheres in the marsh, didn't you, Missy ?"

" Yes, Moses," replied the soft voice from the back ground. " Then there's the lift-me-up-and-kiss-me," the carrier continued, exultingly, " and wallflowers and min-yet, and I just about rackon you could not find a sweeter-smellinger plase to smoke your marning pipe in let behowtell." "An ideal manure heap, truly," remarked the stranger, sarcastically, while he cudgelled his brains to find a pretext for addressing his " invisible fair" once more ; but, before he found it, Moses broke in upon his mediations. " Here we be, Missy, and it bean't so unaccountable dark nuther." " Isn't it," said Miss Athalyn, rousing up. " It seems very late. Can you see father anywhere ? Is he waiting at the gate ? " "No: he bean't, but I think — ■ — yes; surely, there be Master Geoffrey." " Ho, ho," thought the stranger, " so Master Geoffrey comes to meet her, does he ? what the dahem! is that?" he exclaimed, abruptly, as a black object dashed close before his face.

" 'Twas only a flittermouse, surely. Don't they have such things in your parts ? " asked Moses, ironically. The old horse was now walking up a slight incline towards the village, and presently a voice from the summer twilight cried anxiously : " Holloa 1 Moses, have you seen anything of Miss Ina?" "Ay, ay, sir. Not only seed, but got her, sure enough." " What I in there ? " " Surely. Now then, Missy." The horse stopped, and a tall, broad-shouldered young man came up, and peered into the van. He had a pointer and a Sussex spaniel at his heels, and Nap immediately began a lively game with his friends. " What has happened ? " he asked. " Is anything wrong ? " Meanwhile the young officer, after proffering his assistance, which his fellow traveller declined coldly, jumped to the ground, muttering to himself, " Well, I will see her face out here, anyway."

" O, Geoff," said Miss Athalyn, leaning against the front of the van, " I sprained my foot, and I could not walk." "Hurt yourself? You poor little soul. Let me lift you down," and Geoffrey Allarde took her in his strong young arms, and set her gently on the road beside him. "Why, you can hardly stand, he went on. " Here, take hold of my arm, and I'll get you home." The stranger, who had watched this little by-play with a curious feeling of dislike, here caught sight of something white in the van, and, diving into the dark interior, he brought forth a parasol. " This is yours, I think," he said, lifting his cap, and bending nearer to the girl than was absolutely necessary, while he scanned her face intently. " Thank you," Miss Athalyn inclined her head somewhat stiffly, and drew back from the dark eyes fixed upon her.

" Good night, Moses. I will come and see Mrs. Wetherbee as soon as I can walk." "By Jove! a beauty," murmured the young officer, as he climbed into the van again. " Insufferable puppy ! " muttered the young farmer, as he drew the girl's arm within his own, and proceeded to lead her through a gate, which old Mrs. Perigoe, who inhabited the picturesque, though some what tumble-down, lodge, was holding open Tor them. " Does it hurt you much ? " he asked. " I wish, Ina — I wish you would let me carry you." " O, no, Geoff, you really must not. I can walk quite well, if you will go slowly." " No one can see us here, y^ou know," he persisted. " Old Mrs. Perigoe has gone back into her house. And besides," he paused, thinking he should not mind if all the village did see them. " Your father " "Was father anxious?" she asked.

"Have you been up to see him ?" " Yes ! I found him wandering about in a great state of mind and I persuaded him to go in, while I came to meet you. I was in an awful funk — -I mean I — my dear child, I am sure it hurts you," he broke off, as Miss Athalyn flinched and gave a groan. "It is nothing. O, please, Geoffrey — " But it was no use. He would not listen to her objections. His strong arms were round her and she was lifted like a child from her feet and carried along the avenue. Geoffrey Allarde never forgot that evening when he walked slowly down the drive which descended in a gentle slope towards the house. He used to think it the happiest half hour in his life. All around them was the warm still silence of the July twilight, broken now and then by the murmurous humming of the great rose beetles as they fleiv droning along, or by the distant twinkling of a sheep bell far off across the hazy marsh.