Winning an Empire [a novel] . ... With illustrations

Preface

r I "HE chief aim I set before my mind when I be^an -*- writing was to encourage myself, and others, to climb. I hope that this story of Clive's life will prove a fresh inducement to many to devote their energies to the same ennobling and invigorating exercise. I have harped upon this string many a time already; but it is a glorious one, and I am never tired of its sound. There is something infinitely fairer, infinitely more precious to long for, than fame, position, or prosperity; but those who lie cowardly or slothfully at the bottom of the ladder are certainly no more on the way to attain to that victor-crown of life and light, than those who, while fervent in spirit, not slothful in business, are serving the Lord. G. S. St. J. P., 1883. I trust the mention that my authorities for this tale have been Mill, Malcolm, and Macaulay, •■..•ill be sufficient voucher for its historical accuracy.

And I hope my readers will find no fault with me for quotations from my authorities, where their vivid language pleased myself so much that I expected it would please others better than my own could do. Most of Clive's letters in this volume are real ones, given in Sir John Malcolm's Biography. CONTENTS.

Chapter I

I LEAD, OR LEAVE. ''||s||jf NOUGH then ! I shall go." l\ pdjli The words were exclaimed in mingled '^-T^'i tones of scorn and impatience, and a boy with a pair of very expressive eyes, and a resolute looking face, turned short away from a group of companions, and prepared to quit them on the instant. He would have been off before the others could stop him, had he chosen to fly away with his usual impetu osity ; but for once he consulted dignity as well as irritability, and forced his restless feet to the sedate slowness of a marching step. The dozen or so of other boys stared after him foi some moments, dolefully, then looked at each other with dismay. The afternoon of that Saturday half-holiday, 1736, was not yet half-an-hour old, and here it was spoilt at the outset. " What shall we do now ?

" muttered one boy. B " Nothing," sharply answered another. " What is there to do, worth the doing, without him ? " " It's horrid of him," growled a third. " Deserves a thrashing," muttered a fourth ; but cautiously. He did not seem anxious that the object of his wrath should hear the suggestion. Meantime, that individual, with erect head, and folded arms, continued his stately progress across the village green. At last his especial friend, John Campbell, pushing back a mass of clustering locks from his forehead with a decided air, addressed his comrades with a short — " Oh, well, of course this won't do. We must just give in, if that's the only way to get him back," and then shouted, " Clive ! — I say — Clive ! Don't go throwing us over like this." Clive stood still. Campbell called again, more firmly : " Come back, Clive."

Then Clive turned round. " What am I to come back for ? " " Why, to play, of course," exclaimed a chorus of voices. " Umph ! " ejaculated their offended comrade, but slowly retracing his steps at the same time. " To play indeed ! I should like to know what's the good of playing, if you don't mean to play in earnest." " In earnest, indeed," grumbled Charlie Nuneham. " It's bad enough to have to learn in earnest, without having to play in earnest, I should think." The next moment Clive had lightly lifted him in his arms, and laid him full length upon the turf. All the solemn dignity had disappeared now, as he bent his laughing face over his prostrate companion. I Lead, or Leave. 11 " There, Charlie-Barley, now if I were you I'd go to sleep in earnest till supper-time. That's really the least fatiguing thing you can do, you'll find.

At least— for you." " Or for any one else, I should think," came the retort. But Clive shook his head. " Then you think wrong." At this point another voice broke in impatiently : "Oh, there, Clive, leave hush-a-bye-Barley alone to his own snores, for goodness' sake, and attend to us awake ones. Time's going on. What shall we do ?" " What do you want to do ? " Oh, come now," answered one or two of the group rather indignantly, "what's the use of asking us that, when you know you won't play at anything but what you choose. With you it's always the same cry — I'll lead, or leave." The boy's cheeks flushed, and he bit his lip. The accusation was not unjust. If he had never actually spoken the words, he had very often acted them. And he was of far too generous a nature to resent a truth. But the defence he could not undertake for himself, another undertook for him.

John Campbell hit out pretty sharply at the foremost of the malcontents. " You shut up, Jim, or you'll get permission to leave before you ask it. If Clive didn't lead, I'd just like to know who else there is that any of us would care to follow. So now, Clive, fire away. You order, and we'll obey." The face of the young village autocrat brightened. " And you'll make a raid on all the shops in Rosemary Lane, as I say, if they don't buy us off ? " B " All right," was the general assent, accompanied by a few somewhat disconsolate asides — " Won't my father beat me just, for my share in it !" " Much better have a paper-chase." " Mother says 'Black Mail' is only one form of stealing," and so on. But if their strong-willed, high-spirited companion caught the meaning of any one of these murmurs, he paid no further heed to them.

He had gained his point, and he could afford to show forbearance to scruples that he considered due to cowardice, and nothing else. His arrangements for the bold expedition were soon completed. " Mr. Nulham is to give us a pound of biscuits, or a broken window. Mr. Bardsley a couple of dozen good apples and a hard ball, or a broken window. The Collins' a kite, or shies at their weathercock till it's knocked off". And Widow Mallet, a—" " Widow Mallet nothing," interrupted John Campbell. " Poor old body ! We mustn't touch her, Clive." "You shut up," cried Jim, flinging back the order before given to himself. " Widow Mallet by all means. She's the only one who won't be able to make us suffer." " That's the very rea — " began Campbell, hotly ; but he left his sentence unfinished. He had caught a peculiar look on Clive's face which somehow seemed to render his own protest unnecessary.

Clive calmly completed his interrupted instructions. " Widow Mallet a sugar-stick apiece, or carry off her cat." " Hurrah," shouted Jim. " I'll do that." Clive turned upon him sharply. " No, you won't. No one will touch that cat but / Lead, or Leave. 13 myself or Campbell. I give you all fair warning, you'd best not." " Wants it for a pie, you see," said Jim. " For you to eat," was the short retort, and then the commander set off with his followers across the village green, for the small village street chosen for that day's invasion. " Hush-a-bye-Barley," otherwise Charles Nuneham, was the only one to stay behind. He found the turf soft and pleasant, he said, and would stay where he was. " But mind you bring me my fair share of what spoils you get." Campbell laughed. " That will be easily done.

Your fair share of what you don't win will be nothing." " Clive knows better," replied the indolent knight. " Those who keep the camp share equally with those who are ordered out. Success attend you, my friends, or what you deserve."

Chapter II. While The Cat's Asleep

N the very act of uttering his somewhat ambiguous good wishes, Hush -abye- Barley's eyelids closed, with a luxurious slowness, and before his boisterous companions were fifty yards distant he appeared to be already dozing. But if he were, he was certainly only indulging in a cat-sleep. He heard the very first movement of the very first mouse in his neighbourhood. " Who's that crawling about there, like a big worm ? " " Oh ! " was the low startled answer to this calm, clear question from the apparent sleeper. " All right," came the return reply. " And after ' Oh ? ' " " Why, please, Master Nuneham, I — I thought you was asleep. And it's only me." "Ah. Only 'me.' 'Me' being Jack Moore, I suppose." If Charles Nuneham had opened his eyes he could have made sure of the matter, without need for sup posing.

But perhaps he was sure without taking that While the Cat's Asleep. 15 extra amount of trouble. At any rate he remained as he was, and continued the conversation at his ease. " Me " drew himself on his hands and knees a few inches nearer. "Jack." " Yes, Master Nuneham " I always feel glad I wasn't born a worm — don't you ? " "Me's" reply to this peculiar question was an intensely accented " My ! " After a few moments, he added, " You do say queer things, Master Nuneham — queerer things than any body I ever heerd before, or heard tell on." " Umph," ejaculated the Hush-a-bye. " Maybe, Jack. But that's not so bad as doing them, is it ? Not so bad as crawling through the bushes up to a sleeping boy, to filch what he'd got in his pockets, maybe ? " This assertive query was followed by such a long silence that at last the closed lids slowly opened, and the eyes beneath looked about them.

But the view to be obtained by a pair of eyes, whose owner is lying on his back, is limited. Charlie could only see the sky, and the tipmost edges of some twigs of the bushes about him. He sat up, and looked round. " Hullo ! " he exclaimed in a disconcerted tone. " Why, what's the matter, Jack ? " Jack was sitting just behind his shoulder in a doubled up heap ; his chest heaving, his knuckles pressed into his eyes, and great tears rolling down his cheeks. His answer to his companion's accusation was visible enough, if not audible. " Don't, Jack," said Charlie, huskily. " Don't be a baby. I'll — I'll — laugh at you." His voice sounded rather like doing the other thing. Winning an Empire. Jack grew comforted by the sympathy, and looked up. " Sir, you didn't really think I was coming to steal, did you ?

" " Yes, then I did," said Charlie, honestly. " But I'm very sorry, and I don't now. But what did you come for, Jack ? " The boy's thin, pinched-looking face flushed. " Well," he muttered with a stifled sigh : " Something next to as bad as stealing. I came begging. Father's nabbed again for poaching, and the magistrates talk of locking me up too for helping him, which I never have done. Father is good in that. He never has so much as asked me to go along, when he's been goin' out. But I've been hidin' up a bit, two days, and oh ! I am that hungry, sir." Charlie felt in his pockets mechanically, as though he expected to find them stuffed with sandwiches. But there was not a scrap of anything eatable in them what ever, unless a bit of well-gnawed india-rubber could be called such. Jack noted the fruitless search.

" Please, Master Nuneham, I heard the talk about getting biscuits and apples, and I thought perhaps you might spare me your share ? " Charlie dropped himself back on the turf. " My share of stolen goods ? No thank you, Jack. I stick up for my share, that's true. But they go back to where they came from. Bob Clive and Campbell mean no harm, and if they did I can't stop them. But I can keep out myself. When my mother gets angry at their bad deeds, father says, ' Boys will be boys.' Once when he said that, mother replied, ' Yes. But it's a pity they do not remember that one day they will be men. It will not be so pleasant for them then to have to be While the Cat's Asleep. -■7 ashamed of their boyhood's deeds.' I took hold of those words ; and when I'm a man I don't mean to have to be ashamed."

" Nor don't I either," said Jack Moore, gravely. " I didn't never hear Mrs. Nuneham say that, but I've thought it." And no one looking at the honest, half-starved face could doubt it. Charlie Nuneham sat up again, and looked thoughtful. A boy with a basket of new loaves was passing at a short distance, and he was hailed, a loaf bought, and quickly transferred to Jack Moore's hands, and almost as quickly transferred to his mouth. " Master Nuneham " — in a pause of munching. " Ay ! Is it good ? " " First-rate. But — I beg your pardon for asking, but I'd be main glad if you'd tell me if you mean you don't really go to liking these ' raids' on the village, as Master Bob calls 'em ? " Nuneham opened his eyes and raised his eyebrows. " Like them, Jack ? Why, of course not. Who could, who takes the trouble to think, and I do that sometimes.

You see I've more time for it than the other fellows, because I like shutting my eyes so much." Jack Moore nodded his head knowingly. "Ay, you do like that, truly. But yet you sees a sight more than them as keeps them open, don't you ? " " Umph — well " — was the contented assent. " Perhaps once in a while, yes. Any way, about these raids, I believe I see that I'd be very glad if Bob and Campbell would give them up. To my mind they're no better kind of a joke than if you, and the rest ofthe farm boys about, got in home and broke up our chairs and tables for a spree. Father wouldn't think that a spree, neither Winning an Empire. should I. But, mind you, Jack, I'm not blaming the others." "You never would," said Jack admiringly. "You — ' " I don't mean that," interrupted Charlie. Though what Jack meant, and he didn't mean, appeared alike doubtful.

" I mean, as I said before, if Bob could once be quiet enough to take time to think, he'd see this wasn't right, and I just tell you this, Jack, if once he saw plainly it wasn't right, he wouldn't do it. And he's better than me, for he wouldn't let the others do it, either. And now you must make yourself scarce a bit. I've got to set a trap. By the bye — " " Yes, sir ? " Isn't father one of the magistrates who're trying to nab you ? " " Yes. " Ah, well, all right. You come up to the Hall to night. I'll be on the look-out for you, and take you right away in to father, and get mother to put it all straight. She always helps folks to keep right, if she can. And she will now."

Chapter III. Keeping Camp

" iKT^fe^JI^LL, young gentleman, and what do you RYfVS want ? " l&s&k*t.\ The sharp-nosed, sharp-tongued owner of the little village shop came forward towards the doorway, in which the leader of the expedition had planted himself, well supported by his comrades. The schoolboy's eyes and attention were for the moment given to the contents of the shop-window. The question was repeated more gruffly : " What may you be wanting, pray ? " The new-comer had made up his mind by now what it was that he did want, so he was ready to answer. " Wh}7, Mr. Bardsley, what we want are those apples over there, two dozen of them, and this ball," picking one up as he spoke. The crusty-tempered old man prepared to count out the apples from the kind selected, and at the same time demanded : " Now, young gentleman, out with your sevenpencc.

Money first, and goods after — D'ye hear ? " " Oh, yes, we hear," was the calm reply. " But there isn't anything to do with money this time. You see we've decided that you shall give us something for our holiday, every Saturday, and then we'll take care of your windows for you." For a few moments Mr. Bardsley seemed to have lost his breath. Slowly he dropped the apples back into the skep. Still more slowly he at length dropped some words out of his mouth. " You've de — cided that I — shall — give you — some thing — " " Yes," said the young leader, firmly, and keeping his position unflinchingly in the doorway. " Black mail, you know. And then," — with the air of a successful robber chief, — " we shall enter into a covenant to do injury neither to you nor to your property. We have just entered into one with Mr. Nulham."

" Then Nulham's a green-headed fool," exclaimed his neighbour, wrathfully. Mr. Bardsley had recovered both breath and reason now, and he accompanied his words with a sudden dart at the bold intruder. But boys' eyes are keen, and their movements at least as quick as their elders'. Mr. Bardsley's stretched-out hand grasped nothing, and he lost his balance, and fell over his own door-sill, putting his shoulder through the glazed upper half of the door as he did so. Amidst the crash of the falline glass there was a shout of delight. " Hurrah ! you've saved us the trouble of smashing it for you, Mr. Bardsley, just this once, so there's your ball back for you. V/ould you like some brown paper and vinegar ? " "A good lot he'll want, I should say," remarked another of his young tormentors, and then they ran off to the next shop on their list,— the Collins'.

But here prudence was chosen as the better present part than valour. Not only Mr. and Mrs. Collins, but the three big sons, the farm labourers, were in the shop besides. A demand for black mail, in the shape of the coveted kite, was likely to result in a victorious refusal. "But yet," remarked Jim maliciously, "But yet, Clive, you told Campbell just now that you couldn't let Widow Mallet off, because it wouldn't be fair to let one off more than another. On that rule I don't see how you can slip out of making an attack here ? " The young leader turned his eyes slowly upon the bigger boy, his follower. " N — no," he said, gravely. The next instant, with a rush and a dash, he had thrust Jim, sprawling, right into the Collins' atom of a shop, and accompanied the act with the information : " There he is, Mrs. Collins.

He wants me to break your windows for you ! But I wont. Give us a ball of string, please, will you ? We do want one." While one farm lad sprang forward to secure Master Jim, another tossed the ball of string to the triumphal. t petitioner, for his supposed services — services which might have been greater, by the bye, if the commander had not muttered such authoritative orders for the victim's rescue, almost at the moment of throwing him into peril. In two minutes' time the whole party, with the ball of string, and the bag of biscuits from the easy tempered Mr. Nulham, had escaped to the other side of the green once more. " Hurrah ! " exclaimed Clive, flinging up his ball cf string. " Hurrah ! " shouted all the others with the exception of Jim. He looked sulky and spiteful. The young commander marched up to him.

"Jim ; shout hurrah." " Sha'n't." " Why not ? " " You played me a mean trick, and I'll be revenged. My funny-bone got hit, and my knees bruised, and that Collins grabbed at my shoulder as if he'd got hold of the ploughshare." " Ah," said Clive ; " then that matter's settled without a court-martial. I'm glad of that. You see I was bound to let you have it somehow, for being so eager to set upon Mrs. Mallet because she's weak. If we'd each had one at you I expect you'd have come off worse than you have now." Jim rubbed his shoulder, but said no more. He was taller and stouter than Clive, but he was not taller and stouter than fourteen other boys united to do Clive's bidding. He decided to put up with his injuries in silence, for the time. The biscuits were divided, and he took his share with the rest, and then moved quietly away, step by step, till he got a small bush between him and his companions still busy with their biscuits, and then he scampered off", bent on retaliation for his sore knee.

But cleverly7 as his scheme was contrived, it was not destined to succeed. He had put himself under one whose rule was not to be trifled with. " Hallo ! where's that fellow got to ? " suddenly exclaimed Clive, pelting Campbell with the last two of his biscuits, as he cast a hurried gLnce round upon his followers, and discovered no trace of the deserter. Thus ridding himself, with the readiness of after years, of personal possessions in enthusiasm for the common cause, he flew off in pursuit. He made straight for Widow Mallet's. But no Jim was there, and, to Clive's considerable satisfaction, the cat was. It came rubbing up against his legs trustfully, and made no attempt to escape when it was picked up and run away with towards its captor's own home. At the garden-gate stood the little sister, and, before she knew what was happening, she was standing hold ing tbe stolen cat in her pinafore, with the parting injunction ofher masterful brother Bob still sounding in her astonished ears : — " Don't you go, Sally, to let a creature know you've got that cat till I come back, or I'll call you a sneak right away, for ever and ever, as long as you live."

Poor little Sal ! But then — if Bob was rather ordering in his ways, he was also one of the most generous, good brothers small sisters ever had ; so he deserved to have a cat hidden up for him if he wished. Meantime, as to the ease or hardness of that same hiding up, the cat's captor paid little heed. He was off on the hunt for a greater prize. Up and down the two streets ofthe village rushed Clive. Then towards Jim's home. He met Jim's elder brother, and gasped out a breathless question : " Has Jim skulked home ? " " No," was the reply. " But what's he done to be skulking for ? " That query got no answer. Clive heard the "no," and then was on again like an arrow, without waiting to hear anything more. He flew back to the green. From a little distance the sound of a shout fell upon his ears.

He changed his course, and there came the shout again, more clearly heard : " Clive— Bob Clive ! " It was Charlie Nuneham's voice, and Clive's face fell again with disappointment. " Can't come, Barley. I'm on a trail. You must wait." " No," shouted back Charlie, with an energy he generally seemed quite incapable of exerting. " No, can't wait. Got something for you — in camp." The last two words were pronounced with a tremendous emphasis that excited the hearer's curiosity. " What is it ? " he exclaimed. " Let's see." The other boys had heard the shouts, and " Let's see " was echoed on all sides, as they gathered up. There sat Charlie on the ground, softly rocking him self backwards and forwards in his favourite way, and with his usual calm expression of placid contentment on his face. And there, beside him, lay the deserter, most decidedly not looking either placid or contented.

His hands were tied together, and his feet were tied to a bramble-bush. Some of the boys danced round him with derisive triumph, but the commander was above any such commonplace display of his feelings. He looked satisfied. That was enough. " How did you manage it ? " he asked. Hush-a-bye stopped his rocking. " Guessed from the first he'd try to get that cat. I thought perhaps he'd come to ask me to help. He makes mistakes about me sometimes ; so do other folks. So I got that string fastened to the bush, and kept camp, and waited. He did come, and I tripped him up. And now, where's my share of biscuits ? " Clive was deep in thought. " Very clever of you. But didn't he scuffle ? " " Rather ! Like a cat. But I was prepared, and he wasn't. Where are those biscuits ? " Clive flung himself round impatiently.

" Bother the biscuits ! " " No, don't. I want them. I do deserve my share. I thought you'd be fair enough to admit that." One of the young leader's strongest virtues was appealed to with that expostulation, and he turned back again. " Well, and so I do admit it. But I can't think how you can go bothering about biscuits, when there are things so much more important to think about." Charlie Nuneham calmly resumed his rocking. " I thought you planned the expedition for the sake of getting the biscuits ? " Clive's lip curled scornfully. " Of course I did, for the sake of getting them ; but not for the sake of eating them." Charlie smiled, the other boys stared, and their companion's face showed still greater indignation, as he added : " What a mean set you must all be to like the things better than the fun !

" " I only care for either, because — " began Campbell, when a sharp, passionate voice broke in : " I'd like the fun of stoning that cat better than all the biscuits in the world. And I'll stone all of you, too, if you don't let me go this instant." " Stone away," said his captor, calmly. " Stone away," jeered most of the others, resuming their dance around him. Certainly under his present c circumstances Jim's threat was as empty a boast as it was an unwise one. But the commander appeared satisfied with the punishment inflicted upon his rebellious follower, and quite indifferent to his threatenings. " Help to undo these knots, Campbell," he said, as he, himself, knelt down beside Jim, and began to free his hands. In half a minute Jim sprang to his feet, at liberty once more, and tossed up his head with a mixture of sullenness and defiance.

But he was not to get off quite so easily as he supposed. The captain of the village forces folded his arms again, and with a slight nod of his head towards the culprit announced solemnly : "Jim Carter, you are out of everything from us for the rest of the day, and we bind ourselves to serve you out for it, if any creature about the place gets any harm this evening." This judgment pronounced, Clive pulled up Nuneham from the ground, caught hold of Campbell by the arm, and with an imperative " Come on, and leave him," started off to the river. Jim stood a few moments where he had been left. Then he tore after his companions. Clive's sharp ears caught the sound of his steps. " Hoot him," he exclaimed. And the whole party faced about, and obeyed with a will. Jim stopped short in his run, stooped, picked up a couple of large stones, and was about to hurl them.

Clive sprang forward in front of his followers with the cry : " You'd better not — I warn you — you'd better not." Jim paused, and eyed the younger boy, standing there so dauntlessly facing the two big stones. And somehow, after ten long silent seconds, Jim seemed to feel that the warning was true, that he had "better not." He dropped the stones, one on to a poor worm, the other on to a luckless green beetle, and went home to tease his little sisters.

Chapter IV. Uncle Bayley

" i1P|!||VjOB, what's going to be done with this ball of U P^jl string ?" asked John Campbell. r.'^-^il The boys had reached the river-bank some three or four minutes since, but their appointed guide had, as yet, suggested nothing more for the general entertainment. His friend produced the ball of string by way of rousing him from his brown study. " Ball of string ? " asked Clive, dreamily. " Yes, this. The one you got Jack Collins to give us. Don't you remember ? What shall we do with it ?" " Oh, use it for a kite," was the ready answer. " That was what I meant it for." Clive's wits were all at home again. " Let's see — ah ! — Look out, all of you ; I've thought of something jolly. The one that can pitch a stone on to the island yonder shall have this string for a prize." " But how about if we all do it ?