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 THE 
 
 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 OF 
 
 JACK OF THE MILL.
 
 ^' Digitized by tiie Internet Arciiive 
 in 2009 witii funding from 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/lifeadventuresof01howi
 
 THE 
 
 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 JACK OF THE MILL 
 
 COMMONLY CALLED LORD OTHMILL ; 
 
 CREATED, FOR HIS EMINENT SERVICES, BARON WALDECK, 
 AND KNIGHT OF KITCOTTIE. 
 
 A FIRESIDE STORY. 
 
 BY WILLIAM HOWITT. 
 
 WITH FORTY ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD BY G. F. SARGENT. 
 
 IN TWO VOLS.— VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GTREEN, Sj LONGMANS. 
 1844.
 
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 I'ATKP.NUSTKH I'.OW. 
 
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 THE OKIGIN 
 
 The family was assembled in the drawing-room 
 in the evening. The shutters were closed, the 
 curtains drawn. All the elements of English 
 comfort were brought together; a bright fire 
 and lights within, a dark night and wild winds 
 without. The father was conning the last page 
 of his newspaper; the mother was sewing at her 
 little table on the opposite side of the hearth. 
 A boy and girl were in one place, deep immersed 
 in a game of chess; and not far from the father 
 sate a young boy on a sofa, with his legs drawn 
 up under him, and his eyes fixed on the father, 
 as if watching for something. 
 
 The father laid down his newspaper with a sigh. 
 ^ "What is the matter, my dear?" asked the 
 mother. 
 
 " Disturbances again in those wretched manu- 
 facturing districts. The iron-works in Warwick-
 
 VI THE OKTGIN. 
 
 shire and Wales blowing out their farnaces; the 
 wages of the agricultural labourers dropped to 
 nine shillings a week, little work, and bread 
 raised a penny the quartern loaf. There'll be a 
 pretty winter/^ 
 
 The mother sighed, " Poor people ! what can 
 be done?^' 
 
 "I know not," said the father; "but now let 
 us read something. There are many good hearts 
 in the;30untry. We must help what we can; but 
 to-night we can do nothing but drive away sad 
 thoughts." 
 
 " Oh then, Papa," exclaimed the watching boy 
 on the sofa, suddenly putting down his legs, and 
 his eyes kindling into an eager brightness, "tell 
 us one of your stories; such as you used to tell 
 at school, which you called ^hatch-ups.' I do 
 like them so. Nothing drives away sad thoughts 
 like one of them." 
 
 " And what do you know of sad thoughts, 
 Claude? But, indeed, I used to be very fond 
 of those ^hatch-ups' myself. WifFen, the trans-
 
 THE ORIGIN. VU 
 
 lator of Tasso — so soon cut off^ poor fellow! — he 
 and I used to sleep in a large chamber, with 
 sixty other boys; and as we went to bed at eight 
 o'clock, we used to entertain the lads with relating 
 such stories as came into our heads without any 
 forethought or preparation. Night after night it 
 continued, and became as exciting and absorbing 
 as one of the tales of the Arabs round their 
 evening fires in the Desert. Every night, so soon 
 as all were in bed, there was an eager cry of 
 ^ Well, now then, go on with the hatch-up ! ' " 
 
 And by-the-bye, what an age this has been for 
 hatch-ups ! The whole reading public, like that 
 bedroom full of schoolboys, has hung from month 
 to month, and year to year, on the splendid 
 hatch-ups of such a set of story-tellers as the 
 world scarcely ever before possessed. For what 
 are the grand romances of Scott and others, but 
 glorious hatch-ups? Lives, histories, characters, 
 and wonders, created out of nothing — the visions 
 of fertile brains, in which all the sunshine of all 
 their past summers was hoarded, to come forth
 
 Vm THE ORIGIN. 
 
 in this shape, for the delight of all generations. 
 Scott, Bulwer, Boz, Cooper, Irving, Godwin, 
 James, Hook, Gait, etc. etc.; and the ladies too, 
 how delightfully have they hatch ed-up stories of 
 deathless interest for us all. Austen, Edgeworth, 
 Ferrier, Gore, Sedgwick, Bremer, Martineau, and 
 a long and luminous list. It is all hatch-up, but 
 it is none the worse for that. In the great stream 
 of invention, what a mighty mass of truths and 
 experiences floats along for our delight, between 
 banks oT poetic beauty, and overhung with the 
 lamps of wit and knowledge. And to look back 
 to Shakspeare, what hatch-ups are there ! To 
 Fielding, Richardson, Sterne, Bunyan, Cervantes, 
 Boccaccio, and most of the great poets, like Ariosto, 
 Tasso, Byron ; to the romances of all lands, — 't is 
 all hatch-up ! But what then ? what in life is half 
 so real, and half so enchanting? 
 
 But leaving this great tribe to the full mirth 
 or intensity of their elaborate hatch-ups, let us 
 endeavour to catch as much as possible the form 
 and spirit of one of our own, in the young days
 
 THE ORIGIN. IX 
 
 we are talking of. This then shall be "The 
 Hatch-up of Jack-of-the-Mill." 
 
 The father commenced his story. The little 
 boy on the sofa from time to time rubbed his 
 hands and chuckled to himself. The elder boy 
 and girl went on, deep and silent, with their 
 game of chess; the mother with her sewing, 
 her thoughts evidently engaged on some matter 
 of her own. Anon, however, the laughter of the 
 little boy on the sofa, who had again drawn up 
 his legs under him, and was occasionally hammer- 
 ing with his right hand on the head of the sofa, 
 saying, " That is good ! that pleases me !" drew 
 the attention of the mother; she smiled and 
 listened too. The elder boy and girl, stopped 
 at a new fit of laughter, seemed half inclined to 
 be angry at the interruption of their game ; but 
 listened an instant and then laughed too. They 
 left their chess-board standing, and drew into 
 the fireside circle. In a while father, mother, 
 children — all, seemed equally interested in the 
 adventures of "Jack of the Mill.^^ Evening after
 
 X THE ORIGIN. 
 
 evening it was called for, and continued till 
 finished. 
 
 The next cry was, "Tell it again, papa — tell 
 it again ! " 
 
 But the father's answer was, " What so tedious 
 as a twice-told tale?" 
 
 " Then write it down for us, do write it down!" 
 
 This demand was often repeated; and after 
 many weeks, as eagerly as ever; the father^s 
 answer was only a shake of the head. 
 
 On the next Christmas-eve there was, some- 
 thing after the fashion of Germany, a Christmas- 
 tree set up in the drawing-room, and amongst the 
 presents of the children, which lay on the table 
 under it, was a neatly bound book, which, on being 
 opened, was saluted by a universal exclamation — 
 "Ah! the famous Hatch -up of Jack -of -the - 
 Mill!^' 
 
 It was there in manuscript; and, as the conse- 
 quence of the next request, it is here in print.
 
 PAGE 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 
 Where Jack sprung from, and what he was . . 1 
 
 II. 
 
 Old Bowes the Miller, and how he won a Race . 21 
 
 III. 
 
 Jack continues the Story of the Miller. The Conse- 
 quences of the Race, and the Merry Hoax of the 
 Holy Water 35 
 
 IV. 
 
 Jack sets out to seek his Fortune . . . .52 
 
 V. 
 
 The Dinner by the Forest Spring — and Jack's arrival 
 
 at the Gipsy Camp ...... 66 
 
 VI. 
 
 Jack's First Adventure 76 
 
 VII. 
 
 The Chase ........ 95 
 
 VIII. 
 A Deadly Encounter 106
 
 XU CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. PAGE 
 
 Jack meets with some Honest Men at a Solitary Inn, 
 
 and the upshot of it 118 
 
 X. 
 
 Jack travels on, but does not mend his Company . 138 
 
 xr. 
 
 The Flitting of the Old Folks, and how they were 
 
 received by the Old Knight's Steward . .154 
 
 XII. 
 
 Jack's Interview with the Old Knight; he receives a 
 
 Weighty Commission, and sees a Horrible Sight . 169 
 
 XIII. 
 
 A Hue-and-Cry after Jack; and a Glimpse into Strange 
 
 Secrets 187 
 
 XIV. 
 Jack grows in Knowledge and Friendship with the 
 Men in the Wall. He, by their aid, exposes and 
 puts to flight the Unjust Steward. The merry 
 Adventure of the ruined Abbey . . . 206 
 
 XV. 
 A charming Day, and an eventful Evening. A Con- 
 test at Scalhope Tower. The Men in the Wall are 
 taken 223 
 
 XVI. 
 
 The Surprise and Skirmish at Cock-Cliff Hill . 241 
 
 XVII. 
 Tricks upon Travellers, amongst whom the False 
 
 Steward and the Soldiers figure pre-eminently . 249
 
 CONTENTS. Xill 
 
 VOLUME II. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. PAGE 
 
 The Knight delivers Jack an admirable Lecture on 
 Contentment with our lot, and relates to him his 
 own Story .... .... 1 
 
 XIX. 
 
 The Knight continues hh Story 28 
 
 XX. 
 
 The Knight concludes his Story., He relates that of the 
 Deformed Sculptor. Jack embarks for Hamburg 
 in quest of the Old Knight's Son ... 37 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Jack embarks for Germany; meets with an Old Friend 
 on the Voyage, who introduces him to many new 
 Friends in Hamburg. Prepares for his grand 
 Expedition 49 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Adventures on the Way. Othmill quits the Wagon - 
 Train, and follows the Duke of Brunswick into the 
 Harz Country. Arrives at Leipsic ... 72 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Othmill falls in with the Army of the Hussites. The 
 
 March to Prague 91
 
 XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 XXIV. PAGE 
 
 John Othmill sees strange Things in Prague, and 
 
 recovers a Glimpse of Hope . . . .102 
 
 XXV. 
 
 John Othmill goes in quest of the Jew Melchior, which 
 
 leads to striking Results . . . . .118 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Othmill and his young friend Maurice Bevor, on their 
 Return, encounter the Robher-Knight, Hans von 
 Stein, and assault his Stronghold. In what follows 
 the Reader will see what follows . . . .165 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 Othmill is Knighted. As Sir John Othmill, he per- 
 forms great services in the Royal Forests. The 
 famous Siege of Waldeck, and the Exploit of the 
 Three Tailors. Sir John is made Baron Waldeck 
 and Knight of Kitcottie . . . . .20- 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 In which various Particulars are related for the satis- 
 faction of the Reader, and particularly the Exploits 
 of Lord Waldeck at Sea 255
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Robbers falling into the Well . . . Title 
 
 Jack turning like a Wheel . . . .1 
 
 The Race .... v . 21 
 
 The Tramper dipping his Bottle . . .35 
 
 Jack leaving Home .... 52 
 
 The Gipsy Camp . . . . .66 
 
 A Scene in the Gipsy Camp ... 76 
 
 Jack alarmed by Wild Fowl . , . .95 
 
 Jack's Encounter with the Gipsy . . . 106 
 
 Jack's Device to frighten the Host . . .118 
 
 Jack meeting the Old Woman . . . 138 
 Jack and the Old Woman's Cat .... 154 
 
 Jack's Interview with the Old Knight . . 169 
 
 Jack on the Bacon-Rack . . . .187 
 
 The Miller's Lad on the Old White Goat . . 206 
 
 A Contest at Scalhope Tower . . . .223 
 
 The Rescue ...... 241 
 
 Jack behind the Steward . . . .249 
 
 Jack misleading the Soldiers . . .258
 
 XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 VOLUME II. 
 
 PACE 
 
 Tim and Ben — their Travels over . . Title 
 
 The Festival in the Knight's Castle . . 1 
 
 The Interdict . . . . . .27 
 
 Death of the Old Knight's Wife ... 28 
 
 Fatal Rencontre of the Students . . .35 
 
 The Deformed Sculptor in his Studio . . 37 
 
 Departure of the Wagon-Train . . . .49 
 
 Fight in the Forest .... 72 
 
 Jack with the Giant . . . . .91 
 
 Storming of the Town-House . . . 102 
 
 Jack and the Jew Melchior . , . .118 
 
 Othmill's Introduction to Ziska . . . 142 
 
 Othmill in the Emperor's Tent . . .147 
 
 Von Stein at the Boar Hunt . . . 165 
 Von Stein taken Prisoner .... 206 
 
 Othmill Excommunicated at the Gate of Waldeck 218 
 
 Falling of the Drawbridge . . . . . 238 
 
 Three Tailors taking Kitcottie Prisoner . . 245 
 
 View in the West Indies . . . . . 255 
 
 Othmill and Friends before Kitcottie Castle . 265 
 
 A Sea-Fight 276
 
 JACK TURNING LIKE A WHEEL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WHERE JACK SPRUNG FROM, AND WHAT HE WAS. 
 
 Ages ago, when England and all the world were 
 very old-fashioned, one fine summer evening might 
 be seen on the edge of a long common, one of those 
 snug cottages, half timber half brick- work, which yet 
 may be found in many a nook of our happy island, 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 and that are at once so rustic and so attractive. It 
 stood in its old enclosure, a mixture of garden and 
 orchard, as it had already stood for scores of years. 
 Old fruit-trees thickly covered the greater part of 
 it; some of them leaning one way, and some of 
 them another, — like a parcel of old fellows that had 
 led a jolly life together, and now having met, 
 perhaps for the last time, at the village wake, had 
 made so free with their morning cup, that not one 
 of them could stand upright. One seemed to say 
 to his neighbour, "Help me, John, or I shall be 
 down on my nose;" and the other to answer, 
 " Lack-a-day, Thomas, I can't keep on my legs 
 myself;'^ and so one went down on his knees, and 
 another slipped down on his side, and a third had 
 clutched hold of his tottering neighbour, and there 
 they stood, and laughed together till they both 
 rolled down the hill, and all the rest laughed at 
 them till they fell too, or were obliged to prop 
 themselves against anything they came near. Just 
 so were the old orchard trees. They all looked
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 3 
 
 more than half worn out with age, and yet all 
 hardy and tough, and setting time and infirmities 
 at defiance. They were bent and tumbled about, 
 nay, in more than one place tumbled over each 
 other, till you might almost fancy you heard them 
 cry out — "Heavens! what a weight! Off, ofi*, old 
 boy there, or I shall be squeezed into the ground 
 like a nettle-stalk that a cart-wheel has gone over!^^ 
 Yet they all turned up their old heads, and laughed 
 in the sunshine. They were of kinds that few 
 people now know. Nobody could tell when they 
 were planted, and they seemed determined to live 
 on for ever. Some were quite hollow; and the 
 tomtit and the pea-bird had built their nests in 
 their innermost boles for generations; and some, 
 where they formerly had a great bough, had now 
 a great hole in their shoulders filled with black 
 mould, out of which sprouted a wild gooseberry- 
 bush, or from which a bramble hung down; yet, 
 spite of all this, they had twisted up their sturdy 
 trunks again so resolutely, that they had fairly
 
 4 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 bent them into an elbow; and though some of 
 them had been knocked so completely on their 
 knees by a desperate blow of a thunder-bolt, or 
 whisked over by a giant of a storm-wind, that 
 brushed past as suddenly and as rudely as if he 
 had been stung by a hornet, — yet, I say, there 
 were their old heads all turned up to the sunshine 
 with an air that seemed to say, " Here we are, after 
 all, as stout and clever as ever ! " 
 
 And really it was astonishing what quantities of 
 fruit those old heads were covered with, which, as 
 the summer was now verging towards autumn, began 
 to shew themselves in their various and peculiar 
 characters and colours. There were top-apples and 
 John-apples, leather-coats and golden-pippins, ladies'- 
 fingers and Whiking-pippins, seek-no-furthers and 
 crab-minchings; there were Eve-apples and penny- 
 loaf-apples, apples with red cheeks, and apples as 
 green as spring grass; apples all striped with bright 
 red stripes, and crab-apples for making verjuice, 
 which looked as gay and gallant as any of them, yet
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 
 
 were in reality so sour, that if you bit one it would 
 twist up your face just as a washerwoman twists up 
 a piece of linen that she is wringing out. 
 
 There were pears almost as various. Swans'-eggs 
 and honey-pears; the latter, little sweet yellow and 
 rosy things, already ripe, and shewing, by sticks 
 and stones, and broken pieces of branches, and 
 quantities of green leaves lying under these trees, 
 that somebody knew of them. There were very tall 
 trees hung with pears called bell-pears; and on 
 these bells I know somebody who has rung many 
 a peal. There were other large pears called Warden, 
 which might almost as correctly have been called 
 wooden-pears; for till they were baked they were 
 as hard as knobs of wood: but then, as the old 
 woman of the cottage used to produce them in 
 her great brown steen-pot from the oven, so red, 
 so juicy, and so sweet, that they needed a warden 
 to prevent them being all eaten up; and perhaps 
 it was from this that they had their name. Besides 
 these there were various others, none of which we
 
 6 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 need here particularize, except that dehghtful old 
 pear, covered with little round white spots, called 
 a choke-pear; because, though very juicy, its juice 
 had the odd property of choking you. Amongst 
 its plums, too, stood conspicuous that yellowish, 
 reddish plum, about as big as a marble, called 
 the old English bullace, said to have been formerly 
 a wild plum native to the country, and yet to be 
 seen in old-fashioned orchards and garden hedges 
 that have stood perhaps for centuries. 
 
 Besides these, stood here and there a quince, with 
 its yellow-green fruit, a medlar, and a mulberry; 
 and under one of the largest apple-trees, the stout 
 old press for the verjuice. Underneath the trees, 
 here and there also, and in the open space that 
 might be more properly called the garden, grew 
 cabbages and turnips, and other garden stuff, and 
 bushes of overgrown filbert -nuts and barberry. 
 At one end of the house grew a great yew-tree, 
 and all about the other a wilderness of ancient and 
 wrinkled elder -trees, in which the hens roosted.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 7 
 
 There was a turf- bank by the cottage door, on 
 which grew camomile^ and about the windows and 
 under them, all those old English plants, rue and 
 rosemary, lad's-love and box, marigolds and poly- 
 anthuses, that no old cottage garden could be 
 without. Of course there was a stand of bees, 
 and at this very time these bees were making a 
 most summer-like hum, not only in the honeysuckle 
 which hung over the door, but just as merrily in 
 the poisonous flowers of the blue monkshood and 
 spurges, and in the very weeds which ramped in 
 that not very well weeded garden. 
 
 This little peasant^s nest, with its old orchard 
 and garden, was fenced in by an old fence, partly 
 of rotting pales green with age, and partly by a 
 hedge that had grown as wild as the asses and 
 cattle on the common would let it. From their 
 depredations it was luckily, in a great measure, 
 protected by a great, wide, deep, straggling ditch, 
 on the banks of which, dry with the long drought 
 of a warm summer, and under the canopy of over-
 
 8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 hanging bushes of bramble and sloe^ were scuffling 
 and rolHng in the dust a considerable flock of fowls. 
 Just below, in a pool, swam as large a company 
 of ducks and geese, while the old man of the 
 cottage looked over his little garden-gate at them 
 with evident satisfaction, and then went to see how 
 the bed of onions flourished that were to stuff 
 them on their roasting day, and to gather peas to 
 carry to town with three couple of the ducks on 
 the morrow. 
 
 Far and wide around stretched the common, 
 scattered with bushes of broom and gorse, with 
 sheep and pigs, cattle and shaggy ponies; and in 
 a hollow not far off, lay on his back, kicking up 
 his heels in the sunshine, and singing as loud as 
 he could, a queer kind of an urchin, that might be 
 fourteen, or that might be twenty, for aught that 
 the cleverest judge of age could tell. If you looked 
 at his size at a distance, you would say that he was 
 about twelve or so; but if you came to look near 
 at him, you found him such a queer, old-fashioned
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. \) 
 
 sort of a cub, that you did not know what to make 
 of him. He was as nimble and agile as a monkey. 
 He could twist his limbs into every sort of shape 
 that he pleased; run up a tree, like a cat; scour 
 along the ground on all fours, like a dog; cock 
 up his heels suddenly in the air, and walk along 
 on his hands just as well as on his feet; while, with 
 his body bent back into a perfect ring, he went 
 along knocking the back of his head with his heels. 
 Throwing himself as suddenly out of this form, he 
 would spin along the greensward like a wheel — now 
 his heels in the air, now his hands — yet so rapidly 
 that his flying limbs resembled the spokes of the 
 wheel of which his odd little body was the nave. 
 There was no place where he was not seen exercising 
 his exploits. At one moment he was climbing up 
 the loose precipice of a stone quarry, in pursuit 
 of a sand-marten^s or a wagtaiFs nest; and more 
 than once had whole loads of slightly-suspended 
 stones given way with him, and come thundering 
 down with him to the bottom, half-burying him
 
 10 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 alive, and bruising him black and blue; yet he had 
 crept out like a crushed rat out of the ruins of a 
 fallen house, shaken himself, and gone off as if 
 nothing was amiss. At another time he would be 
 seen hanging by a single branch over a deep river, 
 stretching with all his might after some floating 
 trifle or other; the branch has given way, he has 
 plunged headlong in, where it was deep enough to 
 take a tolerable church-steeple over head, and the 
 country fellows who saw him have said, "There, 
 Jack is gone from home safe enough; he can^t 
 swim, and that hole is deep enough to drown Gog 
 and Magog/^ But Jack has come up, given a 
 snort like a rhinoceros, and though he never swam 
 an inch before in his life, has floated and struggled 
 on, with a motion something between that of a toad 
 and a blind kitten, come to the bank, crept up it 
 like a great lizard, shook himself, blown his nose, 
 taken off his great shoes, and spouted the water 
 out of them, and trotted off home to dry himself. 
 Another time he would be seen on the top of an
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 11 
 
 old man's cottage, peeping down the chimney, and 
 amusing himself with dropping a piece of mortar 
 or brick that he has picked from the wall into the 
 porridge-pot, to the wonderful consternation of the 
 good folks below; or he would be discovered climb- 
 ing up the spouts and quoin-stones of the church 
 tower, and creeping in at the belfry window in quest 
 of pigeon nests. There was no mischief and no 
 dangerous place that the young monkey was not 
 getting into; and the whole neighbourhood settled 
 it, without a dissenting voice, that he would be 
 good for nothing while he lived, and must come 
 to some uncommon end. "I shall not live to see 
 it, may be,^' said old men, and old women too; 
 '^but those that do live to see it, will see some- 
 thing unaccountably strange in that young fellow's 
 finishing ofi". He^s just the gracelessest scapegrace 
 that ever winked in God's daylight ! " 
 
 If you took a near view of the restless subject 
 of these comfortable prophecies, you seemed at last 
 to have found a complete falsification of the adage,
 
 12 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 that you can't set an old head on young shoulders, 
 for here it was. Upon that lanky little body, 
 which seemed as if it was made out of a snake, 
 with its tail split in two for a pair of queer legs, 
 and which was bending about in all sorts of uneasy 
 ways in the most easy manner possible while you 
 looked at it, stood a biggish rough head, with 
 rough, brown, sunburnt hair, that seemed never 
 to have had such a thing as a comb in it since 
 it grew, and a broadish, longish face, with a very 
 healthy, but very odd look. Under a broad sun- 
 freckled forehead, and a pair of shaggy eyebrows, 
 twinkled also a pair of the most sly, and at the 
 same time quietly-laughing, mischievous, and yet 
 good-natured eyes you ever saw. You could not 
 help taking a great fancy to the strange animal, 
 and yet having a feeling that there was something 
 impish and over-knowing about him. 
 
 Whatever was astir in the parish. Jack was 
 always on the spot. He was one of those idly- 
 active creatures that contrive to be in at all acci-
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 13 
 
 dents, to see all strange sights, to hear the first 
 news. If a barn was on fire, a horse had staked 
 itself by leaping a fence, a cow had fallen dead, 
 or somebody^s sheep had been worried by a strange 
 dog, Jack was always to be seen thrusting in his 
 shaggy head between the legs of the first group 
 of eager spectators, and was the first to run off as 
 a messenger for help. To tell the truth, he would 
 soon raise the whole neighbourhood. Over hedge 
 and ditch he went; his rough locks flapping, his 
 old brown coat flying behind, his odd legs spinning 
 away in the most marvellous manner. He ducked 
 and. threaded the copse-wood like a hare, tripped 
 over the stepping-stones of the brook like a cat, 
 swung himself over a five-barred gate like a merry- 
 andrew, and came suddenly round the corner of a 
 wood on labourers in the fields, or springing into 
 a farm-yard or a cottage garden, with his whole 
 body on fire with eagerness, his eyes so full of 
 wonder, and dealt out with such sharp and hungry 
 words his news, that all heads were speedily popped
 
 14 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 out of their doors, and the enth'e lordship was in 
 a fever of inquiry. 
 
 If strangers appeared in the place, Jack was sure 
 to creep to their sides, listen if they wanted to find 
 out anybody or to see anything, and then proffered 
 to shew them the way to their object. The lad 
 had a cocket way with him that infinitely amused 
 many strangers. There w^as nothing that they 
 could say to him that he did not give a smart reply 
 to. By attaching himself to wandering traders, 
 and old soldiers, that had come there at different 
 times, he had, as if by instinct, rather than by 
 any common means, picked up the common conver- 
 sational knowledge of various languages; and when 
 foreigners that have halted at the village inn, struck 
 with the uncommon quickness and grotesque cha- 
 racter of the lad, have made remarks to one another 
 in their own language, that he might not under- 
 stand them, they have been astonished to hear him 
 break out upon them in the same with a merry 
 jeering, ^'0, ! good master, so you thought you 
 had me there, eh?'^
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 15 
 
 On such occasions Jack was often of great use 
 to foreigners who did not well know his language. 
 He ran for conveyances for them, trudged on as 
 guide through the neighbouring woods, where the 
 roads were both difficult to find, and difficult to 
 travel when they were found. For in those days 
 they were often much worse than God and nature 
 made them, sometimes being so deep in mud that 
 the wheels sunk in the ruts deep as the axles, and 
 on each side stood up walls of mud as high as the 
 wheels themselves. They passed through wild, 
 stony streams where, if a man did not know the 
 track well, he would very soon smash his travelling 
 wagon, and sink both himself and his wares in the 
 flood. Sometimes they passed over the roughest 
 ground scattered with huge blocks of stone, or 
 down such steeps in the woodlands, that were 
 enough to terrify the stoutest traveller. But in 
 all such extremities. Jack's spirits and ingenuity 
 were unfailing. He would mount the horses' backs, 
 and shout and whip, and inspirit them, or guide
 
 16 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 them with the steady hand of an old man, that 
 made the travellers think him worth any money; 
 and more than once they have made him great 
 offers to go with them. But Jack, though restless 
 at home, never seemed to make up his mind to 
 leave it. He would only shake his head, and say, 
 " Nay, nay, what is to become of the old folks 
 when I'm gone?" as if he did ever so much towards 
 their support! 
 
 On these trips, however, Jack sometimes dis- 
 appeared for days and even weeks; and his parents 
 gave themselves no trouble about him, for they said, 
 " Ay, Jack ^11 take care of himself;" and in truth 
 he often came back with so much money in his 
 pocket as quite astonished the old people. 
 
 The roads in those days were no safer than they 
 were good; and Jack, who seemed to have patroled 
 the whole neighbourhood, had several times warned 
 travellers when they came to dangerous places, 
 and had enabled them to escape or prevent robbery, 
 for which he always got well rewarded. When the
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 17 
 
 travellers too, who sometimes amounted to a little 
 troop, with their pack-horses and servants, stopped 
 in the wood at noon to eat their dinners, Jack 
 would point out a pleasant spot on the slope of 
 some open glade, where they could se'at themselves 
 under the trees if it was hot, or screen themselves 
 from the wind when it was cold. At such times 
 he was always infinitely amusing by his tricks, as 
 well as useful by his offices. 
 
 With a kind of gray, lanky, rough dog, with one 
 lame fore leg, that he called Timothy, he would 
 watch the horses while they grazed, released from 
 their loads; and the travellers would sit and mark 
 his antics and his schemes with vast merriment. 
 Fixing himself on a knoll, he would put Timothy 
 to school, and make him go through a variety of 
 lessons and manoeuvres, which he performed with 
 a most laughable gravity. If the horses in the 
 mean time offered to take advantage of this, and 
 slyly wander wide, Jack's eye was on them. 
 Timothy's exercises, — in which he acted a soldier, 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 18 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 holding a stick for a spear^ a beggar hopping on a 
 crutch, or a parson preaching, being reared up by 
 the boll of a tree for the purpose, — were suddenly 
 broken off, and scampering round the troop with 
 a wonderful agility considering his lameness, he 
 soon had them again within due limits. At other 
 times, Jack caught hold of the down -hanging 
 branches of a large tree, and swinging himself up 
 into it, would lie and rock, and sing for an hour 
 together; while Timothy would sit below, looking 
 up at him, and whining and barking in chorus; 
 but at a word of Jack, "up Tim!" would dart 
 off, and bring back some straggling delinquent. 
 When his charge appeared particularly restive. 
 Jack would leap from tree to tree sometimes, more 
 like a monkey or a squirrel than a human creature, 
 and suddenly dropping to the ground before the 
 face of the unruly beast, would startle him back 
 in a hurry, or would dart through the thicket, and 
 leap out before the culprit with a shout that made 
 him wheel round as if shot.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 19 
 
 At other times, when these services were not 
 needed, he would sit on the ground by the stran- 
 gers, and while he ate the dinner they gave him, 
 equally amuse them by his conversation. He told 
 them stories of his village life, his neighbours, his 
 father's ass which he called Ben, of the old fat 
 Miller, and other things, which, though they had 
 little in them, were comical from the odd coun- 
 tenance and grotesque gravity with which they 
 were related. One traveller asked him what was 
 his name besides Jack. '^I know not," said he, 
 "Jack is enough, is it not, if I come when I'm 
 called ?" 
 
 '' But you have another name, I suppose.'' 
 
 " I reckon so," said Jack. 
 
 " And what is it ?" 
 
 "0! what you please; Bartholomew, or any- 
 thing." 
 
 "Bartholomew!" 
 
 ^' Yes, you may call me Bartholomew in a 
 morning before breakfast. Give me my break- 
 
 c2
 
 20 JACK OF THE MILL. 
 
 fast, and then you may call me Tholomew. Give 
 me my dinner, Old Thol, if you like; and if 
 you give me my supper, why then — Spade, or 
 anything/'
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OLD BOWES THE MILLER, AND HOW HE WON A RACE. 
 
 The old Miller seemed to have taken the greatest 
 hold on JacFs affections. He lived down in a 
 deep valley in the woods, where, as Jack described 
 it, there were such beautiful streams, and such nice 
 green alders hanging over them, and such quantities
 
 %Z LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 of nice fish ; and the Miller was such a nice fat 
 man, with such a deal of good-nature. "0! he 
 was such a good ^un," said Jack. " He had legs 
 like an elephant, and a face like the rising sun, 
 and such a great fat body! and when he stood with 
 one hand in his great waistcoat pocket, and the 
 other leaning on his stout stick, and asked me 
 about my old mother, and whether a bit of beef 
 wouldn^t do her good for her birth-day dinner — 
 didn^t he look a hearty old soul? and could any- 
 body wonder that he had got so fat? 
 
 ''Good old Bowes — that was his name — he seldom 
 went far from home; and what need had he, when 
 he 'd such a good home, with plenty o^ every thing 
 that a man can want? And especially when he 
 was so corpulent. But once he was obliged to 
 go to the county town to attend the assizes, and 
 there he had to stay several days. The people in 
 the town, where it is so smoky, and where they 
 haven't such nice mills, and nice flour, and such 
 nice meadows with green alders, but have to walk
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 23 
 
 about on hard stones and against hot walls, and 
 arn't so good-humoured, and consequently don't 
 grow so fat, w^ere quite astonished to see such a 
 noble size of a man. They came round him just 
 like bees about the beehive; and some looked at 
 him before, and some at him behind; and one 
 man — he was a cloth-dealer — said what a famous 
 customer heM be for cloth; and another, how he 
 should like to make him a pair of boots, because 
 he would go down into them like going into a 
 well, and finish them off so nicely in the inside. 
 Then a tailor clapped his measure across his back, 
 and stood fairly speechless in amazement! One 
 asked him if he had come there on horseback, 
 or on foot, or in a wagon; and then another 
 replied, if he came on horseback, he was sure the 
 horse^s back was broken; and if he came on foot, 
 they might soon know where he came from, for 
 he must have made a dint in the ground at every 
 step; and if he came in a wagon or a cart, they 
 need look nowhere for it but at the wheelwright's,
 
 24 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 for it must be fairly broken down. Then came 
 up a brisk fellow, and offered to run him a race, 
 and give him a hundred yards for a start. The 
 good-humoured Miller said, '^Ay, ay, my running 
 days are over, lad; thou mayst safely give me five 
 hundred while thou art doing.' But I gave him 
 a wink," said Jack; '^for he had taken me with 
 him, and said, 'Take him, Mester; take him, for 
 a race to the next church; take him, you'll beat 
 him.' The good Miller thought I had some rare 
 joke in my head, and so he said, 'Well, I'll run 
 thee! Done, my man! and at twelve to-morrow 
 be it, from here to the next church.' 
 
 " His offer was closed in with hearty laughter by 
 all the folks; and Bowes slowly walked off to his 
 arm-chair, and calling for a tankard of ale, asked, 
 as soon as we were alone, what I meant by advising 
 him to accept the bet? I told him that the greater 
 part of the way to the next church was through a 
 very narrow passage, and that if he managed to get 
 into that passage before his antagonist, he would
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 25 
 
 fill it quite up, and then could go on as slowly 
 as he pleased. The church, when he issued from 
 this passage, was only across the street, and if he 
 put out his strength then for a single minute the 
 day was his own. As I told him this, I saw the 
 worthy Miller's face grow crimson with an inward 
 chuckle. 'Thou art right, lad; thou art right,' 
 said he. 'Pll beat the coxcomb; I'll beat him, 
 and shew these puny pavement-treaders that the old 
 Miller has some kernel in him yet.* He quaffed 
 off a good draught of his ale, pushed the tankard 
 to me, gave me a hearty slap on the back, and 
 marched off to his bed, which was made in the 
 next parlour, because he was too heavy to walk 
 up stairs. 
 
 ''At twelve the next day nearly all the town was 
 collected about the inn door to see this curious race; 
 and when Bowes appeared, they gave a tremendous 
 shout. The worthy old fellow did not appear a 
 whit daunted. He came coolly out, and looking 
 round with his great rosy countenance, and a
 
 Zb LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 pleasant smile on it, on the crowd, said to those 
 nearest — ^Yo've but little to do in yo're town 
 I think, while so many on you are got together 
 to see a little whipper-snapper jack-a-dandy run 
 a race with a fat old fool of a miller. But stand 
 aside now, and clear the causeway there, for I want 
 a pretty good share of elbow room, and I shall 
 not stir a step till I see the coast clear.' 
 
 "The way was opened; the people were all very 
 merry; and Bowes turning round, and looking 
 down as if he were seeking for a little dog, or 
 something of the sort, said, 'Where is this little 
 chap, then? 0! there you are, my lad o' wax. 
 Stand you by the inn door-post. My strides are 
 yards. When I've counted a hundred on 'em, 
 I shall turn round and lift up my stick; and then, 
 my boy, go your hardest.^ 
 
 "'Good! good!' said the man who had chal- 
 lenged. There was another shout and clapping of 
 hands. The brave old Miller, first looking round 
 with a grave and consequential air, planted his
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 27 
 
 stick on the ground, put forward his huge right 
 leg, and commenced a slow and stately march, 
 which was followed by the whole street with peals 
 of laughter. The Miller, seeming not to pay the 
 slightest attention to it, marched slowly and still 
 more slowly on his way, till as he approached 
 the hundredth step he scarcely moved at all. Then 
 setting down his foot with a sort of a stamp, and 
 turning round and lifting up his stick, he cried, 
 'Now for it!' 
 
 ''The man walked briskly on from the inn door; 
 the crowd streamed after, closing in like a swarm 
 of bees, crying and jeering, 'Now for it! run for 
 it, Goliath, or you'll lose!' which was followed 
 by a fresh roar of laughter. Mean time the Miller 
 was advancing on his way with gigantic strides. 
 He did not pretend to run; for had he done so, 
 he would probably have shaken himself to pieces, 
 and dashed his enormous bulk on the pavement, 
 like the huge carcase of a stranded whale on the 
 shore. But he put out that stupendous strength
 
 28 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 for which he had in his day been famous beyond 
 that of any man of his time. Swinging his stick 
 wide to keep the crowd clear of him^ he moved 
 on with the unwieldy movement but the speed of 
 an elephant. Those vast legs stumped on the 
 causeway like the rammers of a pavior. His arms 
 swung to and fro like huge beams. His whole 
 body was strained v/ith gigantic exertion, and per- 
 spiration dropped, as he went, from his face, which 
 was red as a fire. The people, who were amazed 
 at his strength and speed, now cried, ^Well done. 
 Miller! well done, good Miller!' and the antagonist, 
 and the crowd at his heels, who had been in no 
 haste, now came on, more in curiosity to see the 
 ponderous and desperate exertions of Bowes than 
 in any anxiety for the fate of the day. In short, 
 much as the multitude were surprised and interested 
 by the unexpected display of vigour on the Miller's 
 part, there did not seem the slightest chance for him 
 in the race. The church, their goal, was still far 
 off; the antagonist in a few minutes was at Bowes's
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 29 
 
 side, and greeting him with a short nod and 
 smile, said, ' Well, my friend, so now we ^11 walk 
 on together.' And in truth, without shewing any 
 anxiety at present to post past him, he walked 
 on coolly at his side ; said it was a fine day; hoped 
 he would not take a cold, or a fever, and so on. 
 The crowd, amused at this wit on the part of 
 their townsman, again shewed much merriment; 
 and Bowes, as if himself giving up the contest, 
 paused, pulled out his pocket handkerchief, wiped 
 his brow, and swelling up his cheeks, blew out a 
 puff of breath, hot enough to have singed a fowl, 
 and which seemed to signify that he deemed it 
 a desperate case. Suddenly, however, wheeling 
 aside, he darted into a narrow passage, turned 
 round with a very significant face to his opponent, 
 nodded to him over his immense shoulder, and 
 said, 'A fine day, my friend! I hope you^ll not 
 take any cold or fever from your exertions; and 
 lest you should, I think we ^11 now go a little 
 more leisurely.'
 
 30 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 "The man^ who had never for an instant dreamed 
 of going out of the main street, but now suddenly 
 recollected that this indeed was the most direct 
 way, stood for a moment with a face of blank 
 amaze; and the people, who now saw the whole 
 of the joke, burst out with deafening cries of — 
 ' Bravo, Miller ! bravo ! bravo, old boy, bravo !' 
 
 " The little man, now recovering from his sur- 
 prise, gave way to as great a rage. One moment 
 he exclaimed against the Miller^s right to go this 
 way, the next he attempted to push past him. 
 His exclamations and his attempts were equally 
 vain. The people cried out, ^All fair! all fair! 
 right, right !^ and the Miller's mighty bulk filled 
 up the passage beyond the slightest possibility 
 of pushing by him. 
 
 "Coolly and soberly he now stalked on his way, 
 alternately wiping his reeking brows with his 
 handkerchief, breathing out large puffs of hot 
 breath, and then looking over his shoulder at his 
 fuming foe, continued to address him: 'So, my
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 31 
 
 friend, so. Don^t hurry, don't fret. We shall 
 both be there in time, and to hurry ourselves 
 would cut short the amusement of all these good 
 people, who have so kindly given us their com- 
 pany.' 
 
 ^^So they went on; the throng pressing with 
 loud laughter at their heels, and the little towns- 
 man ready to knock his head against the wall from 
 ridicule and vexation. But as they drew near the 
 end of this narrow passage, the church came 
 directly before them in sight. This object instantly 
 produced the most opposite effects on the two 
 opponents. The little man behind, like a rat in 
 a box-trap, began to dart here and there; to peep 
 first under one arm and then under the other 
 of the Miller; to fume and dance with utter impa- 
 tience; and to watch, with eyes as of a ferret, 
 the moment to spring out and fly before his heavy 
 antagonist to the church. 
 
 " The Miller, on the contrary, only became more 
 cool, and slow in his progress. He seemed to
 
 6Z LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 consider these as precious moments of relaxation 
 and refreshment that were not to be wasted. He 
 seemed to swell out his great bulk into still more 
 ample proportions, so as to close every atom of the 
 way, and give to his foe not breadth enough to 
 poke a finger past him. As he moved with most 
 measured pace, he lifted up his eyes and took a 
 view of the lofty tower of the church; darted 
 a glance across the street, as if measuring the 
 distance; and then looking right and left, as to 
 see that all was clear, he actually stood still a 
 moment before he issued from the mouth of the 
 passage. *A fine church, young man,^ said he, 
 turning coolly to the little fellow, who was biting 
 his lips, and clenching his hands behind him for 
 rage ; ' a fine church, and their heads as built it 
 
 don't ache now/ *Ache, and be to them, 
 
 and to all cursed great millers,' said the little 
 man, stamping furiously; 'won't you move on, 
 then?^ 
 
 " ' This is an eventful movement/ added Bowes,
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 53 
 
 casting a quizzical look at the little outrageous 
 fellow; then throwing himself forward, he put forth 
 the whole of his vast physical power in impelling 
 his monstrous load of mortality over the brief 
 intervening space. His ponderous limbs, as if 
 moved by some supernatural force, were carried 
 onward in huge and convulsive bounds. It was 
 like the last effort of a giant. His arms swung 
 with the violence •of battering-rams, and he cleared 
 the street with the fury and heavy rush of a mad 
 mammoth. His opponent, flung out of the mouth 
 of the passage by the impatient impetus of the 
 dense mass behind, was thrown off his balance, 
 and w^as carried stumbling across the street by 
 the pressure of the crowd, rather than ran across 
 it; and only became conscious that his foe had 
 actually outstripped him, by being dashed by the 
 impetuous throng up against him, as he leaned 
 panting and puffing and steaming against the door 
 of the church. A loud shout announced the victory 
 of the Miller; and mounting his stout cart, which 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 JA.CK OF THE MILL. 
 
 he had had brought thither in readiness, he rode 
 back to his inn in triumph. 
 
 "Ah! he was a good 'un," said Jack, as he 
 finished this relation, much to the amusement of 
 the travellers; "but I shall never forgive myself 
 encouraging him to run this race. I know it'll 
 be the death of him; and then I and all the 
 neighbourhood will lose the best friend we ever 
 had." 
 
 "What's amiss?" asked the travellers. 
 
 "What's amiss?" Jack shook his head. "I 
 wish I could tell what's amiss; but I can give a 
 pretty good guess. The old man's not long for 
 this world."
 
 THE TEAMPER DIPPING HIS BOTTLE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 JACK CONTINUES THE STORY OF THE MILLER— THE CONSEQUENCEc 
 OF THE RACE, AND THE MERRY HOAX OF THE HOLY WATER. 
 
 "That day^ when the good old Bowes got back to 
 the inn, with the crowd pouring at his heels, and 
 many of them wanted to drink with the jolly 
 Miller, that had made better sport than had been 
 seen in this town for many a day before, he said, 
 
 d2
 
 5b LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 ^With all my heart, lads; with all my heart.' 
 Then they ordered, a dozen of them at once, each 
 a tankard of ale; and one cried, ' Here, fine fellow, 
 drink with me first;' and another, ^ Drink with 
 me next;' and another, and another, 'Drink with 
 rne;' and while he was drinking from one tankard, 
 a whole lot of others were held up all round. 
 Bowes took first one and then another, and said, 
 ' Here 's your healths, my lads ; here ^s your 
 healths ! ' 
 
 "But when he saw so many still held up, he 
 stopped, held one full, foaming tankard in his right 
 hand, and looking at the crowd with a funny smile, 
 said, ' I say, my lads ; pretty well of one feat for 
 one day. I've shewed you a pretty good touch 
 in the walking line, I think. Eh? don't you 
 think so?' 
 
 " They all shouted, ' Ay, ay, bravo, old Miller ! ' 
 "Then said he, 'Let that sarve. I'd drink all 
 your healths, one after another, with all my heart, 
 if I could do it without ruining my own. But
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 37 
 
 my health is as dear to me as yo'rn is to yo. 
 I've a wife and five children at home, and six 
 fat horses, and a wagoner, besides cows, and colts, 
 and sheep, and two servant wenches, and various 
 other stock, as wants a watchful eye over 'em; 
 and what's to become of 'em if I drown myself 
 here in ale, in drinking a thousand men's healths? 
 You may think I've a biggish body, and so I have, 
 but I can no more drink all your ale than I can 
 drink my own mill-dam dry. So once for all, 
 here's all your healths together, and an end 
 on't.' 
 
 " He gave a hearty quaff; the folks gave a 
 stunning hurrah; and he turned into the inn. 
 
 " I niver seed him in such spirits as on that 
 day. When the man came to pay the money that 
 he had lost by losing the race — and it was a good 
 sum — he said, ^Well, my lad, what thinkest thou 
 now of running a race with a fat old man in a 
 narrow passage?' The man shook his head, and 
 said, ' What 's past, let that be. I We been a fool.
 
 38 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 sure enough; but I^m not the first that's been 
 seen in this town or in others.' He laid down 
 the money, and made his bow. '^It goes agen 
 me/ said Bowes, taking the man friendUly by the 
 hand, ^ to take this money; but I hear thou^s 
 plenty more; and when a man has been rather 
 cocket, why it^s best for him to be taken down 
 a button-hole, and then he remembers it. We're 
 friendly, I hope, and I shall not touch the money: 
 but hgre's a poor lad,' said he, turning to me, 
 * that has an old mother that it '11 do good to, 
 and she shall have it.' He handed the bag over 
 to me, and then ordered his horse and cart out. 
 
 "As we drove home, he was very full of his 
 exploit. Said he had thought that he hadn't so 
 much in him yet; burst out a laughing several times 
 at the way he had so taken in the folks, and said 
 to me, ^ Jack, why thou'rt a desperate long-headed 
 fellow; thou art as deep as th' north star.' He 
 had scarcely got home when he ordered his supper; 
 had several of his old neighbours, the wagoner.
 
 JACK or THE MILL. 39 
 
 the miller, and me too, in; and set on to tell 
 them all the story. You may be sure there was 
 laughing enough; and the wagoner said, ^Yo\e 
 been too deep for 'em, Mester, this time, sharp 
 as they think theirsens i' th' town.^ 
 
 "'Nay, lad,' said he, 'it^s Jack here, it's 
 Jack.' 
 
 " His wife was the only one that did not laugh 
 much. She shook her head; said she didnH think 
 at his years, and with his size, he'd been such 
 a goose; and hoped no worse might come of it. 
 She'd more sense than us all. Next day the 
 Miller was in bed. He told 'em they must send 
 me in to him when I came. There he lay, as hot 
 as he was the day before, after he had run his 
 race, without a drop of moisture on him. He said 
 he was very thirsty, and yet drinking did him no 
 good; and that he was as sore all over as if he 
 had been beaten with a cudgel. He thought he 
 had shook his fat all into a jelly. He got worse 
 and worse, for a week. The doctor was there every
 
 40 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 day with his physic ; and I knew it must go 
 hard with him, for he'd never been used to take 
 any physic but his own ale. Every day the doctor 
 only shook his head more solemnly when he went 
 away, if anybody asked him how he was. It was 
 reckoned to be all over with him. One day there 
 was a rumour that he was dead. The carpenter 
 had been sawing up an immense broad elm tree 
 into boards, and everybody said that it was because 
 he had ^ none wide enough for the Miller's coffin. 
 But the rumour was false; and the carpenter had 
 only been sawing up the boards in case they should 
 be wanted, for he knew that if such a fat man 
 died, he must be buried very soon. 
 
 *^The good Miller cheated the doctor, and got 
 better. But what a change was there ! I could 
 scarcely believe my eyes when I first saw him 
 again, as he sate in his arm-chair. He had lost 
 half of his fat. His rosy face was gone, and the 
 rosy knowing smile was gone with it. His clothes 
 hung like bags on him, only his legs looked as
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 41 
 
 thick as ever, and were wrapped in flannel. His 
 cheeks hung yellow, and lank, and wrinkled. He 
 looked melancholy and sad; he looked twenty years 
 older. YouVe seen, gentlemen, in your travels 
 a grand castle, like what stands not far from here, 
 when the lord^s there with its flag on the top, 
 and its folks all about, and its windows and walls 
 all looking so heartsome and cheerful; — and youVe 
 seen another, like the old^un that stands just a 
 'tother side the valley, with nobody in it ; with its 
 roof all tumbling in; with jackdaws and owls 
 haunting its upper rooms, and the stones crumb- 
 ling, and bushes growing out of its windows. 
 Bowes used to be like the grand castle, but now 
 he looked for all the world just like this that's 
 tumbling down. In time he got up some of his 
 fat again, but he never got up his spirits. Sad 
 thoughts, just like those owls and jackdaws, were 
 always in his head. He knew it was all up with 
 him. He used to stand before the door sometimes 
 when the spring sunshine was a little warm, but
 
 42 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 he looked heavy, and as if he had not strength 
 to bear his own weight; and heM shake his head, 
 and hobble in again. He used to strike himself 
 on the side, and say, 'I^m fatter again; but it^s 
 not the thing, Jack, it 's not the thing. 1 have 
 no relish for my meat, and it does me no good. 
 This is not healthy; it ^s nothing but blubber.^ 
 His legs now became a great torment to him. 
 They swelled as thick as two, plagued him sadly, 
 and were very hot. The doctor^s stuff did him 
 no good. 
 
 " One day, as a tramping man came in, and 
 expressed his astonishment at the wonderful change 
 in him since he saw him last, he said, 'Ay, ay, 
 I know it^s all Dicky with Pincher;^ that was a 
 saying of his, when he meant it was all up, ' but 
 if I could only have ease for these legs, I would 
 give any money.^ The man said he couldn^t 
 undertake to cure his legs, but he knew what would 
 give him ease, and that was water from a holy 
 well that he knew of, by an old ruined priory in
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 43 
 
 the forest^ but it was a good way oif. The Miller 
 was to bathe his legs with it continually. He 
 caught at the idea; and the man agreed to come 
 once a week with a large bottle of this water, 
 and for every third bottle he was to have a noble. 
 The next day, accordingly, he came with a bottle. 
 Bowes began to apply cloths dipped into this 
 this water, and found it give him immediate relief. 
 For weeks the man came regularly, and Bowes 
 declared nothing had done him such wonderful 
 good. It was true that when the wet cloths were 
 oflf he could not bear himself, but when they were 
 on, he was so comfortable, and so cheerful. He 
 had an idea that the saint who had blessed the 
 well must have been a very holy man indeed to 
 have conferred such a lasting virtue to this water. 
 
 '^ One day, however, as he had rambled out a 
 little by the side of his mill-dam, and was think- 
 ing with pleasure that this very day the old way- 
 farer would arrive with another bottle of the holy 
 water from the forest, what should he see but
 
 44 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 this man actually stooping down and filling his 
 large bottle from his own dam! The truth flashed 
 upon him. He had been bathing his legs all this 
 time with his own mill-dam water, and boasting 
 to everybody of its wonderful virtues ! Enraged 
 at his own folly, and at the rascality of this impu- 
 dent impostor, he was first tempted to step forward, 
 and while the man was still stooping, to push him 
 head foremost into the water; but restraining him- 
 self, he stepped quietly back to the house, favoured 
 by the trees, and awaited the arrival of this arrant 
 knave. 
 
 " Scarcely had he seated himself when the fellow 
 came in, made his greeting, set down his bottle, 
 and beginning to wipe his brow, complained how 
 weary he was with carrying this heavy bottle so 
 far in the hot sun. Bowes only answered with a 
 short grunt; but, as the man went on with his 
 lies, disgusted with his hypocrisy, he slyly gave 
 the bottle a poke with his foot, and turned it over. 
 The bottle was smashed, and the man setting up
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 45 
 
 a loud lament over the loss of the water that was 
 streaming along the floor, and now having to go 
 again so far for it, — Bowes started to his feet, 
 and crying, ' Out ! out ! rascal, with thy mill-dam 
 water ! I saw thee, rascal, I saw thee !' and he 
 belaboured him with his oaken staff till he fled 
 for his life. 
 
 "From that day he lost all faith in doctoring, 
 and is now going fast. Sometimes as he sits on 
 his bench for a bit in the sunshine by the door, 
 he ^11 say to me, "^ It 's a fine thing to be young. 
 Jack; a very fine thing, remember that lad. I 
 was once young myself; and though I shall soon 
 go out now, like the snuff of a candle, yet I can^t 
 say but that my line has been cast in very plea- 
 sant places.' 
 
 " ' Yes, mester,' said I, thinking he was speaking 
 of the mill-dam, and the brook, ^they're both 
 very pleasant places, and plenty o' fish in 'em. 
 I think the mill-dam must have some tremendous 
 pike in it, it's so long since it was drawn; and
 
 46 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 in the brook the gudgeons are as thick as 
 thunder/ 
 
 *' ' I was not speaking of them. Jack, but of 
 my line of life in this pleasant old place, and in 
 this good old mill. My father and my grand- 
 father were here before me, and I have been here 
 all my life from the day I was born. I know 
 every inch of ground, and every bush and nook 
 so well — ay, and almost every leaf —that it seems 
 to me very odd how one can ever go away from 
 it. I remember the day v/hen I was a lad no 
 higher than my own knee is. I remember when 
 I first began to hunt birds^ nests, and how, when 
 I went under the arching boughs of the old crab- 
 tree, and saw its crimson bunches of blossoms 
 in the spring, how I was suddenly struck with their 
 beauty, and the beauty of the green leaves through 
 which the sun was shining; and wondered that 
 I had never noticed them before. 
 
 " ^ Then I was a great lad like thee. Jack, full 
 of life, and every day made me see more and more
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 47 
 
 of tlie pleasant things that were about me in the 
 world; for one does not find them all out at once. 
 Living is like playing in a dark room, where you 
 first open one shutter, and then another, and at 
 every fresh stream of light you see something that 
 you did not see before; and then when you think 
 you see all, a little brother starts up from behind 
 a screen, and a little sister from behind a door, 
 and you all langh together, and find that playing 
 in the room would not be half so pleasant if you 
 were playing by yourself. 
 
 " ^ Oh ! it ^s a fine thing to be young. Jack, 
 a very fine thing indeed. And to have your 
 parents with you, — be good to your father and 
 mother, Jack; there's nothing like a father and 
 mother in this world. Well, well, nothing lasts 
 for ever; and I've enjoyed my life as much as 
 most folks. When I was a young, hearty fellow, 
 and rode a spanking horse to market, and bought 
 my corn, and came home and found my mill going, 
 and held my hand in the flour as it streamed down
 
 48 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 into the sacks, and thought how much I should 
 make that year, — that was a fine time, Jack, a 
 fine time. And then when I became acquainted 
 with my Nancy here, God bless her! and used 
 to take my stick of a frosty evening, when the 
 moon was shining, and the white grass crushed 
 crisply under my active tread, as I strode along 
 to the next village where she lived, to see her, — 
 Lord! wasn't that a fine time? and could one 
 ever think, as we felt then, how it could be to feel 
 as one feels now? And then, when my children 
 were young things about me, and the mill was 
 going almost night and day, and I bought the 
 windmill on the hill too, and the next farm, — 
 wasn't that a time? But I lost my only lad, 
 that dashed me down. He was seventeen; as fine, 
 handsome a lad as ever you saw, and promising 
 to be as jolly as myself.' 
 
 " 'Was he really?' I said. 
 
 " ' Yes, Jack, yes ; but he drank cold water 
 when he was a-mowing, and I think that curdled
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 49 
 
 his blood. He turned as white, and looked as 
 curdled, as a new-made cheese, only more blue 
 and purple. I cannot tell how, but he never 
 could shake it off. A cough seized him, and he 
 was soon gone. And soon. Jack, thou 'It find us 
 lying side by side in the same corner, at the right 
 hand of the church porch. Thou 'It give a peep 
 at us as thou passes, and think of old times ? ' " 
 
 Jack could not help crying as he finished his 
 story; and the travellers, pleased with his clever- 
 ness and with his feeling, again offered to take 
 him along with them. But he would not consent. 
 He must see his parents and the old Miller again. 
 The old Miller soon after this died, and in him 
 the only person out of his own house, besides 
 those travellers, who had given him credit for a 
 heart, or for anything but mischief. As he was 
 lying on the common in the manner in which 
 we found him at the opening of this volume, he 
 was revolving in his heart whether it would not 
 be best, after all, to set out and seek his fortune. 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 These travellers, with whom he had occasionally 
 been, he had heard talk of many and fine countries, 
 of many and strange things. They had, in fact, 
 awoke a desire in his restless mind to see the 
 world; and he thought to himself, what was the 
 use of sticking his whole life on this spot, where 
 he was little esteemed. It were better to have 
 a stirring life, though it were a short one, than 
 to grow like a cabbage, for ever on the same plot 
 of groimd. His parents were the only tie, and 
 to them he was of little use. If he succeeded 
 in the world, he might be of far more. As he 
 had sate by the fire, he had several times said 
 to his father and mother, if he had only Ben 
 and Timothy he should never fear going all over 
 the world. His father, who thought he only 
 spoke in his ignorance of what the world was, 
 and that a very little taste of it would satisfy 
 him, said, "Well, well, away with thee! Take 
 Ben and Timothy whenever thou likes, and just 
 go as far as thou pleases. Thou^st my consent."
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 51 
 
 Jack now thouglit — "What if I should take 
 my father at his word? And I will!" said he, 
 leaping- up. "I'll be off in the morning. Ben, 
 boy! Timothy, boy! we'll be off, my boys, like 
 a shower of rain." With that he pulled Timothy 
 by the ears; ran, and clasping his arms round 
 the ass's neck, and throwing his heels over his 
 mane, twisted himself up upon his back. The 
 ass laid down its ears, and whisked its tail, as 
 if angry — but it was only pretence; walked a few 
 paces, and slipping on its knees, gently rolled 
 Jack off on the ground, where they lay playing 
 together, as they had done many a time before. 
 In fact. Jack and Ben and Tim were old com- 
 panions; they had passed many a day together, 
 and perfectly understood each other. Jack had 
 taught them many odd tricks, and it would be 
 difficult to say which was fondest of the other. 
 
 e2
 
 JACK LEAVING HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JACK SETS OUT TO SEEK HIS FOETDNE. 
 
 Accordingly^ before peep of day, Jack was oiF. 
 He slipped out of the bouse as silently as a mouse, 
 so that the old people never awoke. He had 
 taken a little bag to bed with him. In one end 
 of this, he stowed away the few articles of clothing
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 53 
 
 that lie wanted; and the next morning, treading 
 on tiptoes, he stole down stairs, expecting every 
 moment that a loose board would give a creak, 
 and the old man would cry out — "What's that?" 
 For, on such occasions, it is astonishing how noisy 
 every thing is. Stairs that you have gone up and 
 down a hundred and a thousand times, and which 
 always seemed as firm as rocks, then seem as loose 
 and crazy as if they were made of wickerwork. 
 Not a step do you set your foot on, but it cries 
 out as if it were hurt. You are sure to step on 
 that board in a floor that creaks; doors that never 
 sung on their hinges, then sing out confoundedly. 
 You tread on a dog's foot as he lies sleeping, of 
 all places in the world, at the foot of the stairs; 
 or upset a pot, which goes gingling and smashing 
 down to distraction. In short, all nature seems 
 up against you, and you find a traitor in every 
 thing about you. Your shoes, when put on, make 
 an infinite clamour; a cur whines, and then barks 
 out for joy that you are going abroad; locks and
 
 54 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 bolts grind aud scream as they are drawn back; 
 and when you are once out, there is sure to be 
 some uneasy soul that cannot sleep, at some window 
 or other, to witness your departure. 
 
 But Jack was particularly lucky; in fact, he 
 was born to be lucky. A cat could not steal out 
 more lightly than he could. He deposited a loaf 
 and a little cheese in the opposite end of his bag; 
 threw it over the neck of Ben, who stood ready 
 by the <« gate, as if he had understood Jack the 
 day before; clapped the old easy pad on his back, 
 the bridle in his mouth, and mounted, and away! 
 Timothy, who was too discreet to make any 
 outrageous demonstrations of joy, followed at Ben's 
 heels. Jack himself was clothed in a close jerkin 
 and hose of stout brown cloth, and had a little 
 cap on his head with a short black heathcock's 
 feather in it. His jerkin, though fitting close, had 
 short skirts, cut pretty full and meeting before, 
 and was buttoned up with the largest buttons to 
 his throat; so that he had a somewhat jaunty.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 55 
 
 though quaint air, and was fit to run or climb 
 without impediment. 
 
 Strapped on his pad behind, he had a cloak 
 for cold or rainy weather; and at his back hung, 
 in a strap and a little leathern case, a little round 
 pan. In the pan were stowed away a bottle of 
 cordial, a horn for drinking, and a tinderbox. 
 By the side of his thigh, in his hose, stuck in a 
 case on one side, in a sheath, his knife and spoon 
 and fork; in the other, a small hammer and pincers, 
 so that he could, on occasion, fasten on one of 
 his ass's shoes, when at a distance from a town. 
 This was the apparatus, the vast advantage of 
 which he had learned from the travellers with 
 whom he had been, and in procuring which he 
 had spent some of the money which he had 
 received from them. 
 
 Thus equipped, he could travel, if necessary, night 
 and day, and could pass those vast and solitary 
 forests, which in that day covered the country. 
 Abbeys and hermitages scattered here and there
 
 56 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 far from towns, in woods and wild valleys, he 
 knew would offer him shelter, or at least protect 
 him for the night; but if he did not reach any 
 of these, nobody could manage to pass the night 
 better than Jack. What he had to defend him- 
 self from, were robbers, wolves, snakes, and cold. 
 With the first he must do as well as he could, 
 and trust to his ingenuity when he met them. 
 As merely an odd sort of a lad travelling on an 
 ass, and ^pretending, as he proposed, to represent 
 himself as a blacksmith's apprentice going to see 
 his grandfather, he thought he had not much to 
 fear. He had provided himself with a tolerable 
 sum of money, and he had taken an odd way 
 to secure it, as we shall see ; but as a blacksmith^s 
 apprentice, he would not be suspected of carry- 
 ing much of that article with him. It was more 
 likely that he would often be in request by them 
 to shoe them a horse, or weld them a broken 
 sword, or point them a spear anew; and for all 
 these purposes Jack had provided himself.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 57 
 
 He had gone with the horses belonging to the 
 travellers to the smiths^ at different places they 
 passed through. On all these occasions, Jack 
 had made himself very useful; had blown the 
 bellows for the smiths, handed them nails or 
 tools, as they shod the horses, and even helped 
 them, when short of a hand, to hammer a piece 
 of hot iron on the anvil, for he was as remarkably 
 strong as he was active. There v/as nothing that 
 he had not turned his hand to when he had an 
 opportunity, and could do a variety of things that 
 he had joined people in, and had watched them 
 at, in his wanderings. He was a very decent 
 smith and carpenter. He could shoe a horse 
 much more cleverly than many a bumpkin that 
 had been at the trade for years. Often, when 
 with the travellers, he had not only fastened the 
 loose shoes of the horses when far from a town, 
 but had taken them off, and altered them when 
 they were made too narrow, as is sometimes the 
 case, so as to contract the horse^s foot, and make
 
 58 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 him go lamC;, or too wide at the heel, and cut 
 the horse's opposite fetlock joint. For this purpose 
 he was always supplied with a small anvil not bigger 
 than his fist, which had a spike to it, by which he 
 could fix it on any stump or block of wood by 
 the wayside, and do his work upon it. A small 
 hole in it enabled him to make nails as they were 
 wanted, as the smiths' make theirs, and a fire 
 was always to be had in those days of great 
 forests. ^Thus he feared not robbers, but expected 
 even to be useful to them. And though Jack 
 with his natural activity had gathered up this 
 accomplishment for himself, let no one think that 
 it was anything uncommon in those times. The 
 vast solitudes and rude countries through which 
 merchants had to travel, made it necessary that 
 some one exercising the office of a smith should 
 be in their caravan, and even farmers living far 
 from villages were obliged to be something of 
 smiths for themselves. To this day in solitary 
 situations nothing is so common as to find a
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 59 
 
 joiner^s and a smithes shop at farmSj where the 
 farmer himself can mend a gate, or a plough or 
 harrow; can sharpen his ploughshares, and shoe 
 his own horses. 
 
 Wolves Jack had most need to dread when obliged 
 to sleep in the open air. They were sneaking 
 villains, that would devour both him, his ass, and 
 his dog. All his ingenuity he knew would be 
 needed, should he fall in with them, to fortify him- 
 self and his two companions against them. But 
 luckily these scoundrels of the forest were now 
 become very rare. The wild cattle of the woods 
 w^ere far more numerous and more dangerous. 
 They would come round a travelling party in vast 
 numbers, snort, and bellow, and tear up the ground, 
 then scamper off, only to return nearer and with 
 greater fury, till they rushed in upon them, tossing 
 them into the air, trampling them into the earth, 
 and making a furious attack on the pack-horses 
 and bales of goods of the merchants. The only 
 safe defence against these animals was to make as
 
 60 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 speedily as possible fires around the party, and to 
 wave firebrands on all sides in their faces. Jack 
 being alone, proposed to find wherever he could 
 a cave, where, planting a fire at the mouth, they 
 would be safe altogether, or where he could only 
 find a nook in the rocks, or even a bare precipice, 
 to sleep at the foot, and plant two or three fires 
 around them. Timothy would always give the 
 alarm; and as he meant to cut himself a stout 
 yew bow^ as he went along, and make himself a 
 sheaf of arrows as amusement when he had occasion 
 to stay for a night, or on a rainy day, he should 
 speedily dispatch a few of those amongst them. 
 
 Cold he should ward ofi" as much as possible by 
 wrapping himself in his cloak, and, when necessary, 
 by cutting down the leafy boughs of trees, and 
 laying them upon him. Cold winds he could 
 speedily ward ofi" from his temporary quarters by 
 making a screen of green boughs; for besides his 
 accoutrements already mentioned, he carried in his 
 belt round his waist a small axe, and at his left
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 61 
 
 side hung a hanger, or short sword. Snakes, of 
 which he had a great hatred, he trusted to the 
 watchful instinct of Timothy to guard hin:i against; 
 for Timothy was not only remarkably quick in 
 observing them, but could smell them at a great 
 distance, and gave notice of them by setting up 
 his bristles, growling, and snuffling in a manner 
 so peculiar, that Jack always knew whether it was 
 a snake, or whether it was some wild beast that 
 he perceived. 
 
 So provided against foes. Jack also was provided 
 against necessity. His little round pan at his back 
 was his kitchen. With that, hung from two stout 
 sticks, he could at any time cook a supper, if he 
 had got it. His flint and steel would give him 
 fire; wood or waste furnished him ever ready fuel; 
 every streamlet would afford water; and Jack had 
 no more fear of filKng his pot when it was ready 
 than the gipsies have, who live continually out on 
 the broad estate of nature. Timothy, who had a 
 smack of the lurcher in him, was a clever hand
 
 62 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 at stealing upon a hare or wild rabbit; of pouncing 
 on a sleeping fawn, or of surprising young wild 
 ducks and geese before their wings were grown 
 long enough to enable them to fly, till which time, 
 on the approach of danger, they skulk close in the 
 long grass and rushes on the brinks of the streams 
 and in the marshes where they haunt. Timothy 
 had more than once even brought to the travellers^ 
 rendezvous a cock -of- the -wood, or a thumping 
 bustard, ihat he had surprised; and, in truth, 
 there was in those days, for a youngster of Jack's 
 talent, less danger of supplying his pot, than of 
 himself or his dog falling into the hands of the 
 royal foresters, and under the bloody fangs of the 
 merciless forest laws. Jack, however, proposed to 
 be especially cautious when crossing the royal 
 domains, and to trust in emergencies to his inge- 
 nuity, of which he had a very good opinion, to 
 extricate himself from such perils. His bow and 
 arrows — for he had practised archery of a rustic 
 sort ever since he could bend the slightest willow
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 63 
 
 twig and tie it with a piece of his mother's worsted, 
 or could send an inch-long bolt from a cross-bow 
 which his father had made him — he knew would 
 bring him down any bird, or even, if necessary, 
 stick a piece of venison on a pointed prong by his 
 evening fire. To an imp like Jack all nature 
 became a larder. The mushroom in the forest 
 glade; the wild crab to roast in his fire; the 
 crimson cornelberry,* and the blackberry hanging 
 in rich jetty clusters; the young wood -pigeons, 
 fat and heavy, in their nest; the hazel-nuts that 
 in autumn he could shake down, brown and almost 
 bursting with rich kernel; the crayfish and the 
 trout under the grassy banks of the forest stream 
 — all were materials for his mid- day or his evening 
 feast, or to pluck as he idly sauntered on his way. 
 
 * It would seem as if this beautiful tree, with its beautiful 
 berry, which now stands so fairy-like in the forests of Austria, 
 at this time was known to our forests. If so, it is a pity that it is 
 lost. The tree grows to the size of a tolerable apple-tree, and is 
 covered with oblong berries as large as cherries, of a fine acidulous 
 flavour, which are not only eaten as desert, and preserved, but are 
 ravenously devoured by wild swine.
 
 64 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Thus equipped for his enterprise with internal 
 and external resources^ Jack rode slowly away. It 
 was not more than two o^ clock in the morning, 
 and in the advanced summer was yet but faintly 
 light. All v/as silent around him but the cocks, 
 which from the roosts of the shut-up cottages 
 round the common, crew drowsily and hollow; and 
 one solitary lark — that bird of all most early 
 — which, as if watching to bid him good-bye, 
 rose up from the shadowy ground and soared into 
 the as shadowy sky with a lay of exuberant joy, 
 that seemed to promise him fortune and fame. 
 The watch-dogs had barked themselves to sleep; 
 and in the stillness that reigned, Jack heard the 
 crickets singing on the warm dim cottage hearths 
 as he passed, and their brethren of the hedges 
 giving them an occasional shrill and shivery answer. 
 
 This sound touched JacFs heart more than all 
 others, and brought over him such a lively feeling 
 of his old native fireside, with his mother spinning 
 in one corner, and his father sleeping in his old
 
 JACK or THE MILL. 65 
 
 patchwork-cusliioned chair in the other, after his 
 day^s work in the air, or his walk to the town, 
 that he instantly turned Ben round, looked back 
 at the cottage in the distance, and as he saw its 
 little chimney peeping over the alder-trees, he said 
 in his heart, for his words stuck in his throat 
 when he tried to bring them out — " God bless you 
 altogether there! I shall see you again some day, 
 and won't I bring you a pretty heap of money ! " 
 Whom Jack included in the ^ altogether^ we cannot 
 exactly say, seeing that of human creatures there 
 were only two, his father and mother; but there can 
 be little doubt but that he grouped in with them 
 the cat, the hens, and the crickets, all of whom 
 he was accustomed to consider in his mind as 
 ' parts of the family/ Be this as it may, having 
 uttered internally this short but comprehensive 
 adieu, he put Ben on again, and a hollow road 
 descending a hill, shut out his native nest from 
 his eyes for many a month and year. 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 THE GIPSY CAMP. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DINKER BY THE FOREST SPRING— Ai^D JACK'S ARRIVAL 
 AT THE GIPSY CAMP. 
 
 Jack now rode on steadily. The day advanced 
 bright and cheery. The dew lay thick and silvery 
 on the ground. The sun came up amid clouds 
 of rich crimson, and lit up every drop on blade 
 and hanging leaf into flashing diamonds. The
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 67 
 
 lark soared into the air; sounds of cattle and of 
 yaffing dogs, told that the inhabitants of the farms 
 were astir. Now and then a hare, hopping un- 
 willingly to her day-long retreat, crossed the road; 
 a labourer, or a milkmaid all draggled with the 
 dew, appeared, — and a spirit of cheerfulness born 
 with the new day, lived in the air and over the 
 earth; and Jack, forgetting all his home-thoughts, 
 trotted on and sung aloud in the joy of his 
 heart. 
 
 His restless and aspiring spirit flew on into 
 the boundless world before him. He imagined a 
 thousand adventures. He seemed now only to 
 begin to live. The colours of the opening sky of 
 his existence were as gay and brilliant as those 
 in the external horizon. There seemed nothing 
 that the world was not capable of affording, and 
 he of finding and enjoying. The sandy banks 
 hanging over the waysides, gay with the azure 
 and waving tufts of the harebell, the lovely 
 crimson of the wild pink, and the stately beauty
 
 68 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 of the foxglove; the woods through which he 
 passed^ the heaths bursting into rosy bloom with 
 the heather^ — the stream that rushed murmuring 
 to itself across the way, and the distant hills that 
 now and then reared their blue and airy heads 
 above the forest, all were to him full of beauty 
 and a living sense. His heart danced with a sort 
 of intoxicated delight. He snapped his fingers 
 at Ben, who laid down his long ears, and gave 
 a sidelong grin in token of sympathy; cried a loud 
 " Yoo-hoo ! yoo-hoo V to Timothy, who limped 
 along before him on the eternal hunt after what- 
 ever came within the field of nosability; whistled 
 to the squirrels that ran up the trees at his 
 approach, and then sung aloud to his own fancy. 
 Many a grand castle in the air did he build 
 before noon, when coming to a most lovely spring 
 in a hollow of the woods, he determined to stop 
 and dine. He dismounted, lugged the sack from 
 Ben^s neck, and the pad from his back, and let 
 him help himself to the grass that grew plenti-
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 69 
 
 fully around. He took out his bread and cheese, 
 filled his horn from the spring, and seated him- 
 self on its margin. Tim laid himself down near 
 him in readiness to dine too, and Jack looked 
 round him in admiration at his dining room. 
 
 It was as charming a scene as an old forest 
 could furnish. At his back ran a range of forest 
 hills, of a considerable ascent, which was scattered 
 with hanging birches mixed with dark firs. Patches 
 of crimson heath hung here and there, and a 
 sort of sand rocks projected from the half slope, 
 half precipice, of the hill-sides in the wildest man- 
 ner. Before him on the greensward lay the spring. 
 It formed a circular basin of several yards across, 
 deep, and of the most lovely transparency. At 
 the bottom, a clear white sand danced fantastically 
 in the up-gushing force of the fountain; and a 
 variety of aqueous plants rose up through the 
 crystal mass of water, with green taper stems, 
 fair green leaves, and starry flowers that seemed 
 to drink in the rays of the sun, and congeal them
 
 70 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 into an unearthly beauty. The water which over- 
 flowed from this glorious spring, went leaping 
 away to a forest stream that wound a little way 
 off through all that witchery of foliage, rock, and 
 sedge, which make the poetry of woodland water; 
 and on either hand sloped down in an ancient 
 and most park-like character, the old forest, with 
 its massy oaks, and its hollow lawns and rounded 
 knolls scattered with fern. 
 
 Here -Jack dined, throwing every moment a 
 portion to Timothy. He then slept on the warm 
 turf, and was astonished on awaking to find the 
 afternoon far advanced. He leaped up, and haster^ed 
 his departure with all speed. He was surprised 
 to see how grey and sober the day was become, 
 and to feel how the buoyancy of his morning 
 spirits had vanished too. Instead of all the ro- 
 mantic visions of the forenoon, he felt a sort of 
 misgiving, and could not help a sensation creep- 
 ing over his mind as if his enterprise was a very 
 great piece of folly. All his fine castles in the
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 71 
 
 air now looked very much like nonsense. His 
 schemes of living in the woods so grandly, very 
 meagre; and as he still rode on, and the day 
 closed fast without sight of a place to stay for 
 the night, he more than half wished himself at 
 home again. His fire and his kettle-boiling, and 
 his schemes of caves, and of beds made of boughs 
 of trees, and all his valiant exploits that he was 
 to do, — zounds ! he could have laughed at them 
 heartily if he had not been too sad to laugh. 
 Such an odd little animal as he, what was he to 
 do in the world but to be made fun of by every 
 great booby, and how was he to win wealth and 
 honour? If he had had a body as big as his 
 spirit was, '^ then,^' said he, stretching himself up, 
 *^I might have killed giants, overturned armies, 
 rescued princesses, and become a great man in 
 no time; but now! — " He kicked Ben on the 
 ribs, made a comical, low sort of whistling to him- 
 self, and trotted on. 
 
 He rode on for hours, till it was dark, without
 
 72 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 seeing a single place where he could stay. By 
 this time^ however, he had wound up his spirits 
 again to a kind of dogged determination, and had 
 persuaded himself that there was many a thing 
 in the world that a little, tough, active and cunning 
 fellow like himself could do, that a bigger man 
 could not. "Is it the war-horse that skips up 
 to the top of the mountain, or the goat? Is it 
 the bullock that bounds up to the top of the 
 highest trees, or the squirrel ? I '11 be up amongst 
 them yet on the heights some day or other; ay, 
 and fling down stones on the great jolterheads 
 that have grinned at me below !^' 
 
 Having made this comfortable speech, he now 
 pored on his way more eagerly for a place to lodge. 
 But he neither saw cave, nor a nook in the rocks, 
 nor a precipice, nor any of the very convenient 
 spots that he had proposed to pitch his tent in. 
 On the contrary, his way lay over a seemingly 
 endless and naked ugly heath. A few gorse and 
 bramble bushes were all its variations of feature.
 
 JA^CK OF THE MILL. 7S 
 
 The ass went wading along in sand, or, if he 
 turned him out of it, stumbling along over lumpy- 
 ground in a still more miserable manner. He at 
 length resolved to take the first good big bush 
 for his screen, and there pass the night. He had 
 alighted, and was in the act of unloading Ben, 
 when in the distance he discerned a light. In 
 an instant he mounted again, and made for it. 
 He did not, however, reach it quite so soon as 
 he expected. 
 
 He went on for more than an hour over the 
 same lumpy ground, and still seeming to get no 
 nearer to the light. Sometimes he came to bogs, 
 which threatened to put a stop to his progress 
 altogether; and at other times found himself on 
 the edge of a steep descent, down which he would 
 have plunged headlong, had it not been for the 
 clearer instinct or perception of Ben. At length 
 the light suddenly seemed to get larger, and to 
 be near at hand. He perceived that it^was a fire 
 on the border of a black pine wood, and could
 
 74 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 discern figures duskily moving about it. To his 
 great consternation, lie discovered that it was au 
 encampment of gipsies, and would have drawn oiF 
 again, but all at once there was a loud barking 
 of dogs, which seemed to be loose and making 
 towards him, and several hoarse voices commanding 
 them to be still. By the blaze of the fire, which 
 was now stirred up, so as to throw its light far 
 around, and by that of some flaming brands that 
 were held aloft by a number of wild figures of 
 both men and women, he saw that he was on the 
 very edge of their camp, and they saw him, and 
 called to him to come forward. 
 
 Almost blinded by the glare. Jack rode slowly 
 up, and was just going to say ^' Good evening" 
 to the people, when Timothy, who was at Ben's 
 heels, was suddenly set upon by a dozen of the 
 gipsies' curs. Tim howled out, at the same time 
 turning himself about from one side to the other, 
 and biting right and left. The clamour of the 
 scuffling dogs was deafening. They snarled, howled,
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 75 
 
 yelped altogether; while the cries of men, women^ 
 and children, who rushed in to beat off their curs 
 from Timothy, made the hubbub astounding. With 
 the well applied blows of a dozen heavy sticks, the 
 gipsy men made their dogs fly yelling in various 
 directions, and Timothy running for security under 
 Ben, Jack rode into the midst of the group.
 
 A SCENE IN THE GIPST CAMP. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 JACK'S FIRST ADVENTURE. 
 
 It was a scene that would have daunted any- 
 body but such an urchin as Jack; and, in truth, 
 he did not much rehsh it. By the blaze of the 
 fire of pine-branches, he saw around him at least 
 a score of gipsies, of all ages, from the ancient 
 hag to the little child that, with but a very small 
 piece of flannel shirt, stood by the fire, and stared
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. T^ 
 
 at him with great black eyes, that seemed evidently 
 opened by the clamour, out of a sleep that would 
 soon master them again. 
 
 The men were those great swarthy figures with 
 bushy black hair that need no description — they 
 are too common to the tribe; and the women, as 
 wild but more artful - looking, were in a ruder 
 dishabille than is their wont, and evidently on the 
 point of retiring into their tents for the night. In 
 the tents that were pitched around were seen other 
 figures, many of them great children, and young 
 girls with black heads and flashing eyes, all peering 
 forth to see what was the matter. The women 
 accosted Jack with expressions of wonder where 
 he could have sprung from in such a dark night, 
 and asked whether he was lost. Jack told them, 
 as he had planned, that he was a smith's apprentice 
 going to see his grandfather at the next town, but 
 was overtaken by the night, and seeing their light, 
 had come to see if it were any place where he 
 could lodge.
 
 78 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 "Ay, to be sure, boy/' said tv;o or three of 
 the men at once — "to be sure, you can pass the 
 night here very well/^ 
 
 "Ah! the poor boy!^' said the women, "to be 
 sure he can. It's beyond the power of man, let 
 alone such a boy as this, to find his way to-night 
 over this moor. It's lucky that you found your 
 way here, young one, it is; for there are people 
 about that are no better than they should be/' 
 
 Jack thought to himself, "Ay, and not far ofi" 
 neither.^^ 
 
 " Here,^^ said a tall, handsome quean, with a red 
 handkerchief tied over her rich black locks; "here, 
 he can sleep in our Toney^s tent, as he is away 
 to-night, and I dare say his ass won^t go far 
 away from ours." 
 
 " No,^^ said Jack, " Ben won't go far from where 
 I am." 
 
 They now helped Jack to unload Ben, and put 
 his bag and pad into his tent, and then asked 
 him if he would have some supper. Jack, who
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 79 
 
 did not care to produce his loaf and cheese^ as 
 he knew that they would have a very poor chance 
 of ever leaving the spot again if once seen, said 
 he had no objection, if they had anything to give 
 him. 
 
 "But, young man,^' said a cunning-looking 
 woman, glancing knowingly at him, ''^may be you've 
 got some little bit of a thing in your bag your- 
 self?" 
 
 " ! " said Jack, who knew that he was 
 amongst a set of deep ones, and that it was of 
 no use making many excuses; "why, I've a loaf 
 and a cheese to be sure, that I'm taking as a 
 present to my grandfather; but I'll be glad to 
 go shares with you at anything youVe got, and 
 so not spoil the old grandfather's present." 
 
 "Phoh!" said the woman, "the old gentleman 
 has plenty of bread and cheese at home, I warrant; 
 so we^ll be glad to go shares with you, young 
 man. We'll give you lodging, and you shall give 
 us a supper. I think that^s but fair, any how."
 
 80 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " With all my heart/' said Jack; went straight 
 to the tent, and fetched out the loaf and cheese. 
 
 "Aha! aha! by the powers, that's a brave piece 
 of prog though ! " cried a dozen voices at once, 
 as they saw the loaf and cheese in Jack^s hands. 
 
 " Sit round, brothers and sisters, sit round all; 
 we ^11 make a pleasant little snack of it. Bring 
 out the black bottle there from under the ling, 
 Simrock, and tot round while a drop is left in it. 
 This is the right country cate to smack with a 
 horn of old ale.^^ 
 
 Old and young flocked round the fire. From 
 tents, and out of corners unseen before, came a 
 dozen or more of half-grown gipsies, wrapped only 
 each in a blanket, and squatted themselves down 
 eagerly for the feast. Young lanky girls, with 
 skins as tawny as the adder's back, teeth as white 
 as milk, and roguish leering eyes, clapped them- 
 selves down familiarly by Jack, saying, " Shau- 
 shan, Palla!" — "how do you do, brother?" and 
 throwing back their clouds of long black hair.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 81 
 
 which completely hid their faces and necks down 
 to their shoulders, began to talk with one another 
 eagerly in a language which Jack did not under- 
 stand. 
 
 One thing he understood. His loaf and cheese 
 were flying in good slices all round the circle, 
 and rapidly vanishing amid unbounded commen- 
 dations. 
 
 "Ay, this is true home-baked/^ said one old hag, 
 clapping her slice to her long nose, and snuffing 
 up with great satisfaction. "Your mother, young 
 man, has spared no pains over the old grandfather^s 
 loaf." 
 
 "And this cheese," said another, "is a brave 
 one. It has not been robbed before it was made, 
 as many a one is. What the farmers^ wives some- 
 times give to us poor good-for-nothing vagrants, 
 as they call us, that we mayn't borrow any of 
 their fowls, and what one buys in the village shops, 
 why you might often as well try to digest a horn 
 lantern." 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " Ay, or a bullock's horn," said another. ^' Or 
 a brick/' said a third. " Or a thunderbolt/' said 
 a fourth. "But this — it melts in one's mouth 
 like a honey-comb. Tot round there, I say, 
 Barney Beggs, if the ale isn't so old that it 
 can't travel. 
 
 '' Ay, travel can it though/' said Barney Beggs, 
 a great black fellow, that one would rather have 
 met at a wake than in a wood — " travel can it, 
 and that to some tune too. One horn springs 
 after the other so nimbly, that Barney Beggs can 
 hardly catch one of them," winking with a wild, 
 sensual greediness of enjoyment on the worship- 
 ful company, and tossing a hornful down his throat 
 with a smacking relish that made it croak again 
 in its descent. 
 
 The whole clan were right merry. Jack found 
 the ale capital ; and though he had a suspicion 
 that they wanted him to drink and grow sleepy, 
 he w^ould not seem to shun it. He ate and drank, 
 and laughed with them heartily. He knew how
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 83 
 
 to Diake himself very agreeable to such a sort of 
 people, and thought it the best to put them into 
 good humour with him. When, therefore, the 
 boys began to romp and play, Jack romped and 
 played with them, and suddenly kicking up his 
 heels, and walking on his hands, went round the 
 whole circle, and made bows to each of them with 
 his feet. Then he turned himself into a wheel, 
 and spun after the youngsters, who laughing and 
 screaming with delight, flew in all directions 
 before him. Jack then danced several dances, 
 such as he had seen amongst the servants of the 
 travellers, leaped, sprung over their tents one after 
 another, and then came and seated himself once 
 more in the circle. The whole clan was in rap- 
 tures. They declared him worth his weight in gold. 
 " He waste his wonderful talents in a blacksmiths 
 shop, in welding old iron, and acting the shoe- 
 maker to horses ! It was a sin ! It was a shame ! 
 No! no! young man," said they, ''you haven ^t 
 lost your way to night, you have found it. You
 
 04 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 never were in your right way until now. You must 
 stay with us_, and your fortune is made. Lor ! what 
 crowds would you have to see you at the fairs, 
 and the races, all over the country. We'll have 
 you cried as 'The wonderful Boy. The fly- 
 ing Bohemian/ that can walk on his head; dance 
 on a horse hair, between the tops of two poles. 
 Leap over the moon if he chooses, and wheel round 
 the ceiling of the booth as quick as a flash of sun- 
 shine. There ^s nothing that you can^t do, and can^t 
 learn, if you like. Lucky ^s the day you came here!" 
 
 Jack thanked them for their intended kindness, 
 and their compliments, and said "nothing would 
 please him better, but that his master would hunt 
 the whole country after him, and that he was a 
 dreadful vengeful fellow, and would set the whole 
 nation on them sooner than let him be with them." 
 
 "0!" said the}^, '^ a besom-stale for the old 
 blacksmith! Say the word, and in twenty-four 
 hours we'll put you into such a shape and colour 
 that your own father shan't know you. If iieed
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 85 
 
 be we^ll go off witli you five hundred miles, or 
 over the sea, three or four thousand. Our people 
 are everywhere, and our trade is as good in one 
 country as another, — then, vi^hen you've seen a 
 little of the world, you can come here or where 
 you will, and the de^il himself shan^t know you/' 
 
 Jack said he must take till morning to consider 
 of it, and in the mean time would go to bed. 
 They all bid him good-night, and hoped he would 
 sleep well; and one of them lighting him to his 
 tent with a firebrand, he crept in, and Timothy 
 clapped himself down at the entrance. 
 
 Jack, who was pondering how he was to get 
 away from this crew, lay and thought of many 
 a plan; but none seemed equal to the difficulties. 
 He knew that they were as early risers as he could 
 be. That if he attempted to steal away in the 
 night, their curs would bark, and they would be 
 all on their legs in a twinkling. If he stayed 
 till morning he might be forcibly detained. He 
 might be gagged and hidden, and conveyed by
 
 86 LIFE Ax\D ADVENTURES OF 
 
 night from one of their haunts to another; and 
 over the sea, as they had given him to understand 
 that they had connexions there. If he should 
 consent to stay a while with them, pretending to 
 fall in with their views, and then to watch his 
 opportunity and escape, he might in the mean 
 time have Ben and Timothy killed, or conveyed 
 away, to make him more dependent on them, and 
 then he should have lost the two faithful creatures 
 that he liked best in the world. 
 
 He could not for his life tell what was best to 
 do. From time to time he still heard the gipsies 
 at their carouse; and looking through a nick in 
 his tent, he could see that they were eagerly dis- 
 cussing some important matter. They were full 
 of gesticulations, pointing here and there, then 
 muttering altogether with their heads stooped to 
 one another; and ever and anon they gave glances 
 towards his tent, that made him sure he was the 
 subject of their talk. He looked out to see if he 
 could perceive Ben anywhere so near that he could
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 87 
 
 possibly steal forth at the back of his tent, and 
 creep away while they were in the midst of their 
 deliberations; but scarcely had he put his head out, 
 when a figure, moving backward in the dark, con- 
 vinced him that he was watched. He lay down 
 again, completely at a loss what was to be done. 
 He lay, and thought, and thought. The noise 
 of the gipsies grew less; the fire sunk dim amidst 
 its ashes; and he flattered himself that all would 
 soon be asleep. In a while he raised his head, and 
 peered cautiously round. He could see nothing, 
 nor hear anything but the crunching of the grass, 
 as the horses near him were grazing. Cautiously 
 he raised himself, and stole out; but as he turned 
 towards the back of his tent he again became aware 
 of something moving in the gloom. It was a young 
 gipsy, who, wrapped in his blanket, addressed him 
 in a strong whisper — "Do you want something, 
 young man ? " 
 
 Jack, whose presence of mind never forsook him, 
 said, " Yes, I want to see if my ass is anywhere
 
 88 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 ^^ to be sure he is ! he is with the rest of the 
 beasts here." 
 
 "But what makes you walk about in the dark?" 
 said Jack. 
 
 " We all'is watches/^ said he. " There are those 
 about that we don^t like, and they might carry 
 off some of our horses before morning. Let your 
 eyes walk in the night, that your legs mayn^t 
 have to run i^the day time, my young ^un — that's 
 the way on^t, as we thinks.'^ 
 
 Jack saw it was a bad case; wished the young 
 gipsy joy of his job, and flung himself again into 
 his tent. As all chance of escape seemed vain; 
 and as he deemed himself too valuable a subject 
 for them, he did not expect any injury or robbery 
 before morning, and therefore turned himself reso- 
 lutely on one side, and was soon asleep. Out of 
 this sleep he was startled by a loud sound of bark- 
 ing and snuffling somewhere behind the tents. He 
 lifted up his head, and could plainly hear Timothy^s 
 voice in the midst of the clamour. Knowing that
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 89 
 
 Timothy would not have quitted his feet without 
 some sufficient cause, he immediately suspected 
 that there was an attempt to secure Timothy, or 
 Ben, or perhaps both. He was starting up to fly 
 to their assistance, when he found himself suddenly 
 plucked down, and at the same moment a cry of 
 agony set up close to his ears that for a moment 
 puzzled and confounded him. Trying, however, to 
 disengage himself, and still feeling dragged down to 
 one side of his tent, while the same voice, as of a man 
 in extreme pain, continued cursing and howling, 
 it flashed on him what it was. He felt and found 
 it so. There was a brawny hand thrust into that 
 pocket of Jack^s in which he had secured his 
 money; and tracing the arm connected with it, 
 he found it proceeded from the outside of the 
 tent. 
 
 The reader will not, however, understand what 
 could be the cause of these outcries; but Jack 
 knew very well. To keep his money safe, after 
 many schemes, he had sewn down his leathern
 
 90 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 purse at the bottom of his jerkiu pocket, and in 
 the upper part of the pocket he had introduced 
 a little bag the width of the pocket, and which 
 formed indeed a false pocket. This he had secured 
 by a couple of buttons, so that it could any time 
 be taken out at once; and in this bag he had 
 stitched a number of fish-hooks upside down, so 
 that if any thief thrust his hand in, he could not 
 pull it out again without half-a-dozen fish-hooks 
 holding him fast. The gipsy who had been attempt- 
 ing to search JacFs pockets while he was asleep, 
 was now caught, and by Jack suddenly at the 
 moment jumping up, the hooks were stuck deep 
 into the fleshy part of his hand, and he was 
 writhing and howling in this unexpected man-trap, 
 like a bear at the storming of a beehive. 
 
 Jack cried out, " Hold ! hold ! rest quiet a 
 moment, rest quiet a moment ! " while he crept 
 under the side of the tent. " Ah!^^ said he to the 
 gipsy, who now was surrounded by a throng of 
 his fellows with firebrands, looking, in their shirts,
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 91 
 
 as wild as so many Indian ghosts raised by a 
 necromancer, " Ah ! what were you doing to get 
 your hand into my fish-bag?" 
 
 " I was feehng/' said the gipsy, a great strap- 
 ping young fellow, " if there was a bit more bread 
 and cheese/' 
 
 "Ah!" said Jack, who affected great simplicity, 
 "Ah! but you should have had a care not to 
 put your hand into my fish -bag. That 's my fish- 
 pocket. When I have to wade through a stream, 
 that^s my pocket that I prop open with a stick 
 for the little fishes to swim into. But hold, hold 
 a moment, and Fll set you at liberty." 
 
 He unbuttoned the bag, and it came out at 
 once, but still stuck fast to the fellow's hand, who 
 writhed, and stamped, and swore, while the blood 
 ran down his arm in copious streams, for in his 
 surprise and Jack's starting up, the fish-hooks had 
 torn the hand excessively. 
 
 "A cursed fool!" muttered the gipsies, "to put 
 fish-hooks in his pocket !"
 
 9^ LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 '^A fool?'^ said another, "the most gallows 
 young knave that ever I yet clapped eyes on/^ 
 
 The noise behind the tents was still going on. 
 Jack heard Timothy barking furiously and howling 
 at the same time as if hm% yet fighting on. 
 Leaving the fellows, therefore, to get off the fish- 
 bag as best they might, he said, " There, get that 
 off, while I see what my dog is after." He darted 
 away, ducking down as he disappeared behind his 
 tent, and snatching his bag and pad from under 
 it, lest they should be stolen in his absence. The 
 gipsies, too much occupied with getting their 
 worthy brother out of his new-fangled and not 
 most comfortable of gloves, did not observe the 
 action. Jack ran on in the direction of the sound, 
 and soon saw three or four gipsies attempting to 
 surround and capture Ben, who was shewing them 
 his heels in fine style, whenever they came near 
 him. They had already managed to throw a rope 
 over his neck, and some were dragging at it, while 
 others tried to secure his head, but come which
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 
 
 way they would, he managed to give them a good 
 gripe by the arm with his teeth, or to lash out 
 with his heels with a capital aim. Tim, all the 
 while, was close to Ben, fighting and biting when- 
 ever he could come near any one of them. Several 
 of them had got tremendous staves, and seemed 
 now bent on knocking out Tim^s brains. At the 
 moment that Jack was running in, and shouting 
 to them to hold, they made a sudden onslaught on 
 Timothy, but Timothy retreated under the legs 
 of Ben, and Ben lashing out at the men, as they 
 rushed near, caught one under the ribs with a 
 tremendous stroke with both heels. Jack heard 
 the blow sound heavy and dead. The fellow 
 doubled himself up in a moment, gave a groan, 
 and fell with his head under him on the earth. 
 With an oath the others cried, " There ! he's done 
 for Barney Beggs!" while Jack rushed in crying, 
 ''Hold! hold! what are you doing? That ass 
 is dangerous. For heaven's sake, keep ojQF!'^ 
 
 "The fiend's in him and you too!" said one
 
 94 JACK OF THE MILL. 
 
 of them, holding up his cudgel, and looking more 
 like the fiend he talked of, than a human creature. 
 He was blazing hot with his exertion. His tawny- 
 skin burned with a copper-red. Perspiration stood 
 shining on his face, and his black heap of hair, 
 brighter than ever with perspiration, hung about 
 his neck in snaky masses. 
 
 "Stand back! stand back!^' cried Jack, ''you 
 can't manage the ass, but I'll do it in a moment 
 for you. Here Ben! here Tim!" As he called 
 out, he ran forward towards the wood. Ben slipped 
 his head from the halter in an instant, and ran 
 forward with open mouth, snatching at fi^rst one 
 of the gipsies and then at another, as they tried 
 to stop him. Tim flew after him, and in the next 
 moment all three were lost in the black shadow 
 of the wood.
 
 
 
 
 
 TACK ALARMED BY WILD FOWL. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 TH"E CHASE. 
 
 Jack clapped the pad on Ben in a twink, and 
 with his bag in his hand galloped through the 
 pitchy darkness at full speed, trusting to Ben^s 
 faculties for missing the trees, and going on safe 
 ground. He could hear the whole camp in motion.
 
 96 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 There was a sound of men shouting, women and 
 children screaming; and lights blazed up at once 
 in two or three places. He hoped they would find 
 enough to do to attend to their two wounded 
 fellows, if one indeed was not killed. But pre- 
 sently, as he turned his head, he could see at 
 least a dozen torches carried at full speed in 
 different directions, whilst shouting voices, and 
 cries of women from the camp, seemed to urge 
 on the chase to the utmost fury. The greater 
 number of torches took a direction immediately in 
 pursuit of him, but others went off, some right 
 and some left, so as to secure all chances. Jack 
 knew that not a moment was to be lost. He knew 
 that it was a chase of life and death. He knew the 
 merciless nature of his pursuers, when the blood 
 of their tribe wants avenging. He knew too that, 
 wild as the woods and the elements, accustomed 
 to all chances from their childhood; to travel any 
 distance, to bear fatigue, to fly from the rigour 
 of their foes, who had chased them from many
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 97 
 
 lands, or in pursuit of those objects which led them 
 over the whole earth, they were as swift and in- 
 defatigable as they were desperate when their blood 
 was up. He knew that, as it has since been 
 found in the American Indians, they had instincts 
 that we have lost in artificial existence. That their 
 senses retained an original acuteness, which con- 
 ferred on them in the eyes of the common people 
 the character of a supernatural agency. They could 
 see, hear, smell, with the keenness of eagles and 
 beasts of prey. He had not a doubt but that by 
 their torchlight they would trace the prints of his 
 ass's feet in the brown surface of the woodland 
 earth, which was covered with a carpet of the fallen 
 needle-like leaves of the firs; and that when these 
 failed, their curs would enable them to pursue the 
 track. There were ten chances to one against his 
 escape. If they overtook him, he was a dead 
 man. 
 
 He reflected but a moment what course to 
 pursue. If he went on in a direct line, he was 
 
 VOL. I. H '
 
 98 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 certain tbey would overtake him speedily. If he 
 held sideways, he should be observed at the latest 
 as soon as it grew light by those in that direction. 
 He therefore struck into a middle course, and held 
 away at an equal angle between the two. This 
 would carry him as far as possible from the present 
 course of the pursuers, and the farther he went 
 the farther he would become from either. But 
 whither he was going in the darkness and confusion 
 of the night he had no conception. What was 
 the nature of the ground, or by what obstacles 
 he might be met. Whether the woods were of 
 great extent, or soon again led to open country. 
 He had a feeling, however, from having formerly 
 gone not far from his present route, that this 
 forest was dense and wide. 
 
 On, therefore, he flew. Ben, who seemed rejoiced 
 to have escaped his tormentors, and to have a sense 
 of some imminent danger, put out his best speed. 
 The groaind continued as level as a house floor. 
 Jack could not vet discern the boles of the trees
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 99 
 
 from the darkness, so close was the wood. He 
 often felt his knees brush against a stem; and 
 sometimes, as if they passed through a spot where 
 other sorts of trees grew, he was lashed on the hands 
 and face by low boughs. But he had the great 
 satisfaction to have left the sound of his pursuers 
 entirely; and soon, the trees standing farther apart, 
 he found the daylight rapidly advancing. Short, 
 indeed, must his sleep in the camp have been, 
 for it could now be little past midnight. He 
 went still on and on. It seemed as if no opening 
 in the woods would ever come. The ground, 
 covered with one unbroken brown carpet of fir 
 leaves, with only here and there a few pale and 
 sickly stems of fern, sounded somewhat hollow 
 under the feet of his ass, as such woodland ground 
 often does. Ever and anon a large bird rushed 
 dashing from its roost in the thick tree-tops over 
 his head; and once or twice he could again plainly 
 hear the distant dream-like shout of his pursuers, 
 which seemed now far on the right, and now on 
 
 H 2
 
 100 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 the left. As tlie pale light of morning grew 
 stronger, suddenly a white space appeared before 
 him. He paused. It looked like an expanse 
 covered with smoke, or mist; in a moment more 
 he perceived it was water. It was a lake that lay 
 in the heart of the woods. He could soon see 
 that, on the side nearest to him, it was margined 
 with rocks and thick bushes and reeds. Dreading 
 to emerge from the screen of the wood, lest he 
 should be perceived by his enemies, and yet anxious 
 to ascertain whether any house was there to which 
 he might fly, he advanced cautiously to the outward 
 line of trees, and glanced anxiously and carefully 
 around. There was no smoke visible to indicate 
 a single dwelling, yet so early in the morning he 
 knew it was not likely that there would be. This 
 was a loss, as by a smoke he might have discovered 
 a house that now might lie concealed from him 
 in the wood. It was a solitude so profound that 
 in his present situation it had something frightful 
 in it. Timothy, however, whose run through the
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 101 
 
 woods had made liim particularly attentive to the 
 instinct for water, ran forward to lap from the 
 lake. In a moment there was a rush and a clang 
 that made Jack^s heart leap into his mouth. It 
 was that of thousands and thousands of wild water- 
 fowls, that from the reedy margin of the lake 
 rose up from their sleep in a quivering cloud 
 that filled the whole air, and with a sound of 
 rushing pinions and clang of voices which can 
 only be conceived by those who have heard the 
 like. Wild geese, ducks, teals, widgeons, coots, 
 and bitterns, mingled their agitated flight and their 
 wild clanging cries with a host of gulls and terns, 
 which from the distant sea came there in summer 
 to build, and to rear their broods. The whole air, 
 that an instant before was as silent as a tomb, 
 was now one living mass of flying, wheeling, scream- 
 ing, and lamenting creatures, that was actually 
 astounding. Jack was startled not more by the 
 clamour than by the reflection that this must be 
 heard for miles round in those silent woods, and
 
 102 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 would give to his sagacious pursuers an instant 
 idea that thither he had come in his flight. 
 
 Once more, therefore, he gave the reins to Ben, 
 and urged him forward through the woods; but 
 very soon he found himself stopped by the approach 
 to boggy ground. A valley of considerable width 
 lay before him, occupied with one great morass, 
 out of which, as he paused to consider what he 
 should do, one flight of wild ducks after another 
 arose with loud outcries, and the solitary fisher 
 of the fens, the heron, soaring up silently, and 
 gradually mounting higher and higher into the air, 
 directed then his flight over the woods to Jack^s 
 not less alarm. He knew that, once disturbed, 
 this bird often flies far to some distant water before 
 he alights again; and to the gipsy, well acquainted 
 with his habits, would, by the direction of his 
 course, be a confirming sign of his having reached 
 this place. 
 
 He was now compelled to turn to the right or 
 left, and he took the left because it seemed to
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 103 
 
 lead him farther from the track of his foes than 
 the right did, where he had a feehug that the 
 woods sooner terminated. It was not long before 
 he found himself on the edge of the stream which 
 issued from the lake, and pursued its way down 
 the marshy vale. It was not wide, but deep and 
 rapid. It was equally impossible for him to leap 
 it, or to swim his ass through it, as the banks 
 stood up high and slimy above the current — and 
 once in, would make it next to impossible to get 
 out again. He began to feel the greatest anxiety 
 and perplexity. To have to retrace his steps, and 
 circle three-fourths of the lake, was almost certain 
 destruction. He trotted on, gazing anxiously 
 before him, every moment becoming more and more 
 fidgety and feverish, when, to his infinite joy, he 
 saw a little bridge of poles and turf, which had 
 apparently been laid long ago by sportsmen in 
 their progress to the lake. He trotted over it, 
 and thanking God, galloped on again for the 
 woods.
 
 104 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Scarcely had he entered those on the other side 
 of the valley when, to his regret, he found himself 
 at the foot of steep hills. These he thought would 
 delay his progress, and if he came to any open 
 space, might expose him to the watchful eyes of 
 his enemies. There was, however, no alternative, 
 and no time to deliberate. He dismounted from 
 Ben, tied his bag to the pad, and skipped along 
 up the steep hill sides. Ben and Timothy followed 
 his steps, and presently he had reached an elevation 
 which gave him a view over a great extent of 
 country. He was amazed to see over what an 
 apparently boundless space of unbroken black wood- 
 lands his career had led. Far to his left, as he 
 stood, he could perceive the open country; but 
 all the rest was one vast ocean of dense and pro- 
 foundly silent forest. 
 
 Jack took comfort from this view. In such a 
 mighty waste his enemies must know that he 
 might be sought for days, and yet not be hit 
 upon. The lake lay still partly visible below, a
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 105 
 
 few solitary birds too might still be seen circling 
 in the air, but no sound reached him from them. 
 He now continued his ascent, and in a few minutes 
 stood on the ridge, which shewed the country 
 beyond. It was still waste and woodland. Round 
 hills swelling up here and there, all covered with 
 pines, broke the view, and gave a greater wildness 
 to its character. It was now near sunrise. Faint 
 streaks of red tinged the clouds on the horizon, 
 and mists lay white in the hollows of the landscape. 
 To the left, the pine woods seemed to change to 
 those of oak, or other deciduous trees; and he 
 fancied he could in that direction discern more 
 than one faint column of smoke. Thitherward 
 he bent his course. 
 
 A quarter of an hour brought him again to the 
 foot of the hills, and once more a dead level 
 seemed to extend before him for leagues.
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 A DEADLY ENCOUNTEE. 
 
 Jack w^s now astonished at the different character 
 which the woods assumed around him. The ground, 
 unlike that over which he had passed on the other 
 side of the hills, which was sandy and dry, was 
 here livid and slippery, as if from never-evaporated
 
 JACK or THE MILL. 107 
 
 moisture. The trees hung dank and cheerless. 
 Some, slender and sickly, stretched their feeble 
 branches far and wide in the pale dim light of 
 the other overshadowing trees, as if seeking a 
 breath of upper and more vivifying air. Night- 
 shades, on the contrary, grown almost to tree-like 
 size, stood here and there, with yellow branches 
 and thinly scattered leaves, and already began to 
 display the purple richness of their poison fruit. 
 Tangled masses of bramble formed the under- 
 growth, and huge fungi, livid and rotting into 
 masses of venomous pulp, shewed themselves in 
 every direction. It seemed a place made for the 
 abode of loathsome reptiles, and natures in alliance 
 with them. Jack, who an hour before would have 
 given worlds for the sight of a human habitation, 
 now actually started to perceive a cottage standing 
 in this baleful region. It was in full keeping 
 with all around it. It was of wood, grown green 
 with age. A rotting thatch covered it. Instead 
 of pleasant enclosures and a neat little garden
 
 108 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 about it, lay heaps of damp ashes, with beds of 
 rampant docks and thistles, and amongst, and 
 half buried by them, trees that had been felled, 
 and had lain till they rotted piecemeal, and were 
 covered with whole crops of yellow fungi. 
 
 As Jack glanced over this chilling scene, he 
 heard a stick crack, and turning, saw not far off 
 an old woman, fit habitant of the place. She 
 was old, and, luckily for him, apparently nearly 
 blind and deaf; for, as she gathered her sticks 
 to light her fire, she appeared totally unconscious 
 of all around. She was in the extremity of feeble- 
 ness. While she stooped to gather sticks and 
 broke them under her foot, and then laid them 
 in an old basket, she leaned trembling on a strong 
 staff in her left hand. Her arms were mere skin 
 and bone, and the skin was as wrinkled as the 
 bark of an oak, and as brown. Her sharp and 
 prominent features were of the same character; and 
 her eyes were set in lids as red and bleared as 
 if she had all her life lived in a pungent and 
 acrid smoke.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 109 
 
 Jack, who had all the belief of his age in witches, 
 sate motionless on his ass till the old beldame had 
 finished and carried her load into her cottage, when 
 he stole past as silently as possible, and then put 
 Ben to his utmost speed. Not many hundred 
 yards, however, from the house, he suddenly came 
 upon an old man, as old in look, and as evil in 
 look, as the old woman. He had a greasy suit, 
 as of black leather, an old slouching hat with torn 
 brim, and stood propped on a crooked stick, round 
 which a rudely -carved snake twined. He had 
 something in a bag on his back, and he tottered 
 from head to foot with palsy. As Jack saw" him, 
 he involuntarily drew up, gazed at him with awe, 
 and said — " Good morning, good master." The 
 old man, instead of answering, muttered between 
 his teeth, still nodding and tottering with palsied 
 weakness, — 
 
 " Ay, ay, — one — two — three, — 
 Cursed lad, and cur, and ass; — 
 Let 'em flee, he 's by the tree, — 
 Catch 'em, devil, as they pass."
 
 110 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 The old man went tottering and nodding on, with 
 a fiendish leer on his face. Something in his bag 
 rolled and twisted, as if it were alive; the old man 
 cursed it, and went on. Jack, filled with a horror 
 of this malicious old man, also trotted on as fast 
 as he could, while Timothy cringed to the side 
 of Ben, and whined piteously to himself. 
 
 Ere long. Jack had the pleasure to issue from 
 this baleful wood. The sun had risen bright and 
 warm; a stream, in a valley below, ran glittering 
 on its way; all looked cheerful; and a narrow 
 opening in some rocks that flanked the brook 
 seemed to promise an outlet to some cultivated 
 country. He descended to the stream, let Ben 
 drink, and was in the act of riding through the 
 water, when, leaning against a tree that sprung 
 out of a rock in the narrow pass before him, he 
 saw a powerful young gipsy with his eyes already 
 silently fixed on him. It was now too late to 
 flee. Jack paused a moment, and, though the case 
 seemed desperate, determined to put a good face 
 on the matter, and go on.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. Ill 
 
 As he drew near, the man planted his brawny 
 figure full in the way, raised his knotted cudgel 
 of blackthorn, and said savagely, " So, youngster, 
 you are met/^ 
 
 "What want you with me?" said Jack. 
 
 "Imp of darkness," he replied, "what do I 
 want? Prepare to go to the devil that sent you 
 here. Do you pretend, you scurvy curmudgeon, 
 to come and play your infernal tricks on men 
 like us? Do you come with your fish-hooks and 
 your fiend^s foal of an ass, that has killed Barney 
 Beggs dead on the spot? Take that for your pains, 
 you villain ! " 
 
 With that he sprung upon Jack, and with the 
 fury of a giant whirling his cudgel aloft, he aimed 
 a blow at Jack's head, which, had it been as hard 
 as a stonemason's mallet, would have cracked it as 
 if it had been a pumpkin; but Jack, who had no 
 desire to try its effects in that way, ducked with 
 his accustomed celerity, and pushing in close on 
 his antagonist, aimed a thrust with his hanger
 
 112 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 at his chest. The active gipsy, who was as lithe 
 as a serpent, drew back enough to allow the thrust 
 only to take a slight effect on his right shoulder; 
 and seizing Jack with his left hand, plucked him 
 from the ass and dashed him down on the road. 
 In an instant he drew a large long-pointed knife 
 from his belt, and another second would have 
 seen it plunged through Jack's heart; but Timothy, 
 who had made a furious attack the moment he 
 saw Jack aimed at, now seized the gipsy by the 
 calf of the outstretched leg with such a sudden 
 and teeth-meeting gripe, that, groaning with the 
 pain, he turned to dart his knife into the dog. 
 Timothy, however, who saw the flash of the blade, 
 let go his hold, and sprung aside ready for a 
 pounce upon a fresh quarter; and Jack, who was 
 not a youth to let slip the si ghtest advantage 
 in his favour, sprung upon a projecting piece of 
 rock, and drawing his axe, struck the gipsy on 
 the back of the head a blow which sent him head 
 foremost under the feet of Ben, who stood quietly
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 113 
 
 awaiting the issue. The blow was mortal. Jack 
 paused a moment — when, seeing a flood of gore 
 drench through the black locks of the fallen man, 
 he descended, lifted up his head, then letting 
 it gently fall again, said to himself, "Ay, it^s 
 over with him safe enough, however." He at first 
 was inclined to leave him where he was, as it 
 was a solitary place, and that it might be long 
 enough before he was found for himself to have 
 got far from this part of the country. But reflect- 
 ing that the clan was all out, that the direction 
 and post of each had probably been assigned him, 
 and that when this man did not return to his 
 comrades at night, a fiery search and hue-and-cry 
 would be made after him, he concluded it best 
 to hide the body. His first thought was to cast 
 it into the stream; but, recollecting the strange 
 words of the strange old man he had so lately 
 met, he deemed that there was a connexion or 
 an understanding between the gipsies and these 
 uncanny dwellers in the wood, and that the body 
 
 VOL. T. I
 
 114 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 floating down the stream might speedily be descried 
 by some of them; he was unsatisfied with this. 
 He therefore again crossed the stream, turned into 
 the wood in a side direction, and at some distance 
 found a wild and solitary hollow, where sand 
 appeared to have been dug for ages, either for 
 building, for glass-works, or to carry to the city 
 for household purposes. It was to Jack a startling 
 and convincing proof that he w^as not far from 
 an inhabited place. Here, indeed, stood the ruins 
 of a hut, that at some former time had probably 
 been inhabited by the sand-diggers. There were 
 traces of a garden, and wild plum-trees and garden 
 plants still stood amid weeds and sand. Around 
 were precipices of sand, overhung with old black 
 pines, and scooped out into caves of great extent. 
 Many of these, from the loose nature of the material, 
 had fallen in, and carried down with them enormous 
 pines, which now stood leaning in many a strange 
 direction, but growing, and as flourishing as ever. 
 The whole had a most desolate and gloomy aspect.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 115 
 
 The caves around seemed like the deserted abodes 
 of some solitary recluses. The silence v\^as awful, 
 and Jack^s first thought was, that it was just 
 the place for a murder to be committed in; his 
 next, that it was that of all others to conceal 
 the man when murdered. His own purpose had 
 too much of the same character to need another 
 reflection. He strode hastily back again, managed 
 to raise the body and lay it across the ass, and 
 return thither with all possible speed. 
 
 The fact that many of these caves of sand had 
 fallen in, furnished him with a hint for the accom- 
 plishment of his object. He took a survey of them 
 in succession, and observing one where the super- 
 incumbent mass, surmounted by a large tree, wanted 
 only a slight impulse to come down altogether, 
 he deposited the body in this cavern, and by dint 
 of cutting away with a pointed stake the soft sand 
 from the sides of its entrance, and then mounting 
 into the tree and swaying it to and fro, in less 
 than an hour the whole fell in with a thundering 
 
 i2
 
 116 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 hollow soundj and the man, buried deep in his 
 sandy vanity might lie for ages before he was dis- 
 covered. Jack, precipitated by the fall of the tree 
 to some distance into a heap of sand, readily 
 sprang again to his feet, and again set forward on 
 his way. 
 
 Though it had been a case of life for life, and 
 of desperate self-defence, as he looked around on 
 that wild and dismal scene, ere he quitted it, he 
 could not help feeling a sensation of deep melan- 
 choly and regret for the fate of a fellow-mortal, 
 though that mortal would so willingly have sacrificed 
 him. When he looked round on the solitary sand 
 caves, and between the boles of the pine-trees in 
 the shadowy wood, he could not help fancying 
 that he heard the cracking of a stick, and even 
 saw the nodding and palsied figure of the old 
 man in the distance. As he entered the defile 
 which had been the scene of the contest, Ben did 
 not pass the blood-stained spot without snorting 
 and hanging back ; and Jack himseK rode over
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 117 
 
 it with a shudder, and expected at almost every 
 step to see another huge gipsy start up and dispute 
 the passage with him. But all was still; and 
 arriving soon after at a village, he refreshed himself 
 and ass, and rode on yet far before evening.
 
 JACI^S Dr.Vj.C_. TO 11 luHTZN THE HOST 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JACK MEETS WITH SOME HONEST MEN AT A SOLITAET INN, 
 AND THE UPSHOT OF IT. 
 
 As the day closed, he arrived at a large solitary 
 hostel, where he alighted for the night. The 
 place was a great, slovenly, and forlorn concern. 
 A large passage ran through it, ill paved; and 
 a wooden staircase, leading out of it mto the
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 119 
 
 upper rooms — the steps composed apparently of 
 solid blocks of oak — looked as if it had been 
 travelled up by the whole country for half a century, 
 and never swept down. On one side of the passage, 
 Jack looked into a miserable kitchen, where a 
 middle-aged slatternly woman was dallying rather 
 than busy amid her greasy collection of pots and 
 pans, and wooden tubs, and sack bags, and other 
 lumberly articles; and on the other, into what was 
 called the house-place, that is, the regular sitting 
 and drinking room. The guests he found here, 
 and the host, who was drinking with them, did 
 not please him more than all the rest he saw. 
 The host was a big, broad-built man, who was 
 dressed in a sort of saffron-drab hose and doublet, 
 with broad flaps, in which he had large pockets, 
 wherein he stuck his hands continually, as well as 
 where he deposited his money. He had a slouching 
 sort of cap on; a great round face, with a beard 
 that neither could be said to be wholly shaven, 
 nor yet was allowed to grow naturally. It appeared
 
 120 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 thinly scattered, yet bristly and grisled, and as if 
 it were clipped pretty close once a month or so. 
 He moved his limbs about loosely, and as if with 
 a consciousness that they were heavy. At present, 
 however, he did not move them at all more than 
 to beckon with his hand, when Jack went in to 
 ask where his ass could be stalled, that he might 
 take it up past the house into the yard at the back. 
 Jack followed his direction, and found his way 
 into a large yard, as littery and neglected as the 
 house. Great stacks of wood and sticks for firing, 
 which had been carelessly pulled as wanted till 
 they were tumbled into confused heaps, quantities 
 of loose straw, old carts, trestles, and boards, lying 
 about amidst decaying buildings. He first opened 
 one door, and then another. One was a lumber 
 hole, full of farming tools, ladders, and such things; 
 another, an ash-hole; a third, a hen-house; a 
 fourth, a great and pestiferous pigsty, where heaps 
 of enormous swine lay in a warm and steaming 
 mass of manure — the accumulation of years, — of
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 121 
 
 swine that rose up and came bolting to the door 
 with a tremendous guffaw and grunting, no doubt 
 expecting to be fed. Others were coalsheds and 
 cow^sheds, and a barn, which did not appear to 
 have been used for a long time. 
 
 At length he opened one door, and found it a 
 stable, where, to his surprise, he found half-a- 
 dozen horses, and the place having, unlike all the 
 rest, the air of much and daily use. The horses 
 were not for farm employment, but roadsters, with 
 their saddles and bridles hanging on the stall- 
 posts near them; and they looked as if they had not 
 long come in from a good scouring journey across 
 a dirty country. 
 
 On returning to the house, Jack walked into the 
 room, doffed his cap to the host and his guests, 
 who were sitting at a large old oak table, and 
 seemed to have despatched a hearty supper after 
 their ride; for they evidently, by their dress and 
 splashed boots, were the owners of the horses. 
 
 They returned Jack's salutation with a short nod
 
 122 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 each and a "good e^en;^^ and as he marched up 
 to the fire, sate and looked at him with evident 
 wonder. The fire was a good pile of wood, burning 
 on the hearth, under one of the wide chimneys 
 of those days; a chimney, in fact, of immense 
 dimensions. Jack clapped himself down on one 
 of the side-benches under the chimney, rubbed his 
 hands before the cheering blaze — for after his hard 
 ride in the morning he felt chilly — and inquired 
 what he could have for supper. 
 
 ^•Just," said his host with a significant smile, 
 "what he would like to pay for. He could have 
 bread and cheese and a can of beer, or he could 
 have a haunch of venison, or a brace of wild ducks, 
 if it better suited his appetite and his purse." 
 
 Jack said he was only a poor smith's apprentice 
 going to see his grandfather, and could not pretend 
 to much money; but he had ridden a long way, 
 and wanted something substantial, so he would 
 even have a few slices of bacon and an egg or 
 two. These, after a good while, were set before
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 123 
 
 him by the slatternly cook, who also appeared to be 
 all the hostess that there was. While Jack had 
 been waiting, he had had opportunity to observe 
 the other guests, and the more he looked the less 
 he liked them. He was inclined to think his first 
 day's adventure with the gipsies had made him 
 suspicious of everybody. These, thought he, are 
 probably honest yeomen, who have been to their 
 market or fair, and are on their way home; but 
 to my eye they look more like a set of scoundrel 
 thieves and murderers than I ever saw or dreamed 
 of. They talked with their host, with whom they 
 seemed to be on the best terms, of things which 
 Jack could make neither head nor tail of, but 
 which he was strongly persuaded related to villanies 
 done and others planned. They were booted and 
 belted, and wore each a heavy sword — but that was 
 common to all travellers in those times; but it was 
 their looks which seemed to stamp them as thorough 
 and vulgar rascals, as plain as looks could do. 
 They had none of the open, honest spirit about
 
 124 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 them that honest yeomen and travellers on honest 
 business have. They plied their leathern jacks 
 stoutly, and talked now and then boisterously and 
 vehemently; but their conversation always came 
 down again to a low key, and a sort of undertone, 
 which betrayed an habituation to caution and 
 inward anxiety. By various looks, which from time 
 to time they had cast at Jack, he w^as aware that 
 they were speculating about him; and when he had 
 done his supper, mine host twisted round his stool 
 towards him, and said, *^Well, my boy, hast made 
 a good supper." 
 
 "Good!" said Jack; " a right hearty one." 
 
 "But art a boy, or a man?" said the host. 
 "Thou'st the book (bulk) of a lad, but the look 
 of a man. Art just in thy ^prenticeship, or art 
 about out?" 
 
 "About half way," said Jack. 
 
 "And where may ta be going then? Where 
 does this granfayther o' thine live?" 
 
 "At Brinklee," said Jack.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 125 
 
 ''At Brinklee!" said the host, " where 's that? 
 I should know this country pretty well, for I 've 
 lived all my life in it; but Brinklee, it's the very 
 first time I ever heard of it.'^ 
 
 "Ay," said Jack, "it's a good way out to the 
 left here. I dare say you never were there." 
 
 "And it's odd to me, young 'un," said one of 
 the fellows at the table, "if you were ever there 
 yourself either. What is it near, Wandsborough, 
 or Pegworth, or Brokehope, or where is it? To 
 the left? I think weVe been pretty well over the 
 country to the left, and the right too, but I never 
 stumbled on such a place; did you, neighbours?" 
 said he, turning to the others. 
 
 "Faw!" said they, "it's all a lie. The young- 
 ster knows better." 
 
 "Master Fox," said another, "you may be 
 reckoned a sharpish lad at home, but these tales 
 won't go down with us. We've seen a thing or 
 two in our time; and I can tell you, you are no 
 more a smith's apprentice than my grandmother
 
 126 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 is. So out with tlie truth, for we've a desire to 
 know, and there's that about you that gives the 
 lie to your pretended tale. Confess now, arn't 
 you a messenger to somebody or other in this 
 country ? " 
 
 "I wish I was,^^ said Jack; ^^but what I tell 
 you 's the fact, and I can make no more of myself 
 than I am." 
 
 "No, but you can make a little less; and to be 
 plain with you, it concerns us to know what news 
 is carried in and out of these parts; and therefore 
 if you don't come honest John v\dth us, and tell 
 a pat story, with none of your Brinklees and your 
 grandads, we shall take the liberty of examining 
 you ourselves.^' 
 
 "Mine host," said Jack, "will you suffer such 
 things to be done under your roof? I'm under 
 your protection, and I expect you to protect me. 
 I'm nothing that these gentlemen suspect me of, 
 and as an honest lad I scorn to be searched.^' 
 
 The host shook his head, and said, "These
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 127 
 
 honest men won't hurt you if you be reasonable, 
 and it^s not in my power to prevent them doing 
 their pleasure/' 
 
 "Then," said Jack, starting up, and drawing 
 his hanger, " the first man that touches me let him 
 take care of this." 
 
 The fellows laughed, all rose up together, pushing 
 their seats away behind them, and said, "Well 
 done, little cock! That's a brave stomach, however. 
 But see! for one little cheese-toaster of thine, here 
 are half-a-dozen spits." 
 
 They drew their swords and advanced, to hem 
 in Jack as they would hem in a sheep or a colt. 
 
 " Be reasonable, my cock-o'-the-woods,''^ said 
 they coaxingly; "be reasonable now,'^ added they, 
 laughing and still approaching. 
 
 "What a bully-boy it would be though,'^ said 
 one, " if he were but as big as his heart is V 
 
 Jack, without waiting further, sprang upon the 
 table on which he had supped, at another spring 
 he was on the shelf over the great wide chimney-
 
 128 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 piece, and flourishing his sword, said, " Gentlemen, 
 there is more in me than you think of; you had 
 better desist." 
 
 They stood a moment with open mouths and 
 staring eyes, astonished at this agility; but again 
 bursting with laughter, said — "What a young 
 monkey of a Jack-pudding! Ha! ha! ha! ha! 
 Why, thou^st escaped from thy master, the Merry- 
 Andrew ! A smith, indeed ! But come there. Hop- 
 o'-my-thumb, or we shall find means to reach 
 thee!" 
 
 All of them now reached upwards with their 
 swords towards him; but these not being long 
 enough, one ran and brought a long pike, and 
 poked at him, crying, "Dost yield?" 
 
 "Never!" cried Jack, cutting the pike asunder 
 with a stroke of his sword. " Never ! and in token 
 of it, take that— and that— and that!" and with 
 these words he flung down the heavy smoothing 
 irons, which were ranged up there by the hostess. 
 So unexpected was this assault, that not a missile
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 129 
 
 but took effect. One iron struck mine host in the 
 centre of his capacious chest, and felled him of a 
 heap against his great table. The second struck 
 one of the fellows on his right shoulder, and his 
 sword went jingling out of his hand to the floor. 
 The third took effect full on the cheek of another, 
 and marked him for life. He reeled away to the 
 wall, and clapping his hands before his face groaned 
 aloud. The rest, astonished and enraged at this 
 outburst, swore desperate vengeance; and mounting 
 on tables and chairs, struck with fury at Jack, 
 who, still out of their reach, now plied his missiles 
 with incessant activity. Irons, weights, candle- 
 sticks, flew down about the heads of his assailants 
 in a shower which did not miss those against whom 
 it was directed. A huge cleaver and various iron 
 stewpans, that hung within reach, followed without 
 loss of time. On a corner cupboard near, stood 
 a massy jar full of salt, to keep it dry. Jack 
 sprung upon the cupboard, hoisted the jar in both 
 hands, and dismissing it on his foes with all his 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 might, it fell on the back of a chair, and carried 
 it and the man who stood in it down together. 
 Reehng against his fellows, there was a general 
 tumble and confusion. The host, who had now 
 recovered his breath sufficiently from the blow on 
 the chest, seeing the destruction that was going 
 on, cried out, " Stop, stop, thou young devil! 
 stop— enough! 1^11 engage for these honest men!" 
 But Jack, who had the moment before espied a 
 glorious advantage, was too eager to heed him. 
 He had leaped back to his former position on the 
 mantel-piece, and cutting the two front strings of 
 a huge bacon-rack which hung from the ceiling, 
 down went, on the falling and stumbling foes, 
 bacon, hams, sticks, and several large cheeses, 
 which had been laid there to dry, in a horrible 
 chaos. 
 
 The host, who saw it coming, clapped his hands 
 to his ears, and rushed out of the house. The rest 
 of the assailants, overwhelmed by this ponderous 
 descent of commodities, that fall more agreeably
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 131 
 
 into hungry stomachs in suitable doses than in the 
 wholesale upon heads, lay sprawling and stunned 
 about the floor. Without waiting for their resur- 
 rection, Jack leaped down from his elevated station, 
 stepped over chairs and tables and prostrate bodies, 
 and made the best of his way to his room. Here 
 he determined to barricade himself for the night, 
 if possible; and if not, to make his escape out 
 of a window. He trusted to the astounding success 
 which he had had, to inspire the vanquished fellows 
 with some idea of his possessing arts w^hich in 
 those days such men believed in and dreaded. It 
 was not unlikely that they would set him down 
 as belonging to his Satanic majesty's forces, and 
 molest him no more. But if they did, as it was 
 yet too dark voluntarily to venture forth again 
 into a country which appeared to swarm with des- 
 perate characters, he must fortify himself as well 
 as possible. For this purpose, he reconnoitred his 
 quarters, and was by no means pleased to find 
 his door unfurnished with either lock or bolt, and 
 
 k2
 
 132 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 over the latcli a hole big enough for a man to 
 put his hand in, and pull out anything with 
 which he might fasten it down. He, however, 
 split off a piece of wood from his bedstead with 
 his axe, drove it fast ' in over the latch, and 
 then examined what egress he could find from the 
 windows. 
 
 One small window looked out upon the gutter 
 of a lower roof, and from thence he saw it would 
 be easy, in case of necessity, to make his escape, 
 and Timothy with him. Adjoining this roof were 
 lower buildings, so that he could from them drop 
 without injury, into the yard. Satisfied with this, 
 he determined not to go to bed, but to await in 
 readiness what might happen. 
 
 To favour the idea of his being something uncanny, 
 as the Scotch say, instead of getting into bed, he 
 ordered Timothy to get into it, with his head to the 
 feet, so that he could be well seen from the door. 
 He threw a blanket over him, leaving his head un- 
 covered; and then wrapping himself in the quilt,
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 133 
 
 which was of a bright red, he mounted on an old 
 clothes-press, or kind of wardrobe, which stood 
 by the wall opposite to the door; and crossing his 
 legs, squatted down like an old Indian idol. He 
 held his axe in one hand, and his sword in the 
 other, upright, or at least had them ready so to 
 be held, if he heard any one coming up stairs; 
 and striking a light with his tinderbox, he kindled 
 a piece of touchwood about the size of his finger, 
 which he always carried about with him, because 
 without flame, it would continue to burn for 
 hours, and could be soon blown up into a glow 
 that would fire dry leaves or dry grass, when he 
 wanted a blaze in the woods. Thus prepared he 
 awaited the approach of his enemies, if they should 
 come. 
 
 The clothes-press was ink-black with age, and 
 carved with odd and grotesque figures. Jack 
 seated upon it, instead of sleeping in his bed, in 
 his red robe, in one hand his axe, in the other 
 his sword, on his head his cap, set up as high
 
 134 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 as possible, and in his mouth a piece of touch- 
 wood, held between his teeth, and breathed on till 
 his mouth seemed a cavern of glowing fire, as 
 you have seen boys sometimes make theirs, he 
 thought would present such a spectacle to super- 
 stitious fellows with bad consciences, that they 
 would be no little astounded. He was right. It 
 was not long before he heard steps slowly and as 
 silently as possible ascending the stairs. The steps 
 paused at his door. A candle was presented to 
 the hole over the latch, and he recognised the 
 broad face of the host presently peeping in. One 
 good look seemed to satisfy him. Jack saw that 
 his eye, first of all, caught his figure as he sate 
 aloft breathing fire from a most grinning visage, 
 and then glancing to where Timothy lay in the 
 bed, setting up his bristles, and grinning, and 
 growling most fiercely also at him. His red face 
 went as pale as that of a ghost; he muttered the 
 nam.e of God hastily; darted from the door, and 
 by the thump and lumber that Jack heard, had
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 135 
 
 evidently taken a leap down stairs, and had gone 
 rumbling and rolling to the bottom. 
 
 This was followed by a most awful silence below. 
 Jack sate a while, laughing to himself; but he 
 might have gone to bed and slept in perfect 
 peace. Not another soul returned up stairs. They 
 were too much convinced that they had been 
 engaged with the foul fiend, to wish to come any 
 more near him. Jack heard a great bustle, and 
 going in and out below, till after midnight, and 
 he guessed that they were dressing their bruises, 
 and restoring the chaos to order again. At length 
 all was still. Throwing himself on the bed, he 
 fell fast asleep, and awoke in the full sunny light 
 of the morning. He now cautiously unfastened 
 his door; descended cautiously the stairs; and 
 peeped into the room where the singular contest 
 had taken place over-night. Not a soul was there ; 
 but all was restored to its former state, except 
 that the huge salt-pot was not standing on the 
 corner cupboard. The fire burned on the hearth.
 
 136 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 His breakfast of beef, black bread, and a black 
 jack of ale, stood ready for him; but mine host 
 was not visible. Jack sate down and ate his break- 
 fast, but nobody appeared. When he had finished, 
 he knocked on the table with the haft of his knife, 
 but no one attended. He then marched to the 
 door of the kitchen. There was the housewife 
 slowly moving amid her pots and pans, who, when 
 she saw him, set her hands on her hips and stared 
 at him, but said nothing. He asked what he had 
 to pay, but she crossed herself, and made no reply. 
 Jack took out some money, and ofi*ered it to her, 
 but she only crossed herself the more earnestly; 
 muttered something to herself, and beckoned with 
 her hand for him to begone. 
 
 Jack asked her how those honest men were this 
 morning, and where they were; but she shook 
 her head, crossed herself again, and Jack finding 
 all answers hopeless, flung down the money, and 
 went out. 
 
 The stable was empty of its horses. Ben seemed
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 137 
 
 to have made good use of his night. He had 
 slipped his halter, and helped himself to the 
 remains of corn and hay in the horses* stalls; and 
 Jack equalizing his bag by parting his clothes 
 into two lots, mounted and away.
 
 JACK MEETING THE OLD WOMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 JACK TRAVELS ON, BUT DOES NOT MEND EIS COMPANY. 
 
 His journey this day was through a more cultivated 
 and agreeable country. There were fields and vil- 
 lages and scattered farms; here and there, heaths 
 and woods; and then again, enclosures and old- 
 fashioned dwellings, half buried in their fruit trees.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 139 
 
 About noon he came down to a very pleasant vale. 
 A river, running over clear gravel, was divided into 
 two or three streams, which hastened on glittering 
 in the sun, or running in the shade of overhanging 
 willows and other trees. Green islands lay between 
 these branches of the streams, with high flowery 
 banks stooping to the water. Meadows with sheep 
 and cattle were around; little cottages glanced from 
 amongst embowering trees; and again, at a distance, 
 the borders of deep woods closed the scene. Jack 
 crossed two or three of these streams; and as he 
 approached the third, he saw a very old woman 
 standing under some willows on its banks. A large 
 flock of geese were swimming in the water, all 
 white as snow. The old woman nodded her head, 
 and tremulously moved her whole frame with 
 extreme age. She had a tall stick in her hand, 
 and a large pair of wooden shoes on her feet. 
 Jack stopped and gazed at her; for he thought 
 perhaps some time, years hence, when he saw his 
 mother again, she might be as old and as time- 
 worn as this poor woman was.
 
 140 LIFE AI^D ADVENTURES OF 
 
 "It's a pleasant country^ this of yours, mother/' 
 said Jack; "but why, at your age, do you stand 
 there alone?" 
 
 " I watch my geese/^ she said, " and I 'm not 
 alone. Angels won here, and I often see them. 
 That's why I like to be here. There ^s no place 
 like it. Those that were young when I was, they 
 are all angels now, and I often see them, all in 
 white, and smiling as I used to see them then. 
 They come to cheer me, and tell me they want 
 me above; but the Lord don^t release me yet." 
 
 " But, good mother," said Jack, " why do you 
 stand so long with your trembling limbs? why 
 don't you let some young boy or girl look after 
 your geese?" 
 
 "0! Pm never tired. I sit on a bank some- 
 times, and listen to the songs that the angels are 
 singing; and then, when my geese wander, I can 
 float after them, — these are my boats, '^ pointing 
 to the wooden shoes, "that I float away in.'^ 
 
 Jack bid the old woman good-bye, and went
 
 JACK or THE MILL. 141 
 
 oiij busy with many thoughts about his mother 
 and the old woman; and wondering whether the 
 old woman really saw the angels, or whether it 
 was a superannuated fancy; and whether she was 
 happier when she was young, or now when she 
 was so old, and quiet, and withered, and looked 
 so silently out of her large grey eyes, and was 
 wrapped in such beautiful visions. 
 
 But before he could satisfactorily settle these 
 questions, he began to descend a steep and stony 
 hill, which the road wound about, and shewed him 
 that he was descending into a deep and woody 
 valley, which appeared by the glimpses that he got 
 ever and anon from high turns in the road, to 
 be of great extent, and to have other valleys here 
 and there running out amongst hills of consider- 
 able height. Before he reached the bottom, it was 
 drawing towards evening; and charmed with the 
 beautiful appearance of the country, he began to 
 look about for a place to lodge. It was not long 
 before he saw a neat little cottage of framed timber
 
 142 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 and brickwork, lying at the foot of some pleasant 
 hilly green crofts, and with a little palisadoed 
 garden before it. An old man sate on a stone by 
 the door leaning on his stick; and Jack took a 
 great fancy that he should like vastly to stop there 
 for the night. There was a wooden outbuilding 
 where Ben might be, or he could run in the croft; 
 and there was something so homelike and friendly 
 about the place, that if he could persuade the old 
 man to give him a night^s lodging, he thought 
 he should be very happy. He had a dread of 
 hostels after his last night's reception, and after 
 hearing that the country was in so disorderly a 
 state. He therefore trotted up to the door, respect- 
 fully accosted the old man, told him that he was 
 on a journey, and should feel very proud if he 
 would let him have a night's lodging there. 
 
 The old man looked at him, shook his head,* 
 and said that his house was no hostel, and that 
 these were not times to take in strangers. Jack 
 said that he had found to his cost this was not
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 143 
 
 a country to travel in with any security, and there- 
 tore it was that he wished, if possible, to procure 
 a night's lodging at a private house. As they were 
 speaking, the old man's wife came out. She was 
 a very decent, comfortable-looking old dame, with 
 her gown pinned back, and shewing her thick, 
 dark, quilted petticoat. She had a round, healthy 
 face, and a very motherly look. As she heard 
 Jack's request, she questioned him as to where 
 he came from, and where he w^as going; and Jack, 
 who felt that he could not tell her a false story, 
 as he did to the gipsies and men at the inn, 
 said he was going to seek a good service, if he 
 could find it, in some nobleman's house, for he had 
 a notion that such a life would suit him better 
 than the dull one of a village. He must be active, 
 and he had a desire to be engaged in stirring 
 adventures. 
 
 ''By Our Ladye," said the old woman, "but 
 you may soon get into employment, and that not 
 amongst those who would do you any good. The
 
 144 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 country here is overrun with bad men, and there ^s 
 nobody but they can find some mischief for them 
 to do. We live in fear of our lives every day; 
 and may be now, youngster, you may be connected 
 with those that are threatening to rob, and perhaps 
 to murder us." 
 
 " Good mother," said Jack, " while the country 
 is as you say, you have a great right to suspect 
 any stranger that comes; but, thank God! I am 
 not yet quite come to be as bad as you would 
 suppose. I am connected with nobody; I have just 
 escaped, and that narrowly, with my own life from 
 robbers and murderers, and that in a hostel too; 
 but I won^t urge you any further, as you don^t 
 know me, and so I bid you good-bye." 
 
 "Stop, stop," said the old woman, "not so 
 hasty. Do you know any great man that can 
 employ you? Have you a letter to any one?^' 
 
 " I have no letter," said Jack, " and I know 
 no one.^^ 
 
 "Then, in God's name, stop here for the night.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 145 
 
 I think thou^'t honest, and I wouldn^t have any 
 harm happen to a youth that wishes to be so. 
 We are going to leave this place ourselves, for 
 we're not safe here, and going to live near a noble 
 old knight, who will protect us, I know, if he can. 
 May be he can find something for such a youth 
 as thee to do." 
 
 Jack thanked them and dismounted. When he 
 had turned out Ben, and he and the old people 
 sate on the hearth together. Jack told them of what 
 happened to him amongst the gipsies and at the 
 hostel. The old people said — Yes, it was a dreadful 
 state the country was in. There was nothing but 
 distractions. People were divided about govern- 
 ment and religion, and rogues took the advantage, 
 and did as they pleased. Here was in this neigh- 
 bourhood a wicked nest of them; and though the 
 inhabitants had sent and prayed the magistrates 
 to send for forces and protect the people, no help 
 came, and nobody knew what to do. Some of these 
 men, who lived in a strong castle in the woods, 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 rincler a man who pretended to have authority, but 
 who in reahty only plundered the country, and 
 nobody dared call them to account, had been there 
 often and extorted money from them; and now 
 they expected them every night to tjome again to 
 rob them of all they had, and perhaps to murder 
 them. 
 
 Jack proffered to help them to pack and get away 
 as soon as they could. It was better to leave their 
 property to lie waste, than to lose their lives and 
 all. They sate and talked till it was late, and 
 agreed the next day to pack up their goods and 
 get away as soon as they could; but they must 
 have help and horses from the old knight before 
 they could convey their things in safety. While 
 they talked, they heard footsteps; there was a 
 thundering knock at the door, and the old man 
 and woman started to their feet, and trembled 
 every joint. Doors and window - shutters were 
 locked and barred already, and Jack made signs 
 to them to remain quiet, while he ran up stairs
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 147 
 
 and endeavoured to discover who it was. As he 
 reached the chamber and opened the window, the 
 knocking became louder than ever, and oaths and 
 dreadful threats were heard from hoarse tongues. 
 Jack now called out, and demanded who was there 
 and what they wanted? The men, whoever they 
 were, were evidently surprised to hear a strange 
 voice, and remained silent for a moment, then spoke 
 to one another, and then said, " Open the door, or 
 we ^11 break it down, and quickly let you know what 
 we want." 
 
 Jack, who could only discern in the gloom two 
 stout figures, and thought he recognised the voice 
 of one of the men of the hostel, cried out, "Aha! 
 what, that^s you there, is it? HavenH you had 
 enough at the hostel? Must I have another bout 
 with you? If I have, it will go harder with you 
 than under the bacon-rack." 
 
 As he said this, he saw the two fellows start 
 from the door, gaze up earnestly at the window, 
 then hurry off, saying, "That's he, sure enough! 
 
 l2
 
 148 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 but if it's the devil himself, we'll have a force 
 before morning enough to drive him from his hold, 
 and burn the house about his and the old wretches' 
 ears/' 
 
 Jack, on going down, found the old people half 
 dead with fright. He told them that the fellows 
 were for the present gone, but threatened to be 
 back before morning, and burn the house about 
 their ears. At this, they set up a loud cry, fell 
 on the ground, and prayed to God to help them; 
 and then rose, wringing their hands, and exclaiming 
 — ^^It's all over with us! it's all over!" 
 
 Jack said — "My good people, it's of no use 
 despairing. Much may be done by exertion. Have 
 you no neighbours that we can alarm ? " 
 
 " No, no," they replied, " there are none nearer 
 than a mile; and if they were at hand, they durst 
 not help." 
 
 "But," said Jack, "you must not be lost. We 
 must do what we can. See here. These men 
 probably won't be here these two hours. I observed
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 149 
 
 a well in your garden, very near the road that leads 
 to the door. We have only to shift the two rows 
 of paling a little, let the road lead directly over 
 the well, and I ^11 answer for it that not many of 
 the villains escape to set fire to the house." 
 
 "0 my God! what a horror!" exclaimed the 
 old woman. "What, drown the poor wretches 
 with all their sins on their heads!" 
 
 " Ay, drown them," exclaimed Jack, " every 
 mother^s son of them, or they ^11 burn you. It^s 
 a christian duty to clear the land of such vermin;" 
 for Jack had learned such doctrine as a sacred 
 duty, and had no more compunction for such 
 desperadoes when his blood was up, than he would 
 have for so many wolves. 
 
 The old woman wrung her hands, and cried, 
 "Rather let us die then, than be guilty of any 
 fellow-creature^s blood." 
 
 But the old man had fallen into Jack^s opinion; 
 lit his lantern; beckoned Jack to the door; hopped 
 ofi", and brought a spade and a mattock; and out
 
 150 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 they went. Jack did not find it a hard matter 
 to rip up the pahng. It came away in huge, long 
 masses. It was not necessary to put down the 
 posts again very firm. So that they stood up, it 
 was enough. The old man held the lantern, and 
 wondered to see Jack work so bravely. Often 
 they stopped and listened if they heard anybody 
 approaching, and then set-to again faster than ever. 
 Often the old woman came to the door, and begged 
 them, in God^s name, to desist and come in. The 
 gateposts took the most shifting, as it was necessary 
 to make them somewhat firm; but before an hour 
 was over, the two rows of palisades were standing 
 of a fashion, but so as the difference could not be 
 seen in the dark. The well-lid was taken away. 
 The two spent yet some time in tying and securing 
 the pales with ropes and pieces of wood, of which 
 good store lay behind the house; and at length, 
 on the fancied approach of some sound, the two 
 busy labourers retreated into the cottage. 
 
 They planted themselves at the chamber windows,
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 151 
 
 and waited witli breathless anxiety the result. 
 Another hour rolled away, and often did the old 
 woman wish that she might be allowed to carry 
 the well-lid, and lay it down again; and then 
 began to fancy that she could see a streak of 
 dawn in the east, and that the robbers would not 
 come. Jack, on his part, began almost to fear 
 that they would not come, or that some innocent 
 night- wanderer might fall into his trap. But at 
 length a sound of horses^ feet was heard hurrying 
 near. Half-a-dozen men came suddenly and at 
 full speed out of a side lane, rode rapidly up to 
 the gate, dismounted, and tied their horses to the 
 front pales. Jack's heart beat pit-a-pat; it was 
 but a moment, and he saw the group hasten in 
 at the little gate. They were all talking together; 
 another moment, and there was a plunge — a heavy 
 fall — a cry of horror, — and he missed two out of 
 the shadowy figures. Two were seen hurrying 
 back; a third, who had now nearly reached the 
 door, turned back on seeing his companions retreat,
 
 152 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 and crying, "What is it? what is it?^' turned to 
 follow them. The next instant, he disappeared 
 in the well too. Those who had escaped did not 
 stay to look behind them. They snatched their 
 horses from their fastenings, mounted, and galloped 
 off at full speed. 
 
 Jack, who was in exultation at the success of his 
 scheme, could not contain himself, but cried after 
 them as loud as he could, " Stay there ! stay there !" 
 Their horses were heard going at full speed till 
 lost in the distance of the valley. 
 
 "We must lose no time now,^' said the old 
 man, " or in the coming night they will be upon 
 us again, and massacre us without mercy. You 
 must fly, my brave youth, to the old knight's, and 
 pray him for horses and a wagon to carry us and 
 our goods, and for men to guard us; and the 
 sheriff must come and see to the men in the well.'' 
 
 Jack took the old man's directions, mounted one 
 of the horses of the dead men, which their fellows 
 had left hanging at the gate, and galloped away.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 153 
 
 Before the sun rose, he had reached the old knight's. 
 Men and horses and a wagon were sent to fetch 
 the old people and their chattels, and word for- 
 warded to the sheriff of the robbers that were 
 fallen into the well. Before noon all arrived at 
 the cottage. They crowded round the well to see 
 the bodies of the drowned drawn up; who no 
 sooner came to the light, than Jack recognised 
 them as his old acquaintances of the hostel, and 
 the rest of the bystanders as amongst the most 
 desperate freebooters in the country.
 
 JACK AND THE OLD WOMAN'S CAT. 
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 THE FLITTING OF THE OLD FOLKS, AND HOW THEY WKKE 
 RECEIVED Br THE OLD KNIGHT'S STEWAED. 
 
 Leaving the sheriff and his men to take charge 
 of the dead bodies and of the robbers^ horses, 
 the old knight^s men, assisted by Jack, set about 
 in earnest to pack the old people^s goods, and 
 load them with all despatch in the wagon sent
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 155 
 
 from the knight. The little cottage, which had 
 been so long the home of the old people, was 
 shut up; the well-lid laid down again; and the 
 wagon drove away. The two old people, who were 
 seated on the top in a sort of little hollow made 
 in the middle for them, where the beds and bedding 
 were laid so that they could sit at their ease, looked 
 back at their beloved home of so many years, which, 
 unless the country became more settled, they would 
 probably never see again, and wept. As they were 
 gazing, with their heads turned backwards, on the 
 old place through their tears, as if they would not 
 lose a moment's view of it while they were in sight, 
 the cat, which had probably been frightened away 
 into the bushes by the appearance of so many 
 strange men in the house, packing and ransacking, 
 and by the dogs that were with them, — amongst 
 which our Timothy was not the least active, taking 
 it into his head to gambol, and run up stairs and 
 down stairs, and round and round in the croft, 
 with the other dogs, as if he had been only a half-
 
 156 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 grown wlielp, — appeared at the corner behind the 
 house, and lifting up one forefoot, stood looking 
 after the wagon, and mewed most piteously. The 
 old woman forgot her tears in a moment, and cried 
 out, "Oh my cat! my cat! Stop, good folks; my 
 cat ! my cat!" 
 
 The men stopped to learn what was the matter; 
 and when they understood what it was, and saw 
 the cat where the old woman pointed, ^'0," said 
 they, " never mind the cat ; there are plenty of cats 
 where you are going, and cats don't like to leave 
 their old haunts." 
 
 But the old woman would not be pacified without 
 the cat. She begged they'd let her husband get 
 down and fetch her; but Jack said, "0! I'll fetch 
 her, mother; I'll fetch her." He sprung over the 
 hedge, and ran up the croft the nearest way to the 
 house. No sooner was he over the hedge, however, 
 than Tim sprung over after him, and after Tim 
 the other dogs. The old woman cried out again, 
 louder than ever, "Oh, my cat, my cat! they'll
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 157 
 
 worry my cat V' The men cried sternly to the dogs 
 to come back; Jack turned, and drove Tim back 
 too; but the cat had taken alarm at the sight of 
 the dogs, and stood with her bristles set up on her 
 back, which was drawn up like an arch, and her 
 tail swelled out to the size of a fox's brush. As 
 Jack drew nearer, crying, "Pussy, pussy," very 
 coaxingly, she spit at him with a sudden spurt, 
 gave a low "whow!" and leaping upon a water- 
 tub, thence sprang up to the water-spout, that 
 came sloping down the house-end, and in the next 
 moment was on the house-top, still bristled up like 
 a porcupine, and mewing more piteously than 
 ever. 
 
 Jack made no difficulty of the matter. He 
 climbed up an old pear-tree that grew by the house, 
 scrambled up the thatch like a monkey, and, to 
 the astonishment of the men with the wagon, an 
 instant afterwards was seen on the very ridge of 
 the cottage, where, striding across it, he hopped 
 along, by means of his hands, like a frog, and
 
 158 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 approached the eat, which now stood drawn up 
 against the chimney, spitting and mewling most 
 savagely. Jack continued his endeavours to pacify 
 her, still crying — "Pretty pussy! pretty pussy !^^ 
 but all in vain. There was a little dormant window 
 in the roof, where, no doubt, the cat had been used 
 often to enter, and at the moment that Jack made 
 himself pretty sure of her, she darted down the 
 thatch, and in at this window. The men at the 
 wagon, now diverted beyond bounds, laughed aloud; 
 but the next moment, as Jack himself nimbly 
 descended the thatch to follow the cat through 
 the window, and the old rotten thatch crumbled 
 and tumbled down in dust under his tread, all 
 cried out in horror, " He '11 be killed, the madman ! 
 he'll be down! he ^11 be killed!" 
 
 The old man and woman held up their hands 
 in speechless terror, but Jack in the mean time had 
 disappeared through the window. Timothy, how- 
 ever, on seeing this, could no longer be restrained; 
 he sprang over the hedge with a howl, and the
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 159 
 
 rest of the dogs after hiai. It was of no use 
 calling; away they rushed, barking. The old 
 woman again cried, " My cat ! my cat ! they '11 
 worry my cat!" and began to hobble over the 
 chairs and tables to descend from the wagon. The 
 men, who cursed the cat, and wished it at the 
 bottom of seven seas, now thought it best that 
 the old woman should be helped down, to catch 
 her cat, as they saw no other prospect of getting 
 away that day; but while they were in the act of 
 assisting, Jack appeared from the house, running 
 with the cat in his arms, which did not cease to 
 scratch, and swear, and struggle, in a most catlike 
 style. Luckily, Jack had found the door of the 
 chamber into which the cat jumped shut, or he 
 would have found it a much more difficult business 
 to decoy the cat into his grasp than he had to 
 decoy the thieves into the well. He clapped the 
 window to after him. The cat, seeing herself 
 enclosed in the room, then took to a closet that 
 stood open, scrambled up to the top shelf, where
 
 160 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 she stood howling, swearing, and spitting out mist 
 and musky breath, while Jack mounted up to seize 
 her. Before he could do that, she leaped dow^n 
 again, and flew to the chimney. This was for- 
 tunately stopped with a bundle of straw; and as 
 Jack extricated himself from the cupboard, she was 
 in the act of springing up into the window. The 
 glass flew to shivers as she bounced her head 
 against it; and another moment, and she would 
 have been again on the house-top. But Jack 
 seized her as she was half-way out, dragged her 
 back, and at the expense of various scratches, and 
 by a firm hold, brought her captive. 
 
 Being now consigned to her mistress, who 
 wrapped her in her apron, and from which peeping 
 out she continued for a long time to testify her 
 uneasiness by whining and grumbling, the wagon 
 once more proceeded. The excitement of the cat, 
 and the attempt to pacify her, had the best effect 
 on the spirits of the old people. They seemed 
 almost to forget the old house in the attention
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 161 
 
 to her; aud when it was out of sight, sate for 
 the rest of the journey quietly, remarking on the 
 country they passed through, and talking to the 
 men who walked on by the side of the wagon. 
 Jack, with his ass and dog, trotted on before to 
 give notice of their approach; and that night saw 
 all safely arrive at the village near the old 
 Knight's. 
 
 The next day Jack assisted in putting the furni- 
 ture into the cottage that was appropriated to the 
 old people; and here a bed also was set up for 
 himself. The steward, who seemed a grave and 
 consequential man, came and gave orders that 
 Jack's ass should be turned into a sort of paddock 
 behind the buildings, belonging to the hall ; asked 
 Jack what he did with such a dog; and Jack, 
 who had never been asked such a question before, 
 and never dreamt of being asked such an one, 
 said he did not know exactly; that he was very 
 fond of him, and took him for company and 
 safety. 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " Young man ! ^' said the steward, looking 
 very hard at Jack, and with a severity in his 
 manner and tone that a good deal surprised him, 
 ^'a person is known by his company, as a bird 
 is known by its feathers; and let me say, that 
 a more scoundrel-looking cur I never yet set eyes 
 on. Take care, while you stay here, that he is 
 not found prowling in the park, or he will instantly 
 have a bolt sent through him from the keeper's 
 crossbow; and you will have an order to march 
 at a minute's warning. You'd better take my 
 advice, and have him destroyed at once." 
 
 Besides this, he went on to question Jack as 
 to his own identity and objects in rambling about 
 the country with an ass and sneaking cur. Jack, 
 who conceived a deep and inward disHke to this 
 man, and thought if the old Knight was at all 
 like him he should not require any order to march, 
 for he should soon be on his way again, gave the 
 steward no other answer than that he had a little 
 business with the Knight. This only seemed to
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 163 
 
 fix the steward^ s attention more deeply on him, 
 instead of putting an end to it. He surveyed 
 Jack from head to foot with a scrutinizing look, 
 and said — " And pray what may your business 
 be, young fellow? I am the man to whom all 
 business must be opened. It can only go to the 
 Knight through me; for his worship will not be 
 troubled by every impertinent groom with his 
 sordid matters; and by your appearance, I conceive 
 you can have no very weighty business with the 
 noble Knight. What have you to say then, boy? 
 What would you?" 
 
 Jack, -whose antipathy to the man was every 
 moment getting quite enormous, and who yet felt 
 that he might be making an enemy of him, which 
 might destroy all his hopes of employment with 
 the Knight, doifed his cap, made the steward a 
 profound bow, and said — that he could have no 
 objection whatever to tell him what he wanted; 
 on the contrary, as his business was merely to 
 solicit to be taken into the Knight's employ, he 
 
 m2
 
 164 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 should be glad to secure his good services for 
 him. 
 
 "And pray/' asked the steward, "what kind 
 of employment dost look for, then? For a place 
 in the stable, or in the scullery ? Is it to chop 
 and carry wood for the fires, to help the gardeners, 
 or drive plough and fetch and carry for the farm 
 hinds?" 
 
 Jack replied, that for such work as that he 
 needed not to have come so far from home; those 
 jobs were to be had anywhere. But he conceived 
 that he had wit enough in him to make him 
 useful in a higher w^alk : as a page, a running 
 footman, to carry confidential messages, to wait 
 on the Knight in the hall, or even to bear a bow 
 in the field, if he were not lusty enough to carry 
 a pike. 
 
 At the hearing of this, the steward threw up 
 his eyes and hands with an air of the utmost 
 astonishment and contempt. " What, pigmy ! '' 
 said he, " dost aspire to the offices of a full-grown
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 165 
 
 and well-grown man? Carry a bow! — wait in 
 the hall! Zounds! art thou come of gentle blood? 
 Can such a queer undersized man-o^-the-moors ever 
 have come of decent parentage? Speak^ mannikin! 
 what art? AYhence springest thou ? Art thou the 
 abortion of some ancient family, that has com- 
 mitted some monstrous crime, and have had thee 
 sent as a punishment? Or art thou the growth 
 of the basest of life; sprung like a toadstool from 
 the stump of a rotting tree? Get thee gone for 
 a moonstruck jackanapes, if such be thy notions! 
 but if a shovel or a pick can content thee, or a 
 leathern apron, to cut up carrion flesh for the 
 kennels, why say so, and there is bread for thee/^ 
 
 Jack, instead of appearing angry or cast down 
 by this address, though his heart seemed on fire 
 within him, and he felt that he should like to 
 send his sword through the well-fed villain's massy 
 carcase, only made him another bow, and replied 
 with a smile, that he thanked him for his noble 
 offers, but begged to say that they did not exactly
 
 ]66 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 chime in with his views. He turned into the old 
 people's cottage; but the steward stepped in after 
 him, and said, " Mind, young puppy ! attempt 
 not to get to the presence of the Knight. I shall 
 look to that; and it were better for thee to leap 
 at once into the dog- kennel, and be rent to pieces, 
 than to be found attempting any such thing.^' 
 
 He appeared in no good humour neither with 
 the old people, said something about * hangers 
 on,' and 'old snudgers,' that, like rotten apples, 
 were best in the ground, and went away. Jack 
 expressed his wonder and indignation to the old 
 people, and said that if the master were like the 
 man, he was sorry they were come thither, and 
 that, for his part, he should soon be on the way 
 again. 
 
 "Oh!'' said the old people, "be patient, good 
 youth, — be patient. The man has a bad name, 
 but there's one that keeps him in check. The 
 old Knight, God bless him, is as good as this man 
 is bad. Folks wonder that he has kept him so
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 167 
 
 long about him, but lie manages to get on the 
 blind side of the worthy old gentleman. Pray 
 God, that things may not be as some say, in his 
 affairs. But there's a just God above, — and as for 
 us — let us be silent. Hedges have eyes, and walls 
 have ears, and a little bird often flees over the 
 house, and tells things." 
 
 While they spoke there came another old servant 
 to bid Jack come to the old Knight. This man 
 seemed to be about fifty years of age. His hair 
 had become somewhat grizzled with time, but he 
 had a fresh and healthy complexion, and though 
 of a solemn aspect, yet there was a friendliness in 
 his tone and manner, which after the steward's 
 treatment, struck upon Jack's heart like pleasant 
 music. He was the butler. He spoke very cheer- 
 fully to the old people, hoped they would find their 
 new house pleasant to them, and said he had 
 already been speaking with the Knight about their 
 future plans; and that the old man would have 
 a nice tantling job to chop wood for winter, to
 
 168 JACK OF THE MILL. 
 
 sweep the walks about the house^ and do such 
 little things at his ease. The old people expressed 
 their gratitude, and told him in a whisper what 
 the steward had said. The worthy man only 
 indicated by an upward motion of his hands and 
 eyes his sense of the affair; said, "Time and 
 patience, my good friends; you know him. Don't 
 be disturbed, and all will go well.^^ He withdrew 
 with Jack.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 JACK'S INTERVI-EW WITH THE OLD KNIGHT; HE RECEIVES 
 WEIGHTY COMMISSION, AND SEES A HORRIBLE SIGHT. 
 
 As Jack followed the butler to the hall and the 
 Knight's presence, he noticed the place more par- 
 ticularly than he could do on his hasty visit as 
 the messenger of the old people, the other night. 
 It had then been scarcely light, and moreover the
 
 170 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 old Knight was in bed, and had received his 
 message through a servant, so that Jack had not 
 seen him. He now saw that the house was a 
 fine old stately place, standing in the middle of 
 the valley. Around it were hills, partly opening 
 in green slopes, partly scattered with trees, and 
 here and there, especially in the various hollows 
 into which the hills sank, covered with thick bushes 
 of hazel, maple, crab, and other trees. It was the 
 park, and fine herds of both fallow and red deer, 
 besides cattle and horses, might be seen resting 
 under the trees, or grazing on the open lawns and 
 the hills. 
 
 At some little distance ftom the house ran a 
 deep and considerable stream, which was taken 
 advantage of to fill a broad moat which surrounded 
 the house, enclosing it with all its outbuildings 
 in a quadrangle of considerable size. In front of 
 the house lay the garden, enclosed with great walls, 
 and behind were green paddocks, scattered with 
 fine old elmsj and there appeared beyond, great
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 171 
 
 woods. The village was a few hundred paces on 
 one side, on the banks of the stream. The house 
 itself was one of those picturesque, large, old 
 mansions, with small, strong windows, battlements, 
 projecting gateways, and various towers, which are 
 almost more of castles than halls, and of a style 
 most like what are now called Tudor. It was 
 built round two courts. Over the gates and on 
 various towers, were seen carved in stone the coat 
 of arms of the old Knight's family. Numbers of 
 grotesque animals seemed to have started out in 
 some former ages, in various places, and to have 
 stood so long that they had stiffened into stone 
 spouts on battlement and porch. Drawbridges led 
 over the moat, and numbers of starlings and jack- 
 daws cawed and whistled from the old, grandly 
 twisted chimneys; and rooks in thousands, though 
 their building and rearing had long been over, 
 hovered in one of those occasional visits, which 
 they sometimes make in the day-time to their old 
 haunts, as well as each night to roost, over the
 
 172 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 adjoiDing elms in a black cloud, and with one 
 mingled and sonorous cawing, which seemed to 
 indicate that it was a day set apart by them for 
 some great discussion or rejoicing. 
 
 The whole was, in short, the residence of the 
 old English gentleman. As Jack walked past the 
 windows, which were half buried in some parts 
 by an immense growth of ivy, and then advanced 
 under the gateway into one of the inner courts, 
 he felt something of that awe, which especially the 
 young and inexperienced feel when they see around 
 them the proud towers and halls of the great, 
 particularly when there seems to reign an ancient 
 spirit of order and of stately life. All here was 
 solemn and subdued. The porter, as they passed 
 in at the portal, rested on his tall stout staff, and 
 surveyed Jack with a silent, half-indifferent air. 
 When the doors of the entrance-hall opened, and 
 Jack saw its size and loftiness; the arms and 
 pieces of armour displayed on its walls; the large 
 escutcheon in carved and coloured oak, at one end;
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 173 
 
 the old banners that here and there drooped, 
 tattered and dusty, from the ceihng, which in white 
 stucco presented the figures of flying angels, and 
 heads of cherubs in scrolled corner compartments, 
 looking down amid huge roses and thistles of an 
 antique grace, his awe was greatly increased. 
 Another door was opened, and he found himself 
 in a large low room, dimly lighted, where, in the 
 recess of one of the windows, sate reading, the old 
 Knight. 
 
 His book, which was a huge folio, was supported 
 on a small black table; and his chair, whose high 
 back was richly carved, was to Jack's eye most 
 luxurious, with cushions of richly embroidered silk. 
 The Knight himself was an old man of a pale but 
 most benevolent countenance, and of a thin and 
 rather tall figure. For a moment, as if deeply 
 absorbed in his volume, he did not lift his eyes 
 from it; and the old butler continued to stand at 
 a respectful distance, with Jack at his side, in 
 motionless silence. Jack, during this period, cast
 
 174 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 a furtive glance round the room, and thought it 
 was very grand indeed. 
 
 The old carved furniture, chairs and massy tables, 
 and cabinets nearly jet black with age, but polished 
 to almost glassy brightness by constant rubbing, 
 the curiously embossed ceiling, the as curiously 
 inlaid floor, the portraits of warriors and ladies 
 on the walls, and the tall folding screen which 
 protected the hearth from the draught of the door, 
 were each and all to him matter of wonder. A fire 
 burned on the ample hearth, for the old Knight 
 was of delicate health; and in truth, this shady 
 room seemed as though it could seldom be visited 
 too often by the sun. A dead hush pervaded the 
 apartment, and apparently the whole house, and 
 a servant that came in with a fresh supply of wood 
 moved as softly as if he feared to disturb the 
 meditations of his master. 
 
 At length the old Knight raised his eyes from 
 his volume, gave a deep sigh, and then turning 
 to them, the butler made a silent bow, and with-
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 175 
 
 drew. The old Knight, who seemed to wake 
 himself out of a reverie, and to bring his mind 
 away from some very distant place and concerns, 
 in which it had been engaged, looked at Jack for 
 a moment, and without seeming to observe anything 
 unusual in his appearance, said, " So, thou art the 
 messenger who brought the tidings of the jeopardy 
 of the old people the other night? And so they 
 are safely brought hither now, are they?" 
 
 Jack replied in the affirmative. 
 
 "That's right,'' said the old Knight; "we'll 
 have them made comfortable, and thee too. I take 
 it thou art their son?" 
 
 Jack assured him that he was not at all related 
 to them. Was a perfect stranger in those parts; 
 and had only, by chance or by Providence, happened 
 to come to their aid at the right time. That 
 he was seeking employment, and hoped that he 
 might have the good fortune to find it with so 
 noble a gentleman. 
 
 At this the old Knight seemed to wake more
 
 176 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 clearly out of his reverie, raised himself in his 
 chair, passed his hand over his eyes, and surveyed 
 Jack attentively. "0!^^ said he, and his surprise 
 evidently increased every moment as he kept his 
 gaze fixed on Jack^s face and figure. " Seek 
 employment? And v^^here, good youth, or man, 
 or boy, whatever it may be, for there is something 
 extraordinary about thee, where comest thou from? 
 Surely from far hence? And what is it that thou 
 seekest?" 
 
 Jack now set on, and as the way seemed to open, 
 and as the old Knight's interest about him seemed 
 to grow, related to him his views and desires, and 
 his last day^s adventures. The old Knight listened 
 to him with extraordinary attention, questioned him 
 strictly on what he related, then rising, went to 
 the door, called for the butler, and on his appear- 
 ance, bidding him close the door again, said, "If 
 I mistake not. Providence has sent us here an 
 instrument that may be most useful to us. Singular 
 as his exterior is, he seems to possess those qualities
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 177 
 
 of body and mind that we are greatly in need of. 
 Take him; see that he is made comfortable. Let 
 him, under your care, do such things about the 
 house as may keep him from the temptations of 
 idleness. Try him as a messenger in some light 
 matters; and if he prove to have as much wit 
 as I imagine he has, and withal probity and " a 
 faithful zeal, it will be a sign that the great 
 Director of events has sent him hither for good 
 ends." 
 
 We may here in few words say, that Jack found 
 himself now vastly to his own satisfaction. The 
 whole house and its contents were matter of curious 
 wonder to him. The friendly butler took the 
 kindest interest in him; questioned him of his 
 parents, his life, his education, and his views. 
 Jack opened his whole heart, and shewed such a 
 desire to distinguish himself by worthy actions, 
 that the good man looked on him with particular 
 satisfaction; told him that if he only maintained 
 these desires, and was active and obedient, he had 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 nothing to fear on the score of securing the worthy 
 Knight^s favour. He was highly pleased with the 
 spirit and cleverness with which Jack set about 
 every thing that he desired him to do. Occasionally 
 he put him to do some menial and irksome office, 
 that he might try whether his mind, which he saw 
 plainly was proud and aspiring, was willing to 
 bend itself to obedience, even contrary to its own 
 wishes and feelings, when it had reason to know 
 that the tasks were not imposed by those who 
 sought purposely to humiliate him. From these 
 trials Jack came forth nobly; and he never felt 
 prouder in his life, than when the friendly butler 
 said, with sparkling eyes and a cordial pressure 
 of his hand on his shoulder, " My boy, by thy 
 cheerful obedience thou hast given a great plea- 
 sure. I see that thy heart is made of true stuff, 
 and now I will try thee in a matter which is more 
 important to thy patron, and I am sure will be 
 more agreeable to thy disposition.^' 
 
 Jack was yet a stranger to the neighbourhood.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 179 
 
 but the good butler, whom we shall henceforth call 
 Andrew, asked him if he would venture to carry 
 a packet to the next town, about five miles off, 
 and deliver it as directed, though at the risk, if 
 found with it, of imprisonment, or even of his life ! 
 Jack said, if it would serve the old Knight, or 
 him, he would undertake it not only cheerfully, 
 but with pleasure. Andrew replied that it would 
 serve many, and that greatly; but that Jack as a 
 confidential messenger, was to carry it, to hold no 
 communication with any one, to ask no questions 
 of any one, whatever he might see; and having 
 executed his trust, to return as speedily as possible. 
 Jack accepted the office with alacrity. He was 
 told that he would probably see strange things, 
 and might be questioned as he entered the city 
 gate, and therefore it would be as well for him to 
 go in some disguise. Jack chose at once to go 
 as a country lad to market, and desired to be 
 furnished with a basket of fruit, and a labourer's 
 frock.
 
 180 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 The next morning in good time, equipped in 
 his frock, with a carter's old hat on, and a stout 
 saphng in his hand, he knocked at the butler's 
 door, and being let in, acted the young clown so 
 well, pretending to be come to know if the butler 
 wanted any green geese to fatten, that worthy 
 Andrew knew so little that it was Jack, that he 
 had actually agreed with him for the purchase of 
 the geese, before Jack, bursting into a loud laugh, 
 and reassuming his natural tone, let him recognise 
 him. 
 
 The good man was so delighted with Jack's 
 power of acting, that he carried him immediately 
 to the old Knight. But if Andrew had not been 
 able to detect him, far less was the worthy Knight 
 likely. Jack made a clumsy bow as he entered, 
 holding his hat in both hands, and begged to 
 know if his honour wanted a lad to tend geese, as 
 Mr. Andrew had bought his geese of him to fatten. 
 
 " Andrew !" said the Knight, " agree with 
 the boy as you please, — agree with him, — why 
 bring such matters to me?"
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 181 
 
 Hereupon^ Jack in his natural voice and tone, 
 begged the Knight's pardon. The Knight looked 
 astonished; and Andrew, vastly delighted, informed 
 him that this boy was no other than Jack, equipped 
 for his trip to the town. The Knight was charmed. 
 Jack had instantly a sealed packet handed to him. 
 Securing the document in the inside of his jerkin, 
 two minutes afterwards Jack was trotting out of the 
 yard on Ben, with Timothy at his heels. 
 
 In a few hours Jack returned. He had faith- 
 fully executed his trust, and brought back a letter 
 from the party to whom he had carried the packet; 
 but he looked sad and thoughtful, and the worthy 
 butler, shutting his pantry door, asked whether 
 he had encountered any difficulties. Jack said, 
 none. He had gone into the town unquestioned. 
 There were crowds going; he had sold his fruit 
 in the market, and made the best of his way 
 back. 
 
 "But you look pale,'^ said the butler; "you 
 have seen something; tell me now what you have 
 seen."
 
 ]82 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Jack stood some time and gazed on the butler^ 
 and moved his lips as if lie would speak; but no 
 words came, and he gazed again on Andrew. 
 
 '' I can well believe/' said Andrew then, " that 
 thou canst find no words to tell what thou hast 
 to-day seen. I must speak it for thee; — thou 
 hast seen a fellow-creature perish in flame !^' 
 
 " And never/^ said Jack, clapping his hands 
 before his face, and trembling as if shook with 
 a sudden ague, ^' never shall I forget the horror 
 of it till I die ! They said he was a heretic and 
 a Lollard; that he denied the holy Mother Church. 
 I asked no questions; but Andrew, my friend, 
 may I not ask you — what is a Lollard? The 
 man, who was an old man, with white hair, 
 and " 
 
 ^' Describe him not," said Andrew, suddenly 
 closing his eyes, and making a quick motion with 
 his hand. " I have his image only too well before 
 my mind's eye. But what said he?" 
 
 " He praised God and Jesus Christ, and blessed
 
 JACK OP THE MILL. 183 
 
 the people, and prayed for his enemies, and said 
 that the Truth would yet go over the land like 
 a whirlwind, and lay prostrate all that was rotten 
 in the garden of the Lord, and shake every unsound 
 tree, root and branch/' 
 
 "And how did he behave?" 
 "Behave? As if he were a spirit, and the fire 
 were only the element in which he appeared to 
 mortal eyes to announce his great message. He 
 seemed to tread it in his bravery, and to soar up 
 into heaven with it, rather than to be consumed 
 by it. My God! never till now did I know how 
 
 mighty some men are! And do they burn such 
 
 men as this " 
 
 " Hush ! " said Andrew, ^' enough. Thou hast 
 
 seen a horror, and a murder. Lock it in thy 
 
 heart, and anon thou shalt know more. Sawest 
 
 thou aught else?" 
 
 " No, — only as I stood at a distance and looked 
 
 on, holding Ben by his bridle, and Timothy lying 
 
 at my feet, there came a man and looked at them.
 
 184 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 and then at me, and asked me how long I had 
 had these creatures. When I looked at the man, 
 I knew him to be one of the men whom I saw 
 at the hostel. I was going to tell him a feigned 
 tale; but I looked at the man triumphing in the 
 fire, and I scorned a lie ! I told him, — many 
 a day. "Tisn't true,' said he; ^ I have seen them 
 lately in other parts.' ' As you will, master,* 
 said I, seeing that he didn't know me, '1 won't 
 dispute it with you; but I must sell these plums. 
 Will you buy? will you buy?' He continued 
 only to stare on me, and again presenting my 
 basket, saying, ' Will you buy ? ' I moved off 
 to another quarter. But he came again with a 
 woman, who bargained for the plums, and asked 
 me where 1 brought them from. I would have 
 told her at once, for I had a vast contempt for 
 a lie in me, but I recollected your words to hold 
 no communication with any one; so I assumed 
 a, waggish look, and said, 'Ha! ha! mistress! so 
 you don't know where I get my plums? What!
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 185 
 
 youM be before me, would you? Nay, nay, good 
 mistress, not so neither ! ' The woman affected 
 to laugh, but I saw that all the time the man 
 was watching me narrowly; so I in a careless 
 manner shifted my ground, and watched out that 
 horrible sight; but when it was over, the man 
 was again near me. In returning, I struck through 
 the woods; but as I drew near the gates here, 
 the woman, mounted on a pillion behind the man, 
 rode past, and nodding to me, said, ^ I know 
 where your plums grow.' " 
 
 Andrew sate and thought; at length he said, 
 " Ay, I fear there's more evil in the wind. Thou 
 hast been the means, in the hand of Providence, 
 of crushing some of the hornets which afflict this 
 neighbourhood, and now it will go hard but they'll 
 crush thee. I see too the steward lowers on thee — 
 it were well for thee to remove hence." 
 
 " Not an inch," said Jack, " if I can be of 
 any service to the Knight and you. Let them 
 find me; 'tis a cunning fowler that can lay a
 
 186 JACK OF THE MILL. 
 
 snare for me, and good lime that can hold me. 
 Leave me, good Master Andrew, in God's hands; 
 for since I have seen what I have seen to-day, 
 I desire to be valiant." 
 
 Old Andrew laid his hand on Jack's shoulder, 
 and looked up as if uttering a prayer, and then 
 said, " As God will ! He knows best ; but, my 
 son, we must be on the watch, for I feel sure 
 that not long will go over without some wicked 
 assay."
 
 JACK ON THE BACON-RACK. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A HUE-AND-CRY AFTER JACK; AND A GLIMPSE INTO 
 STRANGE SECRETS. 
 
 And sure enough three days were scarcely over 
 when the old man of the cottage sought Andrew 
 in haste, and informed him that a hue-and-cry 
 was out against Jack. He was charged with having 
 killed a gipsy, with assaulting and severely injuring
 
 188 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 several honest travellers in a hostel, and with 
 decoying three worthy yeomen into a well in the 
 night. A warrant was issued, and the men who 
 lived in the castle in the wood were vehement for 
 his capture. While they spoke, and almost before 
 they could inform Jack, there was a clatter of 
 horses' hoofs, and the sheriff and his men rode 
 into the court. 
 
 Jack was at that moment in the kitchen, watching 
 the cook cutting a piece of bacon from the store 
 on the rack, which was suspended by pulleys to 
 the top of the large kitchen, and was now let 
 down for this purpose. Andrew rushed in, crying, 
 "Away, or thou art lost! Fly for thy life, to 
 
 the garrets, to the cellars, to Heavens! the 
 
 house is surrounded, fly to ^^ 
 
 " To this bacon-rack," said Jack coolly, snatching 
 a handcloth from the dresser just by, laying it on 
 the huge flitches of bacon, and flinging himself 
 upon it. "Pull away!" he cried, "and then be 
 off as fast as you can."
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 189 
 
 Andrew and the cook caught instantly at the 
 idea. They pulled away with all their might. 
 Jack was soon high aloft, close to the rafters; but 
 before they had secured the ropes to their fastenings 
 on the opposite walls, in rushed a number of the 
 sheriff ^s men. 
 
 "Where is he?" they cried; "where is that 
 boy?" 
 
 The cook and Andrew looked wild and pale with 
 fear. Their looks might have betrayed them. They 
 thought they were taken in the fact, and stood 
 speechless and staring at the men. But the cook^s 
 knife and the piece of bacon lay on the floor, and 
 the natui-alness of the act saved them. Their con- 
 fusion was attributed to surprise. The men cried 
 — "We lose time on these dolts," and rushed on 
 to other apartments. Jack lay outstretched gazing 
 down between his flitches, and laughed in his sleeve 
 as they departed. High and low the fellows eagerly 
 ran in their quest. They demanded of old Andrew, 
 of all the servants, if they knew where he was.
 
 190 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Nobody attempted to deny that he had been there 
 just before; but the old Knight declared truly 
 that he could not tell where he might have fled 
 to. Andrew^ when questioned, said most likely 
 he had fled to the wood; and the cook said he 
 had been in the kitchen not half an hour ago, and 
 talked of going after the swine; each answer being 
 true according to their meaning. Nobody else 
 knew where he was, and the servants protested 
 truly that they had no idea whither he had 
 escaped. 
 
 The steward was observed eagerly to join in the 
 quest, and opened closets, and turned over beds, 
 and dived into cellars, where the strange men could 
 not have found their way. The old Knight re- 
 marked it, and looked more grim and stern than 
 he had ever been known to do before. 
 
 The search was in vain. After they had traversed 
 the whole house, they were once more assembled 
 in the kitchen; and Jack, lying aloft, heard all 
 their remarks, their vows of vengeance, and their
 
 JACK OF THE MILL, 191 
 
 plans of further search. They then rushed out, 
 to scour the woods, and hunt through the out- 
 buildings. 
 
 Till night, Jack lay on the rack, which, though 
 not particularly easy, he thought to himself was 
 much more so than the rack they would probably 
 put him on if they caught him. When all was 
 still, when the other servants were retired to rest, 
 the cook and Andrew released him from his con- 
 finement, and conducted him to the Knight. 
 
 When they had withdrawn, the good old gentle- 
 man kindly took him by the hand, and said he 
 thanked God for his present escape. "^^But these 
 sons of Belial,^' said he, "will come again. We 
 must be prepared for them; and therefore, my 
 son, I must now open to thee things that are 
 known only to the most faithful and tried. I do 
 believe," he added, " that all in this house, saving 
 perhaps one Judas, and he, thank Heaven! does 
 not lodge within these walls, are faithful. All, 
 with this exception, I think are sound; but it is
 
 192 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 
 
 not expedient to let them know all. From thee, 
 my son, I exact no promise of secresy. I read 
 thy truth in thy actions and thy eyes. Therefore 
 thou shalt know more anon; for the present, follow 
 me." 
 
 He took a lamp, and bade Jack do the same. 
 Then drawing aside part of the tapestry which 
 covered the walls, he entered a narrow opening. 
 Jack at his desire entered also, and the tapestry 
 was let fall again. Here was a little rude closet, 
 in which, on shelves stood various preserves in jars. 
 "This is a dry place, my son, and w-ell adapted 
 for the preservation of these luxuries.'' Jack 
 nodded assent. " But this closet has another use." 
 The old man pushed at one of the shelves, and 
 the whole range on one side of the little closet 
 moved back, being, in fact, a door on hinges, and 
 revealed a flight of narrow stairs. The door being 
 again closed, as the two entered, they now stood 
 at the foot of the stairs. 
 
 " See here,'' said the Knight, " this bolt thus
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 193 
 
 shot on this side, the shelves with the preserve 
 jars are firm, and no one can by any other way 
 approach these stairs. So now again follow me." 
 
 They ascended^ and on reaching the top of the 
 stairs found themselves in a little room in which 
 stood a small bed, and a little table fastened to 
 the wall, so that it could let down, and be out 
 of the way. On the table stood Jack's supper. 
 
 " This closet, my son," said the Knight, " is for 
 the present thy retreat, and safe castle. Truly 
 there is no spare room in it, for it is contained in 
 the thickness of the wall ; but there is safety, and 
 that is better. Sleep in peace, in the morning we 
 will converse further.'^ 
 
 The old Knight withdrew, desiring Jack to 
 descend the stairs after him, and bolt the door. 
 Jack slept as sound as if he had been on his little 
 flock bed at home, and as if no price was set upon 
 his capture. In the morning, the light streaming 
 in through two narrow slits in the wall, which on 
 the outside were not discernible for the ivy, woke 
 
 VOL. I. o
 
 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 him early, and anon the old Knight came and 
 desired him to follow him again down into his 
 room. 
 
 '^ Here/' said he, " we can converse without 
 much fear. At any moment, comes there an alarm, 
 thou canst fly into thy retreat, and all is safe 
 again." 
 
 He then went on to question Jack whether he 
 had learned to read; aud whether he had a desire 
 to read. On Jack replying in the affirmative, he 
 added, that Providence had planted talents in him 
 that might be of great service both to himself and 
 others. That now was a time when he could not 
 employ his energies on anything else, and that to 
 beguile the sense of his solitude, were it for no 
 higher purpose, it were well to read. 
 
 " Here then," he continued, " is a book of all 
 books the most extraordinary, and happily for us, 
 of all books the most true. It is a book written 
 at the command, and under the guidance of God 
 himself."
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 195 
 
 Jack crossed himself, and made a profound and 
 reverential bow. 
 
 ^'If, my sou, those knights who for years have 
 lain in many a land, in the dungeons of their 
 enemies, had had this book for their solace and 
 companion, how happy would they have deemed 
 themselves. The lay of the finest minstrel, or the 
 story of the greatest master of romance, what would 
 they have seemed in comparison, but the jingling 
 of a Jew^s harp, or an old wife^s tale. For here 
 are the most wonderful relations, the most witching 
 and triumphant poetry ; the most touching passages 
 of human love and trouble; the most glorious 
 prophecies; and, what is greater than all, the 
 grandest truths that ever came out of heaven to 
 us poor mortals upon earth. Ay, had those captive 
 knights, of whom I often sit and think when the 
 frost hisses without, and the fire burns cheerily 
 on the hearth within, and the cordial wine-cup 
 stands by me ere I retire to my bed, — had they 
 my son, had this volume in their deep and under-
 
 196 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 ground dungeons liewn in the eternally dark and 
 solid rock, and closed with doors of heavy stone, — 
 how would they have been wrapt away into the 
 rainbow bowers of Paradise, and have heard the 
 songs of angels, and seen the faces of the mighty 
 and the wise of old, and have forgotten their limbs 
 which lay chilled on the damp straw, and their 
 fingers which were cramped into the shape of birds^ 
 claws by the deadly cold of their living graves. 
 Carry, my son, this treasure to thy cell; and if 
 God has given thee a heart capable of longing- 
 after what is great and good, the world will be 
 henceforth for thee another place, and thy life 
 another subject of thanksgiving." 
 
 The old Knight spoke with an earnestness and 
 a deep and solemn feeling that thrilled through 
 Jack^s heart in a manner totally new to him. Once 
 more he crossed himself and bowed low; and as 
 the old Knight lifted the heavy volume, heavy with 
 its massy boards and its ornaments and clasps of 
 brassj from the table, Jack dropped on his knees
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 197 
 
 to receive it; kissed it with a feeling of the deepest 
 reverence; and kissed also, ere he withdrew it, the 
 hand of the noble old Knight with fervent devotion. 
 Jack saw that the tears had started into the Knight^s 
 eyes while he had spoken to him of this volume; 
 that a faint but vivid flush had kindled in his 
 cheeks; and as Jack mounted up the stairs with 
 his ponderous charge, he found that he also must 
 dash some tears from his own eyes in order to 
 see his way. 
 
 For us, who have been familiar with the Bible 
 from our childhood, it is quite impossible to repre- 
 sent to ourselves the astonishment and delight with 
 which Jack went over this book. It is only by 
 going back into our young years, and recalling 
 how we then thought and felt, as we perused and 
 reperused it for the twentieth time, that we can 
 in any degree conceive his state of entrancement. 
 His cell, and his enemies thirsting for his life, were 
 all forgotten. He was sent abroad, as by the power 
 of a mighty enchanter, into new worlds and amongst
 
 198 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 new people. He wondered that all the world had 
 not this book; how the old Knight alone could 
 have got it; whether it had actually been sent 
 down from heaven to him for his goodness; and 
 a thousand times, as he came to something which 
 particularly enraptured him, did he wish that he 
 could be transported to his mother, and sit and 
 read to her through the long winter evenings out 
 of it. He found himself continually putting him- 
 self in the place of those he was reading of. 
 Now he was Noah, now Abraham, now Joseph; 
 he was David in his young and heroic days, and 
 Solomon in his glory. But when one of his heroes 
 fell from his heroic height, then he was no longer 
 he, but a warning spirit. He thought that had 
 he but been in Paradise with Adam and Eve, 
 how with one stroke of his sword he could have 
 cut off the head of the deceitful serpent. How 
 he should have cried out to Saul, and David, and 
 Solomon, when they began to betray their human 
 weaknesses. Joshua and Judas Maccabseus were
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 199 
 
 most magnificeut in his eyes; and when he read 
 of the death of Christ, he was like Clovis, who 
 wished he had been present with his brave Franks, 
 to avenge on the Jews their insults to the Saviour, 
 and to have snatched him from their hands. He 
 noAV comprehended the victorious strength of the 
 man in the fire, and thought that to live without 
 doing some signal deed of heroism for mankind 
 was worse than death. 
 
 Every day the Knight asked him of his progress 
 and his satisfaction; and as Jack related what he 
 had read, what he had thought and felt, and as 
 he sate and was all on fire with his zeal, the 
 worthy Knight^s countenance brightened up with 
 a radiance of smiles and happy energy such as 
 Jack had never yet seen in him. " 'Tis well! ^tis 
 well!" said he, "'tis as I wished and hoped. 
 God be praised!" 
 
 Jack had observed that every evening he had 
 sent to him Andrew the butler, who alone besides 
 knew of his retreat, to fetch down the Bible. He
 
 200 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 had heard the Knight reading aloudy as he sup- 
 posed in it, and then Andrew brought it back 
 again. But now the Knight, when Andrew came 
 for it, ordered him also to come down with it. 
 As they stepped into the room, Jack was surprised 
 to see all the household there assembled. The 
 book was laid before the Knight, and he proceeded 
 to read a certain portion aloud; and then making 
 a few comments upon it, the servants quietly 
 withdrew. When they were gone, the Knight 
 called Jack, and told him that this was his daily 
 habit, and that from this time forward, if he were 
 not in immediate danger from his enemies, he 
 would also assemble with them. He also told him 
 that he was now convinced that his hopes of Jack 
 were not without ground, and that the good parts 
 and powers in him must be cultivated for the 
 honour of God and the good of his people. He 
 then went on to unfold to Jack the history of 
 the wonderful book, of the corruptions of Christ's 
 church, of the translation of this Bible into the
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 201 
 
 mother tongue by WicklifFe^ and of the persecution 
 of those good men, under the name of Lollards^ 
 who determined to abide by the words of this 
 book, and to make it everywhere known. The 
 days of heroism and combat then were not over. 
 There was no need to have lived in the days of 
 David or Maccabseus to become God's champions. 
 Here Jack's eye kindled into fire, and he breathed 
 short and deeply. " But/^ continued the Knight, 
 " God^s warriors have now a harder warfare than 
 the champions of old; for they are not allowed, 
 like them, to indulge in vainglory, and to revenge 
 their own wrongs with blood and bitterness. A 
 higher and more heavenly rule is set before them; 
 and the first thing which they have to do is to 
 discipline their spirits, as the old heroes disciplined 
 their bodies, in armour. As they compelled their 
 frames into iron habiliments, we must now subdue 
 ourselves to the limits of a spiritual discipline. 
 The passions and the will must be made obedient 
 to the law of heaven, as the warrior's steed to
 
 20^ LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 his hand; and that divine and love -breathing 
 example of Christ must open to us higher triumphs 
 over ourselves, and for mankind, than the world 
 has yet seen or conceived.'^ 
 
 As the Knight said this, Jack sighed and looked 
 down. The Knight continued: 
 
 " We have all, some more, some less, the power 
 to do great and christian deeds; and thou, my 
 son, I trust mayst win no trivial share in these 
 achievements : but, in order to that, the aids of 
 learning may greatly contribute; and happily these 
 aids are within our reach. I will now open to 
 thee another scene." 
 
 The Knight rose from his chair, and Jack 
 advancing, again kneeled and kissed his hand. 
 Laying his hand on Jack's head in token of appro- 
 bation, he proceeded up a private staircase, bidding 
 Jack follow, through a long passage into another 
 large and well-furnished room. Advancing to the 
 chimney, which was large and open, and where 
 stood a pair of bright and massy steel dogs, on
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 203 
 
 which wood lay ready for lightings he struck three 
 strokes with the end of his staff against the wall. 
 To Jack's surprise, he presently saw the foot of 
 a ladder protruded down the chimney, planted on 
 the hearth, and his patron ascend. Jack followed, 
 wondering to what this strange ascent would lead; 
 and when at the top of the ladder, he found 
 himself looking through an opening, sufficiently 
 large to admit a man down it into a small apart^ 
 ment, where the Knight stood with two other 
 venerable-looking men, and into which he com- 
 manded him to descend. 
 
 The moment he touched the floor, the ladder 
 from the outside was drawn up again, and the 
 hole closed by a door, which was made to match 
 with the rest of the wall. Light and air were 
 admitted into this room by a small window so 
 thickly overgrown with ivy, that it defied the most 
 curious search from without; and the portion of 
 light admitted was therefore so small, that it was 
 only when a person had been some time within
 
 204 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 the room that objects became quite visible. The 
 window, in fact, was often superseded by a lamp, 
 whose rays were again carefully prevented from 
 becoming observable without, both by the distance 
 from the ground, and by a thick painted blind 
 hung before it, yet not so close as to exclude 
 the air. Jack here found himself surrounded by 
 books and instruments, of whose use he could 
 form not the slightest conception. The Knight, 
 now addressing the two men, said this was the 
 brave and good youth of whom he had spoken 
 to them, and he now put him into their hands 
 as a pupil, trusting that they would find him as 
 quick to receive instruction as he supposed him 
 to be capable of it. 
 
 The two men shook him cordially by the hand, 
 and promised to do all that lay in their power; 
 and the Knight, turning to Jack, said, "Here, 
 my son, you behold two of those Lollards of whom 
 you have heard, and from whom you may learn 
 more; here you see two of God^s true and trusty
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 205 
 
 warriors, who have stood in the field and the 
 breach against his bitterest foes; who have not 
 escaped without jeopardy and severe loss; and who 
 would not hide here, were it not for the hope 
 of reserving themselves for the further triumphs 
 of the Truth. They are friends of the man in 
 the fire. Honour them by obedience, and by 
 imbibing with all diligence the knowledge that may 
 advance the righteous cause." 
 
 So saying, he departed by the way he came; 
 and Jack was left with his new teachers.
 
 w 
 
 THE MILLER'S LAD ON THE OLD WHITE GOAT. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 JACK GEOWS IN KNOWLEDGE AND FRIENDSHIP WITH THE UEN 
 IN THE WALL. HE, BY THEIR AID, EXPOSES AND PUTS TO 
 FLIGHT THE UNJUST STEWARD. THE MERRY ADVENTURE 
 OF THE RUINED ABBEY. 
 
 We will not here pause to trace minutely Jack's 
 progress in his new course. It is enough to say^ 
 that he fulfilled the proudest hopes of his venerable 
 patroUj and found himself in a new worlds in
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 207 
 
 whicli he was never weary of making wider and 
 wider excursions. The powers of calculation and 
 mensuration were cultivated in him ; the languages 
 in which the Scriptures were written, and in which 
 the learned of all nations found a common medium 
 of communication, were taught and studied with 
 ardour. The histories of the world, and of religion, 
 w^ere read and discussed; and the finest poems, 
 in various languages, were made familiar matter 
 of conversation. The men in the wall taught 
 Jack the mysteries of the moon and planets, and 
 their changes; and something of the healing nature 
 of plants, and the properties of minerals. The 
 ease and avidity with which he imbibed all that 
 they could lay before him, excited their wonder; 
 and the ingenuity with which he found means 
 to serve them on many occasions, gave them the 
 greatest hopes of his services to their cause. 
 
 It was not always that they Vv'ere cooped up 
 in this small room. When danger vv^as not press- 
 ing, they usually spent the day in the large room.
 
 208 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 and even ventured to sleep in others. This quarter 
 of the house had the reputation of being haunted, 
 and nobody came near it but the butler, and an old 
 woman v^^ho had lived in the family from a child, 
 and was admitted to all its secrets of this kind, and 
 was deeply interested in its faith. Many times 
 the two learned men descended and walked in the 
 garden when the moon shone, pacing, however, 
 only those walks that were screened by their tall 
 hedges of yew and holly from the view of the 
 house. When danger seemed to sleep, they even 
 stole out into the woods, and wandered about them 
 for days, refreshing their spirits by the fresh air 
 and the presence of nature, for further immersement 
 and future toils. At other seasons, they issued 
 forth and made journeys to their friends and 
 fellow-believers, stirring them up to renewed zeal. 
 On all these occasions Jack was their companion, 
 and was in a thousand cases their best helper 
 and extricator in emergencies. He was always 
 on the watch, always inventive. A strong and
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 209 
 
 mutual friendship had thus grown up between 
 them; and Jack, though he found them of very 
 opposite dispositions, yet came to have the deepest 
 sympathy with them both. 
 
 One was grave and inclined to melancholy. He 
 had seen cruel usage, and stood stripped of con- 
 nexions in the world through the savageness of 
 persecution; yet, though it was obvious that he 
 suffered severely in his innermost mind, and was 
 racked bodily with rheumatic pains and spasms, 
 w^hich had been brought on by lying in cold 
 prisons, still he was uncomplaining, and so set 
 on fulfilling his sacred duty, that it required a 
 restraining hand to keep him from running into 
 constant danger. This good man was Henry 
 Templeman, a bachelor of divinity. 
 
 The other, who was called Dr. John Hempage, 
 a younger man, and of a round and full, though 
 small person, was naturally of a gay and rejoicing 
 temperament. His face short and ruddy, and his 
 sparkling eyes, that were ever ready to gleam with 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 merriment at the slightest turn of things towards 
 the cheerful and ludicrous, seemed to point out 
 a man who w^as meant for happy times, and in 
 learned halls to enjoy the good things of life, and 
 make his heart sing amid the leaves and flowers 
 of May. When they got away into the woods 
 of a fine summer day, as they sate in the thicket 
 and ate their morsel on their distant journeys, he 
 would stretch himself out on the grass and give 
 his fancy and his tongue a scope amongst wdtty 
 and poetical things — imagining romantic adventures 
 and building castles in the air, in such a manner, 
 that no one could fancy him one that had ever 
 done anything but bask on the sunny side of life, 
 and make playthings, like a child, of the summer 
 blossoms; much less that, on a future day, he 
 should stand amid the fire, and still sing there. 
 Never was Jack so surprised as when he first 
 saw this joyous man come forth in a midnight 
 assembly of the Lollards, when they were pressed 
 with imminent peril, and, grave and serious as
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 211 
 
 au apostle^ preach in the words of a deep and 
 burning eloquence, that went like lightning through 
 all hearts, and knit them up to a stern resolve 
 to meet and bear what might come. 
 
 Twelve months had rolled away in this manner. 
 Jack had gone on various important missions to 
 various parts; in one of which he had visited 
 London, and met the adherents of the cause in 
 their great yet secret meetings, and had carried 
 to and brought back from their most eminent 
 leaders, letters of the weightiest importance. In 
 these transactions he was known by the name 
 of John Othmill. This name, which the witty 
 Hempage had, in his merriment, condensed from 
 our hero's familiar name amongst his early com- 
 rades of Jack-of-the-Mill, because he had been 
 so much at old Bowes's, came to stand as his 
 regular cognomen by all who knew him in this 
 position and character, though we shall continue 
 to call him at present by the old familiar name 
 by which he is so well known to us. 
 
 y2
 
 212 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 In all these affairs lie had shewn the most 
 admirable address. The old Knight had conse- 
 quently admitted him to a great share of his 
 confidence, and employed him to settle accounts 
 which belonged to matters connected with his faith, 
 and which he would not confide to his steward. 
 In the course of these, Jack had to pore through 
 various ledgers and documents, and as he did this, 
 a strange light seemed to dawn upon him. At 
 first he could scarcely credit the correctness of his 
 impressions; but on tracing and retracing his 
 observations, he became more and more certain, 
 and more and more agitated. Discoveries in the 
 accounts drawn up by the steward forced themselves 
 on his attention to an alarming extent. State- 
 ments, though balanced in the gross, when pursued 
 into particulars, presented inconsistencies and exag- 
 gerated charges that would not bear a moment's 
 testing. 
 
 For some time he held this momentous secret 
 closely locked in his own breast; but the proofs
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 213 
 
 every day became so much more glaring and mon- 
 strous, that he could no longer conceal the fact 
 from the Knight. The worthy old gentleman at 
 first only shook his head; but when the matter 
 was further searched into^, he sunk back in his 
 chair, became pale as ashes, and tears beginning 
 to stream down his cheek, he said, " 'T is so ! 't is 
 too clear! Long have I suspected that this man 
 was an enemy to the true knowledge; but a traitor 
 to his trust! — a thief! — Alas! alas! And yet,^' 
 said he, recovering himself, " have I not long 
 wondered at the smallness of my rental, at the 
 unproductiveness of my affairs? And he ever 
 replied, 'Your worship, it is the Interdict. The 
 farmers now pay as they please. They make also 
 charges for depredations by soldiers and evil-dis- 
 posed persons, against whom, under present cir- 
 cumstances, you have no protection.^ Judas! 
 Judas !^' 
 
 To make the matter certain, Jack proposed to 
 go through the accounts with the two Lollard
 
 214 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 leaders. The Knight consented. The books were 
 carried into the large upper chamber, and a long 
 and laborious investigation placed, on the most 
 undeniable proof, the most astounding frauds. The 
 Knight ordered Jack to make out a fair statement 
 of these particulars, and their proofs, and to be 
 present when he presented it to the steward; but 
 inquiries which had already been made amongst 
 the farmers had reached the false steward's ears. 
 He fled, and joined himself to the hostile party 
 at the Castle in the Wood. 
 
 " Prepare now for a storm," said the old Knight. 
 "This man has gone off with an evil conscience 
 and the shame of detection; and in proportion 
 to his crimes against me, will be the fury of his 
 malice." 
 
 And it was not long before the storm fell thick 
 and fast. Soldiers beset the house to search for 
 ' Jack-of-the-Mill,' as he was styled in a new 
 proclamation issued against him. Luckily, the 
 steward was not aware of the presence of the two
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 215 
 
 Lollard leaders; but every quarter of the house was 
 searched for Jack, high aud low, within and with- 
 out. Walls w^ere sounded, and in various places 
 pierced; floors were pulled up; and the old gentle- 
 man, who gave them free scope to search as they 
 w^ould, but refused to say yea or nay to their 
 questions if he knew where this Jack or John- 
 of- the -Mill lay concealed, was threatened with 
 imprisonment and even torture. He only replied, 
 "As God will!" and the desperadoes were too 
 much afraid of one whom we shall presently mention 
 to touch the gentle and submissive man. 
 
 Sentinels were posted about the house; other 
 soldiers took up their quarters in it; and to any 
 one but Jack it would have been impossible to 
 escape; yet for the comfort and benefit of his fellow- 
 prisoners, he many a time, aided by the butler, 
 descended by night, and pursuing his way between 
 the tall severing hedges of the garden, paddled 
 himself over the moat in a tub, and went on dif- 
 ferent little journeys for them, to take and receive
 
 216 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 letters. These journeyS; however, every day became 
 more hazardous. Spies were in the village. Rude 
 fellows ranged through the woods, at once plun- 
 derers of the Knight^s deer, and watchers on all 
 that went through them. Depredations were com- 
 mitted on the farmers; their buildings were set 
 on fire, and their cattle killed or injured; so that 
 they vowed to quit the Knight's lands, and leave 
 them to be tilled by himself, if he pleased. It 
 was easy to tell that the false steward was at the 
 bottom of these evils, thinking to heap all possible 
 vengeance on the old Knight^s head; but he 
 groaned in secret, and complained not. 
 
 In a while, these outrages seemed to have 
 exhausted themselves. The soldiers retreated from 
 the house, the marauders from the woods, and all 
 again was quiet. The two Lollards received 
 intelligence from their friends in the neighbour- 
 hood, for their faith was rapidly spreading amongst 
 the people, that the enemy had disappeared. They 
 therefore ventured again carefully abroad by night.
 
 JACK or THE MILL. 217 
 
 and held, as they had done before, nocturnal 
 meetings, to encourage and strengthen each other. 
 Their place of meeting was a ruined abbey in a 
 glen, some distance below the village. This was 
 extensive; hung with vast masses of ivy; and had 
 so evil a name, from the tradition of dark deeds 
 done there by an abbot of some former time, which 
 had occasioned the place to fall to decay, that they 
 imagined none but those concerned would ever 
 come within hearing of it, as no path passed near 
 it, and as a considerable wear in the river, which 
 flowed almost round it, made a perpetual roar, 
 which might drown the sound of voices when 
 they sang. Watchers were always stationed at a 
 distance, to detect the approach of any hostile or 
 indifferent party. They had a watchword. In 
 case of the appearance of any suspicious person, 
 the watcher gave a peculiar cry, imitating that 
 of a curlew so naturally that it might pass for 
 one. This, taken up by a second watch near the 
 abbey, gave notice to the assembled people, and
 
 218 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 all was instantly hushed and made dark. If 
 the danger increased, a second and more plaintive 
 cry v;as the signal to disperse, when the parties 
 retreated to the neighbouring woods, and disap- 
 peared by ways known to themselves. If the 
 danger passed, a partridge - call gave token of 
 security, and the service went on. 
 
 Spite of these precautions, however, and spite 
 of the fearful belief of the ignorant portion of 
 the people, that the devil on certain nights used 
 to lead the soul of the wicked abbot about the 
 ruins by a red-hot chain, and then plunged him 
 repeatedly into the river, it was not long before 
 lights had been seen down in these ruins; which 
 must have been, those of persons finding their way 
 through them by the aid of dark lanterns, for the 
 assemblies were held in a spacious crypt below, 
 which had been revealed to them by the Knight, 
 who had found it some years before, though its 
 entrance was closely concealed by the thick boughs 
 of an elder bush.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 219 
 
 Rumours of these lights soon flew about; and, 
 as is always the case, grew rapidly, and became 
 every day more marvellous. White figures and 
 ghostlike faces, it was soon said, had been seen 
 gliding about and peering from the windows. As 
 a number of the superstitious villagers were col- 
 lected one evening on a knoll at some distance 
 above the abbey, to see if they could observe any 
 of these lights or apparitions, and were recounting 
 many of the strange things which were said to 
 have happened in this place, till they were so 
 fearful that they were ready to run if a cat had 
 but mewed, an urchin of a miller^s lad, with a 
 little sack of flour on his back, suddenly cried, 
 "Let us all gang down, and see what there is!^^ 
 
 They all looked at him, and asked him if he 
 were a fool. He replied with a sort of arch sim- 
 plicity, "Na, he never had been reckoned a fool. 
 He was Sim Mack o ^Burnby Mill, and he 'd go 
 if anybody else would. ^' 
 
 One fellow struck at him with his huge hand.
 
 220 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 intending to knock his hat off, and asked him, 
 "If he'd tempt the devil to shew himself?" but 
 Sim ducked very nimbly, and the fellow hit his 
 knuckles a hard knock on a post; at which all 
 the rest laughed aloud, and some plucked up spirit 
 to bid the miller's boy go if he dare. 
 
 "Dare?^^ said he. "Why, what is there to be 
 scared at ? I dunna believe any such nonsense as 
 ghosts an^ things. Gipsies ha' bin lodging iUh^owd 
 abbey, and making a light there; an' goats l\e 
 seen there; an^ owls I've seen there; but ghosts 
 I niver seed there. Howsomever," said he, throw- 
 ing down his bag, " here goes ! and let them that 
 dar', follow.'^ 
 
 The lad, to the amazement and horror of the 
 villagers, ran off down to the abbey, and was soon 
 lost in the darkness. Presently they heard a shout. 
 They were ready to fly, imagining that he was 
 seized by a ghost, or by Satan with his burning 
 chain, and was crying for help. But they lingered 
 a moment longer, and could hear a second cry.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 221 
 
 "I ha' him! I ha' him!'' In the next instant, 
 they saw something white rapidly flying towards 
 them. They gazed; it was all white, and coming 
 at a great rate. The next instant, they could 
 discern a white face with a long white beard and 
 horns, and over it something in the dark that 
 was waving about in all directions. There was a 
 loud panting and a short quaint cry, and the whole 
 pack took to their heels. They flew to the village; 
 they cast but one glance behind them, and instead 
 of one white figure, saw two standing on the very 
 spot they had just left. Once more they fled, 
 and once more the apparition pursued at full speed. 
 They heard an unearthly cry or singing of ^'^Yoo- 
 hoo-hoo! yoo-hoo-hoo !" and headlong they rushed 
 into the village, many of them screaming in the 
 wildest afi"right. All doors were flung open, to see 
 what was the matter. The terrified fugitives dashed 
 into the first house they could reach, and the 
 next moment sprang in after them the ghost, in 
 the shape of the miller's lad on the old white 
 goat belonging to the hall!
 
 222 JACK OF THE MILL. 
 
 At the upshot of this adventure, the laughter 
 of the whole village was turned upon the cowardly 
 troop of ghost-watchers. It flew far and wide, 
 and for a while diverted the attention of the idly 
 curious from the abbey, so that the Lollards could 
 occasionally resume their meetings there. Nobody 
 but the two preachers and Andrew ever discovered 
 that Sim Mack of Burnby Mill was no other 
 than Jack.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CHARMING DAY, AND AN EVENTFUL EVENING. _ A CONTEST 
 AT SCALHOPE TOWEE THE " MEN IN THE W.'vLL" ABE TAKEN. 
 
 But the enemy had only withdrawn from sight 
 more subtilely to he in wait; and an opportunity 
 was not long wanting to pounce upon Jack, and to 
 make the joyful discovery that the two celebrated 
 Lollard divines were also lying hid here.
 
 224 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 The three friends, lured by the freshness of an 
 autumnal day, had wandered out through the woods 
 and over the hills. It was one of the fresh, clear, 
 inspiriting days which seem to give to the frame 
 a life and buoyancy unbounded, to fill the heart 
 with a similar rejoicing activity, and to give to the 
 mind a power and eloquence of thought beyond 
 the highest wont of our individual being. They 
 went on with rapid steps, expressing their sense 
 of enjoyment, like birds escaped from a cage and 
 stretching their wings high up in the blue ether. 
 The woods were brilliant with their richest colours. 
 Over the hill-tops gleamed the sky of the deepest, 
 purest blue. The sun shone without much warmth, 
 but so as to give a solemn splendour to the whole 
 scene. The fresh turf over which they bounded; 
 the bushes with their coloured leaves, and hanging 
 clusters of ripe blackberries and privet berries, with 
 here and there a harebell still lingering at their feet, 
 in its sweet, fairyland azure, were all full of life 
 and charm. Under the oaks which stood, here and
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 225 
 
 there, overshadowing the forest turf, went the herd- 
 boy sounding his horn to keep together his host 
 of swine, which now rioted on the abundance of 
 acorns that every shght breeze sent down; and in 
 distant glades slowly turned and gazed at them 
 the deer, or trotted off into the thicket. 
 
 The day and the scene seemed to clear off the 
 habitual melancholy from the pale face of Temple- 
 man. He looked round and said repeatedly, " How 
 grand ! how inspiriting !" While Hempage rubbed 
 his hands and cried, " Glorious ! glorious !" He 
 seemed overflowing with energy, offered to run 
 Jack a race, and actually joined in a game at leap- 
 frog to which they invited Templeman, but who 
 shook his head with a quiet smile, and declined. 
 Hempage then took Jack's axe from his belt, cut 
 a huge green hazel from a thicket, round which 
 a woodbine growing had caused it to assume an 
 odd, twisted appearance, and employing himself 
 with cutting the knob into the shape of an old 
 man's head, went on talking at a great rate. 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Now a gossamer spider sailing along with its 
 silken thread in the breeze, attracted his attention, 
 and caused him to dilate on the wonders of nature; 
 and now a rabbit bounding from a bush with 
 Timothy after it, made him stand still to see the 
 issue of the chase, and drew from him a shout of 
 exultation as the little creature bounced into its 
 hole, and set Tim at defiance. "Well done, little 
 cony!" he cried; "I don^t know whether we 
 ought to check the natural instinct of the dog, 
 which is, no doubt, given him for our own service, 
 but I cannot help rejoicing when I see anything 
 escape its natural enemy, and prolong for a little 
 while its existence. To day, especially, I would 
 not willingly see anything, however mean, die. 
 There is something so full of life and enjoyment 
 in this fresh air and this beautiful world about us, 
 that all which live seem doubly to live, and for 
 anything to die, would be doubly to die. I would 
 not, if I knew it, even crush a beetle in the turf 
 where we tread.^'
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 227 
 
 So they went on. Now they pulled down crabs, 
 which hung in thousands, as yellow as gold, on 
 an old forest tree; and for an hour were eagerly 
 engaged in a hollow where the hazels yet retained 
 their nuts, but so ripe and loosely hung, that at 
 the slightest touch they all rattled to the ground. 
 As noon approached, they adjourned to a farm- 
 house, whose master was a stanch adherent of 
 their doctrine, and after enjoying a hearty dinner 
 and much cheering chat, they walked round to the 
 cottages of other friends. It was drawing towards 
 evening, after a day of most singular enjoyment 
 of out-of-door and in-door satisfaction, that they 
 were returning home, and staid for a few moments 
 to ascend a ruined tower, which stood on a high 
 knoll on the forest hills overlooking the vale, and 
 which was called Scalhope Watch. 
 
 The sun was descending in a sky as clear as 
 it had been the whole day, and threw a splendour 
 across the landscape w^hich lit up distant spots 
 into uncommon distinctness, and the three friends 
 
 q2
 
 228 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 were pointing out to each other far-off places that 
 could be seen with the naked eye in an atmosphere 
 so transparent, when their attention was arrested 
 by seeing a man on horseback, attended by three 
 others on foot, coming hastily towards the tower. 
 A moment's survey shewed them that the horseman 
 was the false steward, and the men on foot were 
 three of those sturdy knaves in saffron-drab, half 
 poachers and wholly thieves, who belonged to the 
 Castle in the Wood. That their design was hostile 
 there could not be a moment's doubt. The two 
 Lollards exclaimed, " We are lost ! '' But Jack 
 said, " Nay, not so quick with such an idea. If 
 we yield, we are lost beyond redemption. Let 
 us then, if we must be taken, at least fight like 
 men to the last. It were better to die here, than 
 on the gallows or at the stake." 
 
 He instantly cut down two stout young ashes 
 which grew up from the rubbish of the old tower 
 wall, pointed them sharply, telling his friends to 
 charge with them when the men attempted to
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 
 
 ascend the tower steps, as a knight charges his 
 antagonist at a tourney. The two accordingly- 
 planted themselves at the head of the broken steps 
 which led up to where they stood; and Jack, 
 mounting cautiously to the edge of the wall over 
 the entrance, saw the three men enter below. 
 Calling to his friends to be on their guard, he 
 kept his eye on the steward;, who riding forward, 
 stood with his horse's head under the doorway, 
 and appeared to be giving instructions to the 
 fellows within. At this moment, Jack lifting from 
 the wall a stone as large as his head, hoisted 
 it with the intention to discharge it if possible 
 on the steward's scull. It missed him, but fell 
 so close as to brush the horse^s shoulder; and 
 with such a shock on the pavement, that horse 
 and man, equally startled, sprung back. The 
 steward glanced up with a fearful look to the top 
 of the tower, and saw Jack there, standing on 
 the very battlement, and discharging a second 
 stone. Ere he could wheel aside, it came whizz-
 
 2.30 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 ing so close to the horse^s head, that it crouched 
 ahiiost on its haunches, snorted, and whirling 
 round, the steward was only saved from falling 
 by seizing with a convulsive gripe the mane. The 
 moment he regained his seat he spurred away 
 down the hill; and Jack, feeling sure that it was 
 with the purpose of fetching more assistance, now 
 rushed down to his friends on the stairs. 
 
 " On ! on ! " he whispered ; " there is no time 
 to lose; we must get clear of the tower, or we 
 are lost!" 
 
 The three fellows were attempting to ascend 
 the stairs. They came two a -breast, the steps 
 being too narrow for the three. With their pointed 
 poles the two Lollards were stoutly resisting; and 
 they on their parts were now striking to cut them 
 with their swords, but finding that the narrowness 
 and lowness of the passage prevented their swords 
 having full play, they strove to seize and drag 
 the poles out of the Lollards^ hands. As they 
 were doing this, the third fellow behind was placing
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 231 
 
 a bolt in his crossbow to shoot at them over the 
 shoulders of his companions. Jack saw the danger, 
 and crying: "Stand aside!" to his friends, each 
 leaned hinaself towards the wall so as to give 
 him some room, and in the next moment a pon- 
 derous stone was sent down the staircase, which 
 struck the bowman on the arm, and dashed the 
 bow from his hands. The two Lollards, seeing 
 at once the superior advantage of JacFs missiles, 
 drew back; lifted stones, which lay in plenty, 
 and sent such a volley below, that the passage 
 was instantly cleared, and the fellows in flight. 
 Not a moment was lost; the Lollards snatched 
 up their poles again, and sallied down. At the 
 doorway the men at last turned again to renew 
 the contest; but the bowman and bow were dis- 
 abled, and they were now only two to three. It 
 is true that they had the advantage of swords, 
 but the two Lollards drove on manfully with their 
 poles. The men gave back for a moment; and the 
 Lollards, having now got room for their weapons,
 
 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 began to ply them about the fellows^ heads in 
 dexterous and ponderous strokes. Jack had armed 
 himself with Hempage^s heavy stick; and, as he 
 knew that every moment was precious^, getting 
 behind the knaves, he struck at their heads without 
 mercy. The contest was desperate, but soon over. 
 The men, enraged at one or two sound salutes 
 from Jack's cudgel, turned in wrath to thrust him 
 through; but Jack stuck valiantly to them, and 
 they might as well have tried to hit a Jack-a-dandy 
 which a boy flings from a sunny basin of water 
 on the ceiling of a room. He leaped from spot 
 to spot; and in the mean time the two Lollards, 
 and especially Hempage, who was fired up to a 
 pitch of great excitement, discharged their blows 
 so liberally and eifectually, that the fellows took 
 to their heels and fled. 
 
 The three did not attempt to pursue. They 
 descended the opposite side of the hill, so that 
 the men should not see which way they took, and 
 plunged mto the woods. Here, as they paused
 
 JACK OF TPIE MILL. 233 
 
 a moment to consider what course they should 
 take, they became sensible into what a heat they 
 were thrown, and how their poles were hacked 
 and hewn with their enemies' swords. Hempage^s, 
 in particular, was reduced to about half its original 
 length; and he had also got a slight cut on the 
 ear, which, however, was more troublesome by its 
 bleeding than of any consequence. Their first 
 thought was to retreat to the farm where they 
 dined at noon; but they considered that they might 
 bring trouble on their friend the farmer, and that 
 if their foes tracked them thither, there was no 
 secret stronghold to retire to; they resolved, there- 
 fore, to make their way to the Hall, if possible. 
 They wound cautiously through the woods, listen- 
 ing ever and anon to ascertain if they could catch 
 any sound of their foes, but without effect. They 
 had reached the valley, and drew near the line 
 where the woods ceased, and where only scattered 
 trees stood in the paddocks. As they were about 
 to emerge, and steal beneath these trees to the
 
 234 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 back of the Hall, where Jack's tub lay concealed 
 in the weeds, they saw^, to their grief and dis- 
 appointment, that various sentinels were placed^ 
 and they were totally cut off. They retreated 
 into the wood, and having waited till it was dark, 
 endeavoured to reach the village; but they became 
 aware that here too every point of access was 
 guarded; fires were lit, and dogs, placed at mid- 
 stations, gave instant alarm at their approach. 
 
 Their situation now became seriously alarming. 
 There was no hope of reaching the Hall or the 
 village; and the only alternative was, to seek 
 refuge in one of the houses of their country friends. 
 The farm where they had dined was their selection. 
 They could again quit it early in the morning, 
 and remove the next day to a greater distance, 
 till a chance of once more returning to the Hall 
 presented itself. Sad, and considerably dispirited, 
 they retraced their way. It was now quite dark ; 
 every leaf that was moved by the wdnd, and every 
 creature that stirred in the brake, startled them.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 235 
 
 They hastened on, avoiding the roads, and therefore 
 encountering the roughest walkings and entangle- 
 ment in boggy ground and briery thickets. It 
 was midnight as they drew near the farm; but 
 here the dogs set up on their approach such a 
 clamorous barking, that, alarmed lest the noise 
 should be heard by any enemy on the watch, and 
 draw their pursuers thither, they quietly stole off 
 again, and sought a shed in the fields at some 
 distance. Here, chill and anxious, they awaited 
 the dawn. With the first glimpse of light they 
 were on their way; but they soon found that the 
 whole country was alarmed. The most ignorant 
 of the peasantry were led on by others, and all 
 ways were beset. It was not long before they 
 were observed, surrounded, and the two Lollards 
 secured. Jack, who deemed it the only chance 
 for their safety that he should escape, dodged 
 with those who sought to catch him. A whole 
 posse of rude clowns were after him. He took 
 up a hollow, which appeared some time to have
 
 236 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 been a marl or chalk pit, but was now overgrown 
 with the shortest, greenest turf, and some scattered 
 bushes. Backward, it terminated in an almost 
 precipitate ascent, crowned with wood. Jack hoped 
 by his superior lightness to scale this height before 
 his heavier and clumsier foes could overtake him; 
 but at every few steps, another fellow started up 
 from behind a bush, and darted at him. Jack 
 was thus compelled to spring sometimes this way, 
 sometimes that, and ever and anon to return into 
 the very path of his foes. By this he became 
 almost surrounded. It was an actual baiting. The 
 country fellows, who had heard extraordinary stories 
 of the powers and doings of Jack - of - the - Mill, 
 were at once eager to secure him and afraid to 
 do it. They reached at him with poles and pitch- 
 forks, and surrounded him in a fearful and hallooing 
 circle, just as they would have done a mad dog. 
 *'Down with him! Smash him! Break his skull! 
 Break his legs!" they cried to one another, while 
 Jack all the time made some little ascent upwards.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 237 
 
 In the midst of this critical contest there appeared 
 at full gallop the steward, who shouted, "Down 
 with him! down with that deviPs brat! For your 
 lives don^'t let him escape!" At this the clamour 
 and onset became furious. The raging clowns 
 seemed to forget their fears, and rushed in on 
 Jack like so many madmen. There was not a 
 moment to lose. Jack darted up the slope with 
 a surprising agility; struck the fellow nearest to 
 him in this direction a smart blow on the arm 
 with the back of his axe; took as it were up 
 the very face of the precipice, rather with the 
 lightness of a flying shadow than of a man; turned 
 and gazed on his enemies a moment from a clump 
 of projecting stone far aloft, and then darting 
 into the woods above, disappeared. He heard 
 the steward cursing most furiously the unlucky 
 clowns, who, lost in wonder, stood gaping upwards 
 as if they could not comprehend how their prey 
 could have escaped them. He descended, under 
 covert of the woods, and hovered near enough
 
 238 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 to see in what direction they took his unhappy 
 friends, whom he saw, with their hands bound 
 behind them, marched in the midst of the exulting 
 troop of clowns towards the village. 
 
 Having satisfied himself that this was their 
 destination, he sprang away through the woods 
 in search of the little swineherd, with whom he 
 had made himself very friendly, and who detested 
 the steward because he had found him asleep in 
 the forest, and had cudgeled him most unmer- 
 cifully. Jack found where he had been the day 
 before; made him understand that the steward 
 had seized the worthy clergymen, and would burn 
 them if they were not rescued. Jack proposed to 
 herd his swine for him while he went and brought 
 the old man from the cottage to him. This the 
 boy gladly agreed to do; and in half an hour, 
 during which Jack had endured ages of torment 
 in imagining his friends condemned to the flames, 
 the old man arrived. Jack told him all that had 
 happened; bade him fly to the Knight and the
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 239 
 
 butler, and beg them to send out and rouse all 
 their friends to be in readiness for the rescue, and 
 that lie would join them at the first possible 
 moment. Jack then took a direction so as to 
 recover the view of his captive friends. He found 
 them now advanced nearly to the village. The 
 company had swelled into a crowd, amid which he 
 could see the false steward riding triumphantly. 
 By means of crawling and creeping on all fours, 
 Jack managed to get so near that he could observe 
 his friends, who walked on, evidently wearied and 
 jaded, yet with a heavenly calm on their coun- 
 tenances, which formed a wonderful contrast to the 
 vulgar triumph and coarse taunting, that sate on 
 the faces of the throng; and to the devilish malice 
 of the steward, who eyed the prisoners with a 
 smile of savage pleasure, and said to the mob, 
 " Good people, take heed to your charge. I see 
 fuel there for the fire!" 
 
 About noon they marched in triumph into the 
 village. The ignorant inhabitants, spurred on by
 
 240 JACK OF THE MILL, 
 
 tlieir bigoted leaders, came crowding out in eager- 
 ness, and the village musicians with the church 
 banners, met them as for a festival, and piped 
 into the hamlet before them. They were conveyed 
 to the alehouse, and the crowd thronged around 
 it like bees at swarming-time about the hive, and 
 with as loud a buz. Jack saw that every soul, 
 except the secret adherents to the new faith, had 
 so completely deserted every place to flock hither, 
 that he walked openly up the way to the Hall, 
 and entered it without opposition.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE SURPRISE AND SKIRMISH, AT COCK-CLIFF HILL. 
 
 In the Hall were nothing but sorrow and con- 
 sternation. The old Knight was disconsolate. 
 Messengers had been dispatched to rouse the 
 friends of the Lollards, who were to draw to a 
 place at the foot of a hill called Cock-cliff HilL 
 
 VOL I. R
 
 242 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Here the stream spread out wide where it crossed 
 the road to the town, and the woods beyond grow- 
 ing thick up to the very bounds of the road, 
 offered a good place for an ambush. Andrew, him- 
 self, as well as the other servants, had armed for 
 the occasion. The opportunity had been seized, 
 of the flocking of the people and sentinels to see 
 the captives, to send a quantity of halberds and 
 other arms, in a cart-load of straw, to the place of 
 rendezvous. But soldiers were sent for from the 
 town, and a bloody struggle was expected. Jack 
 and the servants set out. They took a circuit 
 through the park to avoid notice, and on arriving 
 at the place of rendezvous, found about forty 
 people already arrived, most of them full of ardour. 
 Others, every few minutes came dropping in. They 
 divided themselves into two parties, one occupying 
 the wood on each side the road. Hours went on, 
 and neither soldiers arrived from the town, nor 
 the people from the village. It was already grow- 
 ing dark, when a young man joined them with
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 243 
 
 the news, that as by some mischance the soldiers 
 did not arrive, the steward and his crew had 
 resolved to set out, hoping to meet the military 
 on the way. 
 
 All was now the keenest watchfulness and atten- 
 tion. The two parties lay close in the thick 
 underwood, keeping a quick ear to catch the 
 faintest sounds of approach. At length they heard 
 a clamour of voices, and the tread of many dis- 
 orderly feet. The party came on the road from 
 the village, and in a few minutes were in sight. 
 First came the musicians, who, however, were now 
 sparing their breath till they should meet the 
 soldiers or enter the next village, or rather, they 
 were, by way of relaxation, expending it in a 
 different mode, for their tongues were going as 
 loud as those of the rest. Next, guarded on 
 each side by a set of fellows with rude partizans 
 on their. shoulders, came the two prisoners bound, 
 and seated in a cart. When they had reached 
 the water, where was only a narrow plank for 
 
 r2
 
 244 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 foot passengers, the driver of the cart seated him- 
 self on the shaft, and the people began to defile 
 over the plank. When, therefore, the cart reached 
 the side on which the ambush lay, very few of 
 its guards had come up with it, for a number 
 of the people had crowded upon the bridge before 
 them. No sooner, then, was the cart over, than 
 the hidden parties sprang silently forward on each 
 side of it; the horses, suddenly lashed by them 
 on both flanks, started forward at a brisk rate, 
 and the friends of the Lollards, with glittering 
 swords and halberds, stood between them and 
 their pursuers. 
 
 The surprise and confusion were inconceivable. 
 The guards, with their partizans, made a shew of 
 resistance; but the people, who had come in idle 
 curiosity, raised a most lamentable cry at this 
 unexpected sight of so many armed men. Those 
 who had got over, attempted to fly into the woods; 
 but here they were repulsed by the numbers, still 
 sword in hand, pouring out of ambush, and they
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 245 
 
 again flew backwards, not staying to take the 
 plank, but flashing through the stream like so 
 many scuffling geese, and with as much clamour. 
 Amongst these were the poor musicians, who, in 
 the fright, let fall their pipes, and played a rapid 
 march with their legs. The steward, rushing 
 forward, cried, "On there, men! on! Strike down 
 the knaves! Spare none. Strike! strike!" 
 
 He himself laid about him with his stout stick, 
 and the men with the partizans began to follow 
 his example; but when they saw the numbers 
 and the vigour of those who appeared against 
 them, and felt a few of their sturdy blows, they 
 turned and fled. The rescuing party made a hot 
 pursuit, striking, however, only with the flat of 
 their swords and the shafts of their halberds, so 
 as to do no mortal injury, and yet to inflict a 
 severe chastisement. The surprised crowd made 
 the most ludicrous spectacle imaginable. In their 
 precipitation, they tumbled one over another; some 
 were rolled into the ditches, some had their clothes
 
 246 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 nearly torn off their backs by their terrified fellows 
 clutching at them to help them along. The 
 steward, who seemed excited to madness by his 
 disappointment, made a fierce resistance, fighting 
 with his stick, and laying about him on all heads 
 that came near him indiscriminately. But as there 
 were many who owed him an old grudge, he was 
 soon struck from his horse, which took to flight 
 in the rear of the villagers, and knocked down 
 and bruised several of them severely before it bolted 
 off the road and disappeared in the forest. The 
 steward himself, having got a good sound drubbing 
 from hands that felt the greatest satisfaction in 
 the work, was dragged through the stream, and 
 rolled into a ditch on the other side. The pursuers 
 again dispersed through the woods; the routed 
 rabble pursued their flight towards the village; 
 and in ten minutes afterwards, there lay a silence 
 over the stream and the valley as great as if no 
 such bustle had taken place there. 
 
 In the mean time, the prisoners had been
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 247 
 
 liberated, and conveyed to a place of safety and 
 refreshment. Scarcely was the cart over the water^ 
 when Jack sprung up into it, cut the cords that 
 bound his friends' hands, and lashing on the 
 horses, proceeded at a great rate till they came 
 to a narrow side-lane. Here turning in the cart, 
 he bade his friends dismount, and taking the 
 horses from the shafts, left the cart in the middle 
 of the way, to stop any hasty pursuit. The horses 
 he led to a considerable distance, and turned them 
 adrift in a meadow. He and his friends hastened 
 forwards till they came to a cottage standing in 
 a very hidden and woody place. They knocked 
 at the door, which was opened by a middle-aged 
 woman, who lifted up her hands in joyful surprise 
 at the sight of the Lollards. Her husband was 
 gone to the rescue, and Jack assured her that it 
 was all over before this time. He begged her 
 to get some refreshment for his friends, who were 
 greatly in need of it, and who must this night 
 yet travel on farther from this neighbourhood.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 
 
 While they were eating and blessing God for this 
 deliverance, came the husband himself. He was 
 in high spirits, and described the flight and the- 
 drubbing and sousing of the steward in terms 
 of great glee. Jack could not help laughing 
 right heartily; and even Hempage, though sorely 
 exhausted with fatigue and excitement of spirits, 
 gave a faint smile. 
 
 Another hour, and they must depart. It was 
 a sorrowful separation. Jack would fain have 
 gone on with them: but they represented the 
 danger of the three being seen together, and the 
 need the Knight would have of him. After 
 embracing again and again, they bade each other 
 farewell, hoping to meet in better days; and the 
 Lollards promised to vrrite as soon as they came 
 to a place of rest and security.
 
 JACK BEHIND THE STEWARD. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 TRICKS CPON TRAVELIi"ERS, AMONGST WHOM THE FALSE STEWARD 
 AND THE SOLDIERS FIGURE PEE-EMINENTLY. 
 
 When Jack returned to the place of the late 
 encounter, he could not help pausing and wonder- 
 ing at the strange contrast of its present solitude. 
 As he leaned on the handrail of the bridge, how- 
 ever, he thought he heard a groan. He hstened.
 
 250 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 
 
 Perhaps, thought he, it is some poor wretch 
 wounded, and perhaps dying. He listened more 
 intently, — he heard it again. Following the direc- 
 tion of the sound, and drawing quietly near, he 
 at length beheld a large figure sitting on the bank 
 by the wayside. Another glance convinced him 
 that it was the steward. Jack then cautiously 
 drew back; stepped into the woodland; and then 
 again cautiously approaching, planted himself be- 
 hind the bole of a large oak, not more than two 
 yards from the steward. Here he soon perceived 
 that he was groaning more over his inward mor- 
 tification and wounded pride, than over his bodily 
 bruises. His wounds, indeed, were in the very 
 tenderest part of a proud bad man's being. He 
 sate and rocked to and fro; smote his hand on 
 his knee, and then cursed the soldiers that had 
 not come to prevent this catastrophe. "And they 
 are gone!'' said he, "the heretics are escaped! — 
 that imp of darkness has escaped ! I am disgraced 
 before the whole country, and — but there are those
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 251 
 
 who shall rue it yet!^' Here he began to utter 
 vows of vengeance against the Knight; and rend- 
 ing a stake from the hedge, commenced marching 
 stiffly and slowly on his way. 
 
 Jack was so much disgusted with the base and 
 fiendish malice of the man, that he determined 
 he should not escape without a further punishment. 
 Hastening back, therefore, to where the cart stood 
 in the side-lane, he brought away the chain back- 
 band of the shaft-horse, and running with all 
 speed, he soon came near the wretch, who from 
 his chastisement was in no condition to move fast. 
 He crept through into the wood, and when he was 
 parallel with the steward, he gently shook the chain. 
 The steward stopped, listened, — and again went on. 
 Once more Jack shook the chain, and once more 
 the steward stopped. Hearing nothing further, 
 he again walked on, but this time with increased 
 exertion. Jack now stole across the road just 
 behind him, having the chain round his body, 
 and entered the fields on the other side. Coming
 
 ^52 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 parallel again with the steward, once more he 
 shook the chain, and began to trail it along 
 the ground. The astonished man, after listening 
 a moment, hastened across to the hedge, and 
 climbing up the bank, began to peer over it 
 with eyes which betrayed as much terror as 
 curiosity. But Jack had withdrawn himself into 
 a thick bush, and he could discern nothing. 
 Scarcely, however, had he regained the middle of 
 the road, when the rattling of the chain was again 
 heard, and thus it continued, first on one side of 
 the way, and then on the other, for the distance 
 of half a mile. The poor wretch was now WTOught 
 up to a pitch of great excitement. At one moment 
 he put out all his strength to press forward; then 
 he stopped, and seemed as if he would retreat, 
 and then he pushed forward again. 
 
 Jack now determined, if possible, to put a climax 
 to his fear. It was yet a mile and a half to the 
 village, and would require a good while for the 
 steward to reach it; dropping, therefore, the chain.
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 253 
 
 be ran on at his best speed; reached the Hall, and 
 carrying off in a phial a curious substance, which 
 the Lollards had taught him to prepare, as well as 
 his tinderbox and a piece of touchwood, he flew 
 back to the public road. At a few hundred yards 
 from the village was a gate across the way to 
 prevent the cattle straying along it. The road 
 here was densely overshadowed with huge lime 
 trees, whose long lower boughs hung almost across 
 it, at a height scarcely more than was necessary 
 for a load of hay or corn to pass under. Here 
 Jack mounted a tree, and planting himself on the 
 bough just over the gate, awaited anxiously the 
 coming up of the steward. To his surprise he 
 heard a horseman approaching, and as it was at 
 a slow rate, he imagined that some one had over- 
 taken the steward, and was suiting his pace to 
 bear him company. In that case his plan was 
 defeated, for it is amazing, however cowardly 
 superstitious people are alone, how they pluck up 
 courage, and seem to open their eyes and their
 
 254 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 wits too, when they are two or more together. 
 But his astonishment was great as the horseman 
 drew near to behold that it was no other than the 
 steward himself, and mounted on his own steed. 
 The horse, no doubt, had found his way again to 
 the high road, and was grazing there when over- 
 taken by his master, and the steward^s soreness 
 was sufficient cause, that spite of his fears, he now 
 found it necessary to ride slowly. 
 
 Jack on seeing him lost no time. He hastily 
 smeared his face and hands with his drug, giving 
 various flourishes of it also to his clothes in front, 
 and fixed his already-lighted touchwood between 
 his teeth. As the steward came up, and was in 
 the act of stooping to pull open the gate, he 
 gave an odd sort of growling sound in the tree. 
 The steward looked up, and seeing an impish figure 
 perched on the branch above him, which seemed 
 breathing fire, and, moreover, was enveloped with 
 blue flame, he sate as one stupified. Jack, leaning 
 forward and grinning, said in a low, sepulchral 
 tone, "Who robbed his master?"
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 255 
 
 With this act he dropped like a bat from the 
 tree, and was seated behind the terrified man on 
 the horse. Horse and man seemed equally terri- 
 fied. The steward uttered a loud yell of fear; 
 the horse flew forward, snorting and bounding; 
 the imp stuck behind^ silent as death; and thus 
 darted horse and man and imp at full speed 
 through the village street. When the steward 
 reached the alehouse, he fell from his horse at 
 the door, and was picked up and carried to bed. 
 He himself gave no account of what had happened 
 to him; but various persons, who had looked out 
 as the horse darted past, declared that they had 
 seen the foul fiend riding behind him, and nothing 
 could make them say otherwise to the day of their 
 death. 
 
 The rumour of these affairs caused, however, 
 no little consternation in the country. The rescue 
 of the Lollards by force and arms shewed that 
 there was a strong party of their adherents in 
 that neighbourhood. The Knight's servants were
 
 256 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 openly declared to have been concerned in it. He 
 himself, when questioned by officers sent for the 
 purpose, refused to give any answer; and it was 
 thought that the Knight would be arrested and 
 carried to London. Yet, contrary to general expec- 
 tation, he was not. Parties of soldiers scoured 
 the country, and made nightly visits to houses 
 suspected of favouring, and probably harbouring, 
 the rescued Lollards, or the now notorious Jack- 
 of-the-Mill, or as called by others John-of-the- 
 Mill, and by some John Othmill, whose deeds 
 and strange acts and ingenious stratagems were 
 talked of far and wide, and in distant shires 
 magnified and metamorphosed into shapes and 
 colours most extraordinary. With some, he was 
 a double-jointed miller, who was as broad as he 
 was long; could carry his own mill on his back, 
 trundle a mill-wheel as a boy does his hoop, and 
 had been known to take a trooper and his horse 
 and chuck them together over a wall into a well. 
 With others, he was as slim and as little as a
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 257 
 
 girl of six years old, but had the strength of a 
 giant, and could spring up trees and over houses 
 far beyond any mountebank. He was in league 
 with Satan, and also with the Lollards. He had 
 been sent for by the old Knight out of Turkey, 
 and was kept by him to uphold Lollardism. At 
 one time he was in the Hall, and in an hour 
 after in London. He had shook down a tower on 
 the Knight's steward; had rescued a whole cart- 
 load of Lollards from a troop of soldiers, by carrying 
 off them and cart and all. Heavens knew how — 
 the cart being found stuck in a bog, and the horses 
 loose on a moor a hundred miles off! Such were 
 the extravagant stories manufactured out of Jack's 
 simple exploits; and in London, ballads full of 
 these wonders were sung about the streets, of the . 
 awful John-of-the-Mill. In the mean time, the 
 soldiers found neither John-of-the-Mill, nor the 
 Lollards; the latter worthy divines, indeed, as both 
 Jack and the Knight knew, were safely housed in 
 a distant city. 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 258 LIFE AND ADVExNTURES OF 
 
 In one of their nocturnal expeditions, the 
 soldiers, however, had the luck to meet with Sim 
 Mack, the miller's boy of Burnby Mill. They 
 asked him where he came from? If he had seen 
 these Lollards who were so much talked of? He 
 said, ^^Yes, heM seen 'em often. He'd heard 
 'em preach, and hoped to hear 'em agen.^' The 
 soldiers thought they had got hold of a right 
 subject. They asked him if he had seen them 
 lately? — He said, "Yes.'' How long ago? — He 
 couldn't tell. Was it before the rescue, or after? 
 — '^ ! after, some time after." They then asked 
 him if he could tell them where they were now? 
 He said, " Yes, he could, he knew very well." 
 
 " Then, my boy," said they, " you must tell us." 
 
 "Nay," said he, "I shonna. That's what my 
 master says I never mun tell to nobody." 
 
 "But," said one, dismounting and seizing him, 
 "in the king's name, I charge you to tell me; 
 and if you don't, here you shall die." 
 
 With that he drew his sword, and Sim appearing
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 
 
 259 
 
 to be very much frightened, begged they would not 
 kill him, and he would tell them; but they mustn't 
 let his master know that he told. They promised 
 
 JACK MISLEADING THF, SOLDIERS 
 
 this. Then said he, ^'Some say they^'e here, and 
 some there; but I say if you find them anywhere 
 hereabouts, it ^11 be i' th' vault under Scalhope 
 Tower."
 
 260 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " Why, that is where they were seen before ! '^ 
 
 Sim nodded knowingly. 
 
 " Mount, young Thrifty, and shew us the way/' 
 said the officer. They clapped the lad behind a 
 trooper, who rode on first. Sim led them through 
 woods and along some dreadfully deep roads, till 
 the officer said, " Where are you leading us ? This 
 seems a very long way." 
 
 ''To the Tower," said the lad. '^sn't it there 
 you want to go?" 
 
 Presently they came to the foot of the hills. 
 
 " There," said the lad, "the Tower is just above; 
 but it is so dark you can't see it. And here is 
 a gate you must go through; if it claps, they are 
 sure to hear it, if they are there." 
 
 Jack slipped down, and set open the gate, hold- 
 ing it for them all to pass through. Scarcely had 
 they got through, however, before there was a con- 
 fusion heard before, and a cry of "What's this? 
 This is no road! Where is the lad?" 
 
 "What is this?" said the trooper, taking up
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 261 
 
 the cry, and turning to where the lad had stood, 
 but no lad was there! To his astonishment he 
 had vanished, he could not tell where. He rode 
 back through the gate, looked here and there, 
 dismounted, peered under the bushes; but nothing 
 was to be seen. Hastily remounting, he peered 
 over the hedge, leaped the fence into the field, 
 galloped here and there—not a trace of the lad 
 was to be caught. As hastily he rode back to the 
 troop; there all was disorder, a score voices calling 
 for the boy and the trooper. When he came up, 
 and informed the officer that the boy had vanished, 
 " Villain ! " said he, " thou shalt answer for his 
 escape. Here is no tower, no road; but an old 
 stone quarry, half full of water. It is a wonder 
 that we have not broken our necks, and are not 
 all drowned together.^^ 
 
 The soldiers, left in the now fast closing darkness 
 in this wild spot, found it no easy matter to find 
 their way back. They tried first one direction, 
 and then another. One way led them again into
 
 262 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 old and very extensive gravel-pitS; another into a 
 great morass. In the dark woods through which 
 they attempted to retrace the way, their horses 
 floundered and fell: they lost their way, and were 
 compelled to dismount and lead their steeds, every 
 moment expecting to plunge into pits or ditches; 
 at one time up to the knees iu water, at another 
 completely entangled in a labyrinth of thickets. 
 The greater part of the night, wet and hot, weary 
 and covered with mud, did they thus plunge and 
 grope about in this wild country; cursing heartily 
 the Miller's mischievous cub, and ever and anon 
 shouting with might and main to make some one 
 hear. Escaping at length from the woods, it was 
 only to find themselves in the midst of deep 
 ploughed lands, out of which there appeared no 
 outlet, except by crossing stagnant dykes. Here, 
 as morning dawned, they were descried by a plough- 
 man, a wretched spectacle of men and horses, 
 covered with mire, and haggard with weariness and 
 vexation. Nor was that vexation at all diminished
 
 JACK OF THE MILL. 263 
 
 by learning that the boy had really led them to 
 the foot of the hill on which Scalhope Tower stood, 
 but on a side from which it was totally inaccessible; 
 that he had led them some miles round, through 
 the worst roads in the country, and left them in 
 their wretched plight not three furlongs from the 
 village ! 
 
 The soldiers came in for a full share of the 
 ridicule which had fallen on the ghost-watchers. 
 The tale flew round the country; but nobody was 
 more surprised than the old Miller of Burnby Mill, 
 who declared that he had never had this Sim Mack 
 in his service in his life, nor did he know him 
 at all! 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 ^% 
 
 S\ 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed by Maimini; and Mason, Ivy-Iane, Patenioster-iow.
 
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