Part 11 (2/2)
His concealment and life in the woods continued four days, when, exceedingly tired of his solitude, he one midnight ventured to Cadwgan's door, and both surprised and gratified the farmer and his kinder daughter, when they heard the lost one's voice once more. They rose and let him in immediately, made a fire, gave every necessary refreshment, and then persuaded him to go to bed.
Twm remained hidden here a week, when suspicion fixed upon Cadwgan's house, although searched before, as the probable place of concealment.
One day, Gwenny ran in a fright to tell her father to conceal Twm immediately, as the constables, headed by Parson Evans, were coming. Twm started up and said, ”Bolt the door for ten minutes, and I shall be safe.” Gwenny replied that they could not be there in that time, as they were then descending the opposite side of the Cwm, which was three long fields off, and that they approached slowly, with fox-like cunning, so as to excite no suspicion of their purpose.
With that, at Twm's request, they both went up stairs with him, for a purpose which he said he was there to explain to them, as neither of them could conceive in what manner he was going to preserve himself. They all remained above 'till the loud summons of authority, in the raven voice of old Evans, brought Cadwgan down, when the cleric magistrate told him, in no gentle terms, that there was a suspicion attached to his house, as the place where the young villain, Twm Shon Catty, was concealed.
The farmer replied, ”I must say this is very hard usage, as I have no one with me but my daughter and my eldest sister, who has come on a few weeks' visit; but, as you are come, you may search in welcome.” After a brief scrutiny below, they all went up stairs, where sat, busily employed at their needles, the fair Gwenny Cadwgan and the ingenious Twm Shon Catty, excellently disguised in the dress of Cadwgan's late wife; which having been the property of a tall women fitted him very well. His face was slightly coloured with the juice of blackberries; beneath his chin was pinned a dowdyish cap, which in the scant light of a small window, by the aid of a pair of spectacles he appeared a complete old granny.
On the entrance of these amiable visitors, he turned his full spectacled face on Parson Evans, muttering, in the tone of an old woman, which he mimicked well, ”lack a day! lack a day! this is sad usage;” then whispered Gwenny, who took the hint, and, while they were searching, laid some hog's lard on different parts of the stairs, so that, on their descent, the precious party, with their rascally leader, slipped and fell headlong down from top to bottom, to the great amus.e.m.e.nt of those above.
On being charged with this contrivance, each denied all knowledge of, and the quick witted Gwenny accounted for the cause of their accident by saying that they had been carrying b.u.t.ter and lard to the store, up stairs, the whole morning.
In addition to this, Twm emptied the contents of a certain piece of crockery upon the devoted heads of the searchers, just as they emerged from the doorway, and when he discovered the splutterings and surprise manifested by the parson, shouted down from the upper window, ”Dear!
dear! I thought you lazy folk would be half a mile from the house before now. Well well! ye'll get a was.h.i.+ng for nothing.” The parson muttered something very like a curse, while the constables ”d-d” the old woman unceremoniously.
They were no sooner gone than Twm a.s.sured Cadwgan that he saw there was no safety for him except in flight, which must take place that very night. His plan, he said, was matured, that he had no fear but he should do well, and that his only regret was in parting with them. He purposed, he said, to make his way towards Carmarthens.h.i.+re, or perhaps farther and seek employment among the farmers; or, what was more agreeable to him, he might, perhaps, get to some village where he could set up a school; so that after saving a sum of money to begin life with, he should return and make Gwenny his wife. With tearful eyes Cadwgan expressed his admiration of his plan, while poor Gwenny wept herself almost into fits, at the thought of his perils, and sudden departure.
”At any rate, my boy, thou shalt not go penniless to wander the wide world,” said Cadwgan, and put an old pocket-book, containing several angels, and near twenty s.h.i.+llings in silver, which Twm reluctantly took, promising its return doubly when fortune favoured him. ”I have two favours more to ask,” said he; ”the first is, that you will make the best of my affair when you tell my poor mother and the worthy Mr. Rhys of my flight, and my future plans in life; and my next request is, that you will give me this old woman's dress, with the red cloak belonging to it, as it will answer for a disguise should I be troubled before I get far enough off.” Cadwgan kindly acquiesced, though he smiled at the latter whimsical fancy. At length, thus attired to avoid observation, with his own clothes in a bundle, he took an affecting leave of them, and made a hasty departure from their friendly door.
CHAPTER XIX.
TWM risks another visit to Tregaron. Alarms his friend Watt. Danger of betrayal by him. His cunning is more than a match for Watt, Parson Evans, and his wife. Escapes, and with a good booty. Disappearance of the Parson's horse, great coat, and cash.
It was a dull heavy night, in which fog and darkness contended for precedence, and the moon gleamed as if about to retire altogether, when Twm Shon Catty shaped his course over the mountain, in the direction which led to Lampeter; he looked instinctively towards his dear native town, which a fas.h.i.+onable tourist would perhaps have called the most wretched village in the universe; but, to him, it was full of sweet a.s.sociations, and recollections the most agreeable; the scene of his childhood, the home of his mother:
Dear to all their natal spot, Although 'twere Nature's foulest blot; For, wherever we may roam, There's ne'er a place like Home, sweet Home.
He stopped, and looked wistfully towards Tregaron; the lights were glistening in their various humble cas.e.m.e.nts, and he fancied that among them all he could distinguish his mother's-his kind fond mother's-whom, perhaps, he was never to see again,-and now he recollected many instances of her tenderness, which had long slumbered in his recollection. His eyes filled with tears, and the softness of his heart was put at once into mournful harmony.
A sudden thought, no less eccentric than daring, now took him, that thus disguised, he might safely pa.s.s through Tregaron, and perhaps see his mother before his departure. This idea was no sooner started than acted upon; and, before an hour had expired, he found himself once more in the long and almost only street in Tregaron. He met two or three old women whom he knew well, but there was no recognition on their part, only a long, vacant stare of astonishment, no doubt wondering who the stranger could be, venturing into Tregaron at that late hour. His mother's door was closed for the night, and he durst not call to her, as Jack was not to be trusted. He moved on, looking earnestly to every door. The whole street seemed still as death, except that various snores, here and there, reminded Twm of the sweet sleep enjoyed by others though denied to him; while the stray villagers whom he had met were busy locking their doors, or barring them with the wooden sash.
He sauntered slowly along, meditating on the circ.u.mstance that made him afraid to face those who knew him, till opposite to the cottage of his old companion and elder brother in mischief, Watt the mole-catcher. Watt had long lived with a widowed mother, who had recently died, and now sojourned alone in her solitary hut; it was even reported that he had forsaken all his wicked ways, grown serious, and was consequently likely to do well. It occurred to Twm that he had often heard Watt deny the existence of ghosts and hobgoblins, and vaunt that nothing of that description could in the least frighten him; and now, thought Twm, I'll put his courage to the trial.
Peeping through the cas.e.m.e.nt, he saw Watt in bed, at the farther end of the cottage, and the fire burning through the peat heaped up to preserve it for the night, so that the white walls within were brightened by the gleams cast on them from the hearth. Softly lifting the latch, he opened the door, entered, and, walking quietly towards the hearth, sat on the three-legged stool, took up the old snoutless bellows, and began blowing the fire with all his might. Watt awoke in extreme terror, and seeing the figure of a tall woman in the chimney corner, deeming it no other than his mother's spirit, his fright increased.
Trembling and almost dissolved in perspiration, he at last burst out into a roar of ”Lord have mercy on me! oh, mother's dear spirit, pity me!”
Twm laughed out, and ran to his bed-side to stop his roaring cries, exclaiming, ”Silence, man, 'tis I, Twm, your old friend, Twm Shon Catty.”
Watt slowly awoke to the consciousness that his theory did not stand the test of practice, and that this had been proven by one who had often heard him vaunting as to his fearlessness of the supernatural.
Convinced of his ident.i.ty, and having heard our hero's story, he said, ”'Twere better you were at the bottom of a river, Twm, than here, for I have been compelled, by Parson Evans, to make an oath that if you came here, I would immediately either send or run myself to inform him of your arrival; and I can't break, an oath, Twm, for anybody.”
”I did not think,” said our hero coolly, ”that you, who have broken so many laws, would scruple much about breaking a forced oath; but old companions.h.i.+p pleads weakly, opposed to the reward that will be given for my apprehension; I thought, though the whole town were to turn against me that you, Watt would have been my friend, for you have led me into many troubles, and I never laid a jot of blame to your charge, but took all to myself, and have often suffered on your account.”
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