Part 20 (1/2)

This unexpected news, and the evident horror evinced by the fair maidens for him, quite overcame Watt, and he showed unmistakable signs of the fear which had taken possession of him. From Martha Gwyn, Twm learned that poor Gwenny's affection for him was unchanged, but it was thought, for all that, said the candid girl, that she will be married to a Brecons.h.i.+re farmer's son, who met her in Herefords.h.i.+re, when she went a hop-picking there.

”But if Gwenny has him,” said Martha, ”it will be for the sake of making a home for her poor father.”

Twm's generous heart prompted him to give each maiden a piece of silver; and, having made them eat heartily of a good homely, substantial meal of cheese and bread and ale, he dismissed them on their journey. Watt, in great agony of mind, exclaimed-

”Oh G.o.d, where shall I fly! all my supposed security I find but a dream, and misery alone awaits me! When I told you the tale of my enormities, I kept back the relation of one crime-a dreadful one-which, lost as I am, I felt averse to acknowledge, and too heart-smote with the consciousness of its atrocity, to turn to it my most secret thought-'twas a deed of blood, the crime of murder!

”You remember a tall, thin, skeleton-like man, generally dressed in a suit of grey, who lived in a cottage on the mountain, in the neighbourhood of Tregaron, known by the nickname of Stalking Simon the Mooncalf, from his wandering by moon-light over the hills. This man was known to be a spy, employed and paid by all the neighbouring farmers.

His habits were, to sleep all day and to spend the night on the hill, watching to identify the hedge-pluckers and sheep-stealers. Many poor persons who depended on their nightly excursions for fuel, while they deemed themselves un.o.bserved of any human being, cutting down a tree, or drawing dry wood from an old hedge, would suddenly find themselves in the presence of Stalking Simon. So instantaneous was his appearance, as to startle his victims with the idea of an apparition suddenly sprung up through the ground, as his approach was never seen till close upon them.

”''Tis only me, neighbour,' would be the hypocrite's reply, 'searching for my stray pony:' but when two persons had been executed and three transported, on his evidence, the nature of his employment became known, and he was execrated by the whole country.

”One moon-light night, as I was skinning a fine weather, which I had suspended and spread out on an old storm-beaten thorn, in a field adjoining the mountain, easy in mind, and so fearless of danger, that I whistled in a half hushed manner, as I followed my illicit occupation, a circ.u.mstance took place that wrought a violent change in the tone of my mind. My thoughts ran on the whimsicality of the idea of selling this very mutton to the rightful owner, on the morrow, which was market-day, and laughing inwardly at the thought: all at once, Stalking Simon, with a single stride, moved from behind a mossy dwarf thorn, gray as his own suit, and stood before me. My blood curdled with terror; but when the old stone-hearted wretch made the old Judas-like reply-

”'It is only me, searching for my pony,' I knew my danger, and my terror changed to savage ferocity against the vile informer, who had ruined so many of my friends and neighbours. I darted on him, grasped his collar with one hand, and with the other stabbed him to the heart.”

Watt's tale was now ended, and he seemed to be terribly agitated at the recollection of old Simon's murder, and of the dreadful position into which his crime had brought him.

”O G.o.d! what shall I do; where shall I fly?” he exclaimed, ”I cannot return, for that road leads straight to the gallows, and in London I should be in hourly danger of being seen by somebody from the country.

Since the perpetration of this deed of blood, I have not known an hour's peace. Heaven is my witness, I could be content with slavery, and smile beneath the man-driver's whip-could strip myself and wander the world in nakedness, or herd with beasts, to regain my former peace and innocence!

Oh, I could labour till my bones ached, and my exhausted body dropped to the earth with fatigue, to be once more free from the keen stings of a guilty conscience!”

Twm was but a poor comforter; for his strict ideas of justice and retribution made him look upon Watt's terrible agony as part of the punishment which he was called upon to pay for the awful crime of murder.

After all, Watt's distress was due quite as much to the fear of the gallows, which he now saw to be in close proximity to him, as to regret and repentance for his unwarrantable deed.

Twm hardly recognized Watt as he sat there, his face blanched with fear, large drops of sweat rolling down his pale checks, with quivering lips and staring eyes, all showing the effect which his knowledge of the dreadful penalty which, from every prospect, speedily awaited him.

A grey-coated man now approaching the tavern, brought dreadful a.s.sociations to Watt's terrified conscience, and, in the utmost trepidation, he darted out at the back door of the inn, and ran across the fields with the speed of a pursued murderer.

CHAPTER XXIX.

TWM encounters Tom Dorbell. The quick encounter of their wits, in which our hero has the advantage. Twm rescues a high dignitary of the church.

Twm's triumphal entry into London in a bishop's carriage.

It was yet only four o'clock the following morning, when our hero was once more upon the road. The stars were bright as at midnight, and the fine bracing frost, the glory of our northern clime, seemed to have purified his blood, and at the same time excited his fancy, so that both mind and body were sweetly attuned, and in the full glow of enjoyment.

It might be thought the knowledge he had gained of Gwenny's coquettings would have disheartened him; but his residence at Ystrad Feen, with his communion with the ”lady of his vision,” had a little tinged his mind with something of romantic forebodings, that overshone the rusticity of earlier impressions.

Elastic and l.u.s.ty were his healthy limbs, as they bounded to the music of his heart, while he strode forward on the highway, exulting in the thought that the day had at length arrived on which his eyes were to be regaled with a sight of the far-famed city of London.

In this happy spirit, he successively pa.s.sed through Langley Broom and Colnbrook, anxiously hoping to reach Hounslow by mid-day. Thus, light of heart, and full of brilliant antic.i.p.ations, he continued to bound along the road.

In this overweening fit of enthusiasm, he considered danger of every sort entirely out of the question; and this, too, if he knew the truth, while he wandered over the very hot-bed of robbers, both foot-pads and equestrians! Deluded by such a course of cogitation, he began to jeer himself on his simplicity in keeping his pistols loaded, and considered whether he had best fire them off for amus.e.m.e.nt or not.

Before he had formed his resolution, he was startled to hear a rude and heavy tread close at his heels. Sudden as the thought, he turned round, and reeled some steps backward at the sight that presented itself! In the advanced light of the morning, he beheld a villainous-looking powerful man, with a long black-beard, who might have pa.s.sed for the high-priest of a Jewish synagogue. He grasped a pistol that was levelled at his head, while his forefinger seemed actually pressing on the trigger. By his ominous silence, and the fierce glare of his eye, Twm conceived that murder and not robbery was his object, till the ruffian roared, ”Garnish or die!”

”Wha-what is garnish?” stuttered Twm.