Part 27 (1/2)
”And who stole my grey horse!” bawled Evans of Tregaron.
”And who sold it to me when disguised in straw boots and cow-hide breeches!” cried Powell of Brecon, who had now closely examined his features.
Things looked desperate as far as Twm was concerned, as an attack was now made upon him by three or four of his most determined enemies; but Twm eluding their eager attempts to grasp him, sprang upon the table before the bench, and drawing a couple of pistols from his coat pockets, held one in each hand, and kept them all at bay, protesting he would shoot the first who would advance an inch towards him. Loud was his laughter when they all started back: but Prothero, now sat silently on the bench, alarmed for his safety, which he had thought to secure by giving him warning of his danger, in the feint of his proclaimed reward for his apprehension.
As he stood in this manner, with extended arms, watchful eyes, and grasping the pointed pistols with a finger to each trigger, Powell of Brecon exclaimed, ”Thou art a clever fellow, by Jove, Twm! very clever for a Cardy; but wert thou with us, the quick-witted sons of Brecon, thou wouldst soon find thyself overmatched. I dare thee to enter Brecon, to trust to thy cunning-come there, and welcome, and thou shalt stand harmless of me, in the affair of the grey horse.” Twm smiled, and nodded, in token of having accepted his challenge.
Rather daunted by the failure of their first attempt to seize Twm, his a.s.sailants had held back awed by his resolute and defiant att.i.tude, but recovering their courage on reflecting upon the odds against him, they now, headed by Evans of Tregaron, got behind him, and clung to his right arm, but with one violent effort Twm shook them away, as the mighty bull throws off the yelping curs that dare to attack him. Then, with a single leap, he sprang from the table into the crowded court, where a lane was formed for him, and rushed out of the door unimpeded, and pursued by his accusers. They soon lost sight of him among the moving mult.i.tude, some of whom dispersed from fear of accidents, while others followed him as spectators.
To the great astonishment of his pursuers they next caught a view of him mounted on that grand subject of contention, the grey horse. He took the route of Ystrad Feen, followed by several constables in the employ of Evans of Tregaron, and many disinterested persons from the fair. Loud were the shouts of the numerous riders; loud the tramp of galloping horses; and wild the disorder and terror created, as Twm at different intervals turned on his pursuers, and fired his pistols. This caused a powerful retrograde movement among them, by which the foremost horses fell back to those behind them, unhorsing some who lay groaning and crying with fright on the ground, and frightening others altogether from the pursuit.
It was on this occasion that a bard of that day wrote the stanza which appears on the t.i.tle page, thus translated by the late Iolo Morganwg:-
”In Ystrad Feen a doleful sound Pervades the hollow hills around; The very stones with terror melt, Such fear of Twn Shon Catty felt.”
Fortune still favoured Twm, who reaching the foot of Dinas somewhat in advance of his motley train of pursuers, dismounted, sprung from stone to stone, that formed the ford of the Tower, and climbed the steep side of that majestic mount, with the utmost ease. Like a prudent sea-captain, Twm was chased in his small boat by a fleet of rovers, till he reaches his own war-s.h.i.+p, and springs up her fort-like side, and treads his deck in the ecstasy of surmounted peril, conscious strength, and superiority.
Thus Twm now attained the summit of a prominent knoll, and waved his hand triumphantly, in defiance of his foes below. Evans of Tregaron, with his crew of catchpoles, made an attempt to climb also; Twm permitted them to advance about twenty yards above the river, when he ended the warfare, by rolling down several huge stones, that swept them in a ma.s.s into the bed of the river Towey, sadly bruised, but more frightened, from whence they were extricated by the amazed and terrified spectators.
Evans of Tregaron met with an accident, which during the remainder of his life reminded him of his hasty chase after Twm Shon Catty. In starting aside to avoid the dreadful leaping crags that threatened to crush him, his pistols went off in his pockets, and carried away, besides his coat skirts and the rear of his black breaches, a large portion of postern flesh, that deprived him forever after of that agreeable cus.h.i.+on which nature had provided.
Amusing to the population of Tregaron was the singular sight of their crest-fallen magistrate and his hated gang, brought home in woeful plight, as inside pa.s.senger of a dung-cart, which had been hired for the purpose; and more than all, that his discomfiture should have been caused by their long-lost countryman Twm Shon Catty.
Our hero was clearly in an una.s.sailable position, and his enemies were not so stupid as to be entirely blind to that important fact. So, like a princely chieftain of the days of old, enthroned upon his native tower of strength, marking in his soul's high pride the awkward predicament of his baffled foes, perceiving them all depart; leaving him the undisputed lord of his alpine territory, the glorious height of Dinas.
After witnessing, with his limbs stretched upon his mountain couch, the glorious beauty of the setting sun, he entered the cave, tore from its top a sufficiency of fern and heather to form his bed, threw on it his fatigued, over-exerted frame, and slept soundly until morning.
CHAPTER x.x.xVI.
TWM at Brecon. An angling feat. Twm in a musical character. Wins the prize offered for a poem. A new style of marriage-and some other little ”odds and ends.” Conclusion.
With the earliest rays of the morning's sun Twm was astir, and during a long ramble on the hills, was busily turning over in his mind the exciting-incidents of the previous day. Unable to account for his second disappointment of seeing his mistress, according to promise, he gave way to despondency, and conjectured the worst-that she was no longer true to his vows, but had yielded to the persuasions of her haughty relative, and become a renegade both to love and to honour. He was now, however, so near her residence, he would at least ascertain how matters stood; and, after many efforts of resolution, he descended the hill for that purpose.
On crossing the Towey, he was surprised to find that the ”gallant grey”
was still left for him; he was busily feeding in an adjoining field, and the saddle and bridle hung dangling from a storm-stricken old thorn. He felt this, directly, as a handsome piece of attention to him, on the part of Powell of Brecon, who, doubtless, had left it there for convenience.
On examining further, he found a note, tied to the bridle, from that generous individual, inviting him to be present at the Eisteddvod, the Races and the Ball, which were to take place successively in the gay town of Brecon.
He was doomed to disappointment; for on reaching Ystrad Feen he found n.o.body but the servants, who informed him that their lady, Miss Meredith, and the late visitors, were all gone to Brecon, and would not return for some days. This intelligence determined him to go there also; and recollecting a trunk of clothes of his, which had been left ever since his sojourning there, he called for it; and having dressed himself, and placed with other things, in his saddle-bags, an elegant suit which he had brought from London, he mounted his horse, and rode off for Brecon.
About a couple of miles beyond Trecastle, he overtook a poor fellow driving an a.s.s, laden with coa.r.s.e crockery ware, who turned out to be no other than Ready Rosser. Having long been married to a Cardigans.h.i.+re la.s.s, they both, pretending to be single, entered Squire Prothero's service at the same time; but the circ.u.mstance being at length discovered, they were both discharged a few days since, and now commenced the crockery business for a livelihood. After a few jests on the white bull, ox, and sheep, Twm spurred on, but not before he had purchased the whole of Rosser's stock, which, however, that worthy was to take to Brecon, for a purpose to be hereafter described.
At Brecon he took lodgings at the Three c.o.c.ks' inn, to which he gave a preference, on account of the sign being the armorial bearings of the celebrated David Gam, (Shakespeare's Captain Fuellin,) the hero of Agincourt.
Crowds still poured into the town from all points of the compa.s.s, until it seemed impossible that the streets would hold them. While our hero looked through the window to observe Rosser, who arranged his crockery in front of the inn, his attention was suddenly caught by the sound of a harp, which proceeded from the kitchen. To his great surprise, he found the performer to be his old friend the venerable Ianto Gwyn of Tregaron.
The old man was very glad to see him, and after learning the particulars of the fortunes he had met since he left his native town, proceeded to inform him of the Tregaron news. His mother was well three weeks ago, and had received the various sums which he had sent her at different times, and was in daily hopes of burying her churl of a husband. Rachael Ketch was now dead; having broken her heart for the loss of her money, which had been stolen by Watt the mole-catcher, who was transported.