Part 7 (1/2)

”We know every body who travels along this road, and maybe we have met before, though you don't recollect me,” answered the robber. ”And now farewell to you, and may you find a good market for your beasts, and success in all your dealings.”

Saying this, the robber turned his horse, and rode up the hill, while the rest of the band withdrew quickly out of sight. The poor fellows who had been hurt were placed on horseback, and Brinsmead and Jack Deane trudged along by their side, considerably downcast by the adventure.

Brinsmead had never appeared so much put out.

”This comes of the way you have of talking to all the people you meet, Mr Deane,” he observed, in a tone very unlike that he usually used. ”I have a belief that the man you were riding so long by the side of has had something to do with this day's business. I marked him when he pa.s.sed me, and I told you then that I did not like his looks.”

”You mean Master Pearson, I suppose,” answered Jack. ”I cannot make out how he can have had any thing to do with the thieves. He told me all about himself; and if he was not an honest man, he would not have done that. He is a Yorks.h.i.+reman, a dealer in wool and drapery, and is on his way to Stourbridge Fair and Newmarket. If he had had any sinister motive, he would not have spoken as frankly as he did.”

”Then who stole your powder-flask, and drew the bullets out of your pistols?” asked Brinsmead.

”Not the man you speak of, certainly,” said Jack. ”I looked at the priming of my pistols this morning, and they were all right, though to be sure, not thinking that they might have been tampered with, I did not examine the charges. However, he could not have done it while riding alongside of me. In what state did you find your pistols, Brinsmead?”

”I must own, Jack, they would not go off either; and yet I did this morning what I always do, examine them before starting, when I have my master's property to defend upon the road.”

”But did you never lose sight of them after you had examined them?”

asked Deane.

Brinsmead thought a few moments.

”Yes, I remember now, for once I did; and now I think of it, I remember seeing a man, very like the fellow who has just left us, watching me as I went out. That's it, depend on it.”

While Brinsmead was speaking, he pulled out his pistols and examined them with his ramrod. The charge of both had been withdrawn. He put them back into his holsters with a look of annoyance.

”Ah! these are old tricks, and more shame to me I was not up to them; but now, for the sake of the poor fellows we have got here, we must push on as fast as we can get the drove over this mud and these mortally bad roads. There's a house called Winn's Farm about three miles off from here, where we shall be able to get good pasturage, and the men will be well looked after.”

Pus.h.i.+ng on, in the course of another hour the drove approached Winn's Farm which had been spoken of, when Deane walked on before that he might explain to the farmer what had happened, and make arrangements for remaining there during the night. The names of Mr Strelley of Nottingham and his old drover were well-known along the road, and accordingly a kindly welcome was given to the whole party. The kine were turned into some good grazing-ground, and the wounded drovers were carefully placed on a bed, and their hurts looked to by Dame Winn, the farmer's wife. The good woman prided herself on her surgical knowledge, having received instructions from her mother, who in her younger days had had unhappily, during the Civil Wars, too much opportunity of gaining experience in the art of attending to gunshot wounds.

”We must have better laws, Master Brinsmead; these sort of things cannot be allowed in the country,” observed Farmer Winn, when his guests were seated round his hospitable board, at which all his family, as well as the drovers and his old farm-servants, were also a.s.sembled. ”I have suffered from some of these caterans from the north, so I have a fellow-feeling with you, I can tell you.”

”The laws are not so bad,” answered Brinsmead, ”but we want people to carry them out. The king is willing enough, but it is hard to get people to a.s.sist him. However, things are improving in many respects, and depend upon it these gentlemen have not a much longer course to run.”

Will Brinsmead had no objection to the good things of life, and while enjoying the substantial fare set before him by Farmer Winn and his good dame, soon forgot the annoyance he had suffered.

CHAPTER NINE.

STOURBRIDGE FAIR--ADVENTURES AT CAMBRIDGE.

As Will Brinsmead and John Deane with their charge approached Cambridge, they found the roads, always far from good, becoming worse and worse, in consequence of the vast amount of traffic which had pa.s.sed over them; while crowds of other small dealers and purchasers from all parts of the country would account for the vast concourse of people who were to be seen both in the town of Cambridge, along the banks of the river, and thickly scattered over the meadows. From all directions were seen moving on carts, waggons, caravans, and vehicles of all sorts, from London and elsewhere, as well as innumerable trains of pack-horses laden with Yorks.h.i.+re goods from Leeds, Halifax, and other towns in an apparently endless succession, bound for the Duddery, the great mart for wholesale dealers in woollen manufactures, which was to occupy a considerable portion of the meadow in which the fair was held. In the vehicles from London were conveyed milliners, toy-sellers, goldsmiths, turners, haberdashers, mercers, drapers, hatters, and in fact representatives of all the trades of the metropolis.

At a short distance from Cambridge the drove came fairly to a stop, when, as it chanced, Brinsmead and Jack found close to them, mounted on a tall pack-horse, a personage who by the peculiar cut of his somewhat threadbare garments they took to be a humble student of divinity. He wore a shabby ca.s.sock and a shovel hat, sitting the animal on which he journeyed sideways with a book in his hand, making a reading-desk occasionally of a bale of some sort which towered above the horse's neck. Old Will at once entered into conversation with him, and confided afterwards to Jack that he had been highly edified by his correct and judicious remarks. Jack had, however, remarked a peculiar twinkle in the student's eye when talking to the old man, which made him suspect his sincerity. He appeared, however, to be very well informed on many subjects, and still further won Master Brinsmead's heart by showing that he possessed some knowledge of the art of breeding cattle, and of healing their diseases, but little understood in those days. They were, however, again separated, and no more was seen of the divinity student.

At length the towers and spires of Cambridge, rising from the groves and gardens of the cla.s.sic Cam, came in sight.

When Jack Deane rode up to the far-famed meadow, he might well be astonished at the scene he beheld. The sun shone brilliantly on a vast expanse of canvas, with bright-coloured streamers flying over it, and appropriate sign-boards, gilt weatherc.o.c.ks, and other painted ornaments, forming regular streets, and reaching from the high-road which runs between Cambridge and Newmarket to the river.

The ”Duddery” was separated from the rest of the fair, and contained larger and more substantial buildings for the display of its valuable bales and its vast pockets of wool, one of which was sufficient to load a waggon. Here, too, great quant.i.ties of Yorks.h.i.+re clothing were exhibited for sale, as well as the produce of the hosiery towns, such as Nottingham, Leicester, and Derby. The sale of wool, however, did not begin till the lighter goods had been disposed of, so that Brinsmead and Deane had ample time to execute the various commissions with which they had been entrusted, and to wander about and to enjoy the wonders of the fair, which Jack did to his heart's content.

One whole street was devoted to hardware of all sorts, from excellent Dutch delf to the coa.r.s.e pottery furnished by Staffords.h.i.+re, with occasional luxuries in the form of Chelsea tea-services, or costly jars of grotesque shapes from Pekin, sent by the London china-shops. All sorts of toys and fancy articles were to be found. Painted mirrors, which were then greatly in fas.h.i.+on, fans, long leathern gloves, jewelled snuff-boxes, wooden b.a.l.l.s, and whirligigs might be seen, to satisfy the fancy of those who came rather for amus.e.m.e.nt than business. The great characteristic of the fair, however, lay in the enormous quant.i.ty of merchandise of the best quality that was acc.u.mulated there from all parts of England. The price of hops was fixed in Kent and Herefords.h.i.+re by their value at Stourbridge Fair, and the horse-market and the cattle-market were the largest of the year any where. Nearly a thousand horse-packs of Yorks.h.i.+re cloths, such as kerseys, fustians, and pennistons, together with Manchester goods, took up one side and a half of the Duddery, and it was not uncommon to hear that 100,000 pounds worth of woollen manufactures had been sold there in less than one week's time.