Volume I Part 9 (1/2)

CHAPTER THE NINTH

THE END OF MY ADVENTURES AMONG THE BLACKS

WERE I to give vent to that Garrulity which grows upon us Veterans with Gout and the Gravel, and the kindred Aile, this Account of my Life would never reach beyond the record of Boyhood For from the first Flower of my freshest childhood to the time that I became toward the more serious Business of the World, I think I could set down Day by Day, and well-nigh Hour by Hour, all the things that have occurred to me How is it that I preserve so keen a Remembrance of a little lad's joys and sorrohen I can scarcely recall how e, or tell howneither for Heaven or man a Point, I have slain? Nay, from what cause does it proceed that I, upon whom the broken reliques of my Schoolmaster's former Cruelty are yet Green, and who can conjure up all the events that bore upon ish na of the Women they had about them, find it sore travail to remember what I had for dinner yesterday, what friends I conversed with, what Tavern I supped at, what news I read in the Gazette? But 'tis the knowledge of that overweening Craving to count up the trivial Things of my Youth that warns s be but a short summary or sketch of so many Perils by Land and Sea And for thisthe more distinct and dilated upon, let h Road in a rapid carriage, he has not s and Milestones close by have passed beneath hi swiftness; next, that the Trees, Hedges, &c, of the middle-plan (as the limners call it) have moved slower and withon each other's outlines; whereas the extreme distance in Clouds, Mountains, far-off Hillsides, and the like, have seeeable; so that you could count the fissures in the hoar rocks, and the very sheep still feeding on the so? And who (let his later life have been ever so fortunate) does not preferably dwell on that sharp prospect so clearly yet so light loo Avenue of years?

It was not, I will frankly ad life to be hail-felloell- about the King's Forest in quest of Venison which belonged to the Crown Often have I felt reed his Majesty (whodoms); but as I, an' it please you, to do? Little Boy Jack was just Little Boy Beggar; and for want of proper Training he becaht I was no Candle-snuffer filcher, and, save in thewere, indeed, passing honest Part of the Venison we killed (er kind of Bird-Bolt, or Arbalist Crossbow, for through fear of the keepers we used as little powder and ball as possible) we ate for our Sustenance; for rogues reater portion, however, was discreetly conveyed, in carts covered over with garden-stuff, to the , and sold, under the coat-tail as we called it, to Higglers ere in our secret Soht into London, where we found a good Market with the Fish about Lincoln's Inn, and who, as they did considerable traffic with the nobility and Gentry, of whoe, were not likely to be suspected of unlawful dealings, or at least were able to make a colourable pretext of Honest Trade to such Constables and Market Conners who had a right to question theers we took sometimes money and sometimes rich apparel--the cast-off clothes, indeed, of the nobility, birthday suits or the like, which were not good enough for the Players of Drury Lane and Lincoln's Inn, forsooth, to strut about in on their tragedy-boards, and which they had therefore bestowed upon their domestics to sell For our Blacks loved to quit their bewrayed apparel at supper-time, and to dress theotten lers too, ould as willingly take Wine, Strong Waters, and Tobacco, in exchange for our fat and lean, as money; for the Currency of the Realm was then most wofully clipped and defaced, and our Brethren had a wholeso with Bank Bills When, from time to time, one of us ventured to a Market-toell made-up as a decent Yeoman or Merchant's Rider, 'twas always pay We ran no scores, and paid in no paper

It was long ere I found out that the Wagon in which I had travelled from the Hercules' Pillars, to be delivered over to Gnawbit, was conducted by one of the most trusted Confederates of our Coht them back the Account in specie or needh I aether deceivingto see her Grandentry that inhabited it, as well as she knew the Pewterer in Panyer Alley He went a-pewtering no more, if ever he had been 'prentice or done journeywork for that trade, but was neither more nor less than one of the Blacks, and Mistress Slyboots, his Flah I hope, I ah as I am, I had ever a Hatred of Unlawful Passions, and when I a's Proclausto and savour

I stayed with the Blacks in Charlwood Chase until I grew to be a sturdy lad of twelve years of age I went out with thehty courses, and have stricken down many a fat Buck in my time Ours was the most jovial but the most perilous of lives The Keepers were always on our track; and sometimes the Sheriff would call out the Posse Comitatis, and he and half the beef-fed tenant-far it about the glades to catch us For weeks together in each year we dared not keep our rendezvous at the Stag, but were fain to hide in Brakes and Hollow Trees, listening to the pursuit as it grew hot and heavy around us; and often with no better Victuals than Pig's-; and two or three of the great Squires round about being well terrified by letters written in a liquid designed to counterfeit Blood, with a great Skull and Cross-bones scrawled at the botto them that if they dared to meddle with the Blacks their Lives should pay for it, ere left quiet for a season, and could return to our Haunt, there to feast and carouse according to custom Nor am I slow to believe that so known to the County Gentry as stanch Tories, and as stanch detesters of the House of Hanover (I speak, of course, of my companions, for I was of years too tender to have any politics) We never killed a Deer but on the nearest tree some one of us out with his Jack-knife and carved on the bark of it, ”Slain by King Jaend, or the Beast was stricken in the Open, a sih, whether cut in the trunk or the turf) sufficed

The Country Gentle the rights of the present Illustrious House to the Throne; but Tihts and Opinions, and I dare swear there is no Brunswicker or Church of England erous

Captain Night, to whoe or Henchues grew too loosened, and wild talk, and of the wickedese, began to jingle alasses, he would bid o keep coht was a man of parts and even of letters; and I often wondered why he, who see the Great, should pass his ti that was not his He was often absent froh a h he had been journeying in Foreign Parts He was always very thoughtful and reserved after these Gaddings about; and Mistress Slyboots, the Maid, used to say that he was in Love, and had been playing the gallant to soht otherwise: for at this season it was his custo back a Valise full to the very brim of letters and papers, the which he would take Days to read and re-read, noting and seereater portion At this season he would refrain fro, and honourably forswore his share of their plunder, always giving Mother Druht's Supper, Bottle, and Bed But when his pressing business was over, no ht down the quarry so skilfully as Captain Night He loved to have me with him, to talk to and Question me; and it was one day, after I had told him that the Initial letter D was the only clue to raven on her Coffin-plate, he must needs tell me that if she were Madam (or rather Lady) D----, I must needs, as a Kinsman, be D---- too, and that he would piece out the naerous So that I was Little Boy Jack no erous I have been frosanother title, than which--so far as lineage counts--Bourbon or Nassau could not rank erous has pleased me alway; it has stood me in stead in many a hard pass, and I aray, and the walls of thisinto decay

'Twas I alone that was privileged to stay with Captain Night when he was doing Secretary's work a his papers; for, save when Mistress Slyboots ca at the door first, you may be sure--with a cup of ale and a toast, he would abide no other couisement, but the better clothes he had provided for et, silver-laced, and a cock to rand as you please I never dared speak to hih sharpening bolts or twisting bowstrings, or cleaning his Pistols, or furbishi+ng up his Hanger and Belt, or suchlike boyish pastime-labour He was careful to burn every paper that he Discarded after taking it from the Valise; but once, and once only, a scrap remained unconsumed on the hearth, the which, with my ape-like curiosity of half-a-score suood therefro I could ust the twelfth

”MY DEAR”

and here it broke off, and baffled , I attended upon him; but when he ay, I was confided to the care of Jowler, who, albeit iven to babble in his liquor, was about theIn the dead season, when Venison was not to be had, or was nothing worth for the Market if it had been killed, we lived mostly on dried meats and cured salmon; the first prepared by Mother Druood friends and Chap this salad to say that my Master did not sufferme himself, moved our Chaplain, all of whose humane letters had not been washed out by burnt Brandy or fuiven), to put h a course of daily instruction I had had so of more moment to bestir hi and writing Under the Chaplain of the Blacks, ore at , laid finger on ue, with just such a little s of the Latin as helped s of my later career But Salt Water has done its work upon h I yield to noit down in good plain English ('tis true that of your no), I question if I could tell you the Latin for a pair of riding-boots

There was a paltry parcel of books at the Stag o' Tyne, and these I read over and over again at one by the Quakers, and Bishop Sprat's Narrative of the Conspiracy of Blackhead and the others against hiainst Murder (a very grim tome), and Mr

Daniel Defoe's Life of Moll Flanders, and Colonel Jack These, with two or three Play-books, and a Novel of Mrs Aphra Behn (very scurrilous), a few Ballads, and soons, made up the tattered and torn library of our house in Charlwood Chase 'Twas good enough, you ht have been a worse one; but these, I can aver, with English and Foreign newspapers and letters, andthat John Dangerous can boast of

Which ainst your fine Scholars and Scribblers, who, because they can turn verse and make Te-to-tum into Greek, must needs sneer at me at the Coffee House, and make a butt of an honest man who has been froht his way through it to Fortune and Honour

I was in the twelfth year of e overtook er and iht and his 's Ministers put forth a Procla heavy Blood Money to any ould deliver us, or any one , into the hands of Authority This Procla a troop of horse into the Chase, and the husbandood Friends of ours to play the Judas We were not Highway Robbers Not one of our band had ever taken to or been taken from the Road Rascals of the Cartouche and Macheath kidney we Disdained We were neither Foot-pads nor Cut-purses, nay, nor Slers nor Rick-burners We were only Unfortunate Gentlemen, who much did need, and who had suffered ion, and had no other 's Deer Those peasants e came across Feared us, indeed, as they would the very Fiend, but bore us no malice; for ays treated theave theainst their poor Christenings and Lyings-in And through these means, and some small money presents our Captain would make to their wives and callow brats, it caht but the sh we had to pay for our Wine and Ardent Drinks, the cellar of the Stag o' Tyne was always handso ale, which Lobbin Clout or Colin Mayfly, the Hind or the Plough-churl, would bring us secretly by night in their Wains for gratitude I know not where they got the malt from, but there was narrow a fault to find with the Brew I recollect its savour noith a sweet tooth, conde's-hich the Londoners call Porter; and indeed it is fit for Porters to drink, but not for Gentlemen These Peasants used to tre o' Tyne; but they were always hospitably izzards, ay, and with full heads too, and by potions to which the louts were but little used

We had no fear of treachery from these Chawbacons, but we had Eneabond tribe of bastard Verderers and Charcoal-burners, savage, ignorant, brutish Wretches, as superstitious as the Manilla Creoles They were one-half gipsies, and one half, or perhaps a quarter, trade-fallen whippers-in and keepers that had been stripped of their livery They picked up their sorry crust by burning of charcoal, and carting of dead wood to farain, when any of the Quality came to hunt in the Chase, the Head Keeper would make use of a score or so of theame; but nine months out of the twelve they rather starved than lived These Charcoal-burners hated us Blacks, first, because in our sable disguise we rather imitated their own Beastly appearance--for the varlets never washed from Candlemas to Shrovetide; next, because ere Gentlemen; and lastly, because ould not suffer thees Nay, a True Gentle a ”Coaley,” as we called the charcoal felloith so much as a hare, a rabbit, or a pheasant with hiive hi No ”Coaley” was ever let to slake his thirst at the Stag o' Tyne The poor wretches had a miserable hovel of an inn to their own part on the western outskirts of the Chase, a place by the sign of the Hand and Hatchet, where they ate their rye-bread and drank their sour Clink, when they could h for a twopenny carouse

This Proclaht, was speedily followed by a real live Act of Parliament, which is yet, I have been told, Law, and is known as the ”Black Act”[M] The ainst us by the Houses of Lords and Commons, and the Blood Money was doubled One of the reat a one as Jonathan Wild--coh he had been King Williay Rout of Constables and Bailiff's Followers, and other kennel-ranging vagabonds; and now nothingOfficer at Windsor (my Lord Treherne) for a loan of two co loth for field-sport and extra pay, were placed, with their captain and all--s, ay, and his Grenadiers, h Charlwood Chase until Doomsday but for the treachery of the ”Coaleys” 'Twas one of their number,--named, or rather nicknamed, ”the Beau,” because he washed his face on Sunday, and was therefore held to be of the first fashi+on,--who earned eighty pounds by revealing the hour when the whole Gang of Blackso' Tyne The infaoes to Aylesbury,--for our part of the Chase was in the county of Bucks,--andmeets him--a pretty couple; and he makes oath before Mr Justice Cribfee (who should have set hirant); and after a fine to-do of Sheriff's business and swearing in of special constables, the end of it was, that a whole Rout of thehs and all, with the Grenadiers at their back, caht as ere ht perhaps, for ere under away on the scent, for we suspected souazils were all armed to the teeth with Bills and Blunderbusses, Pistols and Hangers; but had they worn all the weapons in the Horse Armoury in the Tower, it would not have saved the in their shoes when ”Hard and sharp” was the word, and an encounter with the terrible Blacks had to be endured We should have ed up one or two of thenpost But ere not only unarmed, ere overmatched, my hearties There were the Redcoats, burn them! How many times in my life have I been foiled and baffled by those ! No use in a stout Heart, no use in a strong Hand, no use in a sharp Sword, or a pair of barkers with teeth that never fail, when you have to do with a Soldier Do! What are you to do with him? There he is, with his shaven face and his hair powdered, as if he were going to a fourpenny fandango at Bagnigge Wells There he is, as obstinate as a Pig, and as firht firelock, bayonet, and crossbelts There he is, ilers, the bravest of Gentleive the Redcoats a wide berth, my dear, and the Grenadiers more than all

Unequal as were the odds, with all these Roaring Dragons in scarlet baize on our trail, we had still a ht for it While thein the bar-roo's name,--I believe that one poor creature, the Justice of Peace, after getting hian to quaver out the King's Proclauy Soldiers ca up both pair of stairs, and fell upon us Billy Boys tooth and nail 'Slid!

my blood simmers when I think of it Over went the tables and settles!

Slasses! Clink-a-clink went sword-blades and bayonets! ”And don't fire, my lads!” cries out the Soldier-officer to his Grannies ”We want all these rogues to hang up at Aylesbury Gaol”

”Rogue yourself, and back to your Mother!” cries Captain Night, very pale; but I never saw hiue in your Tripes, you Hanover Rat!” and he shortens his sword and rushes on the Soldier-officer