[begin page 382]

Well, what had I better do? Nothing in a hurry, sureⒶalteration in the MS. I must get up a diversion; anything to employ me while I could think, and while these poor fellows could have a chance to come to life again. There sat Marco, petrifiedⒶalteration in the MS in the act of trying to get the hang of his miller-gun—turned to stone, just in the attitude he was in when my pile-driver fell,Ⓐalteration in the MS the toy still gripped in his unconscious fingers. So I took it from him and proposed to explain its mystery. Mystery! a simple little thing like that; and yet it was mystery enough, for that race and that age.Ⓐalteration in the MS I never saw such an awkward people, with machinery; you see, they were totally unused to it. The miller-gun was a little double-barreledⒶalteration in the MS tube of toughened glass, with a neat little trick of a spring to it, which upon pressure would let a shot escape. But the shotⒶalteration in the MS wouldn’t hurt anybody, itⒶalteration in the MS would only [begin page 383] drop into your hand. In the gun were two sizes—wee mustard-seed shot, and another sortⒶalteration in the MS that were several times larger. They were money. The mustard-seed shot represented milrays, the larger ones mills. So the gun was a purse; and very handy, too; you could pay out money in the dark with it, with accuracy; and you could carry it in your mouth; or in your vest pocket, if you had one. I made them of several sizes—one size so large that it would carry the equivalent of a dollar. Using shot for money was a good thing for the government; the metal cost nothing, and the money couldn’t be counterfeited, for I was the only person in the kingdom who knew how toⒶtextual note manage a shot tower. “Paying the shot” soon came to be a common phrase. Yes, and I knewⒶalteration in the MS it would still be passing men’s lips, away down in the nineteenth century, yet none would suspect how and when it originated.

The king joined us, about this time,Ⓐalteration in the MS mightily refreshed by his nap, and feeling good. Anything could make me nervous now, I was so uneasy—for our lives were in dangerⒶemendation; and so it worried me to detect a complacent somethingⒶalteration in the MS in the king’s eye which seemedⒶalteration in the MS to indicate that he had been loading himself up for a performance of some kind or other; confound it, why must he go and choose such a time as this? I was right. He began, straight off, in the most innocently artful, and transparent, and lubberly way, to lead up to theⒶalteration in the MS subject of agriculture. The cold sweat broke out all over me. I wanted to whisper in his ear, “Man, we are in awful danger! every moment is worth a principality till we get back these men’s confidence; don’t waste any of this golden time.”Ⓐemendation But of course I couldn’t do it. Whisper to him? It would look as if we were conspiring. So I had to sit there, and look calm and pleasantⒶalteration in the MS while the king stood over that dynamite mine and mooned alongⒶalteration in the MS about his damned onions and things. At first the tumult of my own thoughts, summoned by the danger-signalⒶalteration in the MS and swarming to the rescue from every quarter of my skull, kept up such a hurrah and confusion and fifing and drumming that I couldn’t take in a word; but presently when my mob of gatheringⒶalteration in the MS plans began to crystalize, and fall into position and form line of battle, a sort of order and quiet ensued, and I caught the boom of the king’s batteries, as if out of remote distance:

“—were not the best way, methinks, albeit it is not to be denied that authorities differ as concerning this point, some contending that the onion is but an unwholesome berry when stricken early from the tree—”

[begin page 384]

The audience showed signs of life, and sought each other’s eyes in a surprised and troubled way.

“—whileas others do yet maintain, with much show of reason, that this is not of necessity the case, instancing that plums and other like cereals do be always dugⒶemendation in the unripe state—”

The audience exhibited distinct distress; yes, andⒶalteration in the MS also fearⒶalteration in the MS.

“—yet are they clearly wholesome, the more especially when one doth assuage the asperities of their nature by admixture of the tranquilizing juice of the wayward cabbage—”

The wild light of terror began to glow in these men’s eyes, and one of them muttered, “These be errors, every one—God hath surely smitten the mind of this farmer.” I was in miserable apprehension; I sat upon thorns.

—“and further instancing the known truth that in the case of animals, the young, which may be called the green fruit of the creature, is the better, all confessing that when a goat is ripe, his fur doth heatⒶalteration in the MS and sore engame his flesh, the which defect,Ⓐalteration in the MS taken in connection with his several rancid habits, and fulsome appetites, and godless attitudes of mind, and bilious quality of morals—”Ⓔexplanatory note

They rose and went forⒶalteration in the MS him! With a fierce shout, “The one would betray us, the other is mad! kill them! kill them!” they flung themselves upon us. What joy flamed up in the king’s eye! He might be lame in agriculture, but this kindⒶalteration in the MS of thing was just in his line. He had been fasting long, he was hungry for a fight. He hit the blacksmithⒶemendation a crack under the jaw that lifted him clear off his feet and stretched him flat of his back. “St. George for BritainⒶemendation!” and he downed the wheel-wright. The mason was big, but I laid him out like nothing. The three gathered themselves up and came again; went down again; came again; and kept on repeating this, with native BritishⒶemendation pluck, until they were battered to jelly, reeling with exhaustion, and so blind that they couldn’t tell us from each other; and yet they kept right on, hammering away with what might was left in them. HammeringⒶalteration in the MS each other—for we stepped aside and looked on while they rolled and struggled, and gouged, and pounded and bit, with the strict and wordless attention to business of so many bulldogs. We looked on without apprehension, for they were fast getting past ability to go for help against us, and the arena was far enough from the public road to be safe from intrusion.

[begin page 385]

Well, while they were gradually playing out, it suddenly occurred to me to wonder what had become of Marco. I looked around; he was nowhere to be seen. Oh, but this was ominous! I pulled the king’s sleeve, and we glided away and rushed for the hut. No Marco there, no PhyllisⒶemendation there! They had gone to the road for help, sure. I toldⒶalteration in the MS the king to give his heels wings, and I would explain later. We made good [begin page 386] time across the open ground, and as we darted into the shelter of the wood I glanced back and saw a mob of excited peasantsⒶalteration in the MS swarm into view, with Marco and his wife at their head. They were making a world of noise, but that couldn’t hurt anybody; the wood was dense, and as soon as we were well into its depths, we would take to a tree and let them whistle. Ah, but then came another sound—dogs! Yes, that was quite another matter. It magnified our contract—we must find running water.

We tore along at a good gait, and soon left the sounds far behind and modifiedⒶalteration in the MS to a murmur. We struck a stream, and darted into it. We waded swiftly down it, in the dim forest light, for as much as three hundred yards, and thenⒶalteration in the MS came across an oakⒶalteration in the MS with a great bough sticking out over the water. We climbed up on this bough,Ⓐalteration in the MS and began to work our way along it to the body of the tree; now we began to hear those sounds more plainly; so the mob had struckⒶalteration in the MS our trail. For a while the sounds approached pretty fast. And then for another while they didn’t. No doubt the dogs had found the place where we had entered the stream, and were now waltzing up and down the shores trying to pick up the trail again.

When we were snugly lodged in the tree,Ⓐalteration in the MS and curtained with foliage, the king was satisfied, but I was doubtful. I believed we could crawl along a branch and get into the next tree, and I judged it worth while to try. We tried it, and made a success of it, though the king slipped, at the junction, and came near failing to connect. We got comfortableⒶalteration in the MS lodgement, and satisfactory concealment among the foliage, and then we had nothing to do but listen to the hunt.

Presently we heard it coming—and coming on the jump, too; yes, and down both sides of the stream. Louder—louder—next minute it swelled swiftly up into a roar of shoutings, barkings, tramplings, and sweptⒶalteration in the MS by like a cyclone.Ⓐalteration in the MS

“I was afraidⒶalteration in the MS that theⒶemendation overhanging branch would suggest something to them,” said I, “but I don’tⒶalteration in the MS mind the disappointment. Come, my liege, it were well that weⒶalteration in the MS make good use of our time.Ⓐalteration in the MS We’ve flanked themⒶrejected substantive. Dark is coming on, presently.Ⓐalteration in the MS If we can cross the stream and get a good start, and borrow a couple of horses from somebody’s pasture to use for a fewⒶalteration in the MS hours, we shallⒶalteration in the MS be safe enough.”

We started down, and got nearly to the lowest limb, when we seemed to hear the hunt returning. We stopped to listen.Ⓐalteration in the MS

[begin page 387]

“Yes,” said I,Ⓐalteration in the MS “they’re baffled, they’ve given it up, they’re on their way home. We will climb back to our roost again, and let them go by.”

So we climbed back. The king listened a moment and said:

“They still search—I wit the sign. We did best to abide.”

He was right. He knew more about hunting than I did. The noise approached steadily, but not with a rush. The king said:

“They reason that we were advantaged by no parlous start of them, and being on foot, are as yet no mighty way from where weⒶalteration in the MS took the water.”

“Yes, sire, that is about it, I am afraid, though I was hoping better things.”

The noise drew nearer and nearer, and soon the van was drifting under us, on both sides of the water. AⒶalteration in the MS voice called a halt, fromⒶalteration in the MS the other bank, and said:

“An they were so minded, they could get to yon tree by this branch that overhangs, and yet not touch ground. Ye will do well to send a man up it.”

“Marry, that will we do!”

I was obliged to admire my cuteness inⒶalteration in the MS foreseeing this very thing and swapping trees to beat it. But don’t you know, there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight?Ⓐalteration in the MS Awkwardness and stupidity canⒶemendation. The best swordsman in the world doesn’t need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the personⒶalteration in the MS for him to be [begin page 388] afraid of is some ignorant antagonistⒶemendation Ⓐalteration in the MS who hasⒶemendation never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn’t do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn’t prepared for him; he doesⒶalteration in the MS the thing he ought not to do:Ⓐalteration in the MS and oftenⒶemendation it catches the expert out, and ends him on the spot. Well, how could I, with all my giftsⒶemendation, makeⒶalteration in the MS any valuable preparation against a nearsighted, cross-eyed, pudding-headed clown who would aim himself at the wrong tree and hit the right one? And that is what he did. He went for the wrong tree, which was of course the right one, by mistake, and up he started.

Matters were serious, now. We remained still, and awaited developments. The peasant toiled his difficult way up. The king raised himself up and stood; he made a leg ready, and when the comer’s head arrived in reach of it there was a dull thud,Ⓐalteration in the MS and down went the man floundering to the ground. There was a wild outbreak of anger, below, and the mob swarmed in from all around, and there we were, treed, and prisoners. Another man started up; the bridging bough was detected, and a volunteerⒶalteration in the MS started up the tree that furnished the bridge. The king ordered me to play Horatius and keep the bridge. For a while the enemy came thick and fast; but no matter, the head man of each procession always got a buffet that dislodged him as soon as he came in reach. The king’s spirits rose, his joy was limitless. He said that if nothing occurred to mar the prospect we should have a beautiful night, for on this line of tactics we could hold the tree against the whole countryside.

However, the mob soon came to that conclusion themselves; wherefore they called off the assault and began to debate other plans. They had no weapons, but there were plenty of stones, and stonesⒶalteration in the MS might answer. We had no objections. A stone might possibly penetrate to us once in a while, but it wasn’t very likely; we were well protected by boughs and foliage,Ⓐalteration in the MS and were not visible from any good aiming-point. If they would but waste half an hour in stone-throwing, the dark would come to our help. We were feeling very well satisfied. We could smile; almost laugh.

But we didn’t; which was just as well, for we should have been interrupted. Before the stones had been raging through the leaves and bouncing from the boughsⒶalteration in the MS fifteen minutes, we began to notice a smell. A couple of sniffs of it was enough of an explanation: it was smoke! Our game was up, at last. We recognized that. When smoke invites [begin page 389] you, you have toⒶalteration in the MS come. They raised their pile of dry brush and damp weeds higher and higher, and when they saw the thick cloud begin to roll up and smother the tree, they broke out in a storm of joy-clamors. I got enough breath to say:

“Proceed, my liege; after you is manners.”

The king gasped:

“Follow me down, and thenⒶalteration in the MS back thyself against one side of the trunk, and leave me the other. Then will we fight. Let each pile his dead according to his own fashion and taste.”

Then he descended, barking and coughing, and I followed. I struck the ground an instant after him; we sprang to our appointed places, and began to give and take with all our might. The pow-wow and racket were prodigious; it was a tempest of riot and confusion and thick falling blows. Suddenly some horsemen tore into the midst of the crowd, and a voice shouted:

“Hold—or ye are dead men!Ⓐalteration in the MS”

How good it sounded! The owner of the voice bore all the marks of a gentleman: picturesque and costly raiment, the aspect of command, a hard countenance, with complexion and features marred by dissipation.Ⓐalteration in the MS The mob fell humbly back, like so many spaniels. The gentleman inspected us critically, then said, sharply, to the peasants:Ⓐalteration in the MS

“What are ye doing to these people?”

“They be madmen, worshipfulⒶalteration in the MS sir, that have come wandering we know not whence, and—”

“Ye know not whence? Do ye pretend ye know them not?”

“Most honored sir, we speak but the truth. They are strangers and unknown to any in this region;Ⓐalteration in the MS and they be the most violent and bloodthirsty madmen that ever—”

“Peace! Ye know not what ye say. They are not mad. Who are ye? And whence are ye? Explain.”

“We are but peaceful strangers, sir,” I said, “and traveling upon our own concerns. We are from a far country and unacquainted here. We have purposed no harm; and yet but for your brave interference and protection these people would have killed us. As you have divined, sir, we are not mad; neither are we violent or bloodthirsty.”

The gentleman turned to his retinue and said calmly:

“Lash me these animals to their kennels!”

The mob vanished in an instant; and after them plunged the horse- [begin page 390] men , laying about them with their whips, and pitilessly riding down such as were witless enough to keep the road instead of taking to the bush. The shrieks and supplications presently died away in the distance, and soon the horsemen began to straggle back. Meantime the gentleman had been questioning us more closely, but had dug no particulars out of us. We were lavish of recognition of the service he was doing us, but we revealed nothing more than that we were friendless strangers from a far country. When the escort were all returned, the gentleman said to one of his servants:

“Bring the led horses and mount these people.”

“Yes, my lord.”

We were placed toward the rear among the servants. We traveled pretty fast, and finally drew rein some time after dark at a roadside inn some ten or twelve miles from the scene of our troubles. My lord went immediately to his room, after ordering his supper, and we saw no more of him. At dawn in the morning we breakfasted and made ready to start. My lord’s chief attendant sauntered forward at that moment, with indolent grace, and said:Ⓐalteration in the MS

“Ye have said ye should continue upon this road, which is our direction likewise; wherefore my lord, the earl GripⒶalteration in the MS, hath given commandment that ye retain the horses and ride, and that certain of us ride with ye a twenty mile to a fair town that hight Cambenet, whenso ye shall be out of peril.”

We could do nothing less than express our thanks and accept the offer. We jogged along, six in the party, at a moderate and comfortable gait, and in conversation learned that my lord Grip was a very great personageⒶalteration in the MS in his own region, which lay a day’s journey beyond Cambenet. We loitered to such a degree that it was near the middle of the forenoon when we entered the market square of the town. We dismounted, and left our thanks once moreⒶalteration in the MS for my lord, and then approached a crowd assembled in the centre of the square, to see what might be the object of interest. It was the remnant of that old peregrinating band of slaves! So they had been dragging their chains about, all this weary time. That poor husband was gone, and also many others; and some few purchases had been added to the gang. The king was not interested, and wanted to move along, but I was absorbed, and full of pity. I could not take my eyes away from these worn and wasted wrecks of humanity. There they sat, grouped upon the ground, [begin page 391] silent, uncomplaining, with bowed heads, a pathetic sight. And by hideous contrast, a redundant orator was making a speech to another gathering, not thirty steps away, in fulsome laudation of “our glorious British libertiesⒺexplanatory note!”

I was boiling. I had forgotten I was a plebeian, I was remembering I was a man. Cost what it might, I would mount that rostrum and—

Click! the king and I were handcuffedⒶemendation together! Our companions, those servants, had done it; my lord Grip stood looking on. The king burst out in a fury, and said:

“What meaneth this ill-mannered jest?”

My lord merely said to his head miscreant, coolly:

“Put up the slaves and sell them!”

Slaves! The word had a new sound—and how unspeakably awful! The king lifted his manacles, and brought them down with a deadly force; but my lord was out of the way when they arrived. A dozen of the rascal’s servants sprang forward, and in a moment we were helpless, with our hands bound behind us. We so loudly and so earnestly proclaimed ourselves freemen, that we got the interested attention of that liberty-mouthing orator and his patriotic crowd, and they gathered about us and assumed a very determined attitude. The orator said:

“If indeed ye are freemen, ye have naught to fear—the God-givenⒶalteration in the MS liberties of Britain are about ye for your shield and shelter! Applause. Ye shall soon see. Bring forth your proofs.”

“What proofs?”

“ ProofsⒶrejected substantive that ye are freemen.Ⓔexplanatory note”

Ah—Ⓐalteration in the MSI remembered!Ⓐalteration in the MS I came to myself; I said nothing. But the king stormed out:

“Thou’rtⒶemendation insaneⒶalteration in the MS, man. It were better, and more in reason, that this thief and scoundrelⒶalteration in the MS here prove that we are not freemen.”

[begin page 392]

You see, he knew his own laws just as other people so often know the laws: by words, not by effects. TheyⒶalteration in the MS take a meaning, and get to be very vivid, when you come to apply them to yourself.

All hands shook their heads, and looked disappointed; some turned away, no longer interested. The orator said—and this time in the tones of business, not of sentiment:

“An ye do not know your country’s laws, it were time ye learnedⒶalteration in the MS them. Ye are strangers to us; ye will not deny that. Ye may be freemen, we do not deny that; but also ye may be slaves. The law is clear: it doth not require the claimant to prove ye are slaves, it requireth you to prove ye are not.”

I said:

“Dear sir, give us only time to send to Astolat; or give us only timeⒶemendation to send to the Valley of Holiness—”

“Peace, good man, these are extraordinary requests, and you may not hope to have them granted. It would cost much time, and would unwarrantably inconvenience your master—”

“Master, idiot!” stormedⒶalteration in the MS the king. “I have no master. I myself am the m—”

“Silence, for God’s sake!”

I got the words out in time to stop the kingⒶalteration in the MS. We were in trouble enough already; it could not help us any to giveⒶalteration in the MS these people the notion that we were lunatics.

There is no use in stringing out the details. The earl put us up and sold us at auction. This same infernal law had existed in our own South in my own time, more than thirteen hundred years later, and under it hundreds of free men who could not prove that they were freemen had been sold into life-long slaveryⒶemendation, without the circumstance making any particular impression upon me; but the minute the lawⒶrejected substantive and the auction block came into my personal experience, a thing which had been merely improper before, became suddenly hellish. Well, that’s the way we are made.

Yes,Ⓐalteration in the MS we were sold at auction, like swine. In a big town and an active market we should have brought a good price; but this place was utterly stagnant, and so we sold at a figure which makes me ashamed, every time I think of it. The king of England brought seven dollars, and his prime minister nine; whereas the king was easily worth twelve dollars and I as easily worth fifteen. But that is the way things always go; [begin page 393] if you force a sale on a dull market, I don’t care what the property is, you are going to make a poor business of it, and you can make up your mind to it. If the earl had had wit enough to—

However, there is no occasion for my working my sympathies up on his account. Let him go, for the present. I took his number, so to speak.

The slave dealer bought us both, and hitched us onto that long chain of his, and we constituted the rear of his procession. We took upⒶalteration in the MS our line of march and passed out of Cambenet at noon; and it seemed to me unaccountably strange and odd, that the king of England and his chief minister, marching manacled and fettered and yoked, in a slave convoy, could move by all manner of idle men and women, and under windows where sat the sweet and the lovely, and yet never attract a curious eye, never provoke a single remark. Dear, dear, it only shows that there is nothing diviner about a king than there is about a tramp, after all. He is just a cheap and hollow artificiality when you don’t know he is a king. But revealⒶalteration in the MS his quality, and dear me,Ⓐalteration in the MS it takes your veryⒶalteration in the MS breath away to look at him. I reckon we are all fools. Born so, no doubt.Ⓐalteration in the MS