Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor Read online

  CHAPTER V

  AN ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT

  Good folk who dwell in a lawful land, if any such there be, may for wantof exploration, judge our neighbourhood harshly, unless the whole truthis set before them. In bar of such prejudice, many of us ask leave toexplain how and why it was the robbers came to that head in the midstof us. We would rather not have had it so, God knows as well as anybody;but it grew upon us gently, in the following manner. Only let all whoread observe that here I enter many things which came to my knowledge inlater years.

  In or about the year of our Lord 1640, when all the troubles of Englandwere swelling to an outburst, great estates in the North country weresuddenly confiscated, through some feud of families and strong influenceat Court, and the owners were turned upon the world, and might thinkthemselves lucky to save their necks. These estates were in co-heirship,joint tenancy I think they called it, although I know not the meaning,only so that if either tenant died, the other living, all would come tothe live one in spite of any testament.

  One of the joint owners was Sir Ensor Doone, a gentleman of briskintellect; and the other owner was his cousin, the Earl of Lorne andDykemont.

  Lord Lorne was some years the elder of his cousin, Ensor Doone, and wasmaking suit to gain severance of the cumbersome joint tenancy by anyfair apportionment, when suddenly this blow fell on them by wiles andwoman's meddling; and instead of dividing the land, they were dividedfrom it.

  The nobleman was still well-to-do, though crippled in his expenditure;but as for the cousin, he was left a beggar, with many to beg from him.He thought that the other had wronged him, and that all the trouble oflaw befell through his unjust petition. Many friends advised him to makeinterest at Court; for having done no harm whatever, and being a goodCatholic, which Lord Lorne was not, he would be sure to find hearingthere, and probably some favour. But he, like a very hot-brained man,although he had long been married to the daughter of his cousin (whom heliked none the more for that), would have nothing to say to any attemptat making a patch of it, but drove away with his wife and sons, and therelics of his money, swearing hard at everybody. In this he may havebeen quite wrong; probably, perhaps, he was so; but I am not convincedat all but what most of us would have done the same.

  Some say that, in the bitterness of that wrong and outrage, he slew agentleman of the Court, whom he supposed to have borne a hand in theplundering of his fortunes. Others say that he bearded King Charles theFirst himself, in a manner beyond forgiveness. One thing, at any rate,is sure--Sir Ensor was attainted, and made a felon outlaw, through someviolent deed ensuing upon his dispossession.

  He had searched in many quarters for somebody to help him, and withgood warrant for hoping it, inasmuch as he, in lucky days, had beenopen-handed and cousinly to all who begged advice of him. But nowall these provided him with plenty of good advice indeed, and greatassurance of feeling, but not a movement of leg, or lip, or purse-stringin his favour. All good people of either persuasion, royalty orcommonalty, knowing his kitchen-range to be cold, no longer would playturnspit. And this, it may be, seared his heart more than loss of landand fame.

  In great despair at last, he resolved to settle in some outlandish part,where none could be found to know him; and so, in an evil day for us,he came to the West of England. Not that our part of the world is at alloutlandish, according to my view of it (for I never found a better one),but that it was known to be rugged, and large, and desolate. And here,when he had discovered a place which seemed almost to be made forhim, so withdrawn, so self-defended, and uneasy of access, some of thecountry-folk around brought him little offerings--a side of bacon, akeg of cider, hung mutton, or a brisket of venison so that for a littlewhile he was very honest. But when the newness of his coming began towear away, and our good folk were apt to think that even a gentlemanought to work or pay other men for doing it, and many farmers were grownweary of manners without discourse to them, and all cried out to oneanother how unfair it was that owning such a fertile valley young menwould not spade or plough by reason of noble lineage--then the youngDoones growing up took things they would not ask for.

  And here let me, as a solid man, owner of five hundred acres (whetherfenced or otherwise, and that is my own business), churchwarden also ofthis parish (until I go to the churchyard), and proud to be called theparson's friend--for a better man I never knew with tobacco and strongwaters, nor one who could read the lessons so well and he has been atBlundell's too--once for all let me declare, that I am a thorough-goingChurch-and-State man, and Royalist, without any mistake about it. Andthis I lay down, because some people judging a sausage by the skin,may take in evil part my little glosses of style and glibness, and themottled nature of my remarks and cracks now and then on the frying-pan.I assure them I am good inside, and not a bit of rue in me; only queerknots, as of marjoram, and a stupid manner of bursting.

  There was not more than a dozen of them, counting a few retainers whostill held by Sir Ensor; but soon they grew and multiplied in a mannersurprising to think of. Whether it was the venison, which we call astrengthening victual, or whether it was the Exmoor mutton, or the keensoft air of the moorlands, anyhow the Doones increased much faster thantheir honesty. At first they had brought some ladies with them, of goodrepute with charity; and then, as time went on, they added to theirstock by carrying. They carried off many good farmers' daughters, whowere sadly displeased at first; but took to them kindly after awhile,and made a new home in their babies. For women, as it seems to me, likestrong men more than weak ones, feeling that they need some staunchness,something to hold fast by.

  And of all the men in our country, although we are of a thick-set breed,you scarce could find one in three-score fit to be placed among theDoones, without looking no more than a tailor. Like enough, we couldmeet them man for man (if we chose all around the crown and the skirtsof Exmoor), and show them what a cross-buttock means, because we areso stuggy; but in regard of stature, comeliness, and bearing, no womanwould look twice at us. Not but what I myself, John Ridd, and one or twoI know of--but it becomes me best not to talk of that, although my hairis gray.

  Perhaps their den might well have been stormed, and themselves drivenout of the forest, if honest people had only agreed to begin with themat once when first they took to plundering. But having respect fortheir good birth, and pity for their misfortunes, and perhaps a littleadmiration at the justice of God, that robbed men now were robbers,the squires, and farmers, and shepherds, at first did nothing more thangrumble gently, or even make a laugh of it, each in the case of others.After awhile they found the matter gone too far for laughter, asviolence and deadly outrage stained the hand of robbery, until everywoman clutched her child, and every man turned pale at the very name ofDoone. For the sons and grandsons of Sir Ensor grew up in foul liberty,and haughtiness, and hatred, to utter scorn of God and man, andbrutality towards dumb animals. There was only one good thing aboutthem, if indeed it were good, to wit, their faith to one another, andtruth to their wild eyry. But this only made them feared the more, socertain was the revenge they wreaked upon any who dared to strike aDoone. One night, some ten years ere I was born, when they were sackinga rich man's house not very far from Minehead, a shot was fired at themin the dark, of which they took little notice, and only one of them knewthat any harm was done. But when they were well on the homeward road,not having slain either man or woman, or even burned a house down, oneof their number fell from his saddle, and died without so much as agroan. The youth had been struck, but would not complain, and perhapstook little heed of the wound, while he was bleeding inwardly. Hisbrothers and cousins laid him softly on a bank of whortle-berries, andjust rode back to the lonely hamlet where he had taken his death-wound.No man nor woman was left in the morning, nor house for any to dwell in,only a child with its reason gone.*

  *This vile deed was done, beyond all doubt.

  This affair made prudent people find more reason to let them alone thanto meddle with them; and now they had so entrenched thems
elves, andwaxed so strong in number, that nothing less than a troop of soldierscould wisely enter their premises; and even so it might turn out ill, asperchance we shall see by-and-by.

  For not to mention the strength of the place, which I shall describe inits proper order when I come to visit it, there was not one among thembut was a mighty man, straight and tall, and wide, and fit to lift fourhundredweight. If son or grandson of old Doone, or one of the northernretainers, failed at the age of twenty, while standing on his naked feetto touch with his forehead the lintel of Sir Ensor's door, and to fillthe door frame with his shoulders from sidepost even to sidepost, he wasled away to the narrow pass which made their valley so desperate, andthrust from the crown with ignominy, to get his own living honestly.Now, the measure of that doorway is, or rather was, I ought to say,six feet and one inch lengthwise, and two feet all but two inches takencrossways in the clear. Yet I not only have heard but know, being soclosely mixed with them, that no descendant of old Sir Ensor, neitherrelative of his (except, indeed, the Counsellor, who was kept by themfor his wisdom), and no more than two of their following ever failed ofthat test, and relapsed to the difficult ways of honesty.

  Not that I think anything great of a standard the like of that: forif they had set me in that door-frame at the age of twenty, it is likeenough that I should have walked away with it on my shoulders, thoughI was not come to my full strength then: only I am speaking now of theaverage size of our neighbourhood, and the Doones were far beyond that.Moreover, they were taught to shoot with a heavy carbine so delicatelyand wisely, that even a boy could pass a ball through a rabbit's head atthe distance of fourscore yards. Some people may think nought of this,being in practice with longer shots from the tongue than from theshoulder; nevertheless, to do as above is, to my ignorance, very goodwork, if you can be sure to do it. Not one word do I believe of RobinHood splitting peeled wands at seven-score yards, and such like. Whoeverwrote such stories knew not how slippery a peeled wand is, even if onecould hit it, and how it gives to the onset. Now, let him stick one inthe ground, and take his bow and arrow at it, ten yards away, or evenfive.

  Now, after all this which I have written, and all the rest which areader will see, being quicker of mind than I am (who leave more thanhalf behind me, like a man sowing wheat, with his dinner laid in theditch too near his dog), it is much but what you will understand theDoones far better than I did, or do even to this moment; and thereforenone will doubt when I tell them that our good justiciaries feared tomake an ado, or hold any public inquiry about my dear father's death.They would all have had to ride home that night, and who could say whatmight betide them. Least said soonest mended, because less chance ofbreaking.

  So we buried him quietly--all except my mother, indeed, for she couldnot keep silence--in the sloping little churchyard of Oare, as meek aplace as need be, with the Lynn brook down below it. There is not muchof company there for anybody's tombstone, because the parish spreadsso far in woods and moors without dwelling-house. If we bury one manin three years, or even a woman or child, we talk about it for threemonths, and say it must be our turn next, and scarcely grow accustomedto it until another goes.

  Annie was not allowed to come, because she cried so terribly; but sheran to the window, and saw it all, mooing there like a little calf, sofrightened and so left alone. As for Eliza, she came with me, one oneach side of mother, and not a tear was in her eyes, but sudden startsof wonder, and a new thing to be looked at unwillingly, yetcuriously. Poor little thing! she was very clever, the only one of ourfamily--thank God for the same--but none the more for that guessed shewhat it is to lose a father.