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 OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 D^.QV^■F 
 
 V.I
 
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 FRANK RALEIGH OF WATERCOMBK
 
 FRANK RALEIGH 
 
 OF WATERCOMBE. 
 
 A TALE OF SPOBT, LOVE, AND ADVENTURE, 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 WOLF-HUNTING IN BKITTANY," Etc. 
 
 Gaudet eqnis, canlbiisqne, et aprici gramine campi, 
 Cereus in vitium flecti, monitoribus asper, 
 Utilium tardus provisor, prodigus seris, 
 Sublimis, cupidusque, et amatal-eliiiquere pernix." 
 
 HOR. 
 
 IN THBEE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY, 
 
 1877.
 
 ?Z3 
 '2)2-'?7Zf 
 
 FKAKK RALEIGH OF WATERCOMBE. 
 
 I "If 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A man severe he was, and stern to view, 
 I knew him well, and every truant knew ; 
 Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace 
 The day's disasters in his morning face." 
 
 Goldsmith. 
 
 V j^r old Twigg should catch you at that 
 ^ work again, Frank, I wouldn't be in your 
 '^ skin for all the trout in the Dart river," said 
 
 ,^Harry Somers, anxious to alarm a bright, 
 <;^ fair-haired boy, not yet seventeen, his school- 
 fellow and chum, who, instead of getting up 
 
 ^-^his Greorgics, was tying a fly under cover 
 of his desk, intent only on the work of his 
 
 ;) creation and the exact shade of mohair and 
 ^ dubbing suitable to its sooty wings. 
 J " Catch me or not, I'll finish the blue dun 
 
 VOL. I, B 
 
 i
 
 I FRANK EALEIGH. 
 
 now I'm about it ; and if ever tliat old brute 
 strikes me again with his Hederich, I'll make 
 him remember it to the last day of his life 
 — mind that, Harry." 
 
 " Bravo ! my little bantam ; but don't 
 crow before you fight ; for, let me tell you, 
 Frank, you'd have as much chance in that 
 giant's hands as a leveret has in a kite's 
 claws. Why don't you ease away your head 
 when the blow comes, as Pearson does, in- 
 stead of standing up stiff as a target, and 
 getting your skull half cracked by the 
 collision ? " 
 
 " Simply because I don't choose to let the 
 tyrant think he can cow me by such brutal 
 punishment ; but see if I don't make him 
 quake down to his boots the very next time 
 he tries the folio dodge on my brains." 
 
 Now, Dr. Theophilus Twigg, head-master 
 of King Edward's Grrammar-school at Buck- 
 bury-in-the-West, enjoyed, outside and beyond 
 the limits of his little dominion, the reputa- 
 tion of being a generous, good-natured, and 
 painstaking pedagogue. The manners of 
 the man, if a little stiff, were always 
 courteous ; the extras on his bills at Christ-
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 3 
 
 mas rarely excessive ; and, periodically, tlie 
 University Class-lists gave ample testimony to 
 the success of his scholastic labours. At the 
 weekly market, too, no matter how keen or 
 inclement the morning, he was always the first 
 to attend and secure, at top price, the finest 
 and fattest meat in the stalls (for as is, or was, 
 the case at Oxford, no butchers' shops were 
 allowed to offend the public eye in the streets 
 of that refined town). No wonder, then, if 
 the tradespeople of Buckbury re-echoed the 
 praise bestowed on him by the parents of his 
 pupils, and with one voice pronounced him to 
 be the most liberal of customers, and a pattern 
 schoolmaster. 
 
 This out-of-door view of the man, however, 
 was not quite in accordance with that taken 
 by closer observers within his own walls, 
 where, as we shall presently see, the honour 
 in which he was held was about equivalent 
 to that bestowed on a propliet in his own 
 country ; still the large amount of formal 
 respect paid him by his pupils might have 
 flattered even a greater man, although, in 
 reality, it was the product of fear, not of love 
 — a base coin of no value.
 
 4 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 While the hum of the school was going 
 on, and the doctor, engaged with a pupil, 
 was sighing aloud over the sorrows of poor 
 Dido, Frank Ealeigh had brought his handi- 
 work to a close, and, holding it up between 
 his forefinger and thumb, he expatiated with 
 artistic pride, but in an undertone, on its 
 correct colour and captivating appearance. 
 "There, Harry," said he, "that's what I call 
 a blue dun ! sooty legs, squirrel's under-fur 
 mixed with mohair for its body, and star- 
 ling's wings ; and don't they stand up as 
 natural as life ? With that for an end-fly, 
 and a coch-a-bonddu for a bob, it will be a 
 dainty fish that won't rise at the one or the 
 other." 
 
 " Hang the blue dun ! you'll look blue 
 enough yourself by-and-by, if you can't 
 construe those hundred lines in the third 
 Greorgic ; it's all about horses, too — chest- 
 nuts, greys, and duns — every word of which 
 I've had to look out in the dictionary." 
 
 " All right, old fellow ; my ' crib ' will do 
 all that for me in two minutes," said Frank, 
 as he stuck the barb of his fly into a flannel 
 rag, and proceeded to unearth a greasy.
 
 FKANK RALEIGH. 5 
 
 coverless copy of Dry den's " Yirgil " from 
 its latent recess among a pile of books, 
 paper, ink-bottles, and pens ; belts, bullet- 
 moulds, flasks, and fishing-tackle — the hetero- 
 geneous contents of his school-desk. " Here 
 it is ; and what wouldn't old Twigg give to 
 get hold of it ? " continued he, fumbling 
 among the loose pages of the book for the 
 required passage. " Jack Morgan, when he 
 was expelled, left it to me, with the merciful 
 injunction that it should be handed down as 
 an heirloom to the best fisherman in the 
 school from generation to generation ; so I'm 
 bound to respect poor Jack's last wishes." 
 
 From the bad company the book was keep- 
 ing, and the reckless fashion in which Frank 
 handled it, the disreputable-looking tome bid 
 fair to tumble into ruins long before it could 
 fulfil the amount of service expected from it 
 even by its present possessor. For Frank, 
 engrossed as his thoughts were — morning, 
 noon, and night — with the charms of the 
 chase, every spare hour being devoted either 
 to its actual enjoyment or to dressing flies, 
 spinning horse-hair lines, or learning hunt- 
 ing-songs, had no time for the drudgery of a
 
 6 FRAKK RALEIGH. 
 
 dictionary in getting up his " Yirgil," but 
 turned liabitnally to this ready " crib," his 
 never-failing friend at the last moment and in 
 every emergency. A hollow friend, however, 
 it proved in the long rim, as Frank found 
 to his cost in after days, when he was wont 
 to say his knowledge of the Latin language 
 was like the work of an unskilled architect — 
 a building on a foundation of sand. 
 
 " ^ A good horse is never a bad colour,' 
 was a favourite saying of my uncle Joe's," ob- 
 served he, as he pondered for a moment over 
 the passage in which Virgil extols the chest- 
 nuts and flea-bitten greys, but condemns the 
 white and the dun as the very worst of 
 colours. " I only wish, Harry, he could have 
 seen our little dun at home. One peep at 
 * Old King Cole ' crossing the Bittern bottom 
 at the tail of our hounds, flying fences, and 
 skimming over the brooks like a swallow on 
 wings, would have opened his eyes, and con- 
 verted the old sinner to a better faith, and he 
 never would have talked such rot again about 
 that colour." 
 
 " Hang the dun horse ! Frank ; a minute 
 ago it was a dun fly. Don't you hear ? the
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 7 
 
 women of Carthage are howling alond — it's 
 all up with Dido ; and that is the end of that 
 fellow's lesson. Our turn comes next, so do 
 look sharp." 
 
 A low, prolonged nod from the doctor's 
 head (for he rarely spoke to his pupils except 
 to say, " Thou blockhead ! " or, " Take him 
 up!") signified his approval of the correct and 
 fluent style in which the boy going down had 
 done his work ; but beyond this mute sign of 
 commendation, the profoundest disciple of 
 Lavater's school would have been puzzled to 
 detect the faintest glimmer of gratification in 
 the pedagogue's face, the hard and set features 
 of which gave no more indication of feeling 
 than a butcher's block or the steps of a 
 treadmill. 
 
 Behind this mask, however — for it was a 
 mask never laid aside so long as a single 
 pupil was near — the doctor, to do him justice, 
 could and did carry a very different visage — 
 one that revealed a nature to which kindly 
 feelings were not wanting, and even good 
 fellowship no stranger. Indeed, it was 
 whispered by those who knew the man best, 
 that a certain Mrs. Alethea Cornish, a fair
 
 8 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 and attractive widow, who, witli an only 
 dangliter, had resided for some years at 
 Heathercote, in that neighbourhood, had 
 proved the doctor's heart to be very much 
 like that of other men — a weak citadel open 
 to attack, and certain to be carried by soft 
 influence and winsome ways. But, be that 
 as it may, it was a fact well known to the 
 boys that, when a bagman or a fallow deer 
 was going to be turned out before the Buck- 
 land hounds, and a holiday was wanted 
 to see the fun, the widow was a safe draw, 
 and never failed to obtain from the doctor 
 the required boon. 
 
 Harry Somers, being a thoughtful, pains- 
 taking boy of more than ordinary ability, 
 had long maintained the first place at the 
 head of the class ; and, as he also bid fair at 
 no distant date to become Dux of the school 
 — an honour not unfrequently followed by an 
 open scholarship and farther distinction at 
 Oxford — many were the nods of approbation 
 he earned as he now stood in class-array near 
 the doctor's chair, and with a clear voice 
 and rare fluency rendered into plain English 
 that fine description of a well-bred colt so 
 artistically given by the Mantuan poet.
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 9 
 
 Frank's turn came next, and, so far as liis 
 Dryden had helped him, he travelled over the 
 ground with tolerable ease and safety ; but 
 that was a short step into the hundred long 
 hexameters he was expected to know. An 
 unexplored region now lay before him in 
 the shape of strange and unknown words ; 
 stumbling-blocks that impeded his progress 
 at every turn, and caused him to trip and 
 flounder like a beaten hack on a bad road. 
 
 " Thou blockhead ! " growled the doctor 
 again and again, in a voice half-choked with 
 rage ; till at length, losing all patience, and 
 jerking his head sharply backwards — an 
 ominous signal that always meant mischief — 
 he motioned Frank to quit the class, and take 
 his stand beside the great chair in which he 
 himself was seated. 
 
 In an instant the busy hum of the school 
 became as still as death, and boys held their 
 breath as, in obedience to that mute mandate, 
 Frank stepped forth and stood by the chair. 
 Not a tinge of fear, however, fluttered over 
 his face ; his eye quailed not, neither did the 
 hue of his cheek grow a shade whiter. 
 Indeed, had he been walking up to old Don
 
 10 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 in a thick stubble at home, when, with head 
 erect, and stern motionless,, that sagacious 
 animal had just discovered a covey of birds 
 close under his nose, he would probably have 
 shown more trepidation and less decision of 
 purpose than he did on the present occasion. 
 
 " He'll be hoisted to a dead certainty," 
 whispered a little fellow, pale as ashes, on an 
 adjoining form. 
 
 " Frank is as hard as a bag of nails," said 
 another with a stouter heart ; " and whether 
 it's birch or lexicon, won't care a button for 
 either. Don't you remember, the last time he 
 fought Ned Wood, he broke his thumb in the 
 first round, and yet he licked him like a sack 
 in ten minutes ? " 
 
 Mutely and sternly the doctor pointed to 
 the passage — • 
 
 " Primus Erichtlionius currus et qnatuor ausus 
 Jungere equos, rapidisque rotis insistere victor," 
 
 and motioned Frank to go on with the trans- 
 lation, which with some hesitation he forth- 
 with proceeded to do. "-Erichthonius was the 
 first man ; ausus, who dared ; jungere currus 
 et quatuor equos, to couple together a drag
 
 FRA^^K RALEIGH. 11 
 
 and four horses, and, like a conqueror, to 
 insist on going the pace." 
 
 The doctor would listen to no more ; but 
 thundering out, " Thou blockhead ! " and at 
 the same time grasping the Hederich lexicon 
 that lay on the massive oak table close to his 
 elbow, he struck Frank on the side of his 
 head with such force that he fell to the floor 
 like an ox felled by a pole-axe. 
 
 This was no unusual feat on the doctor's 
 part ; but it was a very unusual thing for a 
 boy, when thus brought to the ground, not to 
 jump upon his legs immediately and rush off 
 to his class-seat, there to seek the only balm 
 available at such a time, namely, the sympathy 
 of his chums. A deep groan, however, was 
 the only indication of life now manifested by 
 the body lying at full length prostrate on the 
 floor ; then followed a long-drawn sigh, as if 
 the spirit within were lingering on the 
 threshold, and unwilling, after so brief an 
 occupation, to part company from its mortal 
 tenement for ever. 
 
 At least, so it sounded to the ears of the 
 doctor ; whose tongue, forgetting its wonted 
 taciturnity, acquired a sudden spasmodic
 
 12 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 volubility tliat startled tlie whole school, even 
 more than the knock-down blow it had just 
 witnessed. 
 
 " Pick him up, Somers, do. Untie his 
 neckerchief and get some water," said the 
 doctor in unmistakable alarm; his hitherto 
 rubicund countenance assuming a dark, 
 blood-red hue, and looking as if at any 
 moment his own earthly career might be 
 cut short by an apoplectic fit. 
 
 Not only Harry Somers, but a dozen boys 
 rushed forward simultaneously, all eager to 
 participate in lending a hand to Frank, who, 
 from his generous nature and high courage, 
 was treated with a kind of hero-worship by 
 the whole school. One little fellow with his 
 wits about him, hearing the last words of the 
 excited master, hastened off for a jug of 
 water ; while another more timid than the 
 rest stole away for the housekeeper's room 
 in the adjoining premises, there to seek the 
 shelter he had already so often found under 
 the mantle of Mrs. Hopkins. 
 
 " What's the matter now, Wilson ? For 
 goodness sake don't look so wretched ! " said 
 the tender-hearted woman, Lalf-frightened
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 13 
 
 herself by the scared expression of the boy's 
 face. "Is it that bully Tom Griggs again ? 
 or who is it now?" 
 
 " 'Tisn't him nor me this time," gasped out 
 the boy ; " it's Frank Ealeigh. The doctor 
 has killed him, and there he is lying dead as 
 a herring on the school-room floor." 
 
 Mrs. Hopkins heard no more ; but drop- 
 ping her pen, full of ink as it was, into the 
 midst of the complicated half-yearly accounts 
 with which she was engaged (for it was now 
 near holiday time), she made the best of her 
 way straight for the school, and, without 
 waiting for the doctor's orders, or even ex- 
 hibiting a spark of that form of reverence she 
 was wont to show him in the presence of the 
 boys, she struggled through the anxious crowd 
 now surrounding Frank's prostrate form. 
 
 " Pray stand back, gentlemen, and give 
 him air," said the sensible woman, kneeling 
 at the boy's side, and unbuttoning the collar 
 of his shirt. " He's only stunned, and will 
 come round quickly enough with a mouthful 
 of fresh air and a dash of water." 
 
 The boys fell back instantly, and the two 
 elements — the latter in a most copious
 
 14 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 shower — being liberally supplied, but failing 
 apparently to rouse the vital action of the 
 body, Mrs. Hopkins became seriously alarmed ; 
 and, whispering to a boy near her, bid him 
 speed away for Dr. Host, the apothecary, 
 and bring him to the spot without delay. 
 
 In the mean time, by the help of Harry 
 Somers and two or three of the biggest boys, 
 Frank was gently carried to the house- 
 keeper's room, where, stretched out and 
 saturated with water, he looked, as he lay on 
 the old-fashioned sofa, like a boy just rescued 
 from drowning, except that, owing to the 
 blow he had so recently received, there was 
 perhaps a little more colour in his cheeks 
 than is usual on such occasions. 
 
 During this painful scene and process of 
 removal Dr. Theophilus Twigg had main- 
 tained his seat in the great school chair with 
 a dignified outward composure strangely at 
 variance with the perturbation of his thoughts 
 within, which at that moment were certainly 
 not to be envied. To uphold his dignity, 
 however, in the eyes of his pupils was to him 
 a matter of the first consideration in life ; and 
 rather than suffer it to be lowered by a
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 15 
 
 hair's breadth in their estimation, he would 
 have remained unmoved in that chair even 
 had an earthquake opened at his feet. 
 
 He then dismissed the boys and retired 
 with a stately step to the privacy of his own 
 parlour, the threshold of which was regarded 
 by them with as much horror as if it were the 
 gates of Orcus, or the den of some dangerous 
 wild beast. There, then, half paralyzed with 
 fear and conjuring up appalling visions of a 
 coroner's inquest and future ruin, let us leave 
 him for the present, and turn to Frank and 
 the medical attendant summoned to his aid. 
 
 " He has had a bad blow in the head, 
 ma'am, you say. Then probably there has 
 been slight concussion of the brain," said the 
 latter, feeling the boy's pulse and discover- 
 ing in an instant that at least he was now 
 conscious, and that, if he had suffered from 
 asphyxia, all symptoms of it had now passed 
 away. " He must lose a little blood, ma'am, 
 to prevent further mischief, and I dare say 
 he will then be soon all right again." 
 
 Mrs. Hopkins being well versed in the 
 favourite treatment adopted by the apothe- 
 cary, namely, in nine cases out of ten to
 
 16 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 bleed or physic liis patients with calomel and 
 black draught, till often the strength of the 
 strong man was reduced to the weakness of 
 the infant, dropped a respectful curtsey, and 
 hastened out of the room to get the basin 
 and bandages necessary for the operation. 
 
 The moment her back was turned, how- 
 ever, Frank's tongue was loosed. " Don't 
 bleed me, doctor," he said in a clear voice, 
 and with perfect self-possession. " I am no 
 more ill than you are ; but for mercy's sake 
 don't let them know it, or that old brute 
 Twigg will skin me alive. I'll tell you all 
 about it another day." 
 
 At that instant Mrs. Hopkins, armed with 
 the usual apparatus, made her appearance at 
 the door ; but before she had fairly entered 
 the apartment the good-natured apothecary 
 squeezed Frank's hand, as much as to say, 
 " You may trust me ; " and then, turning to 
 the housekeeper, he said deliberately, " I am 
 sorry to have given you so much trouble, 
 ma'am, but our young patient has shown such 
 rapid symptoms of recovery that I think we 
 had better defer bleeding him for the present. 
 Nature, you know, will do wonders in such a 
 case."
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 17 
 
 " Quite true, sir ; but even Nature wants 
 help sometimes ; and if after such a fall " (for 
 it was the floor, not the lexicon, that bore the 
 blame), " you don't bleed him, you will perhaps 
 give him some active medicine instead." 
 
 " Certainly, if he requires it," said the 
 doctor, curtly, who, although only an old- 
 fashioned country apothecary, disliked the 
 voluntary suggestions of a non-professional 
 looker-on quite as much as many of his 
 brethren in the highest ranks of the pro- 
 fession. " Certainly, ma'am ; but let us wait 
 for the morrow, and see what a night's rest 
 will do for the lad." 
 
 Mrs. Hopkins bowed submissively ; but, as 
 she was a woman of more than ordinary acut^ 
 observation, she did not fail to make a note'A% 
 that, in all her experience of the doctor's 
 treatment, this was the first occasion on 
 which he had omitted either to bleed his 
 patient or to administer some nauseous 
 draught, bolus, or powder, when the lancet 
 was not used. Still, not a glimmer of sus- 
 picion crossed her mind that the omission was 
 due to other causes than those assigned by 
 the doctor ; and well for Frank it was so, or 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 18 FRANK RALEiaH. 
 
 SO long as he remained under that roof his 
 life would have been a burden to him too 
 heavy to bear. 
 
 Frank's secret, however, was in safe keep- 
 ing : Host was a kind-hearted man ; and, 
 although he strongly rebuked Frank for the 
 deception he had practised, he considered him- 
 self bound by professional etiquette not to 
 betray the boy, so long, at least, as he re- 
 mained an inmate of that establishment. 
 
 " Keep him quiet, ma'am," continued the 
 doctor, ''and don't allow more than one of his 
 schoolfellows to be with him at a time." 
 " And his diet, sir ? " 
 
 " Oh, slops and broth till I see him again." 
 To the great amazement of Mrs. Hopkins, 
 Frank, hearing this order, and utterly forget- 
 ting the part he was acting, blurted out, 
 " Don't starve me, doctor ; I'm now as hungry 
 as a hound, and could eat a whole chicken if 
 I only had the chance." 
 
 " Oh no. Master Raleigh, that would never 
 do," interposed the perplexed woman. 
 " Chicken indeed, and you all but gone only 
 a few minutes ago ! No, the doctor isn't 
 going to allow that yet awhile, I'm sure."
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 19 
 
 Tlie apothecary now began to feel his 
 position was becoming a critical one ; and, 
 fearing his character might be compromised 
 if he were suspected of complicity in this 
 business, he privately signalled to Frank to 
 keep his tongue quiet, giving him to under- 
 stand, if he did not, that he would inevitably 
 betray his own secret, and expose himself to 
 farther and even worse punishment. He 
 then took leave, saying, as he went, he had 
 no doubt Mrs, Hopkins would give his patient 
 all that was needful and right, and that he 
 would now step in and report on the case to 
 Dr. Twigg, who, he thought, might probably 
 be anxious on the subject. 
 
 Harry Somers, at Frank's request, was then 
 sent for ; while the housekeeper, still sorely 
 puzzled to account for the boy's sudden 
 restoration from impending death to hungry 
 life, gathered her bills, account-books, and 
 ready-reckoner together, and withdrew to 
 another chamber. But the door had scarcely 
 closed behind her ere a titter of uncontrollable 
 merriment burst forth from the two boys — so 
 boisterous was it that, had the walls of the 
 old school-house not been far more substantial
 
 20 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 tlian those of any modern building, she could 
 scarcely have failed to hear the wild sallies 
 and uproarious laughter in which, for some 
 time after her departure, they continued to 
 indulge. 
 
 When the merriment had somewhat sub- 
 sided, "I'll tell you what, Frank," said the 
 other, " I once saw Kean die on the stage in 
 the character of the ' Gamester,' and I'll 
 swear he was a fool to you, so perfectly did 
 you act your part on those school boards. 
 But you very nearly frightened old Twigg 
 into a real fit ; his eyes were bloodshot 
 with alarm, and I expected every moment 
 to see him drop senseless from his perch* 
 He won't forget that scene in a hurry, I'll 
 answer for it." 
 
 " Pity he should, Harry. Didn't I tell you, 
 if he treated me to another edition of that 
 Hederich, I'd make him (][uake to his very 
 boots ? Well, that's his lesson ; and now let 
 him rub it in ; he'll never try that game on 
 with me, nor any other fellow again, so 
 long as he lives." 
 
 " Don't be too cock-sure of that, my boy ; 
 old Twigg's like a badger, and will take a
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 21 
 
 deal of baiting before be gives in. Don't 
 you recollect bow Tom Twining was deaf 
 as a baddock for more tban a montb, and 
 little Wilson's brain so addled tbat be couldn't 
 learn bis prosody after tbe wbacks of tbat 
 lexicon ? Twigg beard it all from Mrs. 
 Hopkins, I know ; but, you see, it bas only 
 hardened bis beart to sin tbe more. Tben 
 tbere's old Gallipots just gone to bis den — 
 is be safe not to peacb, tbink you ? " 
 
 " Quite safe," said Frank energetically. 
 " In tbe first place, be is too good-natured to 
 get a fellow into a row ; and, in tbe nex^, 
 be is wild about sport, and stops with us at 
 Watercombe every winter for a week's bunt- 
 ing ; but catcb my governor ever giving 
 bim a mount again if be does me an ill turn 
 in tbis affair. Ben Head, too, our bunts- 
 man, would ride over bim to a dead cer- 
 tainty. No, be won't peacb ; be knows 
 better." 
 
 Frank's reasons for believing in Dr. Host's 
 reticence were, so far as tbey went, perfectly 
 just and well founded ; bis beart, as tbe 
 country-people said of bim, was as big as a 
 bullock's ; for was be not ever ready, by night
 
 22 FRANK HALEIGH. 
 
 or by day, in any weather, to mount one of 
 his sorry hacks (he kept no less than four of 
 them, all bearing the Devonshire arms), and 
 to ride eight, ten, or a dozen miles over the 
 worst roads in England, on errands of true 
 mercy and benevolence ? Nor did he stop to 
 inquire whether it was the squire's lady or 
 the prolific wife of some poor cottager who 
 needed his attendance ; for, fee'd or unfee'd, 
 his aid was cheerfully given to both alike. 
 True enough, he dearly loved hunting ; and, 
 when he did get a day with the squire and a 
 mount into the bargain, it was a real holiday 
 to him — a refreshing interlude amid the toil 
 and anxiety of his laborious profession. 
 
 But there were other and deeper grounds 
 than those of self-gratification and kindly 
 feeling on which his reticence was founded. 
 It was a point of honour with him to hold 
 inviolate the confidence of a patient ; nor 
 would the tortures of the Inquisition have 
 extracted a syllable from his lips in betrayal 
 of such a trust. So Frank's secret was 
 quite safe in Dr. Host's keeping. 
 
 While the conference in the " lion's den " 
 was going on, and the apothecary, who at a
 
 FRAXK RALEICxH. 23 
 
 glance had discovered the effect of Frank's 
 plot on the nerves of the pedagogue, was 
 doing his "utmost, on philanthropic grounds, 
 to impress the latter with the serious mischief 
 that might have occurred if the blow on the 
 left side of the boy's head (it was that of the 
 lexicon) had been the eighth of an inch 
 nearer the temple, and how he had narrowly 
 escaped permanent injury, though there was 
 now no longer cause for anxiety, Dr. Twigg's 
 alarm gradually subsided ; but, as it did so, 
 he formed the resolution never again to strike 
 a boy on the head with his lexicon — a reso- 
 lution he faithfully kept to the end of his 
 scholastic reign.
 
 24 FRAI^K EALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " Say, what shall be our sport to-day ; 
 
 For there's nothing in earth, or sea, or air, 
 Too bright, too bold, too high, or too gay, 
 For spirits like ours to dare ? " 
 
 Thomas Moore. 
 
 'TwAS a soft, dark morning on tlie first day 
 of leafy June, and a warm breeze, blowing 
 somewhat fitfully from the south-west, was 
 bringing down showers of spray from the 
 forest oaks, as Frank Raleigh and his friend 
 Somers, threading their way through the 
 woodlands of the Dart, were hastening up- 
 stream, rod in hand, to the open moor, 
 where, unobstructed by overhanging trees, 
 they could cast their flies free and far on the 
 " brimming river." Heavy rain had fallen 
 during the night, and the water, slightly 
 flushed and discoloured by the peaty soil, 
 but still not turbid, had assumed that nut-
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 25 
 
 brown hue so especially favourable for en- 
 trapping the wary trout at this season of 
 the year, when usually the moorland streams 
 are singing their summer song and trickling 
 over the shoals low and clear as crystal. 
 
 " This is a rare fishing day, and the water 
 looks in prime condition," said Frank, catch- 
 ing an occasional glimpse of the streamy Dart, 
 as, flecked with foam, it rushed through its 
 granite barriers, like a fiery courser impatient 
 of restraint. 
 
 " Then you ought to fill your basket to 
 the brim, my boy, if wind and water are ^so 
 favourable ; but, fish or no fish, the outing 
 alone on the old, wild moor is a perfect treat 
 to me at any time. It was a bright thought 
 of yours, Frank, going to that nice widow, 
 and coaxing her to get a whole holiday out 
 of old Twigg," said Harry Somers, now pant- 
 ing in his endeavours to keep pace with his 
 companion, who, although younger and less 
 robust, was by far the more active and 
 enduring of the two boys. 
 
 " It didn't want much coaxing, Harry. I 
 found out that her late husband had been a 
 naval officer serving on board the Queen
 
 26 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 Charlotte, when Lord Howe took her into 
 action and smashed the French fleet on the 
 * Glorious First of June.' The moment I 
 mentioned that day, a big tear started into 
 her eye ; and by that token I knew at once 
 my prayer would be granted." 
 
 " Bravo, Frank! that was a grand manoeu- 
 vre on your part ; you really ought to join 
 the Corps Diplomatique, and cultivate the 
 talent you so clearly possess! But Gaffer 
 Twi gg couldn't for one instant have sus- 
 pected that you were the petitioner ; or, 
 after that affair of the lexicon a week or 
 two ago, I doubt much if all the widows 
 in the west would have obtained this boon 
 for us." 
 
 "True; that would have been a stopper, 
 dead against us ; but I begged Mrs. Cornish, 
 point-blank, not to mention my name in the 
 matter, which she very kindly promised not 
 to do." 
 
 Through many a deep woodland, and over 
 many a mile of craggy ground studded 
 thickly with blocks of granite, blackthorn, 
 and furze-brake — the last, in full bloom, 
 lighting up the .grey hill-side with a golden
 
 FRAXK RALEIGH. 27 
 
 blaze — did the boys tug on patiently, till at 
 length Bellivor Tor, with its grand massive 
 crown towering over the boggy and desolate 
 waste that surrounds it in every direction, 
 burst upon their sight, and they found them- 
 selves at Dart-meet, the fairest fishing-ground 
 on the open moor. 
 
 A light fourteen-foot rod by Chevalier, a 
 present from the squire to Frank on his last 
 birthday, was soon put together ; and, as his 
 friend Harry knew little or nothing about fly- 
 fishing, except that it was a " contemplative 
 art," requiring patience, perseverance, a^id 
 long training ere it could be practised suc- 
 cessfully, this one rod served amply for both, 
 Harry being quite content with the occasional 
 use of it, when Frank's arm grew weary, or, 
 when seated on a block of granite, he was 
 hunting his book for a fresh fly. 
 
 For an hour or more almost every cast of 
 the line brought a fish to the surface ; but, 
 for some reason or other which Frank failed 
 to divine, not one out of twenty that rose 
 seemed to fancy the flies : up they came 
 readily enough ; but, with the exception of a 
 few small fry, less wary than their fellows,
 
 28 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 they either shunned the fly by turning short 
 of it, or by fairly springing out of the water 
 and over the line, as if, impelled by curiosity, 
 they had come up to inspect, rather than 
 swallow, the tinselled bait. 
 
 " Hang the fish ! " said Frank, impatiently, 
 after he had changed, one after the other, at 
 least a score of his best flies — ginger and 
 rough red, black gnat and blue duns of 
 various hue and size, until he had well-nigh 
 exhausted the small stock of his book and 
 patience together. " The river is alive with 
 trout, but the dainty beggars won't take at 
 any price. Do catch me a natural fly, Harry 
 — the fly on the water ; it may differ in some 
 trifling shade from any I have tried, and if 
 so, I'll see if I can't imitate it and produce a 
 fac simile in form and colour. It's very pro- 
 voking to have come so far for nothing. 
 Hang the fish ! — there ! that's a miss again ! 
 — they won't have it, and I shall swear at 
 them in another minute." 
 
 "Don't do that," said his less excitable 
 companion ; " for, little as I know about the 
 craft, I have always heard that St. Anthony, 
 who is the patron saint of fishes, favours not 
 the fisherman who is given to swearing."
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 29 
 
 "Then I'll go on the other tack, Harry, 
 and whistle a prayer to the scaly saint forth- 
 with ; mayhap he'll do us a good turn with 
 his capricious flock, instead of permitting our 
 time and sport to be marred in this vexatious 
 fashion." 
 
 " You may laugh as you like, Frank, at St. 
 Anthony's power," said the other, not alto- 
 gether relishing the somewhat irreverent tone 
 of his friend's reply ; " but, let me tell you, 
 we have a most remarkable painting at home, 
 copied, as my father has often told me, from 
 a picture by Paul Yeronese : the saint is 
 represented there as standing on a rock 
 overhanging the sea; he is preaching with 
 life-like earnestness to a vast congregation of 
 fishes, which, in every direction, are lifting 
 up their heads above the tranquil tide and 
 listening with devout attention to the words 
 of the preacher. The original, if I remember 
 aright, is to be seen in the Borghese Palace 
 at Rome, where it is valued not less for its 
 quaint subject than for the beauty and power 
 of the whole composition." 
 
 " Bother St. Anthony ! I hope he cooked 
 some of them afterwards for his dinner !
 
 30 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 There goes another, Harry ! — I can't stand 
 it much longer," said Frank, now almost 
 driven to the verge of despair by the 
 contempt for his flies which the fish showed 
 every time they came up to take a look at 
 them. " Do get me the fly on the stream." 
 . Harry was not long in obeying this 
 mandate ; as, with cap in hand, he soon 
 managed to procure a few good specimens 
 of the gay, light- winged insects on which the 
 trout were feeding, and which, on examina- 
 tion, proved to be the Golden Sally, an 
 ephemeral fly not hitherto known by Frank, 
 and certainly not included in his limited 
 stock. " Give me ten minutes and I'll 
 manufacture its very counterpart," said he, 
 seating himself on a broad rock, and bring- 
 ing out from the pockets of his fishing-book 
 the various materials required for that 
 purpose. 
 
 In the mean time Harry, by way of im- 
 proving his practice, was whipping the 
 stream hard by with a perseverance worthy 
 of better results, for not only did he fail to 
 hook a single fish, but contrived, by the stiff 
 action of his wrist and the unscientific style
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 31 
 
 in wliicli he handled his rod, to crack off the 
 end fly about every two minutes ; con- 
 sequently the demand on Frank's book for a 
 fresh fly correspondingly often bid fair, had 
 it continued much longer, to exhaust the 
 supply ; nor did Harry escape sundry pungent 
 critiques on the part of the owner, who saw, 
 with strong feelings of regret, so many of his 
 favourite blue duns snapped off and lost to 
 him for ever. 
 
 "You'll make a first-rate coachman some 
 day, Harry ; you've only to crack up your 
 leaders as you crack off those flies ; get ^a 
 few lessons from old Blight or Jack White 
 of the Quicksilver Mail, and then take to the 
 road forthwith." 
 
 " I shall never learn either to drive or to 
 fish," retorted Harry, sharply; "I've no fancy 
 for the one or the other; but, if I ever do 
 take to the former, I'll try not to upset the 
 coach, as you did, when old Twigg touched 
 you up with the lexicon." 
 
 Now, Frank's temper was like a mountain 
 torrent, up and flushed by a passing storm at 
 one moment, and, with a gleam of sunshine, 
 down again the next, bright and merry as
 
 32 FKANK RALEIGH. 
 
 ever ; and, as the real story of the lexicon and 
 his pretended unconsciousness had recently 
 oozed out among his schoolfellows and given 
 rise to some sharp-edged chaff that cut him to 
 the quick, this taunt of Harry's — his own 
 chum, who had been privy to the plot and 
 knew well the cause of it — was more than 
 his fiery spirit could bear. 
 
 " Old Twigg and you may go to Pluto 
 together," said he, boiling over with passion ; 
 " and the sooner you do so the better." 
 
 " "When I am called on to pay my last 
 debt, Frank, I hope to do it honestly and not 
 with false coin, as you did on those school 
 boards," said the other, with a deliberate and 
 cruelly provoking sneer. 
 
 This was an ugly counter-hit — a back- 
 hander in the teeth, that literally made Frank 
 writhe, while his lip quivered with rage ; 
 and, as he had already punched the heads of 
 two or three small boys who had been rash 
 enough to chaff him on this subject, his 
 impulsive spirit prompted him at once to 
 serve Harry in like fashion, forgetting, as he 
 did, in his wrath, that he himself had been 
 the original aggressor in this row, and
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 33 
 
 ignoring too the important fact that, in point 
 of age, weight, and stature, the other, in 
 schoolboy parlance, was old enough and big- 
 enough to eat him. This disparity, however, 
 if it ever crossed his mind, did not for one 
 instant deter him from the challenge he at 
 once flung into the other's face — " to have it 
 out then and there, and settle the difference 
 by a stand-up fight." 
 
 Eeader, gentle or simple, start not with 
 horror at the savage scene which, as a 
 picture of schoolboy life in the early part of 
 the present century, is now brought under 
 your notice ; and, above all, turn not away in 
 disgust from the sensitive, high-spirited 
 youths who, in conformity with a national 
 custom, patronized by royalty, and recognized 
 in all public schools as the safest and surest 
 mode of settling a quarrel, were about to 
 settle theirs in a fair fisticuff fight on the 
 greensward of that river-side. It may not 
 be generally known that the public practice 
 of duelling with fists followed and superseded 
 a far more deadly mode of combat, that of 
 the sword, in which skill alone in the use of 
 the weapon, and not courage, vigour, and 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 manly endurance, too often decided the 
 battle. 
 
 The first great champion in the " noble art 
 of self-defence," so called by a gross mis- 
 nomer, was, we are told, one John Broughton, 
 who, in 1743, established a set of rules 
 which for many years regulated the con- 
 ditions of pugilistic encounters. One of 
 these rules, fixing intervals of time for rest 
 and the recovery of wind between the rounds, 
 was then considered a most humane arrange- 
 ment ; but in the present day, when the 
 government of this country, in compliance 
 with public feeling and the progress of civil- 
 ization, has framed stringent laws for the 
 prevention of cruelty even to dumb animals, 
 the prolongation of a fight between two men, 
 by such intervals of rest, until from utter 
 exhaustion one or the other of the com- 
 batants is compelled to yield, will be justly 
 denounced as an ingenious device for con- 
 tinuing the torture, and adding to, rather than 
 lessening, the brutal exhibition. 
 
 Still, for one hundred years, prize-fights 
 and pitch-battles have had their ruthless 
 reign in this country among all classes of the
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 35 
 
 community, from the royal duke, who was 
 Broughton's patron and friend — and who, 
 by-the-by, was the truculent Cumberland 
 of Culloden notoriety — down to the wander- 
 ing gipsy, who still clings to the fashion, and, 
 for a trifling gratuity, is ever ready, at 
 country fairs and races, to set-to and be 
 battered till his head becomes as big as a 
 bushel, and his body garnished with all the 
 hues of the chameleon. 
 
 Forty or fifty years ago, without even the 
 excuse of a quarrel, fights were got up 
 occasionally at our public schools for the 
 mere purpose of testing a new boy's courage 
 and endurance; and, as occasionally sad and 
 even fatal results were the consequence, the 
 grave censure of the public very properly fell 
 upon the authorities, who, if they did not 
 promote, took little pains to check these en- 
 counters ; and thus gradually the system 
 dropped into disrepute, and happily now is 
 chiefly confined to the harmless fists of small 
 boys and lower forms. 
 
 But now to the heroes of our tale. To 
 pull off his coat and cravat and cast them on 
 the ground was the work of a moment ; and.
 
 36 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 even before Harry could quite realize the 
 seriousness of his position, Frank was ad- 
 vancing against him with elbows squared 
 and guard up, in pugilistic attitude, implying 
 assault and battery to the bitter end. 
 
 "Is there no alternative?" said Harry, 
 quietly buttoning up his coat and keeping his 
 eye steadily on that of his adversary. 
 
 " None but an apology," said Frank, 
 sternly. 
 
 " Then," replied the other, " I have none 
 to offer ; you began the chaff, and if you 
 will fight, you must take the consequence." 
 
 Harry then, doubling his fists deliberately, 
 set himself in battle array ; and as the two 
 boys drew nearer and nearer, each confront- 
 ing the other with left foot forward and eye 
 intent on his adversary, like two young lions 
 preparing for a spring, the twang of a horn 
 close to them so startled the attention of both 
 that for «some seconds a pause ensued, and 
 neither seemed eager to strike the first blow 
 — that blow that is said to win half the 
 battle. While thus momentarily in suspense, 
 a weird, wild-looking hunter, suddenly spring- 
 ing from the clitter of rocks hard by, as if
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 37 
 
 just disgorged from their granite bowels, 
 rushed forward, and seizing Frank's shoulder 
 with his muscular hand, hurled him stagger- 
 ing a yard or two backwards, till he well- 
 nigh brought him to the ground. 
 
 "No fighting here, young gen'lemen, if 
 yeu plaize," said the moor-man, interposing 
 his own square frame between the two. " Us 
 ha' put a vox to ground in thikky tor, and be 
 digging ov un out. I reckon 't wid pay ye 
 both better to hanle hee than to get a 
 scrat'ing one anither, like a pair o' ram cats. 
 Howsomdever, let's han'le hee fust ; and 
 then, ef fight yeu must, gi' my son Tarn a 
 pint o' whit'-ale and a Modbury cripps, and he 
 shall tan the both o' ye in ten minutes." 
 
 This timely interposition, conveying as it 
 did both ridicule and contempt on the com- 
 bative power of the two boys, more perhaps 
 in the comical expression and crafty glint of 
 his eye than in the mere words of the man, 
 had its instantaneous effect, at least on Harry 
 Somers, who, without a scruple of hesitation, 
 held out his hand to Frank, saying, as he 
 did so — 
 
 " I've no wish to fight, old fellow ; and if
 
 38 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 IVe said anything to give yon offence, I 
 am downright sorry for it." 
 
 " Thank yon, Harry, thank yon a thousand 
 times," said Frank, fervently grasping the 
 proffered hand. " I'm as qnick-tempered as a 
 wasp, and shall not readily forgive myself for 
 forcing this quarrel upon you." 
 
 " There, that's capical," said the moor-man, 
 well pleased with the part he had played 
 in arresting the fight ; but at the same time 
 speculating on the help he hoped to obtain 
 from the two lads in removing some heavy 
 granite blocks which had fairly baffled the 
 united strength of himself and his son, and so 
 far saved the life of a fox they had driven to 
 earth some hours before in the adjoining tor. 
 " Fai', that'll bring us geud luck, I kna't will," 
 he continued ; "for I heerd our passon to 
 Widdicombe, on'y last Sinday, mak' a faine 
 discoos on ' Blessed be the pacemakers ; ' and 
 what doth that mayne ? Why, that Tam 
 French shall han'le thicky fox to be zure, 
 now he'th a done that blessed work." 
 
 The moment the man's name fell upon 
 Frank's ears, excited though he was by the 
 predicament from which he had just escaped,
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 39 
 
 the involuntary start he gave too plainly 
 betrayed the surprise and curiosity he felt 
 on discovering the acquaintance he had thus 
 accidentally made. From his earliest years, 
 even in the nursery, Tom French had been 
 the bugbear of his life ; for, in season and out 
 of season, in the kennel, the stables, and the 
 hall, he had heard his murderous deeds talked 
 about with execration and horror; but espe- 
 cially so at dessert after a blank day, when 
 the very mention of his name never failed 
 to give his father a fit of indigestion and to 
 disturb his temper for the rest of the night. . 
 Tom, however, although regarded by so 
 many as no better than a burglar or a bandit, 
 was neither the one nor the other ; had he 
 been so, the fangs of the law would long since 
 have seized him, and brought his career to 
 a close, nor would the wildest nooks of Dart- 
 moor have saved him in such a case. But he 
 was simply an arrant vulpecide, by nature as 
 well as profession ; and whether employed by 
 the farmers of his parish in that capacity, 
 or indulging his own innate passion for the 
 chase, the extermination of the vulpine race 
 seemed to be the chief business, as it was the
 
 40 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 cliief pleasure, of his life. " 'Tis a nasty 
 varmint," lie would say, " and oaft to be 
 killed on a Sinday morn, zo well as on a 
 wick-day." 
 
 The personal appearance of the man, bar- 
 ring his dress — which was that of an ordinary 
 grooty peasant, wearing a fox-skin cap, 
 fustian-coat and brown-cord breeches — was 
 rather in his favour than otherwise ; his 
 countenance, hardened by exposure and the 
 rough out-of-door life he led, was rosy and 
 round as a Quarrenden apple, and if it indi- 
 cated more than usual sagacity and firmness of 
 purpose, a good-natured expression and a 
 fund of humour peeped out from his wonder- 
 fully cunning eyes. He was not above the 
 middle height, but broad-shouldered, light on 
 the leg, and active as a mountain cat ; and, 
 being tough and hardy as one of the stunted 
 oaks of Wistman's Wood, no labour tired 
 and no difficulty deterred him. Such was 
 Tom French, the noted vulpecide, at the time 
 of our tale. 
 
 "Noo then," he exclaimed energetically, 
 " len us a han', will ye, and us '11 zoon ha' hee 
 by the brish ; he ain't a vathom down, and us
 
 FtlAlS-K RALEIGH. 41 
 
 can hear Eag and Tear'em a laying to un like 
 tigers." 
 
 " With all my heart," said Harry Somers, 
 cheerily, inwardly rejoicing no less at this 
 opportunity for diverting his friend's thoughts 
 from their recent broil than at the prospect of 
 seeing what to him was a great novelty, a 
 live fox. 
 
 But not so with Frank Raleigh. The very 
 idea of aiding and abetting this man in his 
 murderous work, and of killing a fox in cold 
 blood, was so repugnant to his feelings and 
 to the lesson taught him by his father, 
 namely, to give every animal fair play, that 
 he was on the point of denouncing Tom 
 French as a vile vulpecide, whose barbarities 
 he abhorred, and who, if he had a father, 
 would infallibly as soon murder him as a 
 fox, when it occurred to his mind that, if by 
 chance there should be a litter of cubs in this 
 tor, he might, by virtue of the guinea he had 
 in his purse, save their lives and get some 
 trustworthy hand to liberate them in the 
 great covers at Holne, or the stronghold of 
 the dungeon at Pyles. So he put up his rod 
 and tackle, and turning from the river to-
 
 42 FRAXK RALEIGH. 
 
 wards tlie pile of grey rocks, that seemed 
 ready at tlie slightest disturbance to topple 
 headlong into the stream below, he bid the 
 moor-man lead on ; and following as best 
 he could over the pathless, rugged declivity 
 to the fox-earth above, he quieted the qualms 
 of his conscience by resolving, if possible, to 
 ransom the intended victim from those ruth- 
 less hands, even at the full amount of his 
 own and Harry's purses. 
 
 " 'Tis waste time vishing a' midday now, 
 and yeur vlize be no geud neither," said the 
 wily fox-killer. " I zeed 'em to yeur line, 
 and yeu might zo well drow yeur hat on the 
 water as wan o' they vlize. Gi' me a spirt- 
 net on Blacky brook or the little Swincumbe, 
 and I'll tak' ten dizzen afore yeu tak' wan 
 wi' that shop-gear o' yourn, I'll war'n ee." 
 
 ** That's rank poaching," said Frank, 
 sharply, " and no better than ' burning the 
 water ' by night, which my father says has 
 been the ruin of the Devonshire rivers." 
 
 " An' mak' so bold, heu may yeur fayther 
 be, young gen'leman ? I zim I ouft to know 
 un, ef he's wan o' thaise parts." 
 
 " He's called Raleigh," answered the boy,
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 43 
 
 bluntly. " He knows you well enough, and 
 so do I too, by hearsay." 
 
 " Then you a'nt a yeard much geud o' me, 
 I reckon, ef yeu'm wan o' the Watercombe 
 zoart ? Howsomdever, Squire Ealeigh 
 follow'th he's trade, and I follow mine ; us 
 be both in the same line ; o'ny he rid'th a 
 hunting to enjoy hiself, and I rin for my 
 bread ; he pay'th for his sport, and I get 
 paid for mine. That's the gurt difference 
 at ween us, yeu zee. But, fai', foxes be now 
 getting sca'ce hereabout ; and I hop' Squire 
 Crocker will zoon help us to anither coachful 
 o' they French voxes. They was rare ones 
 to han'le, and hadn't the sense to save the'- 
 selves, like our Dartimoor devils, that al'ays 
 aim for the wust holts and biggest clitters. 
 Why, I've a laid out vour-and-twenty hours 
 in Waterholt afore I could han'le a rale old 
 Hector, as al'ays saved hiself in thikky 
 clitter ; and when I got the screw into un 't 
 last, fai', he hadn't a dizzen hairs to's brish, 
 nor a soun' tooth in he's head." 
 
 The French foxes to which Tom alluded 
 had literally been enlarged from a travelling 
 carriage, which an enthusiastic and fine-
 
 44 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 spirited Devonshire Squire had himself driven 
 into the wilds of Dartmoor, and there, both 
 doors being thrown open simultaneously, the 
 cooped-up beasts dashed forth to stock the 
 country in every direction, and, as might 
 be expected, soon made terrible havoc among 
 the poultry of the Widdicombe and Holne 
 farmers. Not being moor-bred, nor instructed 
 by the wily tactics of a crafty old vixen- 
 mother, the strong earths of the country, 
 such as those of the rubble-heap at Heytor, 
 Dagworthy cleaves, and Huccaby clitter, all 
 fortresses impregnable as Konigstein, became 
 known, probably, to a few only of the im- 
 migrants, the ranks of which were conse- 
 quently soon thinned by the energy and 
 hunting craft of Tom French. 
 
 The trio, led by the moor-man, had now 
 reached the base of the clitter forming the 
 massive outworks of the tor above, when, 
 suddenly putting the hollow of his hand to 
 his ear and dropping on both knees, he 
 exclaimed in an eager voice, " Harkee, du'ee, 
 for wan moment! There, don't ye hear, 
 mun! Begorz, ef he han't a shifted farder 
 down, and they'm a tinkering of un, hammer
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 45 
 
 and tongs, home to's nose! Look sharp, 
 Tammy, wi' th' gun ; he'll bolt below, and gi' 
 us the slip — I knaw a will." 
 
 At this summons, to the intense surprise 
 of Frank and Harry, a strapping young 
 fellow shot up, like one of Cadmus's armed 
 soldiers, from the very bowels of the earth, 
 and brandishing a long rusty firelock in his 
 right hand and a tough hazel rod in the left, 
 he bounded like an ibex from one boulder to 
 another, pitching on sharp summits and nar- 
 row ledges, apparently without effort or fear of 
 a fall, until he reached the lowermost point 
 of the clitter. There, pausing in his career 
 to turn up his €oat-cuffs and cock his gun, 
 he scarcely seemed to breathe as he stationed 
 himself for a shot by the side of a projecting 
 rock. 
 
 " Tammy's a rare han' wi' a gun," said the 
 moor-man, in a half- whisper ; " and ev he on'y 
 git'th a chance to zhute un, he'll gi' the 
 varmint a reg'lar strammer, I'll war'n ye." 
 
 " What ! shoot a fox ? " said Frank, 
 indignantly; "that's foul play with a ven- 
 geance, and I hope you'll get well punished 
 for it some day."
 
 46 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 " Thankee, zur ; but I'm more likely to be 
 paid vor it, I reckon," said the imperturbable 
 vulpecide. " The nasty varmint will tak' a 
 poor man's geuse off her nest by dayslight ; 
 and fai', as our passon zaith, him as sheweth 
 no massy didn't ouft to ha' massy showed to 
 he. That's rayson and gospel both, young 
 gen'leman, whatever you've a larned to 
 Watercombe." 
 
 While this conversation was going on, the 
 two terriers, whose sharp, snarly tongues 
 could now be distinctly heard through the 
 chinks of the rocks, appeared to be forcing 
 the fox by hard fighting and worry to the 
 very edge of the clitter, where the eager 
 sentinel, by the elevation of his gun half 
 way to the shoulder, and the intent, fixed 
 attitude in which he stood at his post, gave 
 unmistakable token that he expected the 
 wily animal every instant to bolt at that 
 point. Nor was he long kept in suspense ; 
 for unable to withstand the incessant assault 
 of Rag and Tear'em, the fox sprang to the 
 surface, and at once made a resolute dash for 
 the open moor. But he had scarcely taken 
 three strides, ere his sharp eye caught sight
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 47 
 
 of the foe in ambush, and instantly turning 
 short, like a squirrel round the bole of a tree, 
 he disappeared again under a hollow rock, 
 big enough, if broken up, to build a set of 
 kennels or an ordinary parish pound. 
 
 " Cri — massy ! " ejaculated the old moor- 
 man, in an agony of despair. " That ever 
 I should be the fayther of such a fule — wi' 
 jist sense enough to keep his nose clean — nit 
 a hap'erth more ! Why for didn't ee zhute 
 to un. Tammy, an' he home to the nozzle o' 
 yeur gun ? " 
 
 " I b'ant sich a fule as yen take me to be/' 
 said the son, indignantly. " I never zeed but 
 the brish of un, I tell'ee, as he flinked it, like 
 a dish-washer, round thikky stone." 
 
 " Thou'lt make a better han' at catching 
 wants than voxes, I zee thou wilt. Tammy," 
 replied the disappointed moor-man, with a 
 bitter emphasis. 
 
 By this time the two terriers were out and 
 after him in a desperate hurry, and, as they 
 dashed abreast into the chasm of the rocks, 
 their eyes sparkling with fire, their wiry 
 muzzles besmeared with blood, they looked 
 the very incarnation of dog-demons in pursuit 
 of their prey.
 
 48 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 Frank was on the point of expressing his 
 unbounded gratification at this unexpected 
 turn of luck in the fox's favour, when the old 
 moor-man, surveying for one instant the 
 interior of the earth into which, on hands 
 and knees, he had followed the terriers, 
 shouted aloud to his son, " Han' me the screw, 
 Tammy. 'Tis nort but a vorce-hole, and us'll 
 ha' un out now, I reckon, arter all." 
 
 Frank then for the first time perceived 
 that the long, tough hazel rod carried by the 
 son was armed at the smaller end with a 
 strong screw (designed originally for the tow 
 used in cleaning a gun), and a cold shudder 
 seized him as he saw this instrument of 
 torture about to be applied to the wretched 
 victim within — " et vox faucibus hcesit." 
 
 " Hold on. Tammy ! " again shouted the 
 moor-man, as he backed out and placed the 
 butt of the rod in his son's hands. " The 
 screw's into un fast eneugh ; but zober, I tell 
 ee, zober wi' un ; or, begorz, he'll gi' us the 
 slip agen." 
 
 The operation, then, of drawing the fox out 
 gradually and steadily, just as a cork is 
 drawn from a bottle of old port, was very
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 49 
 
 skilfully effected by the two practitioners, 
 the utmost care being needed lest the rod 
 should be broken or the screw break its 
 hold ; more especially so as the two terriers, 
 the very moment the screw was applied, had 
 fastened on the fox like limpets to a rock, and 
 thereby greatly increased the difficulty of 
 extraction. At every plunge of the victim, 
 however, an extra turn of the rod gave more 
 hold to the screw, and thus enabled the men 
 by a steady tug to bring at length the three 
 combatants, fast locked together, to the 
 surface of the earth. Then, like a hawk 
 darting on its prey, the moor-man seized the 
 fox fore and aft ; and in another instant, the 
 terriers being choked off and the screw 
 extracted, the poor reeking brute was popped, 
 head foremost, into a purse-net duly provided 
 for his reception. 
 
 "I'd zoonder halle a zammon out o' th' 
 dippest pool in Dart than thikky varmint out 
 o' they rocks," said the moor-man, panting 
 with the exertion and excitement he had just 
 undergone ; " but there, yeu zee, us can ate 
 a zammon arter he's dead, but I ha'nt yt a 
 tried the tother" — and a gleam of real 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 humour, heiglitened, doubtless, by his 
 success, sparkled in his eye as he added, 
 *' thoff I can't zay how zoon I may be druv 
 tu it." 
 
 Frank having discovered by the smallness 
 of its head that the poor beast was a vixen, 
 and that the screw having penetrated the 
 fleshy part of its thigh, it would probably 
 recover from the wound, controlled as best he 
 could the disgust and indignation he felt so 
 strongly, in order, if possible, to gain posses- 
 sion of the fox and give it its freedom in 
 some distant and safer spot. " And how 
 much do you expect to earn by your day's 
 work ? " he inquired, by way of opening the 
 negotiation. 
 
 " Ten shillings vrom the parish, and a gal- 
 lon or tew o' zider a day, ev us shew'th un 
 about vrom houze to houze," replied the moor- 
 man. 
 
 " I have a guinea here," said Frank, dis- 
 playing the coin from his leather purse, " and 
 if you'll sell me the fox and net for that, why, 
 there's the money." 
 
 " Begorz, yeu shall ha'em ! " said the moor- 
 man, clutching the coin with an indescribable
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 51 
 
 expression of cunning in both eyes, as the 
 thought probably occurred to him that the 
 animal, if liberated within twenty miles of 
 the moor, would be sure to find the way back 
 to its native tors, and give him another chance 
 to earn the parish premium in the same way. 
 So the bargain was struck, and the two 
 boys, bearing the fox between them, made 
 the best of their way direct for King's Wood, 
 in full belief that, by dropping their burden 
 in the earths of that great cover, they would 
 save it from ever falling again, at least, into 
 such ruthless hands. 
 
 u' ILUNO«
 
 52 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 " Forbear, my son, the Hermit cries, 
 To tempt the dangerous gloom ; 
 For yonder faithless phantom flies 
 To lure thee to thy doom." 
 
 Goldsmith. 
 
 The rough woodland country that lies on the 
 right bank of the Dart and fringes the moor, 
 jumbled up as it is into an endless number of 
 rocky knolls and hollow dingles, every one of 
 which is blessed with a brook bright and 
 perennial as the fountain of Bandusia, was 
 yet well known to Frank, who, with his 
 father's hounds, had seen many an otter and 
 many a cub found and killed in those quiet 
 and unfrequented wilds. But, although he 
 and his companion toiled onward with as 
 much speed and diligence as their live burden 
 would permit, they were scarcely able to 
 reach even the outskirts of King's Wood, the
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 53 
 
 deep cover forming the south-eastern limit 
 of the old forest of Dartmoor, ere the sun 
 declining behind the rugged tors to the west- 
 ward reminded them that night was at hand, 
 and that, unless they could answer the roll- 
 call at nine o'clock p.m., pains and penalties 
 would be the inevitable result. 
 
 " Now then, Frank," said Harry Somers, 
 coming to a dead halt, and fairly exhausted 
 by the weight and inconvenience of the 
 burden, " you could not possibly find a more 
 suitable spot than this lonesome combe for 
 liberating the poor beastie ; so, for mercy's 
 sake, cut the string and let her go." 
 
 " About a hundred and fifty yards higher 
 up the valley would be far preferable," said 
 the other, " as there, under yonder stag- 
 headed oak, a colony of badgers has long been 
 established ; and if we drop her in that re- 
 treat, it would puzzle Tom French and a 
 legion of terriers to get at her again ; so hold 
 on a bit longer, that's a good fellow." 
 
 The two boys then struggled on, and in 
 a few minutes were able to reach the spot 
 indicated by Frank ; and a strange aspect 
 it presented, that old home of the " Grays '*
 
 54 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 (as badgers are called in that country), about 
 an acre of ground, sloping due south, and 
 destitute of herbage as a sand- warren, being 
 occupied exclusively by these animals. 
 
 Tiers of subterranean passages, serving at 
 once as a refuge from attack and protection 
 from cold, had been excavated with a skill 
 that would sorely have puzzled the ingenuity 
 of the most scientific engineer, civil or 
 military. Waggon-loads of earth lying at 
 the mouth of each main entrance indicated 
 the extent of their operations ; and, in fact, 
 the whole area to a considerable depth was 
 a complete catacomb. 
 
 " I won't go a yard farther," said Harry, 
 dropping his end of the net on a huge mound 
 of newly dug earth, and at the same time 
 stretching himself at full length on the soft 
 sandy soil, that yielded under his pressure 
 almost like a feather bed. " I hope the poor 
 brute will live, after all the trouble we have 
 taken to save and carry her thus far." 
 
 " Little doubt of that," said Frank, as he 
 turned up the open net, and the vixen, 
 tumbling out apparently uncrippled, darted at 
 once into the cavernous depths of the badgers'
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 55 
 
 eartli. " She takes to it kindly, at all events, 
 Harry ; and if, notwithstanding the cruel 
 wound inflicted by that screw, she can only 
 manage to keep clear of the rough tenants 
 within, she is safer here than in the dungeon 
 at Pyles." 
 
 " But do you mean to say the ' badgers 
 would worry a fox if they could catch him, 
 Frank? I always thought they were root- 
 devouring, harmless brutes, that only showed 
 fight in self-defence, and then did it right 
 gallantly, even when baited by bull-dogs and 
 blackguards in a narrow box." 
 
 " True enough ; the animal is a downright 
 game one, and owing to that quality and the 
 vigour with which it defends itself, no poor 
 brute in the creation is subjected to such cruel 
 treatment as the captured badger. But it is 
 not quite so harmless as you imagine ; for 
 although he feeds commonly on roots, beetles, 
 and dew- worms, he also digs out rabbit nests, 
 and eats flesh whenever he can get it. My 
 father declares that more fox cubs are killed 
 by badgers than by all the gamekeepers in his 
 country." 
 
 " But surely," said Harry, whose knowledge
 
 66 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 of such objects was extremely limited, and 
 who still lay prostrate on the loamy bed, as if 
 he would gladly have passed the night there, 
 " surely they wouldn't dare to tackle an old 
 fox unless he was the first aggressor ? " 
 
 " Well, it is always an act of aggression on 
 the part of a fox when he intrudes into earths 
 which the badgers have themselves fashioned 
 for their own use ; and if, when he does so, a 
 female badger and her young ones should 
 happen to be in occupation, the expulsion of 
 the intruder is instantly enforced by the 
 whole family. Besides, the fox is a fetid 
 animal, and, consequently, his presence is said 
 to be peculiarly offensive to the cleanly badger. 
 I have often heard my father describe a scene 
 he once witnessed with the Duke of Beaufort's 
 hounds. A fox had been found in Beech wood, 
 which, after a short scurry over the Lansdown 
 racecourse, went to ground in a drain at Tracy 
 Park. The terrier-man, who appears to have 
 been gifted with ubiquity, was quickly on the 
 spot, and a white wiry tartar, one of Jack 
 Eussell's indomitable breed, being uncoupled, 
 dashed into the drain like a water-rat 
 plunging into a pool. The Duke is still and
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 57 
 
 silent as a statue, and, for a wonder, has no 
 occasion to call on the coffeehouse club, 
 assembled near the spot, to restrain their 
 usual clatter ; but, although the dog is lying 
 hard, ten, twenty, thirty minutes pass, and 
 the fox either can't or won't bolt. So the 
 Duke, whose patience is of the mortal order, 
 sends for a pickaxe, and, the cover-stones 
 being removed, a strange sight meets his eye. 
 First comes the terrier, held in check by 
 a huge badger ; then the fox, gasping out his 
 last breath ; then beyond him another badger, 
 also of large size. The fox, it would appear, 
 in his eagerness to escape from the terrier, 
 had forced himself in between the two badgers, 
 and they, not liking his company, had seized 
 him fore and aft, and worried him to death 
 there and then. The Duke, said my father, 
 pulled him out by the brush, and threw him, 
 a lifeless carcase, into the midst of his 
 hounds." * 
 
 By the time Frank had finished his yarn, 
 which, observing how fatigued his companion 
 was, he had intentionally prolonged, the sun's 
 
 * The above anecdote is quite true ; but not cbrono- 
 logically correct.
 
 58 FEANK RALEIGH. 
 
 last rays were growing fainter and fainter 
 in the western horizon, while the nearest 
 tors, still indistinctly visible, loomed out like 
 vast ruined castles in weird and majestic 
 grandeur. 
 
 It was just that period of time between day 
 and night known in Devonshire as the " dim- 
 met," when the blackbirds, disturbed by 
 vermin or ground game afoot, keep up a 
 continuous twitter, and the night-jars scare 
 the belated peasant with their grating, in- 
 harmonious notes. 
 
 " Now, then, old fellow, stir your stumps 
 once more," said Frank, in his cheeriest tone. 
 " Taking the shortest cut across the moor, we 
 have yet five long miles to travel ere we can 
 reach Buckbury." 
 
 Harry Somers was on his legs in an instant, 
 and, with an expression of intense surprise on 
 his countenance, he exclaimed, as he looked at 
 his watch, " Five miles to Buckbury, Frank, 
 and a bare half hour to do it in ! I'm already 
 three parts beaten, and I couldn't do it in 
 double the time. Besides, look at those black 
 clouds ; it will be pitch dark in ten minutes, 
 and then how are you to find your way over 
 the pathless moor ? "
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 59 
 
 " Never fear, my boy. Buckbury lies due 
 south of Eaven Tor, at the head of this cover ; 
 and if we keep the westerly breeze on our 
 right cheek, we must make the town in due 
 course ; so come along." 
 
 Frank's manner was so confident that, 
 although it occurred to Harry a change of 
 wind might possibly take place and thus 
 considerably derange the foregoing calcula- 
 tion, he unhesitatingly followed the lead of 
 his more adventurous companion, hoping 
 thereby to profit by the shorter route, and 
 at the same time to reach the school-hous^ 
 at least before the gates were finally closed 
 for the night. So the two boys stepped out 
 on the dark, desolate moor, depending on the 
 wind alone to guide them in the direct course, 
 and anticipating no serious difSculty in this 
 really rash and dangerous undertaking. 
 
 They had scarcely turned their backs, how- 
 ever, above a minute or two on Eaven Tor, 
 the landmark from which they were steering, 
 and the only shelter available for many a 
 dreary mile, when the dark cloud that every 
 moment had been drawing nearer and nearer, 
 wrapping the whole moor in a vast impene-
 
 60 FKANK EALEIGH. 
 
 trable shroud, now burst on their heads in a 
 deluge of rain, drenching every thread of 
 their summer dress down to the very skin. 
 
 " The faster it spends, the sooner it ends," 
 said Frank, quoting a provincial saw with as 
 much gaiety as he could muster. "It is only 
 a heavy shower, Harry, and at all events is 
 far better than a moor fog." 
 
 At that instant a soft, boggy spot on which 
 he had trodden brought Harry, face foremost, 
 to the ground, filling his eyes and mouth at 
 once, and all but stifling his utterance, with 
 the peaty soil. His companion was some 
 yards in front of him at the time ; but the 
 heavy thud with which he floundered into 
 the mire, and the frantic efforts he made 
 to struggle out of it and clear his throttle, 
 too plainly announced, even in that pelting 
 storm, what his fate had been in the watery 
 sludge. 
 
 " Grive me your hand," said Frank, spring- 
 ing to his rescue without a moment's delay. 
 " There ; hold on, old fellow. One step more, 
 and you'll be landed all safe in a second." So, 
 grasping Frank's hand, he succeeded with a 
 plunge or two in finding firm ground once 
 more beneath his feet.
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 61 
 
 " I thouglit you told me," said he, in the 
 first word he could utter, " that there was not 
 a bog within a mile of us on our way to 
 Buckbury." 
 
 " Quite true, Harry. The nearest bogs are 
 mainly on the hill-tops to the west of Eaven 
 Tor; but this quag into which you have so 
 unluckily slipped is a mere mucksy-pot — a 
 green patch not bigger than a carriage 
 umbrella, but deep enough to swallow a 
 bullock ; an ugly trap, I own, on a dark 
 night, but very different from our bogs. You 
 may travel ten miles without meeting another 
 on this side the moor." 
 
 " Thank goodness, one in a lifetime is more 
 than enough ; and if I live to the age of 
 Methuselah, I'll never trust this terrible moor 
 again by night — never, never again." 
 
 In such a woeful plight, soaked to the skin 
 and begrimed with slush, this resolution of 
 the poor boy burst from him with an irre- 
 pressible groan ; nor will it be wondered at 
 if, utterly wearied out as he was by a long 
 day's labour and the want of food, not a 
 scrap of which had he tasted for at least nine 
 hours, he should thus have regarded the
 
 62 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 dark moor with a feeling of increasing 
 dread and awe. Hitherto, indeed, whenever 
 a holiday had enabled him to scamper off and 
 pay a short visit to its heathery wilds, 
 drinking in the fresh, invigorating air, that 
 seemed at every step to make the turf more 
 elastic under his feet, and himself to feel 
 like a racehorse fit to go for his life, he 
 had only seen the sunny and pleasant face 
 of the grand old moor. But now, without 
 even a star in the sky to guide him aright, 
 the gloom had converted it into a land of 
 horrors, spread with pitfalls and morasses, 
 into which at any moment, from want of 
 light, he might again be precipitated head 
 foremost, and lose his life. 
 
 The contrast would have staggered a stouter 
 and more experienced man than Harry Somers, 
 who now, but for the help afforded him by his 
 cheery, high-couraged companion, would pro- 
 bably have succumbed to the exhaustion, 
 which, as he rolled in his gait, seemed to 
 gain upon him at every step. 
 
 " Hold up, old horse ! half a mile on it will 
 be far easier travelling, all with the collar," 
 said Frank, encouragingly. "The sky, too,
 
 FRANK RALEiaH. 63 
 
 is clearing overhead ; and, if you'll just let 
 me fasten the end of this fox-net to your coat- 
 button, you'll step along then as light as a 
 four-year-old." 
 
 Sundry " broad meanings" on Harry's part, 
 indicating the extreme possibility of another 
 fall, led Frank to propose this plan, in order, 
 if possible, to avert the catastrophe and keep 
 him going on his legs as long as he was able ; 
 then, just as the drowning man clutches at 
 a straw, Harry caught eagerly at the net, 
 and, securing it to his coat, suffered himself 
 to be towed forward, like a disabled hulk, 
 over the rough, heathery waste that now lay 
 in their course. 
 
 "It makes a rare tow-line, this old net of the 
 fox-killer's," said Frank, who, though encum- 
 bered with his drag, still continued to forge 
 ahead with light step and undaunted spirit. 
 
 " See ; it's all right, Harry. Yonder are 
 the lights of the farmhouse at Honeycombe 
 Head, and that's barely a mile from Buckbury 
 toll-bar ; so cheer up, old fellow ; it's all plain 
 sailing now, and we can't possibly miss the 
 way." 
 
 During the almost Stygian darkness in
 
 64 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 wliich. they were wrapped by the heavy 
 shower, Frank, it must be owned, had been 
 troubled with serious misgivings as to the 
 course they were steering ; for, in fact, during 
 that heavy downpour of rain and the imme- 
 diate lull of the breeze that had preceded it, 
 the sole means of guidance on which he had 
 depended was now no longer available. But 
 the boy bravely kept these doubts to himself, 
 fearing, if he disclosed them, the depressing 
 effect they might have on his already dis- 
 pirited and jaded companion. 
 
 The moment, however, he caught sight of 
 the distant lights, which he assumed were 
 those of a lone farmhouse near the outskirts 
 of the moor, his confidence revived, and he 
 reiterated again and again, " All right, Harry; 
 we can't now miss the way." 
 
 " I expect G-affer Twigg will be gone to 
 roost, though," said Harry, despondingly, 
 " before we can reach the school gates ; and 
 as he carries the keys to his bed-room, we 
 shall be locked out to a ,dead certainty." 
 
 " Well, if we are, it won't much matter. 
 I've often scaled the yard gate, spikes and all, 
 as you know ; and once within that pale I can
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 65 
 
 let you in by the stable door, and then access 
 to our rooms will be easy enough." 
 
 The long, rough heather, through which for 
 the last mile or two the boys had been labour- 
 ing, had now become broken up, as it were, 
 into a number of small islets, divided one 
 from the other by patches of soft, black mould, 
 utterly void of all vegetation, and becoming 
 perceptibly softer as the wanderers continued 
 to advance in the direction, as they supposed, 
 of the farmhouse at Honeycombe Head. But, 
 alas ! encumbered and weighted as Frank was 
 with his almost helpless companion, it required* 
 no little endurance and energy on his part 
 to flounder ahead from island to island and 
 hold his own through the tenacious, stoggy 
 mire, which, yielding still more and more as 
 they struggled onward, threatened to engulf 
 both of them at every step. 
 
 At length, perplexed with doubt and all 
 but sinking under his labour, Frank threw 
 himself on a bed of thin heather, and declared 
 himself unwilling to proceed a yard further 
 in this direction. " The wind must -have 
 shifted," he said anxiously, " or we should 
 have won Honeycombe Head long since ; and 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 G6 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 certainly sliould never have encountered this 
 boggy land." 
 
 " I feared so," said his companion, now 
 utterly dismayed by the peril of their situa- 
 tion ; " but we have at least sound ground 
 under us at present, and here I propose 
 resting till daylight enables us to proceed on 
 a safer course." 
 
 At this moment a purple, flickering light, 
 as if a bundle of lucifer matches had suddenly 
 been ignited, danced brightly in front of 
 them, now dilating and now contracting, 
 as the night breeze suffered it to rise and 
 waver over the surface of the bog. 
 
 "By George !" cried Frank, greatly excited 
 by the apparition ; "we haven't stopped a 
 moment too soon ! That's Jack-o'-Lantern, 
 Harry, and no fire created by human hands ; 
 and that's the farmhouse light we have been 
 steering for ever since the shower fell. See 
 how it dances to and fro, hke a spirit of the 
 fen alluring us to our doom ! " 
 
 A superstitious awe, akin to fear, now crept 
 upon both of them ; nor will it be wondered 
 at if, impressed by the dreary and solemn 
 stillness of the moor, no less than by the peril
 
 PRANK RALEIGH. 67 
 
 of their position, the poor boys absolutely 
 shook with alarm, and cowered together for 
 mutual support on the firm bit of heathery 
 ground they had now reached. While thus 
 for some minutes they remained gazing with 
 mute astonishment at the solitary, intermit- 
 tent motions of the mysterious flame, which 
 like a May fly see-sawing in the sun, played 
 and flickered at various heights above the 
 spongy soil, a hollow, dismal sound, as that of 
 a bull moaning, seemed to rise from the very 
 spot where the lights were playing, and close 
 by them. 
 
 " What on earth can that be ? " said Harry, 
 jumping on his legs, and forgetting in his 
 terror all the misery and fatigue he had so 
 lately undergone. " Let us be off at once, 
 Frank ; if that isn't a bull it must be some 
 fiend or other, and I'll not stop another 
 instant in this dreadful place." 
 
 " Hold hard, my boy ; it's neither the one 
 nor the other," said his companion, perfectly 
 famihar with the sound ; "it's simply a bittern, 
 the bird of all others I've long, long wished to 
 shoot. Its feathers are first-rate for a March 
 brown— nothing like them, so Peter Hambly
 
 68 FRANK EALEIGH. 
 
 says, for our rivers ; and I haven't one in my 
 book." 
 
 This explanation so far allayed Harry's 
 alarm that he gladly again subsided on the 
 short stumpy heather by Frank's side; and 
 there, edging together as closely as they 
 could for mutual warmth, the two boys sat 
 and watched the ever-restless, phosphorescent 
 light, which, with the booming of the bittern, 
 now absorbed their whole attention, and caused 
 them for the time even to forget their own 
 personal misery and the danger to which they 
 were exposed. 
 
 But their clothes being saturated with wet, 
 and their blood no longer stirred by exercise, 
 the crisp night wind, now blowing from the 
 north, was beginning to chill them to the 
 marrow of their bones ; and, as a sleepy stupor 
 appeared to be stealing over Harry's senses, 
 Frank, in order to rouse him from the danger 
 of falling asleep, related the well-known moor- 
 land story of John Childe, the hunter, who, 
 whilst enjoying his favourite amusement, was 
 caught in a snowstorm and perished on the 
 moor. 
 
 " Finding himself lost and benighted," said
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 69 
 
 Frank, " near Fox Tor, under which is one 
 
 of the dreariest of Dartmoor mosses, he killed 
 
 and disembowelled his favourite horse, and 
 
 crawling into the ghastly chasm formed by 
 
 his ribs, he hoped to sustain life and soul 
 
 together by the warmth of the animal's body. 
 
 But the sacrifice proved a useless one; the 
 
 bleak wind and the piled-up snow were too 
 
 strong for the hardy hunter, even with that 
 
 protection, and his body was found frozen, 
 
 together with that of his steed, by the monks 
 
 of Tavistock, who soon afterwards went in 
 
 search of him to that desolate mire. 
 
 " He contrived, however, before he died, to 
 
 dip his finger in the horse's blood and write 
 
 his will on a stone hard by in the following 
 
 words — 
 
 * El)t fir^t tl^at fmxtsc^ amtf Srins^ me ta mw srabc, 
 €l)t laiitr^ at piomsStnite fft s!)al i)atie.' 
 
 So, as he was the lord of extensive domains 
 in that district, the Tavistock Benedictines 
 became the fortunate possessors of the pro- 
 perty, which they continued to hold down to 
 the reign of Henry YIII." 
 
 " When, of course, at the dissolution of the 
 monasteries," interposed Harry, ''it passed by
 
 70 FRAIS^K RALEIGH. 
 
 a royal grant into tlie hand of some private 
 family?" 
 
 *' Into that of the Eussell's," said Frank, 
 " who retain it to the present day." 
 
 The interest of his com]3anion having been 
 fairly roused by this legend, Frank, with the 
 first streak of dawn which now appeared, 
 silencing the bittern's boom and paling the 
 " ineffectual fires " of the bog, proposed a 
 fresh start homeward, remarking they could 
 now pick their way and take the straight 
 course for Buckbury without fear of another 
 mistake. 
 
 " The sooner the better," responded Harry, 
 making an effort to steady himself on his 
 cramped-up limbs, now all but paralyzed by 
 the cold ; " for we may yet be able to enter 
 the school-house before Gaffer Twigg is 
 astir." 
 
 " My mind is very easy on that score," said 
 Frank ; " the holidays are so near that, even 
 if we are marked absent, Twigg, who has a 
 keen eye to self-interest, will think twice 
 before he practises any torture on you or 
 myself. Besides, it is just possible that for 
 once our absence may escape his observation 
 altogether."
 
 FRAXK RALEIGH. 71 
 
 " I devoutly liope it may," said the other, 
 whose prospects of an exhibition at Oxford — 
 a matter of the utmost importance to him — 
 would have been seriously damaged had he 
 fallen under the Doctor's displeasure. "It is, 
 however, my first scrape this half, so I can 
 plead ' prima culpa ' with a good conscience, 
 and, I hope, with success." 
 
 The first living object that attracted the 
 boys' attention on the break of day was a huge 
 raven, digging with its cut-and-thrust bill 
 into the carcase of a horse that had perished 
 in the bog close to them ; and so intent \vtis 
 the bird on breaking its fast that, for some 
 minutes, shy as it naturally is, it appeared to 
 take little or no heed of the boys' presence, 
 but pitched like a ravenous harpy into the 
 putrid flesh. 
 
 Marvelling greatly at the bird's unwonted 
 boldness, Frank gave him a lusty view-holloa, 
 thinking the sound of the human voice would 
 at once scare him from the feast; but a hoarse 
 croak was the sole response, as if he meant to 
 say, " Get on your way, and 
 
 ' Let me alone 
 To pick my own bone.' "
 
 72 FRAXK RALEIGH. 
 
 lie then continued gorging the food, heedless 
 of the interruption. 
 
 " Confound the beggar's impudence ! " said 
 Frank, pointing his fishing-rod at him as if it 
 was a gun ; "he knows perfectly well it ain't 
 my little Joe Manton, or he never would stop 
 there, mocking us in that fashion ! " 
 
 Another short croak, hoarser than the last, 
 just as if he was swearing at the intrusion, 
 still more astonished the boys, as Frank, 
 grasping a handful of mud in close proximity, 
 threw it with all his power into the very 
 face of the raven. He then rose on the wing 
 and wheeled once or twice round Harry's 
 head, intending, apparently, either to assault 
 him or settle on his shoulder without further 
 ceremony ; but a vigorous shot from a clod 
 of earth at length drove him to a farther 
 distance. 
 
 " That's a fiend in feathers ! " muttered 
 Harry, utterly aghast at the evil omen; " and 
 what an unwelcome compliment has he paid 
 me, taking me, before my time, for so much 
 carrion ! " 
 
 " Wanted to change his diet, perhaps, from 
 stale to fresh meat ; that was all, Harry."
 
 FRAXK RALEIGH. 73 
 
 After this strange adventure the two boys, 
 getting upon sound ground, made the best of 
 their way in the direction of Honeycombe 
 Head, which, standing on a prominent knoll 
 overhanging the woodland gorge running far 
 into the vale below, was now a conspicuous 
 object on the southern side of the moor. But 
 although the glorious morning sun, "the lord 
 of light and lampe of day," rose without a 
 cloud in the sky, comforting the chilled earth, 
 and inviting the larks to meet him with a 
 song of praise at the very gates of heaven, 
 the travellers trudged on in moody silence, 
 brooding over the presage of that dark and 
 mysterious bird. 
 
 On entering the moor gate, separating the 
 farmstead from the waste land, where scores 
 of rabbits were frisking about on all sides, a 
 man in the coarse, home-spun attire of a 
 moor farmer, followed by a strong, wiry 
 lurcher, appeared suddenly in view, and 
 coming hastily towards them, demanded, in 
 no very courteous terms, whither they were 
 going, and what their business was "trapesing 
 about " at that time of the morning on his 
 grounds ? and, catching sight of the purse-net
 
 74 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 in Frank's hand, he said, savagely, " I 
 thought zo ; darned if I ant a got ee both 
 now ; how many have ee cotched, and what 
 have ye dooed wi' 'em ? hid 'em away, I'll 
 war'n ee, in some fuzz-hole or other ; hut, my 
 life for't, I'll mak' ye tell. I h'ant a going to 
 pay four score pounds a year for thickee 
 warrin and git nort out o't hut old fuzz and 
 fags ! Where d'ye come for, and where bee 
 going, I zay ? — and the rabbits yeu've a 
 fanged, where be they to ? " 
 
 All this was said almost in a breath, as the 
 powerful fellow planted himself, cudgel in 
 hand, directly in front of the two boys, and, 
 seizing the net as it hung on Frank's shoulder, 
 intercepted their farther progress towards the 
 hollow combe. 
 
 " Let go my net," said Frank, indignantly; 
 " I bought it to carry a fox that was caught 
 yesterday, and have not meddled with a single 
 rabbit." And the boy held manfully on to 
 one end of the net, with his left foot advanced 
 and a defiant air. Harry, too, grasped hold 
 of it at the same time, making the warrener 
 quickly to understand they were no ordinary 
 curs he had to deal with, and that, if he would
 
 FRANK EALEIGH. 75 
 
 Win the net, he must do battle with both of 
 them, there and then. 
 
 " Yen'm two potchers ; that's what yon be," 
 said the man, raising his heavy stick dehbe- 
 rately in the air, but hesitating a moment ere 
 he brought it to bear on one of the boys' 
 heads. 
 
 " No, we're not," said Frank ; " I've told 
 you the truth. My name is Raleigh ; and 
 you may summon me if you like ; but don't 
 strike me with that stick," 
 
 " Ealeigh be yen ca'd ? " said the warrener, 
 with the utmost surprise, as he gradually fe- 
 laxed his hold on the net and dropped the 
 cudgel to his side ; " any kin to he o' Water- 
 combe, young man ? " 
 
 " I'm his son," replied Frank, regaining 
 possession of the net. " We lost our way last 
 night in crossing the moor ; got stogged in 
 the mires, and are now returning to Buckbury 
 as we best can." 
 
 " The Squire's son, be you ? — why fai', zo 
 yeu be ! What a fule I was not to ha' zeed 
 that afore ! Why, yeu'm the living daps of 
 un in the vace ; I zee that, begorz, plain 
 enow ! "
 
 76 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 As changes the hue of heaven in summer 
 when a thunder-cloud has passed away, so 
 quickly did the dark face of the farmer relax 
 at this discovery into a serene and almost 
 benignant smile. Finding the boys were half 
 famished from want of food, he invited them 
 with great heartiness to accompany him to 
 the farmhouse and partake of the best fare he 
 could offer, namely, bread, cheese, and Cock- 
 agee cider — which last, he averred, would 
 warm them down to the very toes of their 
 " beuts." 
 
 Led by the farmer, whose maledictions on 
 his own stupidity were not only profuse, but 
 comically provincial, the boys on approaching 
 the farmstead beheld, with no little wonder, a 
 raven seated on the summit of the entrance 
 porch, pluming his feathers and expanding 
 his wings, as if to welcome the arrival of the 
 master of the house and his two guests. 
 
 " It's the same bird ; I'll swear it ! " said 
 Frank, stopping short and staring at the bird 
 almost with dismay. 
 
 "Is, is; that's our old Ralph," exclaimed 
 the farmer ; " us have a had un now up seven 
 years come next ship-shearing ; he's a rale
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 77 
 
 old 'orsebud, and ate'th more vlesh in a wick 
 than znm volk do in a year. But there, yen 
 zee, he kipth off the pixies from coming aneest 
 our groun's. Zo, yeu've a zeed un afore, 
 have ee, young gen'lemen ? " 
 
 ''Yes, up near the turf-ties," said Frank, 
 " at break of day ; he was very busy getting 
 his breakfast on the ribs of a dead horse, 
 stogged in the mire." 
 
 "Our old horse, Sober Robin, I'll war'n ee ; 
 us have a lost un up ten days or more ; and 
 I zed then that that black varmint wid be the 
 fust to find un ; and zo he hath. There's 
 never a hound in the Squire's cry hath a nose 
 like he. But, do ye walk in, gen'lemen, and 
 I hop' yeu won't look for compliments." 
 
 With a knife apiece in hand and excellent 
 fare before them, the cravings of nature 
 were soon appeased by the hungry boys, 
 who again and again were invited to "kip 
 on cutting, and not to wait for compliments." 
 Above all, the Cockagee cider, rich in colour, 
 full of body, and so delicious in flavour, did 
 its work of restoration with rare effect, re- 
 animating their spirits, and imparting fresh 
 life to their wearied limbs.
 
 78 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 " The finest cider I ever drank," said Frank, 
 giving the liquor its due praise ; " I've often 
 heard of Cockagee, but never tasted it before." 
 
 " Then do ee tak' anither half-pint, zur ; 
 'tis fine trade and will do ee no harm, I'll 
 war'n ye. I dursn't trust a zoul in the liouze 
 to dra' it but mysel' or my son Harry ; and 
 when he goe'th to the zellar, I kip un a 
 whistling there and back again, and zo, yeu 
 zee, he an't got time to drink the zider." 
 
 The rattle of a horse's heels, coming up 
 the granite road in front of the house, now 
 attracted their attention ; when the warrener, 
 going to the window, announced with a loud 
 exclamation of surprise that Dr. Host was- 
 riding " like a mazed man " towards the 
 barton ; saying, as he watched him, " I 
 can't tell what ail'th un ; us ha' got no 
 zick folk here, and don't want no doctor ; 
 and I'm zure, for mysel', I'd rayther die a 
 natural death than zee one o' em to my bed- 
 side." 
 
 In another second the doctor reined up his 
 horse at the porch door.
 
 FKANK RALEian. 79 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " It cannot be that thou art gone ! 
 Thy vesper-bell hath not yet tolled, 
 And thou wert aye a masker bold ! 
 What strange disguise hast now put on, 
 To make believe that thou art gone ? " 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 The arrival of a visitor at so early an hour, 
 and that, too, of a man who only made his 
 appearance at Honey combe Head in cases of 
 emergency, so perplexed the warrener that, 
 before the doctor could alight from his saddle, 
 he rushed out to meet him at the porch door, 
 and eagerly demanded the object of his un- 
 expected visit. 
 
 " Grlad to zee yeu, doctor ; but I reckon 
 yeu'm a come to the wrong houze thes time : 
 the'm all zound and healthy indoors, zo var ; 
 thoff I can't zay how long they'll bide zo." 
 
 " I'm not come on a professional visit," said 
 the doctor, still keeping his seat in the saddle ;
 
 80 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 " but to ask yoTi to join me in searching the 
 moor for two young gentlemen who ought to 
 have returned to Buckbury School last night, 
 and, we fear, have been lost in the mires." 
 
 " Then, doctor, yeu may zo well 'light from 
 yeur boss ; they b'ant in no mires now ; 
 they'm indoors, zafe enow, getting zome lap 
 and tackle, and nit a happerth the wuss, 
 I zim, for the company they've a kipt up 
 in they mires." 
 
 " In your house now ? " inquired Host, 
 with unfeigned dehght. " Why, I've ridden 
 fifty miles in search of them since eleven 
 o'clock last night, and all the while they've 
 been safe and sound under your hospitable 
 roof." 
 
 '' I didn't zay zo, doctor ; the'm on'y just a 
 come to our houze. I zeed 'em up in the new- 
 take fust, and I zaid that be two potchers, 
 sure enow, arter our rabbits ; and I'll clink 
 'em both, or my name's not John Mumford. 
 But, faix, I zoon vound they was gen'lemen ; 
 and I zeed by the mux all ovver 'em that 
 they'd a bin trapesing about all night in 
 our gurt mires, and had failed in wi' th' 
 pixies or zum wishtness or other ; zo I axed
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 81 
 
 'em in, to cheer 'em up a bit with zummat to 
 ate and a drap o' our Cockagee zider. But, 
 walk in, zur, do ye, and ha' a tell wi' em 
 yoursel'." 
 
 Before the farmer had quite finished his 
 story, the doctor, having already quitted his 
 saddle and affixed the bridle-rein of his horse 
 to a hook near the porch door — a cold berth 
 to which many a steed of his could assign its 
 chronic cough and death-knell — entered the 
 house ; and there, true enough, were the 
 two boys, still working away at the brown 
 loaf and blue vinny, and helping down that' 
 welcome but still somewhat dry food with 
 copious draughts of the Cockagee cider, for 
 which the Honey combe orchard was so famous. 
 
 " All's well that ends well," said the doctor, 
 seizing Frank's hand, and expressing his 
 fervent gratitude that no worse mishap had 
 befallen them than a night's lodging in the 
 bogs. He then listened with great interest 
 to the tale of their adventures, which, from 
 the barbarous capture of the fox by Tom 
 French, to its subsequent enlargement in the 
 deep earths of King's Wood, their bewilder- 
 ment after the storm, the danger and ex- 
 voL. I. a
 
 82 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 hanstion they underwent by mistaking the 
 bog-lights for those of Honey combe Head, 
 and, finally, the rough reception they had at 
 first met with, owing to their suspicious 
 appearance in the warren inclosure, Frank 
 related with all the force of fresh impressions 
 and plain words. " So, doctor," said he, 
 warming up under the influence of the 
 Cockagee spirit, " I quite agree with you 
 that this is a good finish to a bad start, 
 and a very pleasant end to the troubles of 
 the night." 
 
 " But the end is not yet," said his com- 
 panion, Harry Somers, who was looking 
 forward with gloomy apprehension to the 
 punishment awaiting them at the merciless 
 hands of Dr. Twigg. " We shall probably 
 be expelled, and that would at once put an 
 extinguisher on all hope of the exhibition, 
 or scholarship, for which I have so long 
 worked." 
 
 " No, no ! " cried the doctor ; " he could 
 never expel you for what has clearly been 
 your misfortune rather than your fault. The 
 holiday was your own ; and if, by an accident, 
 you failed to return at the usual hour, he is
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 83 
 
 bound, I tliink, to accept your explanation 
 and take no serious notice of the matter." 
 
 " Besides," added Frank, " Gaffer Twigg 
 isn't the man to bite his own nose off. He'll 
 never kick us out and empty two beds, if he 
 can help it ; not likely ! Otherwise, if his 
 own interest were not at stake, I dare say he 
 would treat us like two hounds that had been 
 killing sheep, and get rid of us altogether. 
 But for myself, whatever the sentence, it 
 won't affect my commission one way or the 
 other ; and that he probably knows." 
 
 " They are not very particular at the 
 Horse Guards, I am aware," said the doctor ; 
 " though I should think that expulsion from 
 a King Edward's School would scarcely be a 
 recommendation even in that quarter." 
 
 '• It's well enough for you, Frank, to meet 
 the matter lightly," said Harry, still harping 
 on their expected doom ; " but my prospects 
 in life will be utterly ruined if I am expelled 
 from this school." 
 
 The first and best plums of the Universities 
 at that period were given almost exclusively 
 either to boys who had been educated at 
 certain schools, and had brought with them
 
 84 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 a favourable report of tlieir conduct and 
 acquirements from the head-master, or to 
 those who could prove their descent, lineal 
 or collateral, from certain founders ; or even 
 produce a certificate that they had been born 
 in certain localities ; fulfilling these condi- 
 tions, the candidates for an exhibition or 
 scholarship, no matter how able their oppo- 
 nents, walked over the course. 
 
 It is true the words cceteris paribus, as used 
 by the examiners, were intended to denote 
 fair play to the outsiders ; but in reality 
 when such were allowed to enter in the 
 race, no matter what their form, they were 
 simply nowhere — the competition was a sham. 
 
 At one college, indeed, before a candidate 
 could become a Fellow, his qualification de- 
 pended on his being bene natus, bene vestitus, 
 mediocriter doctus. So that, however thread- 
 bare his learning, he might still be eligible, if 
 his coat was well cut and his lineage un- 
 questionable. Who, of his standing, can ever 
 forget Jack Morgan's failure, when, not know- 
 ing himself, his evil genius led him to become 
 a candidate for a Fellowship at this exclusive 
 college ?
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 85 
 
 Alas ! poor Jack, tlioiigli heir to a princely 
 estate in the principality, was a man of 
 extremely careful and parsimonious liabits ; 
 his coat, cut by his own village tailor, was 
 rustic in the extreme ; and even his " acade- 
 micals," purchased at a second-hand shop, 
 were so dingy that his fellow-collegians, 
 when " doing " the High Street or the 
 Broad Walk, were shy of being caught in 
 his company. The gift of seeing himself as 
 others saw him had certainly not been vouch- 
 safed to Jack, or he never would have 
 attempted the rash act of entering the 
 list against competitors who, compared with 
 him, were as Hyperion to a satyr. The 
 examiners, with sarcastic emphasis, gave him 
 full credit for fulfilling the first and last of 
 the founder's conditions ; but on the point of 
 being bene vestitus were compelled to pro- 
 nounce him ineligible. But he would not 
 take the hint, and, abjuring all sacrifice to 
 the graces, remained steadfast to his country 
 tailor from the day of his matriculation to 
 that on which he donned his gown, and 
 quitted the University. 
 
 But to return to the party at Honeycombe
 
 86 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 Head. The farmer, whose sympathy for Harry 
 had been deeply moved by the picture of ruin 
 drawn by the boy, and jumping to the con- 
 clusion that the head-master must indeed be 
 a monster of cruelty if he treated a pupil in 
 this merciless way, expressed his belief that 
 Dr. Twigg was far better fitted to manage a 
 gang of convicts than the young gentlemen 
 committed to his charge. " And I don't care 
 a farden who know'th it," he added. '' Ef he 
 zarve'th yeu zo, let un go where a will for 
 his four-year-old Dartimoor mutton ; he'll 
 never zee wan o' my wethers 'pon his table- 
 board more ; naw, nor it a vat geuse at 
 Christmas, so long as he liv'th, agen." 
 
 " How are you off for foxes, Mumford, on 
 this side of the moor?" inquired Host, by 
 way of turning the conversation to a more 
 agreeable subject. " You've a litter in the 
 combe, no doubt, as usual ? " 
 
 " Iss, fai' ; wan, ef not teu ; and I hop' th' 
 Squire wa'nt be lang arter harvest avore he 
 tackles zum o' 'em ; they'm up now zo big as 
 ram cats, and will be picking up the chicken 
 zoon, I reckon ; an' ef they do, and the 
 mistiss com'th to know it, begorz, I may zo
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 87 
 
 well go upon tramp at once as bide home 
 here ; her'll be like an untied thing, her will." 
 Of the many warrens in and around Dart- 
 moor, that occupied by John Mumford was 
 notably the only one on which foxes were 
 suffered to lay up their young in peace and 
 security ; and although by the most truculent 
 of his fraternity poison was rarely used, yet 
 trap, terrier, and gun did the fatal work but 
 too effectually on every other warren through- 
 out the country. It was Mumford's boast 
 that so long as he had a rabbit to carry to 
 Plymouth market he hoped to have a fox. to 
 show the Squire. But in accomplishing this 
 object he had indeed a rough time of it at 
 home ; and something more than a civil war 
 was carried on between him and Mrs. Mum- 
 ford. Whenever a fowl was missed from the 
 barton, or a ewe discovered in the flock 
 without its accompanying lamb, man though 
 he was to the backbone when opposed to 
 man, yet, if truth be told, when a depreda- 
 tion of that kind was attributed, however 
 unjustly, to the foxes, he would rather have 
 skulked into a coal-cellar than have faced his 
 scolding spouse at such a time.
 
 88 FRANK RALEiaH. 
 
 Hearing a step upon the staircase at this 
 instant he held up his forefinger, and with 
 'bated breath said, ''There, doctor, nit another 
 word about they voxes ; that's my mistiss 
 avoot, and ef her smell'th out what us ha' been 
 telHng about, I widn't zay what zoart o' a 
 welcome herd give to one o' ye." 
 
 It was quite true. Mrs. Mumford, dis- 
 turbed by the noise of strange voices in the 
 house, and wondering much what it could all 
 mean at that early hour, was descending the 
 stairs with a heavy, measured tread, every 
 step of which sounded so ominous to Mum- 
 ford's ears that it changed the very expression 
 of his face and even the tone of his voice, as 
 if he had been suddenly taken with a para- 
 lytic seizure. But before we introduce the 
 lady farther to the reader, let us revert to the 
 sensation created, not only at the schoolhouse, 
 but in the town of Buckbury, by the non- 
 return of the two boys after their outing on 
 the moor on the previous day. 
 
 Dr. Twigg having been present at the roll- 
 call, was among the first to discover their 
 absence, and as it was his usual habit to lock 
 up the house at ten o'clock, and retire soon
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 89 
 
 after to liis sleeping apartment for the niglit, 
 his anxiety became positively painful when 
 that hour had arrived, and the coming of the 
 boys was still delayed. All manner of sur- 
 mises crossed his mind, as, lingering in his 
 den with lighted taper and gate keys in hand, 
 he endeavoured to account for their non- 
 appearance ; but being unable to arrive at one 
 satisfactory conclusion, he rang his bell and 
 summoned Mrs. Hopkins to his aid in this 
 perplexing emergency. 
 
 " No, sir, I'm sure," said the housekeeper, 
 whose kindly nature prompted her to speak 
 out pretty freely when no third person was 
 present ; "I shouldn't like to see the doors 
 bolted and barred against the young gentle- 
 men ; besides, the streets are aflood with rain, 
 and it would kill both of them to be locked 
 out in such a night as this. I'll sit up 
 willingly till daylight ; and then, come wlien 
 they will, they'll be fine and hungry, poor 
 fellows, and will want food to a certainty." 
 
 " You can sit up if you choose, Mrs. Hop- 
 kins," replied the pedagogue, only too glad to 
 find so ready a substitute in his trustworthy 
 servant ; "but you have my positive orders to
 
 90 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 supply tliem with no food from my larder ; 
 they know my rules, and, whatever their need, 
 must abide by them." 
 
 Mrs. Hopkins was far too clever a tactician 
 to call the doctor a brute to his face, however 
 inclined she might have been to do so on 
 receiving that hard-hearted mandate ; so she 
 answered in the gentlest tone, " Yery well, 
 sir, if that's your order it shall be obeyed ; " 
 but at the same time she mentally resolved 
 that, although debarred from supplying the 
 food from their own larder, the truants should 
 not go without their supper. She would pop 
 on her bonnet as soon as the doctor had 
 retired, and get a supply from the Red Lion, 
 which, kept by a naval pensioner, she knew 
 would be open at any hour on the night of 
 the " Glorious First of June." " I only hope," 
 she continued with a sigh, " that no mishap 
 has befallen the boys. Somers, they say, 
 can't swim ; and Raleigh is so daring a lad at 
 that fishing work that, likely enough, he has 
 dropped into a hole and dragged the other in 
 with him. That's my fear, and I can't help 
 saying so;" and again Mrs. Hopkins expressed 
 her anxiety by a succession of deep sighs.
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 91 
 
 " Far more likely," said the doctor, as lie 
 handed the ponderous keys to his housekeeper, 
 " that Kaleigh has absconded, and tempted 
 the other to accompany him. Not a lesson 
 has that boy learned for a fortnight ; and, in 
 addition to his idle, fly-making habits, he 
 would, if he dared, be insubordinate, and 
 break out into open rebellion. No, no ; he's 
 not drowned. He's gone home to Water- 
 combe, no great distance across the moor ; 
 that's where he is, safe enough, take my word 
 for it, and there I hope he'll stay." 
 
 " I'm sure, sir," said Mrs. Hopkins, " I 
 should be long sorry not to see his pleasant 
 face here again. He's only a bit high-spirited, 
 that's all ; there's no vice in the lad, riot a 
 grain." 
 
 The doctor made no reply, but signifying 
 his dissent by that ominous jerk of the head 
 which, though it said nothing, implied a great 
 deal, he stalked off to his chamber. Mrs. 
 Hopkins' bonnet was on her head in a twink- 
 ling, and without considering whether it 
 would not be prudent for her to give the 
 doctor time to unrobe and settle himself in, 
 she started forth on her merciful errand with- 
 out a moment's delay.
 
 92 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 On approaching the Red Lion, long known 
 as the chief inn and posting-house in the town 
 of Buckbury, the sounds of song and wassail 
 rang upon her ear. The door stood invitingly 
 open, but Mrs. Hopkins, although a woman 
 not wanting in courage nor easily deterred 
 from her purpose, hesitated on the threshold, 
 as if unwilling either to interrupt the revel- 
 ling or to be seen abroad at such an hour. 
 While thus momentarily uncertain as to the 
 course she had best adopt, a gentleman 
 brushing by her entered the house, and turn- 
 ing as he did so inquired if she was waiting 
 for anybody, or if there was anything he 
 could do for her inside. 
 
 Grreat was her relief on recognizing the 
 voice of the speaker as that of Mr. Host ; for 
 the dim oil lamp suspended over the door 
 gave her no aid, but served rather to make 
 the surrounding darkness even more visible. 
 " Thank goodness, doctor ! " she exclaimed 
 fervently, " it is you. Yes, you can do me a 
 great service. Two of our young gentlemen, 
 Raleigh and Somers, are missing. They left 
 this morning for a day's fishing on the moor, 
 and if nothing has happened to them they
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 93 
 
 may come in at any moment. But they'll be 
 hungry enough, poor fellows ; and I have had 
 strict orders not to give them even a crust of 
 bread out of our larder. Yet they had a 
 holiday given them ; and if from some un- 
 known cause they have been unable to keep 
 our time, that's no reason why they should be 
 pinched with hunger and thirst, like brute 
 beasts shut up in a parish pinfold. So, 
 doctor, I thought, as master went off to bed, 
 I'd just step to the Ked Lion and get some 
 bread and meat and white-ale for them." 
 
 " Quite right, too, Mrs. Hopkins ; to go to 
 bed after a. hard day's work on an empty 
 stomach would be no joke to two growing 
 boys. But come in, and we'll soon see what 
 the house can afford. I am myself as hungry 
 as a hound; been out at Badgerford all day 
 with a labourer's wife, who, poor soul, but for 
 the groats and brandy I carried in my pocket, 
 wouldn't have had a drop of caudle to carry 
 her through her troubles; but I left her and 
 a fine bouncing boy doing well, I'm happy 
 to say." 
 
 They then entered the inn together; but 
 the doctor, who had himself come for his
 
 94 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 supper, lifting, as lie came to it, tlie corner of 
 a curtain hanging over the bar-window and 
 taking a survey of the inmates, consisting of 
 four or five country gentlemen, all drinking 
 brandy-and- water, and all more or less inebri- 
 ated, passed on towards the tap-room — that 
 back portion of the premises assigned to the 
 servants and lower class of customers fre- 
 quenting the inn. Up to this point, owing to 
 the noisy conversation going on in the bar, 
 and the still greater uproar prevailing in the 
 tap-room, where the sound of song and merri- 
 ment shook the very rafters of the house, the 
 doctor had failed to attract the attention of a 
 single individual belonging to the establish- 
 ment. On opening the door, however, of the 
 latter apartment he was instantly observed 
 by the waiter, who alone of the motley party 
 remained unseated, as if he held himself in 
 readiness to answer the summons of the bar 
 bell at a moment's notice. 
 
 " What can I do for you, sir ? " inquired 
 the man, eager to serve the doctor, who was 
 every man's servant in turn. 
 
 " Mrs. Hopkins is here," responded the 
 doctor, "and requires some food for two
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 95 
 
 young gentlemen whom she is expecting to 
 
 return from the moor ; and I " 
 
 Before the doctor could express his own 
 wants the waiter interrupted him by saying, 
 " Why, that must be the same youngsters 
 Tom French has just been telling about ; he 
 sold them a fox, and has come here to spend 
 a groat or two of the money. Hark'ee, sir, 
 that's he a-tuning up ' Uncle Tom Cobley,' 
 and that's the sixth song he has sung since 
 supper." 
 
 " Then that man can perhaps give us some 
 direct information as to the course they took 
 when he last parted with them," suggested 
 Mrs. Hopkins, " and possibly may be able to 
 account for their prolonged absence. At all 
 events, I should like to question him on the 
 subject." 
 
 "By all means, ma'am," said the waiter, 
 instantly making the best of his way through 
 a crowd of revellers, who, by the liberality of 
 the landlord, were celebrating the "' Glorious 
 First of June " with unlimited cider and jugs 
 of white-ale tuned to perfection. 
 
 " Here, Tom," shouted the waiter ; " here's 
 Doctor Host and a lady outside waiting to
 
 96 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 speak to you ; so look sharp and finish your 
 song." 
 
 " It's zummut about the vixen, I reckon," 
 whispered Tom to his next neighbour, for his 
 conscience had already told him that the 
 hounds of retribution would be after him 
 some day for his cruel use of that foul screw. 
 But he continued singing " Uncle Tom Cob- 
 ley " down to the last verse. 
 
 " Where be they to, Jonas ? " inquired the 
 moor-man, preparing to follow the waiter, but 
 detained at every step by his fellow-bacchanals 
 calling on him to take a pull out of their seve- 
 ral cups, as a complimentary tribute to his 
 good company and vocal power. But Tom, 
 convivial though he was on all occasions, was 
 no sot, and treated his friends' cups as a coy 
 maiden would have done — touched them with 
 his lips and no more. 
 
 " I hop' I zee your honour well ? " said he, 
 pulling his forelock deferentially, and making 
 his best bow to the doctor and Mrs. Hopkins 
 as he stepped into the passage. 
 
 '' Thank 'ee, Tom, I never was better, and 
 my business with you is soon explained. Be 
 good enough to tell us when you last saw and
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 97 
 
 where you left the two young gentlemen you 
 met on the moor this morning ? " 
 
 " Aw ! they as wanted to fight and I widn't 
 let 'em ; Squire Ealeigh's zun and anither ? " 
 
 " The same, no doubt." 
 
 " Well," answered the moor-man cautiously, 
 " the last time I zeed 'em they was mak'ing 
 their way ovver Langham Marsh-clitter, wi' 
 their nozes aiming vor Benjay Tor ; that was 
 zix o'clock and arter, I reckon. B'ain't they 
 home yt, then ? " 
 
 " No," said Mrs. Hopkins, " not yet, and I 
 very much fear some accident has occurred 
 to prevent them ; one or the other may per- 
 haps have been drowned in the Dart." 
 
 " Nit they ; I glimps'd 'em clear enow o' 
 th' river ; more like they've a vailed in wi' 
 the pixies and got stogged up in the Black 
 Stable." 
 
 Tom alluded to a dangerous bog lying 
 between Aune and Erme Head, which, when 
 the chase passes that way, is apt to detain the 
 stoutest steeds up to their girths in mire, and 
 hence its designation by the moor-men as the 
 "Black Stable." 
 
 " God forbid ! " exclaimed Mrs. Hopkins, 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 thoroughly terrified by the bare chance of 
 such a catastrophe ; " I'm sure, then, I hope 
 my master may be right. He thinks they 
 went straight home to Water combe." 
 
 "Or they might have called in at Heather- 
 cote," suggested the doctor, " and been invited 
 to supper by the fair widow and her daugh- 
 ter ; and if so, small blame to them if they 
 make the most of such comfortable quarters. 
 However, I've a fresh horse in my stable, and 
 if the boys are above ground I'll find them 
 out before the morning light breaks upon 
 Hey Tor." 
 
 So the kind-hearted, indefatigable village 
 doctor snapped up a sandwich hastily cut for 
 him, and mounting a ten-pound broken-kneed 
 hack — which, as it had profited by the unusual 
 rest of twenty-four hours, he vainly called a 
 fresh horse — he dashed forth into the night 
 and rode direct for Heather cote. 
 
 The narrow and intricate Devonshire lanes 
 through which he passed, being more like 
 underground tunnels without their arches 
 than ordinary parish roads, would have com- 
 pletely puzzled a less experienced man than 
 himself to keep the right course on that dark,
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 99 
 
 starless night. Nevertheless, notwithstand- 
 ing the np-hill and down-dale character of the 
 country, and the execrable condition of the 
 roads, the surface of which was seamed like a 
 gridiron on either side by deep cart-ruts, and 
 studded with as many rolling stones in the 
 centre as the bed of a mountain torrent, the 
 doctor kept his willing hack in a hand canter, 
 and did the three miles in twenty minutes, 
 without trouble either to himself or horse. 
 
 On arriving at the lawn gate, however, it 
 was found to be already chained and pad- 
 locked for the night — a precaution adopted by 
 the family on retiring to rest in order to guard 
 their beautiful flower garden against the in- 
 roads of the gipsies, whose donkeys were apt 
 to pay it an unwelcome visit from their neigh- 
 bouring camp. While pausing at the barrier, 
 in momentary doubt as to whether he should 
 disturb the inmates or proceed on his mission 
 direct to Watercombe, a lady's voice, only 
 a few yards from him, inquired in a gentle, 
 timid tone, " Who's there ? " and " What do 
 you want ? " 
 
 " It is I, Mr. Host, of Buckbury," responded 
 the doctor, recognizing at once the voice of
 
 100 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 Mrs. Cornisli, the fair widow of Heathercote, 
 who, on this the anniversary of her husband's 
 death, was still pacing the parterre in sombre 
 and sleepless mood. " I am sorry to intrude 
 upon you, madam, at such an hour," con- 
 tinued the doctor ; " but my object in doing 
 so is to inquire if by any chance you have 
 seen or heard aught of Raleigh and Somers, 
 two schoolboys, who, after an outing on the 
 moor, have not yet returned to Buckbury." 
 
 " Nothing whatever, Mr. Host, of either ; 
 and it pains me to hear such anxious news. 
 Young Raleigh is a friend of mine ; and as I 
 asked Dr. Twigg to give the lads a holiday, 
 I cannot but consider myself the indirect 
 cause of their absence. However, I earnestly 
 hope no serious mischief has occurred to 
 either." 
 
 "So do I, ma'am ; but Tom French the fox- 
 killer thinks they must have been trapped 
 in the bogs ; while Dr. Twigg leans to the 
 belief that the boys have bolted and gone 
 home to "Watercombe, whither, as I have not 
 been fortunate enough to find them here, I 
 shall proceed at once in search of them." 
 
 " And I'll send my gardener and his boy
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 101 
 
 up to Anne Head at break of day; but 
 Heaven forbid such a fate should have 
 befallen them ! " 
 
 The doctor then took his leave, and, bidding 
 the lady a good-night, was quickly again in 
 full swing, with his horse's head pointing 
 direct for Watercombe. Many a mile, how- 
 ever, of 
 
 " Mosses, waters, slaps, and styles," 
 
 had he to traverse ere he reached the bridle- 
 path leading by the white walls of the kennel 
 to the front of the huntsman's house. This 
 was not only the nearest road, but, as it was 
 laid with loose granite sand, the doctor hoped 
 thus to approach the outbuildings and obtain 
 the information he required without disturb- 
 ing the family at the mansion by the noisy 
 clatter of his horse's heels on the harder 
 carriage-road beyond. 
 
 But the step of his steed was a strange one 
 to the wakeful sentinels enclosed within those 
 whitewashed walls, and a roar of angry 
 tongues, with less of music in the sound than 
 the doctor had ever heard before, burst upon 
 his ear, and brought every soul in the hunts-
 
 102 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 man's cottage to the open bed-room windows 
 in a moment of time. 
 
 " Who'ze there and who be yen, a-ronsing 
 up the hoimds, like a fule, at this time o' 
 night ? " demanded the huntsman, savagely ; 
 and, without waiting for an answer, proceeded 
 to say: " They'm a-going a otter-hunting 
 at zix o'clock to New-Bridge, and they w'ant 
 be fitty vor the day's work, I tell 'ee, ef yeu 
 bide here a-turmoiling 'em avore dayslight; 
 zo, go yeur ways, du 'ee now." 
 
 He then rang a bell, which, suspended over 
 the hounds' benches, had the instantaneous 
 effect of quieting the uproar and producing a 
 dead silence throughout the kennel. By that 
 time Host had brought his horse to a stand- 
 still directly under the cottage windows. 
 
 " Hold hard, Ben," he said ; " you don't 
 often make a bad cast nor rate a wrong hound ; 
 but there, it's as dark as pitch, and I forgive 
 you this time." 
 
 The nerves of Ben's ear were exquisitely 
 strung, and enabled him, however deep the 
 cover, not only to distinguish the tongue 
 of every hound in the pack, but to tell what 
 game was afoot on which a hound was speak-
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 103 
 
 ing ; so, instantly recognizing the voice, he 
 replied, "• Well, doctor, yen must plaize ex- 
 coose me ; I spok'd out a bit hurrisome, avore 
 I know'd who 'twas. But what be com' vor, 
 zur ? I hop' it ain't that nimpingang in the 
 Squire's niddick ; 'twas a near titch for un 
 last time, I reckon." 
 
 Ben alluded to a dangerous boil, or car- 
 buncle, that had been skilfully excised by the 
 doctor's knife ; but on that score he was not 
 allowed to remain a moment in doubt. " No, 
 no, Ben ; nothing of that sort now. I came 
 to inquire if Master Frank and a friend of his 
 had found their way to Watercombe, inst'ead 
 of returning to Buckbury School last night, 
 as they were expected ? " 
 
 " I was up to the houze vor orders zoon 
 arter ten, and they wasn't a-come then, I 
 know," replied the huntsman, " or I should a 
 heered tell o' it in the hall." 
 
 " Then Tom French must be right ; they 
 have certainly missed their way on the moor ; 
 so I shall ride back straight for Honeycombe 
 Head, and get John Mumford to go and 
 search for them with me." 
 
 So saying the doctor again started on his
 
 104 FRANK EALEIGH. 
 
 errand of help ; nor did he pause to hear the 
 hard words rapped out by Ben at the bare 
 mention of the fox-killer's name. The suc- 
 cessful result of the ride to Honeycombe is 
 already known to the reader.
 
 FKAXK RALEIGH. 105 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 " Wives," said Dan'el, "be like pilchards ; when they be good, 
 they be only middlin' ; but when they be bad, they he bad, sure 
 'nough." — Daniel Quokm. 
 
 The doctor, having fairly run into his game 
 at Honeycombe Head, and refreshed himself 
 with a hearty pull at the Cockagee cider, 
 clutched his hat the moment he heard the 
 footstep of Mrs. Mumford descending the 
 staircase ; while, at the same time, the long- 
 legged, wiry lurcher, that had hitherto sat 
 quietly on his haunches, watching for and 
 catching at the occasional crumbs that fell 
 from the table, suddenly exhibited a restless, 
 terrified look, and, as the door was opened, 
 scuttled out of the room like a thing demented. 
 But, quick as he was, a toe in his ribs sent 
 him howling away, as he brushed by the 
 petticoats of Mrs. Mumford and darted into 
 the open yard.
 
 106 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 "To doors, Sheplierd ! " screamed the virago 
 in his rear. " Yen may zo well live in a 
 kennel 't once, as in thes houze, doctor ; for, 
 du and zay what I will, Mmnford won't 
 hearken to me, he's took'd up wi' that fulthy 
 great dog zo." 
 
 "He finds him a useful companion, no 
 doubt," observed the doctor, as he rose from 
 his chair and invited her to occupy the vacant 
 seat. 
 
 "Useful, du yeu call un, doctor ? He'th a 
 killed every cat us a got. Ef he zeeth one a 
 yard away vrom the houze, 'tis all up wi' un. 
 Why, 'twas on'y a week agone he scrattled a 
 fine black Tom us had a reared, though I had 
 un altered to kip un home ; but 'twasn't a 
 mossel o' good. The hempen toad ! I wish 
 he was dead, I du." 
 
 Mrs. Mumford, in her eagerness to eject the 
 dog, had not perceived that the room was 
 occupied by more visitors than the doctor, or 
 she might probably have modified the vitupe- 
 rative tone in which she had indulged before 
 the two young gentlemen, who were utter 
 strangers to her. However, the little woman, 
 who, with her fair complexion and finely cut
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 107 
 
 features, could show, when her temper per- 
 mitted it, not only a comely but a very pretty 
 face, was sufficiently self-possessed to exhibit 
 the pleasant side of it the moment she saw 
 the boys. No Proteu's could have changed 
 the form of his visage or the tone of his 
 tongue with less effort or more effect, as she 
 said, with the blandest of smiles, " Kip yeur 
 seat, doctor, du ye. Us an't a zeed ee up to 
 Honeycombe ever zo long; and now yeu'm 
 come, I hop' yeull sit a bit. But where d'ye 
 come for, doctor, and where be going our- 
 ways c 
 
 " Going no farther, Mrs. Mumford, in this 
 direction. I've already been on the tramp all 
 night, and must now get back to Buckbury 
 for my day's work as soon as I can." 
 
 " Off all night, and to work by day? Fai', 
 doctor ! yeu must be tough as bell-wire ef zo 
 be yeu can stand that." 
 
 As, either by inadvertence, or perhaps 
 more probably by design, both Mr. Host and 
 the warrener had omitted to introduce the 
 boys by name to Mrs. Mumford, her curiosity 
 very soon got the better of any scruples she 
 might have felt on the subject, and at once
 
 108 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 prompted her to question the latter in the 
 crudest fashion on that and other points 
 personal to themselves. 
 
 " An' what be yeu ca'd, young gen'lemen ? 
 Yeu'm both strangers, I zim, in these parts ; 
 or leastways I can't zay I ever zeed ye avore 
 to Honey combe." 
 
 " This fellow is called Somers, and my 
 name is Raleigh," answered Frank ; " and 
 though you've never perhaps noticed me, I've 
 often passed through your barton when 
 hunting with my father's hounds." 
 
 The moment John Mumford heard the 
 allusion to hounds a look of unutterable dis- 
 may passed over his countenance, and ex- 
 pressed ten thousand times better than words 
 could have done the alarm he felt at the bare 
 mention of that word in his wife's presence ; 
 for well he knew that, as thunder follows the 
 electric flash, so certain would a storm follow 
 it and, sooner or later, break on his devoted 
 head. For years it had been the starting 
 point of many an angry broil between them ; 
 and her argument that hounds brought foxes 
 into the country instead of killing them, 
 always ended in a serious rupture between
 
 FRANK RALEIOH. 109 
 
 the man and his wife. On several occasions 
 Mr. Host had been compelled, sorely against 
 his will, to witness these broils ; and being 
 himself an ardent chasseur and the best friend 
 to fox-hunting on that side of the moor, had 
 naturally, when appealed to, strengthened the 
 husband's hands, and had even managed to 
 do so with so much tact that he not only gave 
 no offence, but was regarded with high favour 
 by this veritable vixen. 
 
 " Zo yeu be wan o' they fox-hunters to 
 Watercombe, be yeu, young gen'leman ? " she 
 said, deliberately. " Then I hop' yeu'll zay 
 to yeur father that I've a lost, first and last 
 this spring, up forty chicken, true black-reds, 
 and all com'd of Squire Fowell's soart, ten or 
 a dizzen goslings, and zix turkeys ; and ef 
 Mumford wid on'y spake out like a man, up 
 zix or zeven lambs zo well. But there, if 
 they voxes was to pick my bones, he widn't 
 knaw nor widn't care nought about it; not he, 
 not a far den cake." 
 
 ''I'll tell my father, certainly," said Frank; 
 " and I've no doubt when he knows it he will 
 be quite ready to pay for all the damage done." ' 
 
 This soft answer and prospect of compensa-
 
 110 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 tion would have turned away tlie wrath of 
 most people; but Mrs. Mumford's temper, 
 when recounting her loss by the foxes, was 
 always so bitter and vicious that, if death 
 were the penalty, she must deliver herself; 
 and out the venom would come in a torrent 
 of plain, unpolished Saxon epithets, of which 
 she was a perfect mistress. In these tempers, 
 were it not for the relief her tongue brought 
 her, she must certainly have burst under the 
 pressure. 
 
 " An' I'll tak' the last ha'penny he hath, 
 young man ; vor, I've a zed it avore and I'll 
 zay it agen, they voxes be a rale cusse here- 
 about ; and ef they b'ant a checked zoon, I'll 
 zend vor Tom French to tackle 'em, I will, ef 
 I work for the money to pay un wi' from 
 dayslight to candle-doubting ; and, my life 
 vor't, he'll zoon mak' an end o' they nasty 
 varmints, or I'll zee why zo." 
 
 " Never 'pon Honey combe ! " said the hus- 
 band manfully, feeling he had a strong friend 
 at his elbow ; " never, ef I know'th it ; and ef 
 I catch Tom French's voot ovver the drexstool 
 o' my door, begorz ! I'll halve un out to the 
 winder, zee ef I don't."
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. Ill 
 
 Mr. Host, now snatching up Ms hat, signi- 
 fied to the boys it was high time for them to 
 be o£f; and as his ally was about to desert 
 him, John Mumford very discreetly did the 
 same, and, leaving the enemy in possession 
 of the field, retreated, under cover of the 
 doctor's protection, to the more peaceful 
 company of his dog " Shepherd " and the 
 quiet avocation of his out-of-door life. 
 
 It was a glorious specimen of a Devonshire 
 combe, that wood and dingle, through which 
 Host and the two boys were travelling cfn 
 their downward route to the town of Buck- 
 bury. On either side of the steep bridle-road 
 (for as yet no wheels had found their way to 
 Honeycombe, the whole of the farm produce 
 being carried by pack-horses) the ground was 
 literally carpeted with flowers. Foxglove 
 and the purple heather, broom and the golden 
 furze delighted the eye on every spot acces- 
 sible to the sun ; while, under cover of the 
 grand old forest trees, ferns of surpassing 
 beauty clung to their boles, and filled with 
 luxuriant foliage every cranny of the granite 
 rocks on the knolls around. Beneath them, 
 like a belt of silver, the mountain brook.
 
 112 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 swollen by tlie rain of the night and flecked 
 with foam, was rushing downwards in a suc- 
 cession of cascades, as if eager to escape from 
 the solitude of the glens, and see something 
 more of the world in the vale below ; while, in 
 the far distance, stretched a broad expanse of 
 meadows, woods, and uplands, from which at 
 intervals peeped out the rich, red, loamy soil 
 that imparts so warm a tone to the landscape 
 of that fertile land. Then, far as the eye 
 might ken, rolled the glittering sea, with here 
 and there a mighty three-decker — the glory 
 of old England and the terror of her foes — 
 dotting its surface and crowded with canvas, 
 but looking no bigger than a boy's cockle- 
 boat on the distant horizon. 
 
 On arriving at the brook which, before they 
 could reach Buckbury, it was necessary they 
 should cross, the doctor's horse, now stiff and 
 leg-weary from his hard night's work, could 
 with difficulty be persuaded to enter it ; and 
 when by dint of whip and spur he was at 
 length compelled to do so, the poor jaded 
 beast, now up to his girths in the angry flood, 
 must have been fairly swept off" hi^ legs but 
 for the weight on his back and the steady,
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 113 
 
 guiding influence of tlie rider's liand. How- 
 ever, after a short struggle, they both landed 
 in safety on the right side, while the boys, 
 crossing over the stepping-stones above the 
 ford, managed to do so dryshod and without 
 trouble. 
 
 " By-the-by," said the doctor, as he joined 
 his companions, "I never told you that the 
 otter-hounds were to meet at jfSTew-Bridofe 
 this morning ; though, from the condition of 
 the water, I doubt if they'll do much good on 
 that river for a day or two." 
 
 "The otter-hounds at New-Bridge!" shouted 
 Frank, eagerly; "then, come what will of it, 
 I'll give another day to the king ; it's such a 
 jolly meet and such a pleasant draw ; far 
 pleasanter to my taste than those dry Gre orgies 
 which have cost me more headaches than I 
 care to count ; and, moreover, it's a sure find. 
 So come along, Harry ; in for a penny in for 
 a pound ; we may as well be hung for a sheep 
 as a lamb, you know." 
 
 " No, Frank, it would be my ruin," 
 answered his more prudent companion ; " that 
 would be a wilful act of insubordination, which 
 old Twigg would never forgive ; besides, I am 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 now SO tired by our night's wanderings that 
 I couldn't possibly stand the fag ; no, I 
 daren't go ; and you had better think twice, 
 old fellow, before you take such a step. 
 What do you say, doctor ? " 
 
 " Quite right, Somers. At present your 
 only fault is one of misadventure, and there- 
 fore excusable ; but if, without leave or 
 licence, you ' miche ' for a day's hunting, 
 depend upon it. Dr. Twigg's wrath will not 
 be so easily appeased. Then there's the 
 Squire, what would he say to it, eh ? " 
 
 " Say ? Why, that we were two bricks, 
 and entitled to see a good day's sport after 
 such a night's lodging," said Frank, con- 
 fidently ; " and then, when I tell him how 
 we rescued the little vixen out of Tom 
 French's clutches and carried her to the earths 
 of King's Wood, he'll put his hands into his 
 breeches pocket, and send us back with a tip 
 of a guinea a-piece ; that's what my dad will 
 say and do, doctor, to a dead certainty." 
 
 " Then, if he not only permits but en- 
 courages you to play the truant, your father 
 is not the disciplinarian 1 took him to be, 
 that's quite clear," observed the doctor, drily.
 
 FRAXK RALEIGH. 115 
 
 ^' Oh ! ain't lie, though, at home, in the 
 kennel, and in the field ; but he would look 
 upon our absence from school as old Twigg's 
 affair and not his, and would leave him to 
 settle that matter with us in his own way." 
 
 This was quite true ; for the Squire, though 
 scrupulously strict and punctilious in the 
 management of his own business, was equally 
 so in avoiding even the suspicion of inter- 
 ference with that of others ; and, impressed as 
 he was with a high respect for Dr. Twigg's 
 stern discipline and power as a pedagogue, he 
 would have considered it a direct violation of 
 etiquette towards that gentleman, had Ke 
 taken Frank to task while under his control. 
 So the boy, who well knew his father's 
 peculiarity in this respect, had fair grounds 
 for believing he should meet with no rebuff 
 from him for the act of transgression he 
 was about to perpetrate against the rules 
 of the school. 
 
 " Look at that brook, dark as brown stout 
 and rushing like a mill-race," again observed 
 the doctor, eager to dissuade Frank from his 
 purpose ; " if you find your otter, I'll defy 
 you to hunt him in such a flood ; and I can
 
 116 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 hardly fancy the hounds will be sent to the 
 meet." 
 
 " Oh ! yes, they will," argued the boy ; 
 " old Ben will always show his colours, even 
 if he can't fight ; and as to the water, that 
 will probably fine off by mid-day, and the 
 heavy shower that fell at ten last night and 
 flooded this stream may not have touched the 
 Aune Yalley at all. No, doctor, hunting for 
 ever, say I ; and old Twigg and the Greorgics 
 may go to Jericho together." 
 
 The party had now reached the town of 
 Buckbury ; and as Frank, in spite of the 
 doctor's persuasion and Somers' refusal to 
 accompany him, persisted in his determina- 
 tion to cut the Georgics and go to the meet, 
 the doctor, who had promised Mrs. Hopkins 
 that he would find the boys before the sun 
 rose upon Hey-Tor, and had freely sacrificed 
 a night's rest to this laborious task, took little 
 pains to conceal the disappointment he felt on 
 entering the school-house with Somers alone^ 
 while Frank, parting company with them on 
 the very threshold, made the best of his way 
 to the 'Red Lion. 
 
 The click of an old clock, doing duty in
 
 FKANK RALEIGH. 117 
 
 a dark mahogany case, which, if converted 
 into a coffin, might easily have enclosed the 
 mortal remains of the biggest man in Buck- 
 bury, was the only sound that now broke the 
 almost desert stillness of that country inn. 
 Although it was past seven o'clock not a soul 
 was astir after the night's wassail except 
 Jonas, the waiter ; and he, having opened the 
 front door, had subsided on a bench in the 
 passage and was nodding drowsily, as if half 
 asleep and half awake, like a wearied horse 
 on a cabstand. 
 
 " Holloa, Jonas ! " shouted Frank as he 
 entered ; " wake up, old fellow, and get me 
 some breakfast as fast as you can. The 
 Nonpareil will be in before eight, and I'm 
 going on by it to the Courtenay Arms ; so 
 stir your stumps, do." 
 
 " Yes, sir, yes," answered the man, me- 
 chanically. " What will you please to take, 
 sir?" 
 
 " Oh ! coffee, toast, and muffins, and ham 
 and eggs to any amount." 
 
 This lively order appeared to act on the 
 waiter's nerves like the shock of a galvanic 
 battery, for he jumped upon his legs, stared
 
 118 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 for a moment fully in Frank's face, and then 
 ejaculated in a strain of unfeigned delight and 
 astonishment, " Why, 'tis yeu, Mr.« Raleigh, I 
 see 'tis now ; and yeu b'ant neither drowned 
 in the Dart nor stogged in the mires, as they 
 told up last night in the bar ; pack of fules ! 
 they widn't listen to Tom French nor y't to 
 me. I said yeu'd turn up all right ; and here 
 yeu be, sure enough, alive and hearty once 
 more, and I've a won my money on yeu, safe 
 as the bank." 
 
 " Bravo, Jonas ! I hope it's a good round 
 sum ; but who was muff enough to lay against 
 our lives in that cool way ? " 
 
 " It was old Bill Fursden, the farrier, as I 
 wagered with ; he laid me a shilling and a 
 glass of grog there'd be a crowner's quest on 
 both of yeu afore the week was over. But 
 there, 'twas they in the bar that started the 
 betting; Squire Luscombe (he'd a got eight 
 brandy bottoms on board and was a crumb 
 top-heavy) jumped up and swore he'd have 
 old ' CrackskuU ' out of the stable and go in 
 search of ye to the moor ; for, he said, there 
 wasn't a man in England he loved like yeur 
 father. Then Mr. Cherry, Captain Chanter,
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 119 
 
 and young Bolter, all said they wid go to ; 
 but the old parson, Barker, sat firm, and ca'd 
 them a set of thickheads, and wagered a leg 
 of mutton and trimmings all round they 
 widn't find ye, alive or dead, before six 
 o'clock the next morning. But they widn't 
 hearken to he, nor wait one minute for the 
 sun to rise and help 'em with his light. 
 Away they goes in a pelting storm up 
 straight for the moor, and where they be now 
 to, I'm sure I can't tell, and I don't suppose 
 they know theirselves." 
 
 " All three-parts drunk, of course, Jonas," 
 suggested Frank, whose thoughts were* for 
 the moment diverted from his breakfast by 
 the waiter's voluble account of this expedition 
 that had gone in search of him. 
 
 " Oh, yes, sir ; all but the parson, who 
 always drinks three-water grog, and can carry 
 off at least a bucketful at a sitting and dance 
 ' Peter-o-pee ' on a straight line afterwards. 
 There isn't a head or a barrel like his in 
 the parish of Buckbury, nit one." 
 
 " Then, as he has won his bet, he'll have 
 a chance of filling the latter at the expense 
 of his friends, and will probably enjoy the
 
 120 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 feast none the less on that account. But get 
 the breakfast, Jonas, or Jack Goodwin's bugle 
 will be waking us up in no time." 
 
 Not long was the bustling waiter, aided by 
 the cook, whose globose form, cheerful looks, 
 and clean mob-cap spoke volumes in favour of 
 the house, in providing a repast for Frank 
 such as he had not seen since he had left 
 Watercombe. But, while he is doing ample 
 justice to the ham and eggs, and hot muffins 
 swimming in butter, let us take first a bird's- 
 eye view of Harry Somers and the "cold 
 shoulder " he met with from Dr. Twigg, and 
 then follow the four gentlemen who, with 
 such Quixotic zeal and so much spirit, rode 
 forth in the darkness of night to that wild 
 moor, hoping not less to discover the lads 
 than to win the wager, and have their laugh 
 at old Barker for the rest of his life ; but " Dts 
 aliter visum,'' as we now know to their cost. 
 
 Dr. Twigg was a man of very regular 
 habits, " early to bed and early to rise," and 
 cultivated his own health with quite as much 
 care and assiduity as he gave to the intel- 
 lectual growth of his pupils' minds ; but, so 
 far as their religious and moral culture was
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 121 
 
 concerned, that was a work he utterly 
 neglected; consequently, if the most im- 
 portant corner of the mental garden — that 
 plot on which the happiness or misery of 
 the future life depends — did occasionally 
 bring forth good fruit, it was certainly not 
 attributable either to the seed or to the labour 
 bestowed on it by him. 
 
 Dr. Twigg had been up and astir about an 
 hour when the creaking of the heavy hall- 
 door, contiguous to his den, attracted his 
 attention ; and as it was unusual for any but 
 his own guests to enter by that sacred way, 
 he rose at once from his seat to ascertain Who 
 they could be to whom he was indebted for so 
 early a visit. Host's voice, however, as he 
 loitered for a moment in front of Somers, 
 encouraging his flagging spirits, and assuring 
 him he had nothing to fear, quickly informed 
 him that one of the truants, if not both, was at 
 hand ; and, as he firmly believed their absence 
 was a wilful one, the scowl that sat on his 
 brow, as Host and his companion entered, 
 needed no words to express the anger he felt 
 at so daring an outrage. 
 
 After hastily greeting the former, and
 
 122 FKANK EALEIGH. 
 
 bidding liim be seated, be turned upon 
 Harry, and, in a tone that almost curdled 
 bis blood, demanded an explanation of the 
 unwarrantable absence of which he had been 
 guilty. "And tell me," he added with a 
 significant menace, " tell me nothing but the 
 truth, sir, at your peril." 
 
 The pedagogue had little of that nature in 
 him which so eminently characterized Dr. 
 Arnold, in his treatment of the Rugby boys, 
 who, from the credit he was always ready to 
 give to their statements, were literally ashamed 
 to tell him a lie. By this practice of good 
 faith on his part, that good man failed not to 
 create a corresponding feeling on the part of 
 his pupils ; and thus they were educated to 
 scorn a lie, and value the truth. 
 
 " I have always endeavoured to speak the 
 truth, sir, and will do so now," said Harry, 
 whose hackles rose instantly at the threat and 
 coarse imputation implied by the pedagogue. 
 " Our absence was the result of an accident 
 alone : in returning over the moor a black 
 thunder-cloud burst over our heads, and so 
 bewildered us by the darkness it suddenly 
 produced, that we lost our way, wandered
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 12r] 
 
 into the bogs, and tliere passed tlie night. 
 Daylight, however, enabled ns to reach Honey- 
 combe, and Doctor Host can vouch for the 
 rest." 
 
 "That I can, and for more too," said the 
 doctor, eager to shield the lad, whose story 
 he believed to the letter. " I can testify ta- 
 the extreme regret he felt on account of the 
 annoyance it would cause you, and especially 
 to the pains he took to return to school with- 
 out loss of time." 
 
 Doctor Twigg was fairly disarmed by this 
 statement, and would probably have offered 
 his hand to Harry, if a further and more- 
 painful explanation had not been evoked by 
 the absence of Frank. 
 
 " And your companion, sir, why is he not 
 here to answer for himself in this grave 
 matter?" inquired the pedagogue, as again 
 gathered on his brow the old dark frown, 
 which he used as a kind of moral thumb- 
 screw, thinking by it to intimidate the 
 culprit, and extract a confession of the 
 truth, which a milder manner might fail to 
 bring out. "Frank Ealeigh, sir, where is he ?" 
 
 " He's gone to New-Bridge, sir, to meet
 
 124 FRAXK RALEIGH. 
 
 his father's otter-hounds," replied Harry, 
 without hesitation; "but will certainly return 
 here before night." 
 
 " No, sir, never to this establishment," said 
 Doctor Twigg, " while I live to preside over 
 it. That lad is an outlaw, and so addicted to 
 sporting propensities that his expulsion will 
 be a positive relief to me, and a benefit to the 
 school at large." 
 
 In spite of the dignified taciturnity he 
 ordinarily displayed, the head-master appeared 
 for the time to lose all control over his now 
 unruly tongue ; and the invectives he poured 
 forth against Frank were loud, bitter, and 
 cruelly unjust. Nor did Host venture to 
 interpose a word while this storm was 
 raging, although he was lying by with that 
 object in view, and was prepared to pour oil 
 on the troubled waters the moment he saw 
 a chance of doing so with anything like 
 success. Presently, however, the lull came, 
 and then, as a skilful fisherman, who, with 
 a light rod and fine gear, having hooked a 
 big fish in a rough stream, apparently yields 
 to the strain, but, still holding him on, guides 
 him with a light hand and gentle force into a
 
 FRA:N^K RALEIGH. 125 
 
 quiet eddy, and at length lands his prize — so 
 the village doctor handled Doctor Twigg with 
 consummate tact, and, after allowing him to 
 kick away and expend his passion, brought 
 him by degrees to a better mind. 
 
 " That is no doubt quite true," said the 
 pedagogue, " with respect to my own interest 
 in the matter, but it is my duty to maintain 
 the discipline of the school, doctor ; and if I 
 do not expel Ealeigh for this last act of" 
 truantism, I am at least bound to visit it 
 with a severe penalty. The example will be 
 of use to the school, though I fear it will do 
 little to check that inordinate love of field- 
 sports which is the besetting sin of the lad." 
 
 " He might, sir, have worse tendencies," 
 replied the doctor, "if I am any judge of 
 human nature. The love of hunting and 
 fishing is at least an innocent passion ; and 
 if, attracted by such amusements, he is saved 
 from others which include ruin and early 
 death in their train, I am disposed to think 
 that, G-reek and Latin apart, he could not 
 well cultivate a better taste." 
 
 " You speak as you feel, I know, doctor, in 
 favour of field-sports ; but surely no one-
 
 126 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 could wish to see this young gentleman 
 grow up as ignorant as a peacock, and 
 devoted, like Will Wimble, to but one 
 thought in life. No, indeed. I hope, as he 
 gets older, his aspirations will rise to some- 
 thing higher and more useful than the mere 
 knowledge of hooking a fish or worrying 
 a fox — pastimes better suited to gamekeepers 
 and kennel-men, to my mind, than to educated 
 gentlemen." 
 
 " Simm cuigue,'" thought the doctor, who, 
 seeing how useless it would be to argue this 
 last point with so bigoted a bookworm as Dr. 
 Twigg, maintained, however, that the lad, 
 though addicted to sport, would probably 
 fulfil the duties of a soldier or a country 
 gentleman not a whit the less efficiently on 
 that account ; but, on the contrary, all the 
 better for his manly training and knowledge 
 of woodcraft. 
 
 " I know," he continued, " how ardently 
 the boy loves hunting ; but, from the race 
 he comes from, men who have been mighty 
 hunters for so many generations, it is bred 
 in his bone, has grown with his growth, and 
 been nurtured and encouraged by all around
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 127 
 
 liim ; so that the hope of dispelling such a 
 passion would, in my humble opinion, be just 
 as vain as an attempt to change the ^thiop's 
 hue, or the skin of the spotted pard." 
 
 The doctor having now to a certain extent 
 smoothed off the asperity of the pedagogue's 
 wrath, and so far paved the way for Frank's 
 safe return to the school, took his leave; 
 meaning, if he could accomplish some half- 
 score visits in a circuit of so many miles, to 
 mount a fresh hack and ride to the Cot, 
 a point on the Aune Eiver far nearer to 
 Buckbury than New-Bridge, and generally, 
 in the early season, a sure draw for tjie 
 Squire's hounds. 
 
 The adventures of the four gentlemen, 
 members, as they were called, of the Eed 
 Lion Bar, and the disasters they encountered 
 on the moor, must be reserved for the next 
 chapter.
 
 128 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " Riot and clamour wild began ; 
 Back to the hall the Urchin ran ; 
 Took in a darkling nook his post, 
 And grinned, and muttered, ' Lost! lost ! lost! ' " 
 Lay of the Last Minstrel. 
 
 In less than a minute after the departure of 
 Mrs. Hopkins and the doctor from the Eed 
 Lion door, Jonas, whose faith in Tom French's 
 sagacity and knowledge of the moor was 
 unlimited, rushed into the bar, and at once 
 proclaiming the loss and supposed fate of the 
 missing boys, expressed his profound regret 
 that he had never been able to mount a horse 
 in his life, or he wouldn't have allowed the 
 doctor to go, as he had gone, alone in search 
 of them. " But there," he said, emphatically, 
 ^' the heart of un is as big as a bullock's, and 
 there isn't another man in Buckbury — no, 
 nor it twenty miles round — as would face the
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 129 
 
 night, and the storm, and the moor, and the 
 pixies, Hke he ; never a one." 
 
 " Hold your bawl, do ye, Jonas," said 
 Squire Lnscombe, indignant at the reflection 
 cast on himself and the company by this 
 odious comparison. " I'm no more afraid of 
 the moor and the pixies than the doctor is ; 
 and, what's more, there isn't a man at this 
 table-board but would do the same as he, if 
 there was a call for it." 
 
 " And ain't there a call for it now," replied 
 Jonas, nothing daunted by the rebuff of the 
 Squire, " when tew young lads are, like 
 enough, at this very minute gasping for dear 
 life up in they mires, and one o' em the only 
 son o' Squire Raleigh to Watercombe ? " 
 
 '' What, Frank Raleigh fast in the mires ! 
 the son of my old Eton chum, and the best 
 lad of his age I ever clapped eyes on ? " ex- 
 claimed Luscombe, jumping on his legs in 
 great excitement. " Ring the ostler's bell, do 
 ye now, Jonas, and order out old Crackskull, 
 quick as ever he can put on his bridle ; if the 
 boy is above ground, I'll find him before six 
 o'clock to-morrow morning, or my name's not 
 Dick Luscombe." 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 Never could the chord of sympathy have 
 been struck with better effect on the heart- 
 strings of a set of bacchanals ; for, stirred by 
 the waiter's appeal and Luscombe's spirited 
 resolve, one and all, with the exception of 
 Parson Barker, shouted for their horses simul- 
 taneously, and declared that they too would 
 accompany him, and do their utmost to find 
 the boys. 
 
 "If you'll take my advice, said the parson," 
 adding a lump of sugar to his three-water 
 grog, " you'll bide where you be till daylight, 
 when you may have some chance of seeing 
 where you go, and what you are in search of. 
 You must be all mazed, I think, to start 
 now." 
 
 "You stick to your text, parson," said 
 Luscombe, imjDatiently; "and if you have any 
 advice to give, we'll all come to hear it next 
 Sunday ; but mind, fifteen minutes without a 
 check — not a second more." 
 
 " Aye ; and if Solomon himself preached to 
 you, his words would make no more impres- 
 sion on your perverse hearts than Moses made 
 on that of Pharaoh," replied the parson, who, 
 when roused, was wont to speak his mind
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 131 
 
 with quite as much freedom on a week-day as 
 on a Sunday. 
 
 A roar of laughter followed this sally ; for, 
 say what he would, the old bachelor parson 
 was such good company that no one cared to 
 quarrel with him. At the same time he was 
 an eloquent and powerful preacher, insomuch 
 that the witty Lady Saltringham once said of 
 him, " When I listen to Mr. Barker in the 
 pulpit, I never wish to see him leave it ; but 
 when I see him out of it, I never wish to 
 hear him again in it." 
 
 Eeasonable as was his argument, the 
 parson, as he expected, might have addressed 
 it to the flying clouds with about the same 
 hope of staying the course of the one as the 
 other. He continued, however, to banter 
 them in merciless fashion, saying that if the 
 pixies didn't catch them the bogs would ; that 
 he feared they would find more water than 
 corn in the " Black Stables ; " that, in fact, 
 they were going on a fool's errand, and were 
 more likely to lose •themselves than find the 
 boys. 
 
 This last observation put them fairly on 
 their mettle, and a wager was at once offered,
 
 132 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 amounting to "a leg of mutton and trim- 
 mings for a dozen," that they, one or the 
 other of the four, would produce the boys, 
 dead or alive, before six o'clock the next 
 morning ; and as the parson, when he gave 
 an opinion, was always ready to back it with 
 his money, the right hand of each was grasped 
 in turn, and the bet accepted with the usual 
 formality. 
 
 The news of this wager, conveyed by Jonas 
 to the tap-room, kindled of course a like wild 
 flame among the denizens of that lower 
 department, and the first clatter of Crack- 
 skull's hoofs in the stable-yard brought out a 
 swarm of them, headed by Tom French, 
 ostensibly to lend the ostler a hand in holding 
 the horses and helping the gentlemen to 
 mount them, but in reality to express their 
 several opinions in behalf of or against the 
 success of the expedition. 
 
 Squire Luscombe, who lived in top boots, 
 and, whether sober or intoxicated, was more 
 at home on the outside of a horse than on any 
 other conveyance, was quickly in the saddle, 
 but it took a world of trouble to start the 
 others. Bolter had been hoisted by Tom
 
 FRAN-K RALEIGH. 133 
 
 French and another to the top of Cherry's 
 horse, which, when informed of the mistake 
 by the rightful owner, he for some time 
 refused to quit. At length, by dint of per- 
 suasion and the help of two or three strong 
 fellows, he was again dismounted and then 
 lifted into his own saddle. Captain Chanter, 
 however, had a colt to deal with — a vicious 
 brute by Merrylegs, Tucker's celebrated 
 Devonshire packhorse ; and after his rearing 
 on end, plunging and kicking like a cow every 
 time, Chanter attempted to get his foot into 
 the stirrup, the ostler produced a twitch, and 
 under its quieting influence the rider secured 
 his seat. 
 
 All this time rain was falling in torrents, 
 while a solitary dim horn-lantern shed but a 
 feeble ray of light on the stable yard ; so, as 
 the hubbub and confusion were great, it was 
 little short of a miracle no damage was done 
 by that wild colt in the midst of a crowd of 
 men excited by drink and heedless of danger. 
 
 " Are you all up, and are you ready ? " 
 shouted Luscombe again and again to the 
 tardy squad he was about to lead ; for it was 
 so dark he could not even see the head of his
 
 134 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 own horse, mucli less tlie movements of his 
 friends, from the heels of whose horses he 
 took care to keep at a most respectful 
 distance. 
 
 The town clock struck twelve, and the anni- 
 versary of the Glorious First of June came 
 to a close just as the knight-errants, led by 
 Luscombe, issued gingerly forth from the 
 broad gates of the Eed Lion yard, and set 
 their horses' heads direct for the moor. Like 
 most Devonshire lanes leading towards that 
 desolate region, the high-banked road by 
 which they passed, and which, following the 
 course of an angry brook, crossed and re- 
 crossed it several times ere it reached the 
 moor-gate at the head of the combe, was 
 about as rugged a route as a traveller might 
 expect to find in the mountains of Calabria. 
 Still the fence on either side, bosky as the 
 glen was, had this great advantage — it kept 
 the party together up to the edge of the moor, 
 a point which, in the half-muddled state of 
 their brains and the darkness of the night, 
 not one of them would probably have gained 
 but for that circumstance. 
 
 As the heavy forest-gate, through which
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 135 
 
 tliey had now entered, swung back against its 
 granite post with a loud bang, and they found 
 themselves face to face with the open moor, 
 but with no longer a bank-fence serving 
 them, as the waters served the Israelites of 
 old, and enabling them, with "a wall on their 
 right hand and on their left," to pass on to- 
 gether to the wilderness beyond, Luscombe 
 became suddenly conscious of the danger to 
 which they were about to be exposed, if, in 
 that Cimmerian darkness, they ventured to 
 ride a yard farther over the pathless moor ; 
 so he halted his horse, and invited the opinion 
 of his companions as to the course they shquld 
 now pursue. 
 
 " I am beginning to think," said he, as the 
 fumes of the brandy were passing off, " that 
 the parson was half right in advising us to 
 wait for daylight, though I'd rather ride old 
 Crackskull into a bog than let him know it ; 
 but here we are, and what's to be done next?" 
 
 " Gro ahead," exclaimed Bolter, who, living 
 on the moor, professed to be as familiar with 
 it as with his own pocket, " Go ahead, Dick ; 
 there's never a bog within four miles of 
 King's Grate ; and if we are to find the boys
 
 136 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 and win the bet, we shall never do it by 
 halting here." 
 
 " But it's dark as a dungeon," remonstrated 
 Luscombe. " I can't see my hand before me ; 
 and how on earth are we to find the boys if 
 we can't see them ? In one hour there will 
 be a glimmer of light to aid our search, and 
 if we wait for it we could then separate and 
 draw all the likeliest bogs between Aune 
 Head and Eaven-Tor." 
 
 " We can separate at once," persisted 
 Bolter, who obstinately refused to believe 
 there could be any danger in traversing, light 
 or no light, that part of the moor so far away 
 from the " Black Stables." " There are two 
 distinct paths just ahead of us, one leading to 
 the Abbots'-way, and one to Peter's Cross. 
 If you and Chanter take this. Cherry and I 
 will take the other ; so make your choice, 
 ''utrum horum mavis accipey 
 
 His manner was so confident that, whatever 
 misgivings Luscombe and the others might 
 have entertained, the adoption of this plan 
 was at once determined on, and the two 
 parties, advancing as they best could over 
 the granite road, which, if followed for
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 137 
 
 seven or eight miles, would have brought 
 them to Hexary Bridge, separated at the 
 point of divergence indicated by Bolter. 
 But the paths taken were mere sheep-tracks, 
 and from the absence of the triturated granite, 
 which, by its particles of quartz, mica, and 
 felspar, beautifully crystallized, causes the 
 cart-roads of the moor to sparkle as it were 
 with diamonds, Luscombe and his companion 
 were very soon in difficulty. 
 
 From the danger of being too near the 
 heels of the vicious colt ridden by the latter, 
 it was arranged by Luscombe that while he 
 endeavoured to make out the path upon Craok- 
 skull, whose sagacity and cleverness on the 
 moor were rarely at fault. Chanter should 
 keep at some little distance on his right, and 
 that each should let the other know where he 
 was by an occasional shout. In five minutes, 
 however, the distance between them had con- 
 siderably widened, and, the ground becoming 
 frightfully uneven, not only were all traces of 
 the path lost, but Luscombe's judgment and 
 power as a horseman were severely taxed to 
 keep Crackskull on his legs at all ; for no sooner 
 had the good old horse scrambled out of one
 
 138 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 hole than he slithered into another, deep 
 almost as a sawpit, till at length, dropping to 
 the bottom of one deeper than the rest, 
 Luscombe was compelled to alight, hoping, 
 as he held on by the end of the bridle, to 
 pull him out of his difficulty. But in doing 
 this, the darkness of the night was so intense 
 (for a summer night is even darker than one 
 in winter) that, failing to stand clear of his 
 horse as he bounded from the pit, he received 
 a frightful blow on the chest, which knocked 
 his wind out, and felled him like a tree to the 
 broken ground. 
 
 He had, however, just sense enough left to 
 retain Crackskull by the bridle, though for 
 the life of him he could not speak to the 
 horse, among whose legs he was lying help- 
 less as a log of wood. While in this painful 
 position a loud cry for help fell on his ear. 
 It was from Chanter, who, after sundry ins 
 and outs among the pits, had parted company 
 from the colt, and was yelling to Luscombe 
 to come and catch him without delay ; but he 
 yelled in vain. 
 
 " That was the longest hour of my life," 
 said Luscombe afterwards, as he described
 
 FRAXK RALEIGH. 139 
 
 his misery in tlie bar of the Ked Lion, " wait- 
 ing for the wished-for morrow, and expecting 
 every moment to be kicked into mincemeat 
 by the fiery old horse. But I libelled him by 
 such a thought, for he stood over me gentle as 
 a lamb, and apparently afraid to move lest he 
 should do me further injury; no old nurse 
 could have treated me with more considera- 
 tion or more patience." 
 
 When daylight began to dawn, and 
 Luscombe had so far recovered that he 
 was able to rise from his perilous position 
 and again take his seat in the saddle, his 
 first impulse was to look around and sho^t 
 for Chanter ; but the only response he gained 
 was the cry of a plover, scared from her nest 
 by the dread sound of the human voice. Nor 
 could a vestige either of him or his horse be 
 seen anywhere in the wild and desolate land- 
 scape that lay under his view. What had 
 become of them? and how could they have 
 vanished so completely out of sight in so 
 brief a time? were questions Luscombe put 
 to himself, but was utterly unable to answer. 
 
 For a mile or more around him the ground 
 had been broken up by tin-miners, ages ago,
 
 140 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 into a succession of mounds and pits, of un- 
 equal height and depth, the latter being 
 capacious enough to conceal an elephant in 
 each, and numerous enough to swallow up all 
 the elephants in the hunting establishment of 
 Jung Bahadoor. The whole aspect of the 
 ground, in fact, presented rather the surface 
 of a wild sea, when the wind has suddenly 
 chopped round and knocked up the waves 
 into pyramids and hollow troughs, rather 
 than the ordinary sedate appearance of old 
 mother earth. 
 
 A more desolate spot is not to be found on 
 all Dartmoor; yet, though a barren and 
 dreary desert now, it once teemed with a 
 busy population, and sent its mineral trea- 
 sures to the uttermost parts of the earth, 
 albeit the records of its history are obscure 
 even as the mists of the moor in winter. If 
 one of the original disturbers of this ground 
 could only be summoned from his long sleep, 
 what a tale might be told of the mining 
 ventures and long-past commerce connected 
 with the ancient world ! The very imple- 
 ments of bronze with which Solomon built 
 bis temple might have been manufactured
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 141 
 
 with the tin raised from these very pits ; for 
 it is certain the merchants of Tyre traded 
 largely with the miners of Devon and Corn- 
 wall. Mr. R. J. King, in his charming little 
 book on the Forest of Dartmoor, conjectures 
 " that the bronze statues, vases, and daggers 
 which have been found among the Nineveh 
 ruins, at Thebes, and in many other parts of 
 Egypt, may have been partly formed from 
 the tin of Dartmoor ; and the swords of the 
 legionaries who landed with Caesar on the 
 Kentish coast, or with Yespasian in the west, 
 were in all probability alloyed with the tin of 
 those very heaths and moors which they 
 helped to conquer." 
 
 Many a man, neither superstitious nor 
 over-imaginative, would have felt the power 
 of that desolate and silent scene, and hastened 
 to quit it without delay; but Squire Luscombe, 
 well acquainted with the moor, and in the 
 company of old Crackskull, had no sense 
 either of awe or loneliness, and continued 
 to search and shout for Chanter till he was 
 all but exhausted. He had come to the con- 
 clusion that, in all probability, the same kind 
 of accident had befallen his friend that had
 
 142 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 happened to himself, and that he must now 
 be lying disabled, and perhaps senseless, at 
 the bottom of one of the thousand pits he saw 
 everywhere around him. The vicious colt, 
 too, he thought, must be in a like predicament, 
 pounded and imprisoned in a pit, escape from 
 which was beyond his power; and when he 
 remembered how ready the animal was with 
 his heels, he ejaculated a fervent prayer that 
 Chanter — his boon companion and friend — 
 might not have fallen into the same hole with 
 that savage brute : if he had, his fate could 
 scarcely be doubtful. 
 
 Heavily perplexed by these thoughts, 
 Luscombe, again dismounting and leading 
 old Crackskull carefully by the rein, pro- 
 ceeded to examine the pits one by one for at 
 least an hour, but so far without success. 
 Not one-tenth of the ground, however, had 
 as yet been drawn, and as a general similarity 
 pervaded the character of the mounds, which 
 consisted of broken moor-stones, overgrown 
 with moss and stunted heather, and exhibited 
 no distinctive mark by which one could be 
 recognized from another, Luscombe, observing 
 for the second time the skeleton of a sheep
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 143 
 
 lying bleached by the winds at tlie bottom of 
 a pit, became suddenly aware that be was 
 travelling over ground be bad already ex- 
 amined, and tbat, owing to the unique aspect 
 of this vast, tumbled-up, sterile tract, bis task 
 bid fair to be a fruitless one. 
 
 Bewildered thoroughly by this discovery, 
 and still feeling the ill effects of the blow on 
 his chest, he had almost made up his mind to 
 abandon the search for Chanter altogether, 
 and endeavour to regain the footpath leading 
 to Peter's Cross, whence he could take a good 
 bird's-eye view of the bogs in that district, 
 and perhaps recover the boys. But while he 
 was hesitating which way to turn — for the 
 whole place was a labyrinth of pits — a man 
 suddenly appeared on the sky-line of the 
 opposite hill, and as he was evidently shaping 
 his course for the boggy ground above, 
 Luscombe pulled out his pocket-handkerchief, 
 and, tying it to the crop of his whip, endea- 
 voured to attract the attention of the stranger 
 and bring him to his aid. 
 
 In a few seconds the signal was answered, 
 the man waving his hat in return; and, break- 
 ing into a quick trot, he appeared to be quite
 
 144 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 as anxious to give the meeting as the other 
 was to invite it. 
 
 "Have yen zeed anght of tew lads," shouted 
 the man, as he approached, and who was no 
 other than the gardener despatched by Mrs. 
 Cornish in search of the boys ; " they'm a 
 lost on the moor, zo mistiss thinks, and her's 
 fairly mazed about wan o' em, ca'd Raleigh to 
 Water combe ? " 
 
 " Nothing whatever, I'm sorry to say," said 
 Luscombe ; " but I've not yet examined the 
 great mires into which it is feared the boys 
 may have strayed." 
 
 " Then, us'll go together, your honour," 
 said the man, recognizing Luscombe, and 
 interrupting the tale of his recent disaster, 
 which the latter was about to unfold ; " us'll 
 go together, and if they'm no bigger than 
 pea-sticks, us must zee 'em up in they mires." 
 
 "I've a job in hand on this ground that 
 requires my instant attention," replied the 
 Squire ; " I've missed Captain Chanter some- 
 where among the pits, and I much fear some 
 serious accident has occurred to him." 
 
 " What soart o' clothes hod he got on ? was 
 he dressed in a kind o' yellowish jacket wi'
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 145 
 
 white breeclies and kiddy-bats ?" inquired the 
 gardener. 
 
 " Yes, exactly so ; in a nankin coat and 
 white cord breeches with long gaiters on." 
 
 " Then he's miles away avore this ; for 
 I zeed un an hour agone, running like a 
 mazed man arter a hoss up Whitaborough 
 way ; and the faster he rinned, the farder 
 away kipt the hoss wi' th' bridle of un a 
 lereping under his voot and he a flinking 
 his long tail, as thof he wid a zaid, ' Kip 
 yeur distance, measter ; I'm free now, and 
 you hain't going to catch me again wi' an 
 empty corn-skip, I'll war'n 'ee.' Then, didn.'t 
 the gen'leman hollar, and cuss, and sink; 
 it fairly scared me to hear un." 
 
 " But why didn't you help him to catch the 
 horse ? " inquired Luscombe, sharply ; " you 
 might have done him a good service, and 
 earned your half-crown at the same time." 
 
 " Well, I was on my mistiss' arrant ; and as 
 vor helping the gen'leman, it wid tak' forty 
 sich fellers as me to catch that gallivagging 
 toad o' a hoss on thikky moor." 
 
 The man was quite right ; the horse, 
 joining a drove of ponies running wild on 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 rRA:N^K kaleigh. 
 
 tlie moor, and only known to tlie owners 
 by a brand on the quarters or a balf-ha'penny 
 mark cut out of the edge of the ear, was not 
 recovered for more than a week, and then 
 it took half a dozen farmers and their men a 
 whole day before they could force the lot into 
 Bellivor pound, and capture the runaway. 
 Nor did Chanter, dreading the derision of his 
 friends, make his appearance in the bar of the 
 Eed Lion for a month afterwards ; and when 
 at length he did so, to the day of his 
 death no one but Parson Barker could 
 broach the subject in his presence without 
 being prepared for the storm which was sure 
 to follow. 
 
 From the accurate description of Chanter 
 and his horse given by the gardener, Lus- 
 combe could no longer doubt that at least his 
 friend was safe and uninjured ; so at once 
 accepting the proffered company of the man, 
 he led the way direct for the bogs. Far and 
 wide did the two prosecute their search over 
 the desolate uplands stretching away from 
 Aune Head to Peter's Bound Stone — the 
 great solitary boulder that marks the 
 boundaries of land pertaining to three ex-
 
 FKANK RALEiaH. 147 
 
 rtensive proprietors on tlie southern side of 
 the moor; but, though the atmosphere was 
 clear and the dark sodden plain distinctly 
 visible on every side, no trace of the lads nor 
 ■of any human being met their eye ; all was 
 silence and solitude for miles around. 
 
 Marvellously quick and sagacious as old 
 Crackskull had so often proved himself to be 
 over the moor, he had a will of his own at 
 times, and neither whip nor spur would 
 induce him to advance a foot on what his 
 instinct told him was rotten ground. To the 
 very edge of the bogs, however, and through 
 many a piece of deep, sludgy soil he carried 
 his fifteen stone (for Luscombe in his boots 
 and saddle was all that) with strong muscular 
 action and rare safety ; while, for smoothness 
 of stride over sound ground, his pace might 
 be likened to the rolling of a ball on a 
 bowling-green. 
 
 " 'Tis no geud, I zee 'tisn't, zeeking for 'em 
 here ; and the boss know'th it too," said the 
 gardener, observing Crackskull come to a 
 dead standstill on the brink of a bog ; ''us 
 may zo well retrait, I zim, your honour ; 
 I han't a tasted a mossel o' meat since zupper
 
 148 FRAIS^K RALEIGH. 
 
 last night, and my cupboard's a calling out 
 vor a bit o' zummut now." 
 
 Neither had Luscombe eaten anything for 
 a far longer time ; but from the large amount 
 of stimulants he was in the habit of taking 
 overnight, his appetite, even under the in- 
 fluence of the brisk moor air, rarely troubled 
 him before mid-day. So, although not pinched 
 like the labourer for want of his regular 
 meal, the complaint reminded him that Crack- 
 skull's allowance had probably been a scanty 
 one since he had quitted his own stable. 
 Seeing, too, how futile had been the search, 
 and that, as he looked at his watch, the wager, 
 so far as he was concerned, had been already 
 won by the parson, he turned his horse, and 
 giving the gardener a half-crown on partings 
 company, rode directly for his home. 
 
 Let us now follow the footsteps of Bolter 
 and Cherry, and record not only the fruit- 
 less result of their night's ride, but the 
 serious consequences that ensued from it for 
 many a long day to both of those gentlemen. 
 On parting with their companions at King's 
 Gate, they had scarcely advanced a hundred 
 yards along the road leading, as Bolter pre-
 
 FKAXK RALEIGH. 14^ 
 
 tended, towards the Abbots'- way, when, 
 suddenly halting his horse, he burst out into 
 a wild fit of laughter, exclaiming as he did 
 so, " If that cursed colt don't come to grief in 
 those pits, he's a better nag than I take him 
 to be ; and old Crackskull, too, that marvel 
 over the moor, that star of the west that never 
 went wrong, I shouldn't wonder if he won't 
 want a fifth leg before he gets clear of that 
 ground." 
 
 Cherry, had he comprehended the full 
 meaning of his companion's mirth, would 
 probably have expressed no little amount of 
 indignation at this mischievous practical joke 
 of which Bolter had been guilty; but his 
 veins, like those of old Silenus, being still 
 inflated by yesterday's wassail-bowl, it was 
 with the utmost difficulty that he managed to 
 keep his seat in the saddle, owing to the 
 sleepy stupor into which he had fallen. He 
 had quite sense enough left, however, to per- 
 ceive that Bolter was indulging in a laugh at 
 his or somebody's expense ; and without 
 rousing himself sufficiently to inquire what 
 it might be, he stammered out in response, 
 ^' He who laughs at his own joke has at least
 
 150 FRAXK RALEIGH. 
 
 one fool for a listener; so 'pergite^ Pierides^ go 
 it, ye cripples ! " and he joined him in a loud, 
 meaningless cachinnation. 
 
 " Come, come, old fellow," said Bolter, who, 
 brimful of chaff himself, was not always so 
 ready to bear it from others, " if you can't 
 say something new wlien you throw your 
 tongue, at least don't mutilate me with such a 
 blunt old saw as that." 
 
 A prolonged hiccup from Cherry, how- 
 ever, was the only reply ; and now, as he had 
 again relapsed into a dozy, half-stupefied state 
 of mind and body, sitting his horse like a sack 
 of potatoes, and guided by the instinct of the 
 animal more than by any will of his own, 
 Bolter deemed it the safer plan to fall back at 
 once on the main road, and to ride for the 
 small wayside inn at Denner Bridge Pound, 
 rather than encounter the rough moor with so 
 helpless a companion. " If," thought he, " his 
 horse should perchance make a false step, 
 down comes the rider to a dead certainty ; and 
 then who's to put him up again, with never a 
 lifting-stock big as a stable-bucket within 
 miles of us ? No, no, I'll not run the risk ; 
 not I, if I know it — and as for the boys, they
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 151 
 
 may shift for themselves, so far as I am con- 
 cerned ; their recovery, after all, is no business 
 of mine." 
 
 Influenced by this argument, and the 
 knowledge that a grand cock-fight would take 
 place at Denner-Bridge that very day, he 
 retraced his steps forthwith to the broad 
 granite road. Cherry's horse following the 
 other, as a mule carrying a bag of charcoal 
 follows its leader, unguided by man's hand. 
 And well for him was it that the beast he 
 bestrode was warranted steady under any 
 amount of beer, or the rider must have come 
 to grief long before they reached the primitiye 
 inn to which they were bound. However, 
 about seven o'clock, and just at the time that 
 Frank Raleigh was ordering his breakfast at 
 the Red Lion Inn at Buckbury, Bolter with 
 his comatose companion halted in front of the 
 modest hostelry at Denner-Bridge Pound, not 
 a little fatigued by the slow and wearisome 
 ride, the wassail-bowl, and the want of sleep. 
 
 " Yeu 'm in capical time, gen'lemen," ob- 
 served the landlord, a noted cock-fighter, 
 called Will Cator ; " Squire Spitchwick and 
 Sir Thomas ban't come y't ; but their cocks
 
 152 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 be come, and zo be the tew zetters ; the 
 Squire's agoing to figbt bisn in silver spurs, 
 but I zim there's nort like cold steel arter all ; 
 so, I reckon, Sir Thomas' duck- wings will ha' 
 the best o't, ef they o'ny be fed and vitty like 
 t'others ; they'm in rare fettle. Squire's be, 
 sure enow." 
 
 " When do they begin. Will ? " inquired 
 Bolter, dismounting from his horse, and pro- 
 ceeding, with the aid of two or three men who 
 now emerged from the building, to assist 
 Cherry to do the same. 
 
 " At ten, yeur honour ; an' if they silver 
 spurs be any geud, us shall zee some rare 
 battles thes forenoon. But do'ee, plaize, walk 
 in, gen'lemen, and ha' zummut to mak' use o' ; 
 'tis dry work travelling." 
 
 " Dry enough," cried Cherry, waking up 
 at the expectation of something to drink. 
 *' My throat is as dry as a brick-kiln ; bring in 
 a gallon of your best ale." 
 
 This strong order was no sooner given than 
 executed by the ready host ; and as the two 
 men appointed to spur and set the cocks — 
 that is, to place the combatants bill to bill on 
 the sod — were invited to partake of it freely,
 
 FRAXK RALEIGH. 153 
 
 it took an incredibly sliort space of time, 
 with that help, to finish the gallon. Then 
 another and another were subsequently drawn, 
 till, long before the expected company had 
 arrived, the two setters became hopelessly 
 intoxicated, and consequently incapacitated 
 for their cockpit work. Cherry, who had 
 himself swallowed sixteen mugs in succession, 
 till the liquor fairly gurgled in his throat, 
 was carried out speechless, and laid like a 
 corpse on the heathery ground at the back 
 of the inn ; while Bolter, who had indulged 
 far less copiously, stole up the rude staircase 
 and threw himself on the landlord's bed, th^ 
 only one the house could afford. 
 
 A few minutes before ten o'clock a large 
 party of gentlemen on horseback, headed by 
 Squire Spitchwick and Sir Thomas Torr, 
 trotted briskly up to the " rendezvous ;" and 
 as the latter, instantly dismounting and hand- 
 ing the horses to their respective grooms, 
 caught sight of the two setters in a state of 
 hopeless intoxication, the volley of oaths they 
 rapped out were hot and strong enough to 
 sink a line-of-battle ship. 
 
 " And who the treated them to all
 
 154 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 that liquor?" inquired Spitchwick, livid with, 
 rage. 
 
 " Squire Bolter, yeur honour, was wan," 
 responded the landlord, "and Mr. Cherry 
 the other. They wid have the beer, fai', thof 
 I zed to 'em, ' Doo ee let it bide awhile, 
 gen'lemen, till yeu've a zeed a bit o' sport ; ' 
 but they widn't hearken to me — nit they." 
 
 " Then we have to thank those gentlemen 
 for a gross act of interference with our 
 servants," said Sir Thomas, with a dis- 
 appointed but dignified air. " The wagers 
 must of course either be drawn or stand over, 
 if the meeting be postponed to a future day ; 
 without Will Rubbie to heel them my gallant 
 duck- wings would fight at a disadvantage ; 
 for, out of Westminster, there's no man in 
 England understands the right curve and can 
 spur a cock like him." 
 
 The mathematical precision required in the 
 adjustment of the spurs was a secret only 
 known to a few; and so many were the 
 points in favour of a cock heeled scientifically, 
 that no expense nor trouble was spared to 
 secure the services of efficient men for that 
 operation. So, as Mr. Spitchwick had equal
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 155 
 
 faitli in his setter, a Cornishman, called Worth, 
 who had trained and spurred his black-reds 
 for upwards of twenty years, and won a 
 hundred mains between Exeter and Penzance, 
 he readily assented to the adjournment of the 
 meeting, but with loud imprecations avowed 
 his intention of paying off the real culprits in 
 their own coin, and crying quits with them 
 there and then. 
 
 " Have you any paint on the premises ? " 
 he inquired of the landlord, who had con- 
 ducted him to the spot where Cherry was 
 lying in deep sleep on the heathery ground. 
 
 " No, zur, nit a hap'perth ; but farmer 
 Hamlyn to Huccaby kip'th a bit o' red 
 paint most times, to tich up his carts wi'. 
 He'd spare ee zum and welcome ; I know he 
 wid." 
 
 To the farmhouse, then, a messenger was 
 at .once despatched, to request the loan of the 
 paint-pot on behalf of Mr. Spitchwick ; and 
 the distance being short between it and 
 Denner-Bridge Pound, the man quickly 
 returned, bringing with him a rude earthen- 
 ware jar, half filled with the coarse red 
 pigment commonly used for cart-wheels.
 
 156 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 " That's the right stuff, Jack ; conldn't be 
 better," said Spitchwick, exulting in the retri- 
 bution he was about to inflict on the sleeping 
 pair who had marred his sport ; " not, per- 
 haps, the roseate tint suitable for a beauty's 
 cheek, but exactly the colour for that of a 
 beast. Now then. Jack, you take the brush 
 and lay it on thick, and, come what will of it, 
 I'll bear you harmless in the matter." 
 
 Thus guaranteed, the man set to work 
 vigorously, and in about two minutes accom- 
 plished the job to the gratification of Spitch- 
 wick and the uproarious merriment of all 
 who accompanied him ; Cherry being con- 
 verted, both in hands and face, into the 
 similitude of a Eed Indian decorated with 
 war-paint, but looking far more ludicrous 
 than savage in his new colour. 
 
 " There, now," said the operator, waving 
 his brush with a triumphant air, " I'll wager 
 a pint o' zider when he looks in the glass 
 he won't know hisself ; neithermore will his 
 own wife be able to tell un, I reckon." 
 
 He then proceeded to paint Bolter's face in 
 like fashion ; but just as he was giving the 
 last touch to his nose a portion of the paint
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 157 
 
 entered the nostrils, and causing a suffocating 
 sensation, Bolter opened both eyes, and on 
 discovering the nature of the joke he was 
 undergoing, sprang from the bed like a lion 
 on its prey, and with a tremendous blow 
 felled the operator senseless to the floor. 
 Spitchwick, too, whom Bolter caught in a 
 broad grin, superintending the process, would 
 certainly have shared the same fate, if he had 
 not, more like a monkey than a game-cock, 
 descended the staircase with wondrous celerity, 
 and so, for the moment, escaped the chastise- 
 ment he so richly deserved. 
 
 But the day of reckoning soon followed. 
 Bolter sent a kinsman, a fiery colonel of the 
 same name, to demand a hostile meeting ; 
 and three days afterwards, on that very 
 ground near Denner-Bridge Pound, Bolter, 
 with the first shot, managed to pink his 
 adversary in the calf of the leg ; while 
 Spitchwick at the same time sent a ball 
 through the other's wrist, inflicting a wound 
 that maimed him for life. 
 
 On hearing the practical joke that led to 
 this encounter proposed, Sir Thomas Torr 
 and his duck-wings had instantly taken
 
 158 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 flight; and whether the dignified old courtier, 
 who had not long been a resident in the 
 county, had arrived at the conclusion that the 
 company he met with at cock-fights, although 
 including gentlemen of the first rank, both in 
 Devon and Cornwall, was more than question- 
 able — in fact, was degraded by the brutal 
 associations connected with such meetings — 
 or whether because the law for the suppression 
 of cock-fighting, heretofore a dead letter, was 
 now being enforced with some show of activity 
 by a few of the more scrupulous of the country 
 justices, many of whom, if truth be told, 
 were its chief supporters, Sir Thomas re- 
 nounced cock-fighting from that hour, and 
 the " long main " between the black-reds and 
 the duck-wings, although vast sums depended 
 upon it, remains an undecided event down 
 to this very day.
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 159 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " Pa.stime for princes ! prime sport of our nation ! 
 
 Strength in tlieir sinew and bloom on their cheek ; 
 Health to the old, to the young recreation ; 
 All for enjoyment the hunting-field seek." 
 
 Mr. Egerton Warburton. 
 
 Frank Ealeigh, notwithstanding the 
 loquacity of Jonas the waiter, and hie 
 frequent reminder that the Nonpareil rivalled 
 the DevonjDort Mail in punctuality, and would 
 be up in the twinkling of an eye, had con- 
 trived to take in a bountiful supply of ham 
 and eggs, and to sacrifice a whole hecatomb 
 of muffins to his ever-hungry schoolboy maw, 
 when the silvery notes of Jack Goodwin's 
 horn fell on his ear, and brought him in ]oost- 
 haste to the Red Lion door. Jack was play- 
 ing " The Dusky Night," with a lively lip 
 and rare feeling — the air of the fine old stag- 
 hunting, tantivy song that is now as rarely
 
 160 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 heard as " Fanny, blooming fair," or tlie ballad 
 of " Chevy Chase ; " — and if the melody had 
 the nsefal effect of stirring np the horse- 
 keepers and bringing out the fresh team in 
 double-quick time (one minute only being 
 allowed for the change), it acted also as a 
 most exhilarating stimulant on the waking 
 town, and brought many a fair face, in 
 various forms of dishabille, to the curtained 
 windows overhanging the street. 
 
 Independently of his musical talent, 
 " Happy Jack " was the beau-ideal of a guard 
 — obliging, humorous, full of anecdote, and 
 always in a cheery vein ; so that no passenger, 
 though consigned to the gammon-board, was 
 ever found to complain of a dull journey in 
 his company. In passing through a country 
 town like Buckbury, it was no ordinary treat 
 to hear him describe the " living beauties " 
 that adorned the road ; for he knew to a pane 
 of glass where^to look for a blue-eyed belle 
 peeping out through a muslin blind, and 
 fancying herself unseen behind it and the 
 clustering mass of her own golden ringlets; or, 
 mayhap, it might be some dark-eyed beauty, 
 whose tresses, being still coiled under a circlet
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 161 
 
 of snow- white frills, excited the imagination 
 even more than the auburn charms revealed 
 to view. And where in the world could 
 a traveller look for such women, or hope 
 to find fairer specimens of Eve's daughters, 
 than in the county of Devon ? It is a Garden 
 of Eden in that respect ; for, if the beauty of 
 the fair prototype was perfect, as it must have 
 been under the hands of its Divine Creator, 
 in no land has the original pattern been pre- 
 served with more fidelity than in that 
 favoured county. 
 
 " All full in front, sir," said Jonas, taking 
 in the load at a glance, as the Nonpareil 
 rattled over the stones, and approached the 
 Eed Lion Inn at a fast trot. " Plenty of 
 room behind, though, sir ; and ef I was 
 a-going to travel, that's where I'd like to be, 
 alongside o' Jack Grood'in." 
 
 In another moment, the wheels ceasing to 
 rotate, the coachman pitches his whip into a 
 stableman's hands ; and almost before his foot 
 has quitted the roller-bolt, the two horse- 
 keepers have taken out the team and turned 
 them, in a cloud of steam, direct for their 
 stables. Then, as if by magic, three big bays 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 and a chestnut, all three-parts bred, and with 
 coats glittering like a looking-glass, are 
 coupled together in about half a minute by 
 the same quick hands ; while the waggoner, 
 as the coachman was then styled, having just 
 had time to toss off a glass of ale, gathers up 
 his "ribbons," and, springing with a light 
 step again to the box, awaits the guard's 
 signal of " All right ! " to let them go. 
 
 But they are not off yet ; for just as Jack 
 was calling on Frank to jump up and take 
 his place, a woman rushed up towards the 
 coach, and, before Frank had time to recog- 
 nize her, Mrs. Hopkins exclaimed, in piteous 
 tones, "For Heaven's sake. Master Ealeigh, 
 don't go to ruin yourself! Come back to 
 school, sir, like a good boy. Somers is 
 forgiven, and so will you be, if you'll only 
 come now." 
 
 A roar of merriment burst from the passen- 
 gers simultaneously, on hearing this pathetic 
 appeal ; and whatever hope of success the 
 kindly housekeeper might have entertained 
 from it was at once and for ever dispelled by 
 the ridicule and sallies which her ill-timed but 
 well-meant intervention quickly evoked from
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 163 
 
 the roof of the coach and the bystanders. 
 And when Jack, whose rhetorical power in 
 the art of bantering was equal to that of any 
 London cabman, put in his word with mock 
 solemnity, " Pardon me, madam ; the young 
 gentleman looks delicate ; and if you are his 
 nurse, as I take you to be, a ride with us will 
 do him a power of good," Frank's pride could 
 stand it no longer. " Tell Dr. Twigg, with 
 my compliments, Mrs. Hopkins," he said, "that 
 the outside of the Nonpareil suits my com- 
 plaint far better than the inside of his house ; 
 but," he added, " if you'll promise me a nice 
 spitchcock fowl for supper, I'll promise to 
 come back and eat it at eight o'clock this 
 evening ; so pray don't disappoint me." 
 
 A cheer of approval greeted this flippant 
 speech ; and while Frank was clambering 
 to his seat. Jack Goodwin, who had followed 
 close on his heels, snatched up his key-bugle 
 and commenced playing " There's nae luck 
 about the house," on which the Nonpareil 
 dashed off, and poor Mrs. Hopkins, in discon- 
 solate mood, turned forthwith into the narrow 
 street leading to the school-house. Unknown 
 10 the head-master, the errand had been a
 
 164 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 voluntary one on her part, undertaken solely 
 on the boy's account, for whom, in spite of 
 the scrapes in which he was so constantly 
 involved, she could not help feeling a strong 
 partiality. 
 
 " I can't tell how it is," said the warm- 
 hearted woman, as she applied the corner of 
 her apron to her brimming eyes, " but that 
 boy is always in trouble, and by his wilful 
 ways gives me more anxiety than all the rest 
 of the boarders put together. Yet there is 
 something about him so venturesome, so high- 
 spirited, and so taking, that I'd rather see all 
 the boys in the school expelled than him." 
 
 Thus soliloquizing, she entered the school- 
 house by a side door, neither observed nor 
 missed by the watchful pedagogue who pre- 
 sided over the establishment. 
 
 " Tender-mouthed, and won't bear the curb, 
 sir, I suppose ? " inquired Jack, restoring his 
 key-bugle to its case, on the outskirts of the 
 town, and looking into Frank's face as if 
 he expected him to relate some terrible tale 
 of tyranny on the part of Dr. Twigg ; and 
 without waiting for an answer, he continued, 
 " Quite right, too, sir ; a sharp curb and a
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 165 
 
 double thong will make any horse wince. 
 Better bolt like a thoroughbred, say I, than 
 stand to be flogged like a tame, thick-skinned 
 jackass." 
 
 " If you mean that I am running away to 
 escape punishment," said Frank, refuting at 
 once the guard's conjectures, " you are under 
 a wrong impression. I'm off for a day's 
 otter-hunting with my father's hounds on 
 the Avon ; and if old Twigg thinks fit to 
 sack me for it, I shall be for ever grateful ; 
 but he won't flog me ; no, nor even batter me 
 again with his big Hederich." 
 
 " What's that ? " cried Jack, believing it* 
 to be some instrument of torture of which 
 he had never yet heard. "Is it made of 
 birch, malacca, or ground-ash ? " 
 
 " Nothing of the kind," said Frank. " It's 
 a book. Jack ; a big book, from which I and 
 others have learned many a rough lesson, and 
 been knocked down like ninepins with it, 
 till our heads reeled for a week afterwards." 
 
 " I never liked the looks of him," said Jack, 
 whose sympathy for the youth had been 
 much excited by this narration. " If the 
 beast has a heart, it must be a kind of gizzard.
 
 166 FRAIs^K RALEIGH. 
 
 hard as a millstone. Oh ! if I had but the 
 power, I'd give him eight drachms of black 
 aloes, bran mashes for a month, and blister 
 him all round ; and if that wouldn't soften his 
 hard nature, I'd sell him to a knacker for the 
 value of his hide." 
 
 Up to this moment a gentleman who alone 
 shared the back seat with Frank, and who, 
 from his broad-brimmed hat and brown 
 habiliments, proclaimed himself an unmis- 
 takable member of the Society of Friends — a 
 set of religionists then very prevalent in the 
 West — had been listening with a grave and 
 taciturn demeanour to the foregoing dialogue, 
 as if he were much interested in Frank's 
 story, and wished to hear more of a school in 
 which the boys were knocked down by the 
 head-master with a folio dictionary. But the 
 latter part of the guard's strange and male- 
 dictory language appeared to shock him 
 exceedingly, for his hitherto blank visage 
 assumed at once a pained expression, as he 
 said in a solemn tone : 
 
 " Art thou speaking, friend, of a brother — 
 a man made after the Divine image — or of a 
 brute beast without understanding ? If of the
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 167 
 
 latter, thj speech savouretli of inhumanity ; 
 but if of the former, thou condemnest thyself 
 by abusing thy fellow-creature, and thus dis- 
 honourest his Maker." 
 
 " Well, friend," replied Jack, with equal 
 solemnity and the quietest humour, "the 
 animal I speak of is cross-bred — man on one 
 side and mule on the other — a monster, with 
 no more feeling than a turnpike gate." 
 
 The coach had now reached the head of 
 a long hill ; and as it devolved on Jack 
 to put on the " skid " ere it descended the 
 steep road leading to the river, the conver- 
 sation, much to Frank's relief, sustained an 
 abrupt check ; and before the Quaker, moved 
 to yet greater wrath by the guard's rejoinder, 
 could hit it off again, the coachman caught a 
 glimpse of the Squire's hounds on the opposite 
 side of the valley, and shouted instantly to 
 .Tack to give them "Bright Chanticleer," 
 in his gayest style. 
 
 The sight of a hound was always enough to 
 inspire Jack with a transport of delight ; and 
 certain it is, if he had not in early life been 
 chained to the wheels of a coach, and adopted 
 the road as his profession, he would have
 
 168 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 taken with unqualified zest to hounds' work 
 and the charms of the chase. So, on re- 
 ceiving that signal from the box, Jack's 
 bugle, handled, as might be expected, con 
 amove ^ rang out a sweet, joyous harmony to 
 the depths of that woodland vale. 
 
 Even the Quaker's spirits, under the in- 
 fluence of the cheery notes, quickly assumed 
 a more genial hue ; and as Jack, prolonging 
 the chorus, doubled it and redoubled it with 
 thrilling effect, not a vestige of his former 
 sombre Obadiah-like expression remained on 
 his face. Had he looked in a glass, he would 
 certainly have wondered what manner of man 
 he had become, so great was the transmutation 
 in so short a time. '' Yerily, friend," said he, 
 addressing the guard, "thy music doth almost 
 tempt me to follow the chase." 
 
 " Then jump off, sir," said Jack, "when we 
 pull up at the bridge, and have a run with 
 them ; 'twill lengthen your life to see a find ; 
 and if you do but once hear the Squire shake 
 his horn as the otter bolts and the hounds 
 dash after him, cleaving the waves like a 
 pack of porpoises, and throwing their tongues 
 together till the leaves of the trees quiver
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 169 
 
 with melody, you'll never forget it to the last 
 hour of your life. That's what I call music, 
 sir — -wild and sweet as a mermaid's song." 
 
 " Hast thou ever heard a mermaid, then, 
 friend, or is it thy fervent imagination that 
 leads thee to speak thus figuratively of a 
 canine concert?" 
 
 '* Heard a mermaid ? Aye, scores of them, 
 and seen them too outside the Breakwater 
 and about the rocks in Cawsand Bay ; and 
 if you get up early, you may catch them any 
 warm morning in Sandy Cove frisking and 
 floating on the waves, and tossing their long 
 back hair from one shoulder to another, a"s 
 if they were tempting the tars to come out 
 and have a romp with them. And now and 
 then, when a youngster has been rash enough 
 to venture amongst them, he is sure to pay a 
 heavy penalty, and rue it for the rest of his 
 life." 
 
 " Thou hast been studying John Bunyan, 
 friend, and art speaking in allegory," said 
 the Quaker, rightly divining the nature of 
 Jack's mermaids, and rather amused than 
 offended at the ineffectual attempt made to 
 cram him.
 
 170 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 The coach had now reached the bottom of 
 the hill, and, being brought to a standstill 
 within twenty yards of the meadow in which 
 the hounds, with a large party of gentlemen 
 and ladies, were assembled awaiting thd 
 arrival of the Master, the eyes of the Quaker 
 were at once riveted on the pack ; and, appa* 
 rently captivated by their noble appearance, 
 he determined to take Jack's advice, and 
 follow them to the chase. 
 
 " My business at Exeter," he said, " can be 
 safely deferred for a day or two ; and if, as 
 thou averrest, the music of these animals is 
 grateful to the ear, and the exercise conducive 
 to health, I will j)ut thy words to the proof, 
 and devote the remainder of the day to this 
 novel recreation. But friend," he continued, 
 as he paused for a moment, with his foot 
 resting on the wheel, " art thou sure my 
 presence would not be looked upon as intru- 
 sive by the owner of these hounds ? " 
 
 '^ On the contrary," answered Frank, who, 
 although hitherto taking no part in the con- 
 versation, had been observing with intense 
 interest the growing inclination of the Quaker 
 to join in the sport. " My father, I am quite
 
 P^RANK RALEIGH. 171 
 
 sure, will be delighted to see you ; the more 
 the merrier, you know, at this kind of game ; 
 and he always makes a point of welcoming a 
 stranger." 
 
 A wicked twinkle in Jack's eye followed 
 this observation, as the thought occurred to 
 him, " How the Squire will stare to see a live 
 Quaker trotting with his hounds ! " but the 
 look was only noticed by Frank, who, as he 
 tipped his half-crown, whispered to the guard, 
 *'If he don't take to water and turn Baptist 
 before the day is over, it shan't be my fault ; 
 that I'll promise you." 
 
 A valley more thoroughly characteristic .of 
 Devonshire scenery than the one selected for 
 that morning's meet can scarcely be found 
 in the whole county. Its aspect, though 
 strikingly sylvan and picturesque, can boast, 
 however, of no grandeur, no mountain-tops, 
 no rocky chasms indicating the violent con- 
 vulsions of Nature in her infant days ; but on 
 all sides there are hanging woods and flowery 
 meads, through which the Eiver Avon dances 
 merrily along over a pebbly bed and silver 
 sands. In the summer season, when the 
 woods are in repose and the stream is undis-
 
 172 FRANK EALEIGH. 
 
 turbed by a storm, the gentle features, the 
 tranquil beauty, and the seclusion of the vale 
 present attractions far more impressive to 
 many minds than the wildest scenery of a 
 mountain pass. Trout and salmon delight in 
 the stream, and the otter, following as a 
 matter of course in the wake of his natural 
 prey, if not a riparian proprietor, is at least a 
 frequent visitor from the neighbouring coast. 
 New Bridge, the site of the present meet, 
 being at a distance of several miles from the 
 sea, the chance of a find amounts almost to 
 a certainty, if the animal has fished during 
 the night in that neighbourhood ; inasmuch 
 as dreading the daylight, like other sinners, 
 he is unable to return to the stronghold of 
 the cliffs, and escape the detection which not 
 unfrequently awaits him on this fishing 
 ground, every hover of which, whether stone- 
 covered drain or hollow bank, wherein he is 
 wont to seek a day's lodging, is as well known 
 to the local hunter as a rogue's roost in a 
 village is known to the parish constable. 
 Thus a drag so far away from head-quarters 
 usually is, or ought to be, the prelude to a 
 find.
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 173 
 
 John Brock (for that is the name by which 
 the Quaker must be known), having given 
 the guard the necessary directions with re- 
 spect to his luggage, now quitted the coach ; 
 and as, on entering the meadow and minghng 
 with the assemblage congregated round the 
 hounds, he was unable to discover among 
 them even one face with which he was 
 familiar, he resolved on attaching himself to 
 Frank, and adopting him as his " guide, 
 philosopher, and friend " for the rest of the 
 day. "Thou art an ardent lover of the chase, 
 I perceive, young man," he said, on observing 
 the enthusiasm with which Frank rushed up 
 to his favourite hounds, and the joy they 
 exhibited on discovering who it was that 
 caressed them. " Thy years may be few, but 
 thou hast had a far longer experience with 
 these animals than I can pretend to have had ; 
 so, with thy permission, I will follow thy 
 steps to the field, and be guided by thee in 
 this adventurous chase." 
 
 " All right," said Frank, good-temperedly, 
 " I'll do my best to pilot you straight ; but 
 mind, the river twists like a corkscrew, and 
 the paths on its banks are tortuous and per-
 
 174 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 plexing. Better stick like wax to me, or the 
 chances are you'll lose the hounds, and get 
 lost yourself in these deep woodlands. Yes ; 
 and you'll have to sup with the squirrels on 
 hips and haws for aught else you'll find in 
 this desolate vale." 
 
 The countenance of the Quaker, as he con- 
 templated such a fate, exhibited for some 
 moments a transient expression of alarm ; but 
 as he looked aroi;ind him and saw several 
 ladies prepared, in high spirits and expecta- 
 tion, to take their share in any danger to 
 which the sport might lead them, he gradually 
 recovered confidence, and, thanking Frank for 
 his timely hints, he said, cheerily, "Methinks, 
 friend, if these fair women may be trusted, 
 that they at least anticipate nothing but 
 pleasure in the chase before us ; nevertheless, 
 so long as they can enjoy the present moment, 
 there be few of them who care what the next 
 may bring." 
 
 The allusion to the ladies made Frank look 
 around him for the first time, so intent had 
 he hitherto been in overhauling the hounds 
 and putting questions to the huntsman re- 
 specting the absence of an old terrier called
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 175 
 
 Prince, once famous for his prowess in forcing 
 the stoutest otter out of the deepest drain, 
 when his eye caught sight of a lady, whom 
 he instantly recognized as Mrs. Cornish, of 
 Heathercote; but, as the pony she was driving 
 appeared to be much excited, either by the 
 music of Jack's horn or the presence of the 
 hounds, the unruly little beast had so occupied 
 her attention that as yet Frank's arrival had 
 been unobserved by the fair widow. 
 
 It was not a usual thing for her to appear 
 at the meet of the otter-hounds ; but owing to 
 the circumstance of Frank's non-appearance 
 at the schoolhouse after the holiday which }yy 
 her especial intercession had been granted to 
 the boys, Mrs. Cornish, on the return of her 
 gardener from his fruitless search on the 
 moor, became seriously uneasy, and deter- 
 mined at once to drive to the meet to 
 ascertain what tidings, if any, had been 
 obtained respecting the missing lad. Her 
 only daughter, a fair-haired girl of scarcely 
 seventeen, sat by her side ; and being rather 
 amused than alarmed by the gyrations of the 
 pony, had persuaded her mother to hand over 
 the reins to her, feeling assured that, as the
 
 176 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 little animal had been her daily companion 
 and intimate pet, it would sober down and 
 be pacified by the first touch of her hand. 
 " Shame npon you, Taffy," she said, in a soft, 
 coaxing voice, " to play such pranks, just at 
 the time, too, when you ought to be on your 
 best behaviour." 
 
 Whether it was the gentler manipulation of 
 the reins, or the familiar, caressing tone in 
 which she spoke, that wrought the change, 
 certain it is that the magic wand of a fairy 
 could scarcely have done it with more instan- 
 taneous effect; for the fiery little fellow no 
 longer champed his bit and snorted like a 
 war-horse but in one minute walked away so 
 perfectly tranquillized that he might have 
 been guided and driven with a pack-thread. 
 
 "Well done, Mary," said the mother, whose 
 nervous apprehension of danger kept her in 
 a state of almost chronic alarm ; " well done, 
 my child : you have conquered him fairly, 
 and certainly have a power over him which 
 no one else can boast. It's all cupboard love, 
 though, I suspect; and his obedience is 
 simply an act of gratitude for the many 
 carrots and caresses you have lavished upon 
 him."
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 177 
 
 Mrs. Cornish was then on the point of 
 delivering a moral lecture on the virtue of 
 gratitude, so frequently exhibited even by- 
 brutes to those who are kind to them, when 
 the figure of Frank Ealeigh caught her eye 
 and cut short the lesson she was about to 
 inculcate. He was standing in the centre of 
 a group of hounds, one of the biggest of 
 which, reared erect on his hind legs and 
 resting his fore-paws on the boy's shoulders, 
 was doing his best to lick his face ; while 
 Frank, though apparently chiding this fami- 
 liarity, like a coy maiden, was, in truth, 
 encouraging his advances, as he smacked hi& 
 wiry back muscles with the palm of his hand, 
 and affected to rate him with "Back, Rubicon, 
 back ! get away, do, good hound 1 " 
 
 " Surely," cried Mrs. Cornish, after survey- 
 ing him steadfastly for some seconds, '' surely 
 that is Frank Raleigh ; look, Mary, it must 
 be he caressing that hound and now talking 
 to a strange man dressed like a Quaker. 
 Turn the pony in that direction; I should 
 like to talk to him." 
 
 "Yery glad to see the lost sheep found 
 again," said the elder lady, holding out her 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 hand and shaking the boy's cordially as 
 she held it. " But do tell us what happened 
 to you. yesterday. Lost your way, of course. 
 And what then ? for at twelve o'clock at night 
 you had not returned to Buckbury ! You 
 dropped in, perhaps, with one of those lone 
 farmhouses, and were comfortably lodged and 
 cared for during the night ? " 
 
 " No, indeed," replied Frank, with a merry 
 laugh ; "we spent the night in the bogs, and 
 at daylight found our way to Honeycombe 
 Head, where the farmer treated us most 
 hospitably ; and soon afterwards Mr. Host, 
 who had ridden all the way to Water combe 
 in search of us, found us at Mumford's and 
 escorted us back to Buckbury." 
 
 " And your companion," inquired Mrs. 
 Cornish ; " what has become of him ? " 
 
 " Oh ! Harry Somers ; he returned to school, 
 though I did my best to induce him to have a 
 look at my father's hounds and see an otter- 
 hunt. He's fonder of books, however, than 
 I am, and into the bargain has a mortal dread 
 of old Twigg's anger; so I came alone." 
 
 " Not, I hope, without the doctor's leave ? " 
 said Mrs. Cornish, half timidly and not a
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 179 
 
 little slioclved at the disrespectful tone in 
 which Frank alluded to that dignitary. 
 
 *- Yes, indeed ; of necessity without leave. 
 Had I stopped to ask it after my absence last 
 night, which was purely accidental, he would 
 have treated me like a convict, given me hard 
 labour, and kept me on the grindstone, repeat- 
 ing odes of Anacreon and writing out Greek 
 verbs for a week to come." 
 
 '' But how will you escape that and, perhaps, 
 ^ worse fate when you now return ?" inquired 
 Mrs. Cornish, alluding somewhat pointedly to 
 the well-known character of Dr. Twigg's rule; 
 namely, the inflexible discipline and severe coi*- 
 poreal punishment he was wont to administer 
 when, in his judgment, the culprit deserved it. 
 
 " Come what will," said the boy, colouring, 
 ^' I'll risk all for a good day's otter-hunting ,* 
 but old Twigg will think twice before he 
 rough-handles me again." 
 
 A quiet little nudge from Mary's elbow 
 reminded her mother that the conversation 
 was becoming much too personal to be agree- 
 able to Frank; and adroitly calling his 
 attention to the pony's curb-chain, the girl 
 inquired if he would kindly examine it, and
 
 180 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 tell them if it was not just a link or so too 
 tiglit for tlie poor pony's cliin. 
 
 This was found to be the case ; and Frank, 
 having instantly adjusted it to the right 
 length, was so pleasantly thanked by the 
 young lady for his trifling service, that, in 
 spite of a strong effort to suppress it, a 
 bashful sensation crept over him while a flush 
 rose to his brow, lighted it up for a moment 
 and then disappeared, like a meteor passing 
 away. Transient as it was, though, it did 
 not escape the notice of the mother's eye, 
 who, however guiltless of the manoeuvring^ 
 art so calumniously attributed to mothers in 
 general, possessed no small share of that 
 strong, far-seeing, maternal instinct which 
 prompts, and almost impels, a woman to fulfil 
 scrupulously that injunction of Scripture 
 commanding us to " provide for our own." 
 
 Frank Raleigh, as the lady well knew, waKS 
 an only child, who, at the death of his father^ 
 would succeed to the Water combe estate, 
 which, with vast manorial rights extending* 
 over the properties of several neighbouring- 
 squires, had been entailed on the heirs male 
 of this family since the days of King John.
 
 FRAXK RALEIGH. 181 
 
 The income of the estate, however, was not 
 large compared with the extent of its acreage, 
 which, comprising a vast tract of sterile, 
 moorland soil, produced even in a dripping 
 summer but a scanty pasturage for the dimi- 
 nutive sheep that roamed o'er its hills, and 
 half-starved them in a dry one. Small rents 
 were therefore paid for extensive farms ; and 
 many of the tenants worked harder and fared 
 worse even than the fellow-labourers who 
 helped them to till the soil; while the difficulty 
 of paying both rent and wages made the 
 position of the former a far less enviable one 
 than that of his more humble and ill-paid 
 dependent. Still, the squire was not in debt ; 
 " the skins," which, in Devonshire, mean the 
 title-deeds of an estate, were in his own 
 possession ; nor was the property encumbered 
 to the amount of a single shilling. 
 
 Frank, then, was a quarry not likely to 
 escape the attention of a mother, who, how- 
 ever unpractised in the trapj)ing art, had her 
 wits about her and possessed a bait so fair 
 and so attractive as Mary Cornish. While he 
 was turning to rejoin the hounds and his 
 Quaker companion, who still stood in silent
 
 182 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 admiration amongst them, Mrs. Cornish in- 
 formed him that a pic-nic had been arranged 
 for the Thursday in the following week, 
 " and," she added, " you and yom^ friend 
 Somers must come to it ; we meet at Holne 
 Chase, and piu^pose crossing the Dart to 
 explore Bnckland Woods and the rocky Yale 
 of the Webber. You know the country well, 
 and will do us infinite service by acting 
 as our cicerone on the occasion. Thursday, 
 fortunately, is your weekly holiday ; so pray 
 come and go with us from Heathercote." 
 
 " Too happy to do so," said Frank ; " and 
 I am quite sure Somers will be equally 
 delighted to join you ; but may I be allowed 
 to bring my fishing rod ? The Webber 
 swarms with trout, and I'll do my best to 
 catch a good dish for your dinner." 
 
 "- By all means, bring your rod ; but who 
 is to fry the fish when caught ? " inquired the 
 lady, doubtingly. 
 
 " Oh, I'll do that ! It's great fun hooking 
 them out and popping them into the pan ; 
 lighting the fire and frying them afterwards.. 
 I've done it many a time on the old moor ; 
 and the fish, my father says, are sweeter in 
 that way than any other."
 
 FKANK RALEIGH. 183 
 
 A joyous salutation from several of the 
 hounds attracted Frank's attention at that 
 moment, and, looking round, he discovered 
 the well-known figure of his father, mounted 
 on Old King Cole, entering the meadow and 
 riding directly up to where the hounds were 
 assembled. The old horse was in a lather — 
 a most unusual circumstance for that well- 
 conditioned beast ; and Frank saw at a glance 
 that something must have occurred to disturb 
 his father, whose ordinary pace to join his 
 otter-hounds rarely exceeded a fast jog-trot. 
 But what that was must be reserved for the 
 following chapter. •
 
 184 FRANK EALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 rem, 
 
 Si possis, recte ; si non, quocimque modo rem." 
 
 HOR. 
 
 The news of Mr. Host's visit to Watercombe 
 in the dead of night and long after the family 
 had retired to rest was conveyed from the 
 kennels to the house at an early hour on the 
 following morning; for no sooner had Ben 
 Head started with his hounds for ISTew Bridge 
 than his wife trotted off with all expedition to 
 communicate the tidings of Frank's disap- 
 pearance to the inmates of the hall. Nor did 
 the story she had to tell suffer any curtail- 
 ment from the circumstance that, in his 
 earliest infancy, she had been his devoted 
 nurse, and from that time had always re- 
 garded him rather in the light of her foster- 
 child than as the future lord of the Water-
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 185 
 
 combe estate. Consequently, in the short 
 distance between the kennel and the house 
 her misgivings about the safety of the boy 
 appeared to increase at every step, and at 
 length grew so painful that on reaching the 
 hall door she fairly burst into a flood of 
 tears. 
 
 " 'Tis all over wi' un ; I know 'tis," she 
 sobbed out, as old Matthews, the butler, 
 encountered her at the entrance ; " bless the 
 dear blid of un ! to think that ever he should 
 come to sich a whisht end ; and he so know- 
 ledgable about the moor, too ; know'd every 
 mire and every tor 'twixt Dureston and the 
 Eastern Beacon." 
 
 " Why, Sally, what be yeu a telling 
 about ? " inquired the astonished Matthews ; 
 ^' all over wi' un ? all over wi' whew ? " 
 
 " Master Frank, sure enow. The doctor — 
 he to Buckbury — brought word t' night that 
 the dear lamb was a lost up in the mires ; and 
 I'm aveard the vlies will get a blowing in un, 
 ef they don't find the body zoon. Oh, dear ! 
 my heart's fairly up to my mouth. How ever 
 shall I tell the measter ! " 
 
 Matthews, whose credulity was not easily
 
 186 FRAXK RALEIGH. 
 
 imposed upon, and who, from a long ac-^ 
 quaintance with Sally Head and the strange 
 " packets " she so frequently imported into the 
 hall, took leave at once to douht the tale, 
 by the cross-examination he instituted, very 
 soon converted the sorrowing Sally into a 
 half-savage termagant. 
 
 "Master Frank stogged in the mires, 
 indeed ! nit he, Sally, no more than I be ; 
 there's never a mire nor yet a mucksy-pot 
 in all the moor wid hold nn ; he'd be in and 
 out o' 'em quick as a hornywink, and away to 
 go like any skittycock. But there, yeu can 
 tell the measter, ef yeu plaize ; I ban't a going 
 to carry un any sich valse tales ; and yeu may 
 zay I zaid zo." 
 
 " Valse tales, indeed ! Where was yeu a 
 rared to, Mr. Matthiss, to mak' me out a Hart ? 
 as ef I was no better than zum parish trapes 
 or an old vish-jouder. Yeu'm a rale old 
 haythen ; that's what yeu be. Never was 
 larned the catechiz, I reckon, nor yet any 
 other geud belief. Yalse tales, indeed ! " 
 
 "• Doth Ben believe 'em, then ? " inquired 
 the butler, provokingly. 
 
 " He never zaid he didn't ; and ef her had.
 
 FRAXK EALEIGH. 18T 
 
 I wicl soonder tak' the doctor's word than- 
 liis'n or yonr'n either, Mr. Matthiss ; and that's- 
 spaldng nort but the truth." 
 
 The sharp ring of a bell, which both 
 recognized at once as that of the Squire's 
 dressing-room, brought the angry dialogue 
 to a sudden close ; for Matthews, apparentljr 
 too glad to escape from the storm he had 
 raised by his unbelief, instantly turned on his- 
 heel and hurried out of the room. 
 
 " Here's Sally Head, sir," he said, as he 
 knocked at the door, " a come up wi' a lot o' 
 cram, as usual, about Master Frank's being'- 
 lost on the moor. But I zaid I know^d 
 better; and then her fell to calling me 
 all the fules and haythens her could think 
 about." 
 
 " Send her up to the door, and let me hear 
 her own story," said the Squire, well aware 
 that, even from the mouth of the trustworthy 
 Matthews, a message was not always delivered' 
 as it was received. 
 
 " What's this report about Master Frank, 
 Sally, that you've brought to the house ? and 
 how and when did it reach you ? " inquired 
 the Squire, looking her full in the face, as
 
 188 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 if he dared her to tell him aught but the 
 truth in so serious a matter. 
 
 " Well, yeur honour, I'll zay all I heered, 
 and nort else ; thof Mr. Matthiss won't hearken 
 to me, and spok'd up as ef I was a Hart. Us 
 had been to bed and asleep up dree hours 
 or more, when hew should come to the kennel 
 but the doctor to Buckbury. ' Hew be yeu ? ' 
 says Ben, a ba'lling out o' winder and gi'eing 
 him the rough zide o's tongue. ' What fule 
 is it a rallying up the hounds avore days- 
 light ? ' ' Stap, stap, Ben, nit zo fast ; 'tis 
 Mr. Host,' zeth he ; ' I've a come to ax ef 
 yeuVe a zeed ort o' Master Frank ; he's rinned 
 away fram schule and gone to moor; and 
 I want to know ef he's a conied home.' 
 
 " When Ben told un us had a zeen nort o' the 
 young gen'leman (bless the dear blid of un !) 
 the doctor zaid he'd a bin over-zeed or pixie- 
 led, he know'd he had, and had got lost in Fox 
 Tor mires. Then he brished off to zeek for 
 un ; but, Lor'-a-massy ! ef he dithn't know 
 they moors, 'tis like zeeking for a niddle in a 
 pook o' hay avter he's pitched into a tallet." 
 
 The Squire's horror of the vulpecidal habits 
 of Tom French was so well known to the
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 189 
 
 huntsman's wife that, in detaiHng as she did 
 with fair accuracy the doctor's story, she had 
 tact enough to abstain from any aUusion to 
 the fox-killer's name, although he it was who 
 had suggested that Frank and his companion 
 had been pixie-led, and so, missing their way, 
 had wandered into the bogs. Ben Head's 
 imprecations on that hated name were, luckily,, 
 too fresh in her memory to allow her to^ 
 venture on a repetition of it in the presence 
 of the Squire ; for had she done so, her story 
 would have certainly been treated with even 
 less credulity by him than by the doubting- 
 butler, and probably cut short with still less 
 ceremony. 
 
 " There must be some ground for this 
 report," said the Squire, gravely ; " for Mr. 
 Host is much too sensible a man to have come 
 so far in the dead of night on a fool's errand ; 
 he knows the value of time and horseflesh too 
 well to ride a single lan'yard out of his way, 
 without ascertaining the necessity of doing so 
 before he started." 
 
 " There's no smok' without a vire," said 
 Sally, inwardly exulting in the triumph 
 obtained over the butler by this view of the-
 
 190 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 Sqnire's, but at the same time giving way 
 to renewed grief on account of the missing 
 boy. " The dear lamb," she continued, " I'd 
 Tisk my life to save un ; and ef your honour 
 zeeth. fit to spare me th' old moyle, I'll ride 
 straight to moor and zeek vor un in every 
 mire and turf-tie 'twixt Aune Head and Fox 
 Tor." 
 
 The mule, which Sally was petitioning for, 
 having been bred on the moor, had, notwith- 
 standing its small feet, a wonderful knack 
 in travelling over the most dangerous mires 
 with perfect safety. The action of the animal 
 -appeared to be a quick, continuous run, which, 
 like a skater gliding rapidly over unsafe ice, 
 it maintained with increased rapidity when- 
 ever the soil was so unsound that a moment's 
 delay or hesitation would have brought it 
 to inevitable grief. In this way Jack-o'- 
 Lantern had been known to carry the kennel- 
 boy home to the tail of the hounds, when 
 -every horse in the hunt had been hopelessly 
 stopped by the surrounding mires. 
 
 The summer hitherto had generally been 
 a dry one ; so the risk Sally was proposing 
 to run, when mounted on the " moyle," as she
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 191 
 
 was well aware, would in reality be no risk 
 at all. But she had another object in view 
 besides searching for the boy — one which she 
 had long cherished, and which she now hoped 
 to accomplish if the Squire would only con- 
 sent to her proposal. The woman was moor- 
 bred as well as the " moyle ; " she was a native 
 of Post-Bridge, one of the most isolated vil- 
 lages in the whole of Dartmoor ; and, many as 
 her relations were in that hamlet, whole years 
 had sometimes slipped away without a per- 
 sonal meeting or even a message passing 
 between them. 
 
 For years to come, then, it occurred to her 
 she might not have such another opportunrty 
 as the present for gratifying this daily and 
 long-deferred wish of her heart ; her husband 
 and the kennel-boy were off with the hounds, 
 and there was now no one on the premises so 
 well acquainted with the moor as herself; no 
 one who would be thought half so likely 
 to persevere in the search and leave no stone 
 unturned till she had found the missing boy; 
 so she renewed her petition for the mule with 
 a still more urgent appeal. 
 
 " It shall never be told up, yeur honour,
 
 192 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 that Master Frank wanted help and couldn't 
 vind it, zo long as Sally Head hath a vinger 
 to gie "un ; and 'pon back o' the moyle, I han't 
 nowise timersome, nor it afeared to vace the 
 wust mires in all the moor ; zo zay the word, 
 do 'ee, zir, and there's no telling what luck it 
 may bring." 
 
 " Yon are quite welcome to the mule, 
 Sally," said the Squire, readily ; " but I think 
 it most improbable that Master Frank, who 
 knows the moor so well, has been lost in the 
 mires ; it is far more likely that he has taken 
 his fishing-rod with him and gone off to some 
 distant stream, perhaps to the Plym, or even 
 to the Tavy, and then, being so far away and 
 wearied with his walk, he ]orobably found 
 himself unable to return to the school-house 
 at all last night." 
 
 "Iss sure, like enow; and then mak'ing 
 home, the legs of un got stivvered up wi' 
 the wet and muk; zo that a cou'd but just 
 daggle along like a lang-cripple, till at last, 
 dear saul! a was stapped by they clitchy 
 mires ; and that's where he is now too, or 
 the doctor widn't a zaid zo, I knaw he widn't." 
 
 The Squire's opinion, however, was not
 
 FPvAlS^K RALEIGH. 193 
 
 shaken by Sally's argument ; for, although 
 she was despatched on her mission, with 
 especial directions to examine the great 
 quagmire near Fox Tor, he still remained 
 very sceptical as to the detention of his son 
 by that or any other bog on Dartmoor. 
 Nevertheless, in riding to join his hounds 
 at New Bridge, instead of mounting, as 
 he was wont to do, a rough-and-ready hack, 
 he ordered Old King Cole to be saddled, and, 
 avoiding the direct road to the meet, he 
 followed a circuitous path leading into the 
 wildest portion of the southern moors. In 
 these solitudes he hoped to discover some 
 moor-man cutting turf, or looking after his 
 stock, who might possibly give him informa- 
 tion with respect to his missing son. But in 
 this expectation, as we shall soon see, he was 
 doomed, not only to fail in the object of his 
 detour^ but to encounter no trifling mis- 
 adventure ere he made his appearance, more 
 than an hour late, at New Bridge. 
 
 Over many a mile of hungry, sterile land, 
 clothed, for the most part, only by a stunted 
 heather, producing no wortleberry ; over acres 
 of country thickly covered with masses of 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 granite, either splintered into small fragments 
 or standing aloft in huge, angular boulders, 
 against which the rain of heaven had beaten for 
 ages in vain ; through ground sodden, black, 
 and miry, letting his good steed in to the 
 fetlocks, and sometimes up to the very hocks, 
 Ealeigh pricked on without catching sight of 
 the form, or even the track, of a human being. 
 At length, just as he was shaping his course 
 in the direction of Three Barrows, meaning 
 to descend into the valley of the Aune by 
 way of Zeal, he spied an object, which, 
 although being motionless on a mound of 
 short heather and at some distance, he very 
 soon discovered was the body of a man. For 
 a few seconds a cold sensation almost curdled 
 his blood, as the terrible suspicion crossed his 
 mind with unspeakable rapidity that the body 
 was that of his son ; but these acute feelings 
 quickly passed off, for, on nearing the object, 
 the garb of the man — a light nankeen coat 
 and white cord breeches satisfied him that, 
 whoever it might be, it was not Frank who 
 was lying either asleep or dead on the mound 
 before him. 
 
 On coming up to him, however, a loud
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 195 
 
 groan proved that tlie man was at all events 
 alive ; and as Raleigh accosted him in the 
 kindest tone, and inquired what had hap- 
 pened, and how he was sufferings the inco- 
 herent response of the gentleman, who was 
 no other than Captain Chanter, made it but 
 too apparent that his mind was wandering, 
 either from a fit or some other latent cause. 
 Chanter, it will be remembered, was one of 
 the four bacchanals who had sallied forth 
 from the Red Lion at Buckbury in search of 
 Frank, and he it was who, falling into an 
 open tin-pit in the dead of night, had parted 
 ■company with his horse and lost him on the 
 open moor. Being a free liver, and at the 
 time in a state of partial intoxication, the 
 •excitement caused by the running away of 
 his horse and the exertion he used to recover 
 him had brought on the attack from which he 
 was then suffering. 
 
 It was a fit of delirium tremens, and, judging 
 from the wild expression in the eyes and 
 the wandering incessant way in which he 
 talked, Raleigh was seized with the convic- 
 tion, that unless medical aid could be quickly 
 obtained, he would soon succumb to the attack.
 
 196 FRANK EALEIGH. 
 
 But the nearest practitioner lived at a distance 
 of at least five miles, and even lie miglit not 
 be found at home, if Ealeigh rode off, as he 
 v^as prepared to do, iti quest of him ; and yet 
 when he looked again and observed the trem- 
 bling' and exhausted condition in which the 
 poor fellow lay, he felt he dared not abandon 
 him just then, even for an hour, lest death 
 should come upon him in the interim. 
 
 Perplexed and uncertain, however, as to 
 
 the course he should adopt, the Squire, whose 
 
 habit of action was prompter and more 
 
 decisive than that of most people, tried to 
 
 make the sufferer understand that, if he 
 
 • would promise to remain stationary on that 
 
 spot, he would ride off and bring back a 
 
 doctor, or some one to help him, in little 
 
 more than an hour. But Chanter gibed at 
 
 him and said, " I want no doctor ; ride off 
 
 and catch the thief that has stolen my horse. 
 
 It's that fellow Luscombe, I know it is ; he 
 
 took a fancy to the colt when he was foaled, 
 
 and made up his mind then to steal him." 
 
 He then went on rambling in his speech 
 and swearing he would have Luscombe trans- 
 ported for horse-stealing; his hands were] in
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 197 
 
 perpetual motion, fumbling about as if he 
 liad lost something ; while a general tremor 
 iigitated his limbs like those of a man 
 stricken with palsy. Raleigh did his best 
 to quiet him; but the more he attempted to 
 reason with him the more restless he became, 
 mingling strangely enough the real with the 
 ideal in all he imagined and said. 
 
 What steps to take, or what next to do, was 
 a question that sorely puzzled Ealeigh. Here 
 he was in the midst of the wild moor, far 
 away from all human aid and with no means 
 of obtaining it ; alone with a maniac, who, if 
 not suffering from brain fever, wais at least 
 in a most perilous condition, from deliritim 
 tremens. " No," said the Squire to himself, 
 ^' I can't leave him, for if, in a paroxysm of 
 excitement or depression, he should commit 
 self-murder, I should never forgive myself; 
 no, come what may of it, I'll stand by him to 
 the last." 
 
 " Give me some brandy," muttered Chanter; 
 ^' I want brandy." 
 
 Big drops of perspiration were now stand- 
 ing on his forehead, which Raleigh had not 
 before observed ; and, as he justly concluded
 
 198 FRANK RALEian. 
 
 there could be no inflammatory action with 
 snch an exudation, he resolved to run all risk 
 and give him some brandy, of which he had 
 luckily a small flask full in his coat pocket. 
 
 This being produced and catching the eye 
 of Chanter, he exclaimed wildly, " None of 
 your wishy-washy trade for me. Squire ; I'll 
 have it neat. Nothing but brandy — not a 
 drop of water ; I hate it like a mad dog." 
 
 They had recognized each other from the 
 first, and Raleigh, as he handed him the 
 alcohol, by way of humouring his fancy, 
 pronounced it to be the real article, pure as 
 it came from Justerini's cellars. He took it 
 at a gulp, just half a wine-glass full ; and if 
 Raleigh had been gifted with divine power he 
 could scarcely have performed a miracle with 
 more instantaneous effect. Instead of in- 
 creasing the excitement, as Raleigh feared 
 it might do, the dram acted as a sedative; 
 the tremor of the limbs suddenly ceased, the 
 speech became rational, and, in a few minutes, 
 the man was standing on his legs, weaker, 
 but apparently little the worse otherwise for 
 his fearful attack, except, indeed, that his. 
 mind was a tabula rasa as to the events of
 
 FRANK EALEIGH. 199 
 
 the previous night, of which he remembered 
 nothing. 
 
 "Now then," said Raleigh, seeing his 
 opportunity, and greatly relieved by the 
 success of his experiment, "get upon my 
 horse ; he'll carry you like a cradle, and I'll 
 see you safe to your own door." 
 
 Raleigh then offered his arm, and with 
 that help Chanter was able with little 
 exertion to occupy the saddle so kindly 
 placed at his disposal ; but, as the old 
 horse stepped out freely and seemed inclined 
 to break into a quicker pace than the steady 
 walk at which he was kept, the rider's nerves 
 failed him, and he would probably have had 
 a relapse and fallen to the ground, but for the 
 Squire's presence of mind and timely aid. 
 With one bound he sprang to the seat be- 
 hind the saddle, and then, clasping Chanter 
 with one arm and guiding the horse with the 
 other, he rode with him at least seven miles, 
 landing him at length, as he had promised to 
 do, safely at his own door. 
 
 "No baby in arms could have been less 
 troublesome," said Raleigh, relating the ad- 
 venture to one of his friends and explaining
 
 200 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 the cause of liis tardy appearance at the meet ; 
 *' and well for him it was so ; for, with twenty- 
 two stone on the old horse's back, and always 
 a broken, rough ground under his feet, if 
 Chanter had been unruly, or had interfered 
 with the bridle in the slightest way, there's 
 no saying what might have happened to both 
 of us. Happily, the man had no nerve left ; 
 his courage, if he ever had any, appeared to 
 be paralyzed by drink ; and so long a slave to 
 it, he was now also a slave to fear. But, 
 oh ! it was a piteous sight to see God's 
 gift of reason so outraged! to see a man 
 reduced by the loss of that blessing to such a 
 hopeless state of moral degradation." 
 
 On handing over Chanter to the safe keep- 
 ing of his wife, whose forlorn and distracted 
 appearance gave sad proof of the vigil she 
 had kept and the anxiety she had endured, 
 Raleigh dashed off at a brisk pace, hoping 
 to reach the distant meet soon after the 
 appointed time. But, although up hill and 
 down dale, over break-neck roads, than 
 which there are none worse from Berwick- 
 on-Tweed to Penzance than those descending 
 from Dartmoor, he kept the old horse going
 
 FKANK RALEIGH. 201 
 
 at a half-gallop, never easing him for an 
 instant till he sighted New Bridge, the 
 Squire's punctuality was for once at fault : 
 his field and hounds had been waiting for 
 him more than an hour. 
 
 Many a pleasant " good morning " greeted 
 him, nevertheless, as he entered the meadow ; 
 and although the hard-ridden and somewhat 
 jaded appearance of Old King Cole surprised 
 and excited the curiosity of a few who knew 
 the careful habits of the Squire, and his dread 
 of knocking a good hunter about on a hard 
 road, yet no one, except the huntsman, had 
 the remotest suspicion of the sharp work the 
 horse had been called upon to do from ^n 
 early hour that morning. To him, however, 
 it instantly occurred that his wife, as soon 
 as he had left the kennels, had slipped up 
 to the hall and enlarged on the doctor's 
 report of Frank's disappearance, and that, 
 alarmed thereby, the Squire had made a 
 cast over the moor, with the hope of hitting 
 off some line of scent that might lead to his 
 discovery. 
 
 Ben Head was an independent character 
 and a privileged servant ; spoke his mind with
 
 202 vFRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 as little reserve to his master as he would 
 to John Ford, the earth-stopper, though per- 
 haps in somewhat less expressive language 
 than he would generally use to the latter 
 personage. With his eyes, then, fixed on the 
 old horse, flecked as he was with foam, and 
 valued b}^ the Squire (Ben knew him to be) 
 as the very apple of his eye, he ejaculated 
 aloud, " Drat my picturs, measter ! ef ever 
 I zeed th' old King look zo whisht avore! 
 Where ever ha' ee bin wi' un ? — in and out o' 
 Cranmere Pool, or ovver zum gallitraps or 
 other, by th' looks ov un ? Ef 'twas a zeeking 
 Master Frank yeu've a bin, there a is, a telling 
 up wi' they ladies ! com'th nat'ral to un, I 
 reckon." 
 
 Ben, suiting the action to the word, pointed 
 with his pole in the direction of Mrs. Cornish's 
 pony carriage, by the side of which Frank 
 was still standing, in the act of adjusting the 
 curb-chain on the pony's chin. 
 
 The Squire turned instantly, and, seeing at 
 a glance that Ben was quite right, he dis- 
 mounted, handed the old horse over to the 
 care of a groom, and stalked leisurely down 
 the meadow, taking his hat off to the ladies y
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 203 
 
 whom he seemed scarcely to know, as he thus 
 accosted his son : " Holloa, my fine fellow 1 
 where do you come from, and what brought 
 you here ? " 
 
 " The Nonpareil, sir, straight from Buck- 
 bury," said the boy, openly ; "I got into a 
 scrape yesterday: had leave to go fishing to 
 the moor ; lost my way in returning, and 
 spent the night among the bogs ! Well, I 
 didn't quite like facing the doctor after that,, 
 for he never believes a fellow's story, and 
 so I thought I'd come to the meet and tell 
 you all about it ; and now I'm here, if you 
 don't mind, I'll just stop and have a peep 
 at the hounds." 
 
 " By all means, Frank ; stay and see them 
 find," said the Squire, inwardly delighted 
 to encourage the boy's love of sport and to 
 have his company for the rest of the day ; 
 "but, remember, it must be at your own 
 risk : you are now under Dr. Twigg's control ; 
 between him and you be it. I never interfere 
 with the command of another." 
 
 " Then that's all right ; but I wish you'd 
 stir them up at the Horse Gruards, and get me 
 my commission soon. I should like to be
 
 204 FHANK RALEIGH. 
 
 treated more like a gentleman than I am by 
 old Twigg." 
 
 "He is only anxious to do his duty, Frank, 
 but probably has not the happy knack of 
 doing it pleasantly ; and, let me tell you, you 
 may meet with tighter discipline than you 
 have at Buckbury." 
 
 Ben Head, during this short conversation, 
 was rating aloud now this hound and now 
 that, and ever and anon bestowing a hearty 
 imprecation on the kennel-boy, who, acting 
 as whip, was in vain endeavouring to restrain 
 some unruly hounds from breaking away and 
 drawing the river. Ben, too, was tired of 
 waiting, and, now the Master was come, took 
 this opportunity of expressing in hard words 
 his impatience of farther delay. Before the 
 hounds, however, were fairly thrown off, 
 Frank found time to give his father a faithful 
 account of the previous day and night's 
 adventures ; drew him for the guinea he had 
 paid Tom French, and obtained his warm 
 commendation for saving the little vixen's 
 life ; nor did he omit to relate how he had 
 fallen in with his Quaker friend, who, fas- 
 vcinated by Jack Goodwin's description of the
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 205 
 
 charms of the chase and the air of " The 
 Dusky Night," j^layed so sweetly on his 
 musical horn, resolved to abandon the coach 
 forthwith, and sacrijSce for once a day of 
 business for one of healthy and innocent 
 recreation. 
 
 Frank then formally introduced John Brock 
 to his father, who, after shaking him cordially 
 by the hand, thanked him for his company, 
 and expressed the j)leasure he should feel in 
 showing him a good day's sport.
 
 206 FRANK KALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 " Ye Naiads fair, who o'er these floods preside, 
 Eaise up your dripping heads above the wave 
 And hear our melody. Th' harmonious notes 
 Float with the stream ; and every winding creek 
 And hollow rock, that o'er the dimpling flood 
 Nods pendant, still improves from shore to shore 
 Our sweet reiterated joys." 
 
 SOMERVILLE. 
 
 Ben's impatience to be up and doing, though 
 expressed in terms demonstrating little 
 respect and no veneration for things human 
 or divine, was nevertheless looked upon by 
 his master and the field as only the natural 
 outburst of a man anxious to show sport and 
 devoted to his work. There was one present, 
 however — John Brock, the Quaker — whose 
 sense of morality appeared to be painfully 
 shocked by Ben's imprecations. More than 
 once he was on the point of quitting the 
 sinner's company in disgust ; but, on farther
 
 FRANK RALEiaH. 207 
 
 reflection, he came to the conclusion that if 
 he earnestly denounced the profanity, he 
 should satisfy the scruples of his own 
 conscience, and perhaps do something to- 
 wards improving the man's tongue for the 
 future. 
 
 "Art thou aware, friend," he asked 
 solemnly, " that thy speech savoureth of 
 iniquity, even like unto that of Balaam, the 
 son of Bosor ? " 
 
 " Who be they ? " said Ben, interrupting 
 him gruffly. " Up-country mongrels, I reckon 
 — no pace, and too free with their tongues. 
 Us had once got a hound called Bowser, and 
 a rare un he was on a cold drag ; but I never 
 heered tell of t'other name." 
 
 A look of unutterable compassion passed 
 over the Quaker's face as he shrank back like 
 a snail into his shell, on hearing this fearful 
 confession of ignorance on Ben's part; but 
 as his character by nature was a persistent 
 one, he gathered fresh courage and returned 
 quickly to the charge, hoping to impart some 
 ray of light to the man's dark mind. 
 
 " Friend, thou art in error," he said, with 
 just a touch of timidity in the tone of his
 
 208 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 voice. "It was no dog of which I spake^ 
 but a fellow-creature and sinner like our- 
 selves, even Balaam, who was rebuked .for 
 his iniquity." 
 
 How long John Brocl?: might have con- 
 tinued his lecture cannot well be ascertained ; 
 for Ben, failing in the first place to catch the 
 name, but now calling to mind the incidents 
 of the sacred story, he gave speedy proof that 
 he was not quite so ignorant as the other 
 supposed him to be. " Awh ! " he said, in 
 the broadest vernacular ; " but I zim 'twas 
 nort but an ass as rated him." 
 
 This bit of satire on so serious a subject 
 was too much for the Quaker, who, instantly 
 comprehending the analogy implied by Ben's 
 remark, was not a little relieved from his 
 embarrassment by hearing the word given to 
 throw off the hounds. Twelve couple, spring- 
 ing to the silent signal of Ben's hand waved 
 in the air, dashed off to the river. A few 
 crossed at once boldly to the opposite bank, 
 touching, as they did so, on every stump or 
 stone that reared its head in midstream ; 
 while others of less aquatic turn were busily 
 occupied in poking their inquisitive noses
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 209 
 
 into dark subterranean hovers, some of whicb. 
 lay fathoms deep among the tangled roots of 
 overhanging trees. 
 
 But before the ding-dong of the chase has 
 fairly commenced, and before even the stern 
 of a hound has indicated the presence of an 
 otter on the stream, let us take a glance 
 at the grand, high-crowned, old-fashioned 
 hounds that compose the pack of Mr. Kaleigh 
 of Water combe. They are now full of spirit 
 and animated with hope ; and now is the 
 time, not on the " flags," to catch and admire 
 the style and fair proportions, yea, the 
 character, of individual hounds. It will be 
 too late when the game is found and the 
 hurly-burly begun, to look for straight legs 
 and symmetrical forms ; the eye and ear will 
 then be too intent on the work done, too 
 charmed either by old Midnight, doubling her 
 tongue with rapturous melody as the bubbles 
 rise like a chain of pearls under the point of 
 her sensitive nose ; or, it may be, by the roar 
 of the gallant Rufus, as he thunders at the 
 door of the fisherman, and summons him to 
 quit the stronghold in which he is intrenched. 
 These attractions, added to others, not the 
 
 VOL. I. p
 
 210 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 least of which is that of " gazing " the otter, 
 will so completely absorb the attention of 
 every spectator when the animal is found, 
 that he will have neither time nor inclination 
 to devote a moment's attention to the points 
 of a hound. Then, perhaps, the most defec- 
 tive hound in shape is the most distinguished 
 one in work ; nor does it matter a button if 
 he is throaty, thick in the shoulder, or out at 
 elbow. " Handsome is that handsome does " 
 at such a time. 
 
 Well, now for the Squire's hounds. In the 
 first place, they were anything but a level 
 pack, the height ranging from 19 to 25 inches 
 at the shoulder, and the bone varying at the 
 elbow to an almost equal degree — the wiry 
 little Harlequin, for instance, being as light 
 in the limb as a weedy racehorse ; while 
 Hannibal, a very giant in strength and 
 stature, might be likened to a hunter up to 
 20 stone. It was a favourite maxim at 
 Watercombe that, to get together a killing 
 pack, it was necessary to select hounds best 
 suited for the ever-varying work of the 
 chase : a light, quick, small hound for cover, 
 a big-strider for the open; a steady, old-
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 211 
 
 fashioned hound to hold the line on road or 
 fallow ; but that ^11 should fling on a scent, 
 hit and speak, and drive hard. 
 
 The prevailing colour of the hounds was 
 that known by the name of badger-pie, varied 
 with just a sprinkling of hare and lemon-pie, 
 which last gave a light, mottled appearance 
 to the pack, and enabled the eye to catch it 
 at long distances on the brown moor. The 
 Squire was very proud of his fox-hound blood, 
 and would have been indignant indeed had 
 any one ventured to doubt that it was not as 
 pure as that of Meynell's, or any other kennel 
 in England. Still there were a few among 
 his field, and notably one, a Major Eandall, 
 formerly in a light dragoon regiment, who 
 was somewhat hypercritical on the subject. 
 He had been quartered at Northampton, 
 and having hunted for one season with the 
 "Pytchley Wild-boys," as old Will Eose 
 used to call them, he was an uncompromising 
 advocate for the go-ahead system, originated 
 first in that and the Quorn country. To see 
 the hounds, when they came to a check, burst 
 asunder like the stars of a rocket, and then 
 spread instinctively to every point of the
 
 212 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 compass, straining eagerly with noses down 
 to recover the lost scent, was a period of 
 martyrdom to the " flying Major," who, had 
 he been the Master, would have steamed 
 ahead and endeavoured at a hand-gallop to do 
 instantly for them what they were so long 
 in doing for themselves. He would have led 
 them, in fact, as he would his own squadrons, 
 if not to a more decisive, to at least a more 
 brilliant victory, preferring the blaze and the 
 kill of thirty minutes to the best long-winded 
 run ever hunted by hounds. 
 
 For many years the Major had been a 
 constant attendant on the Squire's pack, and, 
 consequently, was well aware that in seeking 
 for fresh blood, the latter had never scrupled 
 to resort to kennels in the north of Devon, 
 famous for their retention of the old stag- 
 hound blood, and that, unquestionably, many 
 of his best line-hunters were hounds traceable 
 to that strain. This, in his estimation, was 
 so great a fault in their pedigree, that when- 
 ever a hound clung with unusual pertinacity 
 to a line of scent, hitting it, perhaps, here 
 and there at wide intervals over a dusty 
 fallow, the Major's impatience was apt to get
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. , 213 
 
 the better of his good manners, and he would 
 growl out audibly, " There, that's the old 
 Towler blood coming out again ; a touch 
 of the tar brush from that stag-hound Whim- 
 sey, which they'll never get rid of ! " 
 
 One day, however, Ben Head, happening to 
 overhear him amusing the field with a similar 
 uncomplimentary critique on one of his most 
 dependable hounds, remarked to his master, 
 ^' 'Tis a poor ignorant cratur, sir, that Major ; 
 wherever did he larn it ? Know'th nort 
 about hunting, no more than a babby ; I hop' 
 yeur honour won't hearken to he. I wish 
 they up-country hounds had a got un agen ; 
 mak'th my stomach hayve to hear un." 
 
 Major Eandall, notwithstanding his carping 
 habit, was a good friend to Ben in the long 
 run ; for many a capful of half-crowns would 
 he collect for him, whenever the pretext of 
 a kill, or even a run to ground, enabled him 
 to do so. 
 
 From the foregoing observations on the 
 mixed blood of the Watercombe kennel, it 
 will be gathered that the old style still pre- 
 vailed in that establishment, and that the 
 veritable high-class fox-hounds, such as at that
 
 214 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 time were coming into fashion under tlie 
 auspices of Meynell, John Warde, Osbaldeston, 
 Lord Monson, Lord Yarborough, Sir Thomas 
 Mostyn, Colonel Berkeley, the Dukes of 
 Rutland, Grafton, and Northumberland, Lord 
 Darlington, and last, though not least, the sixth 
 Duke of Beaufort — men who collectively 
 expended millions in bringing the fox-hound 
 to its present perfection — had not as yet 
 gained a firm footing in that distant shire. 
 Still, Mr. Ealeigh, favoured as he had been 
 from time to time with the acceptable gift of 
 a doghound, always a badger-pie with a high 
 crown, long face, and feathered stern, from 
 the far-famed Badminton kennels, could boast 
 an infusion of the right sort in his own ; and 
 thus, with the stag-hound cross he had 
 resorted to, he had succeeded in breeding 
 a rare killing pack, hard drivers on a hot 
 scent and dingers to a cold one — hounds 
 that admirably suited the character of the 
 country he had to deal with. 
 
 Moreover, for the double purpose of hunt- 
 ing the otter as well as the fox, the pack 
 could scarcely have been so perfect in their 
 work but for the valuable, close-hunting
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 215 
 
 quality and grand tongue inherited from the 
 stag-hound strain ; qualities that enabled them 
 not only to find more otters in one season 
 than high-bred fox-hounds would find in three, 
 but to impart a full, sonorous music to the 
 chase, lacking which otter-hunting loses one 
 of its chief charms. 
 
 Such then were the hounds now thrown on 
 the river Aune in spite of its brown waters, 
 so unfavourable to sport — a rough-and-ready 
 lot that stemmed the swollen tide as eagerly 
 as if a long dry summer had reduced it to its 
 lowest ebb. 
 
 " After all," observed the Squire, address- 
 ing his field and glancing at the stream, '^ I 
 believe I have done you all a signal service 
 by my late arrival ; the river is evidently 
 going down, and in another hour it will be as 
 clear as crystal." 
 
 " The old story," whispered Major Eandall 
 to a young officer of a like temperament ; 
 
 " ' Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis.' 
 
 This is the black wash coming down from the 
 moor ; and if the bogs were flushed by last 
 night's rain, it will take a week to drain off
 
 216 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 the top water ; better take it as it is than wait 
 for a fall." 
 
 " The river has gone down six inches 
 already," said Frank, pointing to a peg he 
 had stuck in the bank when he first reached 
 the meadow ; " and by the time we draw down 
 to Diptford Cot, Ben says, if we've the luck 
 to find an otter, the flood won't help him to 
 save his hide." 
 
 They had travelled a mile or so down 
 stream, the men and the ladies pottering and 
 coffee-housing by the way, as if the object 
 of the chase were the last thing thought of 
 and a matter of utter indifference to most 
 of them, when a hound, throwing his tongue 
 vigorously, stopped the clatter in a twinkling, 
 and brought the whole field in a whirl to the 
 spot ; among the foremost were the ladies, 
 fluttering with excitement, while even the 
 face of John Brock the Quaker was lighted 
 up with radiant expectation. Not a hound, 
 however, seconded the challenge, though 
 again and again, from the dark fringe of 
 alders that shaded the bank and swept o'er 
 the stream, the same tongue summoned the 
 rest of the pack with an earnest note.
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 217 
 
 While every eye was peering into the 
 bushes, and many were persuaded, from the 
 ardour of the hound, that he must be close on 
 some game, if not the right sort, Ben Head's 
 voice was heard on the opposite side of the 
 river roaring to the kennel-boy to make haste 
 up and flog the hound. " I tell 'ee 'tis a 
 mash-hen, yeu grate thickhead," he shouted, 
 savagely. " Rin up, du ; 'tis that fule of a 
 puppy again ; cut un in tu, I zay." 
 
 The boy, who was at some distance from 
 the spot when the hound first spoke, now 
 rushed forward to the bushes, brandishing 
 a heavy whip in the air, as if he was quite 
 ready to execute Ben's order to the veTy 
 letter ; but, although he dashed head-foremost 
 into the thicket, the hound was too quick for 
 him, and not only escaped into mid-stream, 
 but carried out the game he had been hunting, 
 a fine moor-hen, chopped up in his massive 
 jaws. 
 
 " War' riot. Waterman ! " " shouted Ben, 
 furiously ; but he might as well have shouted 
 to a shark in the act of gulping his prey. The 
 hound — a grand young badger-pie — gave 
 a chop or two and bolted the bird like a
 
 218 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 handful of meal. " Us have a tanned nn for 
 it over and over agen," said the huntsman, 
 with a mortified air ; " but there, it's all 
 up wi' un, I zim ; he's a blidded now and 
 us shall never cure un ; 'tis a bad job, fai'." 
 
 Shortly after this interlude another of an 
 equally vexatious character to Ben Head's 
 feelings again disappointed the hope of not a 
 few. A hound, called Neptune, also a puppy, 
 came to a solid mark in a high, perpendicular 
 bank, overhanging a still pool on a bend 
 of the river ; with tooth and nail he tore at 
 the mud and roots obstructing the entrance, 
 as if he were frantic with excitement, then 
 threw his tongue like a hungry lion roaring 
 after his prey. Ben, of course, knew it was 
 riot from the first moment, but, from his silent 
 eagerness to get at the hound, notwithstand- 
 ing the depth of the water through which 
 he waded waist-deep, it was generally inferred 
 that his object was to encourage him ; and 
 under this delusion the action of the man and 
 hound excited the greatest interest. That 
 feeling, however, was soon dispelled, as Ben, 
 thrusting his pole into the hollow recess, 
 turned out a whole nestful of half-fledged
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 219 
 
 kingfisliers, and then seizing the hound by the 
 hind leg, dragged him, now under water and 
 now above, to a shallow place, where he 
 dressed him with his double thong till the 
 hound yelled again. 
 
 Mrs. Cornish and one other lady were so 
 shocked that they ventured to remonstrate ; 
 but Ben, with the glare of a wild beast in 
 his eyes, exclaimed, " Yeu'm welcome, mam, 
 to go a bird's-nesting, ef yeu plaize, but I 
 bant a going to larn our hounds to sich 
 ways." 
 
 " What a brute ! " whispered Mary to her 
 mother, as she turned the pony's head away 
 and watched the parent birds hovering in t!ie 
 agony of despair over their helpless young, 
 while the rough stream carried them on its 
 surface to certain death. But, much as ap- 
 pearances were against him, and fierce as 
 his manner was on such occasions, Ben was 
 no brute in reality ; but, on the contrary, 
 behind and within that rough crust beat 
 a heart tender and kind as a woman's. When 
 he chastised a young hound, ho did it on 
 principle, once for all ; dealt no half measures, 
 but impressed the lesson on him fully for the
 
 220 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 rest of liis life. " 'Tis no use," lie would say, 
 " playing with vice or overlooking a fault ; 
 catch him at it, and then tan him to the tune 
 of music ; and, my word for't, yeu'll never be 
 ca'd to du it agen." 
 
 Bred in a kennel, and endowed with an 
 unusual share of common sense and observa- 
 tion, no man understood the nature of a hound 
 better than he did. For instance, the re- 
 flective power, almost akin to reason, pos- 
 sessed by that animal, drew from him many 
 a remark in nowise complimentary to the 
 intellect of his fellow-creatures. His usual 
 argument ran thus : " A hound is no fule, 
 I zay, like some folks be ; when a puppy 
 rin'th to sheep, tak' and tan him well, and 
 the next time he zeeth them he zays to 
 hisself, * Naw, I bant agoing to du that agen, 
 for I knaw I shall get tanned for it.' What's 
 that but raison, I should like to knaw ? Ef 
 on'y Bob Ma'shall wid du likewise (this was a 
 noted poacher, frequently sent to the tread- 
 mill), he widn't ha' to ride that wooden boss 
 quite zo often." 
 
 The hounds had now reached Diptford Cot, 
 and the river, as predicted by Ben, had fined
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 221 
 
 down during the last hour from brown-stout 
 to pale-ale colour, a condition well suited 
 to the requirements of the chase. Here, how- 
 ever, a short delay took place, owing to the 
 celebrity of the Cot, a small wayside inn, for 
 the beverage called " white-ale," the composi- 
 tion of which has been a secret long confined 
 to one family in the South Hams. " Tuned 
 up," that is with a little spirit added, it 
 has ever been a favourite drink at Christmas- 
 time, being, it is believed, a strength-giving, 
 stimulating liquor, and at the same time 
 so very grateful to the palate that old 
 gourmets have pronounced its flavour to be 
 perfect. But whit-ale, as it is there called, 
 will not travel, more's the pity ; and thus the 
 mixture is confined to that immediate neigh- 
 bourhood, not only to the loss of the public, 
 but especially so to the proprietors of this 
 valuable and well-kept secret. 
 
 " There's meat and drink in that trade ; 
 heat'th where it go'th," said Ben, tossing oJQf a 
 pint of it, and declaring he felt it pierce like a 
 lot of needles into the very marrow of his 
 bones. It was now close upon midday, and 
 up to this point not a hound that could be
 
 222 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 depended upon had indicated the trace of even 
 a stale scent either on the main channel or at 
 the mouths of the many small tributaries that 
 fell into the fiver. 
 
 Major Randall, who contrived by hook 
 or by crook always to rub the Squire's hackle 
 the wrong way, had a long story to tell of a 
 Dorset gin picked up near the Cot, the cross 
 teeth of which were an inch long, designed 
 expressly for trapping otters. " With such 
 an infernal machine on the river," he said, 
 bitterly, " how can you expect to find an otter 
 on it ? You may as well look for a beaver.'* 
 
 " Who has seen this gin, and where 
 was it found ? " inquired the Squire, as if he 
 doubted the accuracy of the information. " I 
 didn't think we had an enemy on the water 
 from Loddiswell to Aune Head." 
 
 " No more yeu 'an't. Squire," said a sturdy 
 young farmer, who had been listening to the 
 conversation ; " us be a deal too fond of sport 
 in these parts to teel sich thing ; and as vor 
 the lang teeth of un, I reckon the tongue of he 
 as told that cram's a deal longer. I'd gi'e a 
 hogshead o' cider mysel' to zee the man as 
 vound un."
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 223 
 
 The Major's eye flashed fire ; but as he had 
 only heard the tale, and couldn't substantiate 
 it, he allowed no other sign to escape him, 
 showing that the cap fitted, and that this 
 plain-spoken language was meant for himself. 
 Probably, like an old soldier, he felt, as he 
 scanned the stalwart frame and fearless bear- 
 ing of the speaker, that " discretion was the 
 better part of valour ;" and so, instantly 
 changing his tactics, he observed : " I didn't 
 think it likely to be true. Squire ; but how 
 do you account for the many blank days you 
 have had on the Aune ? — and this, as it 
 appears, will be no exception." 
 
 He had scarcely done speaking ere a joyous 
 note from old Juniper sounded like a trumpet- 
 call through the vale, proclaiming to all who 
 knew the hound the cheering probability that 
 the Major would speedily be proved a false 
 prophet. " Have at him. Juniper ! " shouted 
 the Squire and Ben simultaneously, while 
 the whole pack dashed to the authentic sum- 
 mons, like dragons through the deep, and in 
 one minute were in full swing. There had 
 been little sun during the day, so the night- 
 drag, still fresh and steaming, brought out a
 
 224 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 crack of music that literally made the old 
 woods ring with joy. 
 
 "Yerily, friend," said the Quaker, as ad- 
 dressing Frank, he carried his broad brim in 
 his hand, and tugged after the chase, " verily 
 I marvel not that thy facetious friend, Good- 
 win, spake so rapturously of this melody." 
 
 " It's a fine drag, sir," said Frank, " and 
 I'm so glad you enjoy it ; but it's only the 
 fifes going now. Wait till they find, and 
 then you'll hear the full band." 
 
 It was a woodland ride, running almost 
 parallel with the river by which the field 
 now passed in pursuit of the hounds ; and as 
 John Brock was not quite so adroit as the 
 rest in avoiding the overhanging bushes that 
 impeded his way, a surly old bramble, with 
 spines long and sharp as the teeth of a shark, 
 seized his hat ruthlessly from his hand, and 
 sent it whirling into the stream below. 
 The Quaker for a moment was in despair, 
 doubting whether he should fall back .and 
 follow his hat, now dancing merrily down 
 stream, or stick to the hounds. One or the 
 other he felt sure he should never see 
 again ; for Frank had gone ahead and had not
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 225 
 
 witnessed the accident ; while the rest of 
 the field, as they rushed forward in the 
 wildest excitement, were far too occupied to 
 wait and lend him a helping hand. While in 
 this dilemma, an old fisherman, carrying his 
 rude, hazel fly-rod at full length, suddenly 
 emerged from the bushy bank, like Mercury 
 in the fable appearing to the perplexed 
 countryman, and, seeing the hatless, bewil- 
 dered condition of the Quaker, he instantly 
 inferred he could be none other than the 
 " mazed man" who had recently escaped from 
 a lunatic asylum in the neighbourhood, and 
 for whose capture a large reward had been 
 offered by the proprietor of that establish- 
 ment. So, having jumped to this conclusiony 
 he proceeded at once to question him as to his 
 antecedents and identity with the lost man. 
 
 " Where d'ye come vor, zur, and where be 
 going thikky way? I zim I've a zeed yen 
 avore down to Dr. Langford's at Griympton 
 Great House? 'An't ye got no hat, then? 
 Left he at home, I reckon ? " 
 
 *' Friend, thou art in error," said the Quaker, 
 comprehending this last question better than 
 the rest. "My hat hath fallen into this 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 stream, and if thou wilt exercise thy piscato- 
 rial art and fish it out for me, I will reward 
 thee with this half-crown." 
 
 The hat, floating brim uppermost, and buoy- 
 ant as a Welsh coracle, happened at that 
 moment to appear in view on an open bend 
 of the river close below them ; and the fisher- 
 man, discovering he had made a mistake as 
 to the "mazed man," catching sight of it, 
 undertook at once to give chase and recover 
 it for the owner. 
 
 " Then," said the Quaker, " I commit this 
 business to thee and thy rod, friend. Do 
 thou follow me with the hat, while I go to 
 join the hounds." So saying, he darted off 
 with the ardour of an enthusiast, and, bare- 
 headed, overtook the pack just in time, as 
 they were marking their otter under a hollow 
 bank overhanging the stream. 
 
 " Well, there," said the fisherman, staring 
 after him, " I've a zeed many a queer things 
 in my life, but niver — no, niver zeed a Quaker 
 long wi' hounds avore." He brought the hat 
 though, about an hour afterwards, and duly 
 received his promised reward. 
 
 " Look below, I zay, zum of ee ! " shouted
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 22 T 
 
 Ben, as a bubble or two, brighter than silver, 
 rose to the surface and indicated some move- 
 ment in the dark waters beneath. "Look 
 below. Tammy, and kip yeur eye on the 
 stickle, du ee ! " 
 
 The otter had slipped out for an instant ; 
 but being headed on every side, and not 
 liking the wild uproar and commotion that 
 disturbed the pool, he turned short, and 
 again sought the stronghold in which he 
 had just been found. A fine volume of scent, 
 however, rose to the surface, and being carried 
 downwards by the stream, the hounds in a 
 body swam with it, giving out a peal of mugic 
 that made the trees on the bank quiver like 
 aspens. 
 
 " What are they doing now ? " inquired the 
 Quaker, incautiously addressing Ben in that 
 critical moment. 
 
 " If I was to tell yeu, yen widn't knaw," 
 said Ben, seizing his horn and ringing out a 
 blast that made the pack instantly wheel 
 round, spring to land, and fly to the signal 
 that never deceived them. " Stand back, 
 gen'lemen, du ye; the old Prince is at un 
 agen. Hark-ye ! he's a tackling ov un like 
 a rale tiger."
 
 228 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 " Hengli, G-aze ! " screamed Frank, perched 
 like a watchful heron on the stump of a tree- 
 some twenty yards up stream ; " he's gone by 
 like a flash of fire, and with a tail as long as 
 a comet's." 
 
 " Have at him, my lads ! " screeched the 
 huntsman, and every hound dashed in, making* 
 the water white with spray, and speaking to 
 the grateful scent with tumultuous joy. Up 
 stream he went, passing over the first 
 stickle like a shooting star, and giving the 
 Quaker, who was in close attendance on 
 Frank, a fine view of his strength and size. 
 Never did a man take to the chase more 
 kindly than he, and never was the hunting- 
 instinct implanted in our nature more quickly 
 and fully developed than in that man on that 
 day. He didn't say much, but his counten- 
 ance spake volumes of delight, and the most 
 cursory observer might have seen he was 
 bitten for life. A year or two afterwards 
 John Brook took to fox-hunting, rode a good 
 horse, and became a regular attendant at the 
 cover-side ; nor, maintaining, as he did, that 
 the recreation was not only innocent but 
 necessary to his health, did he meet with
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 229 
 
 any serious opposition from his co-religionists, 
 till one day lie put on a red coat and the hunt 
 button, and then the Society ostracized him 
 without mercy. 
 
 For an hour or more the otter held his way 
 np stream with unflinching perseverance, the 
 hounds requiring no help, and giving him 
 the musical honours with a full band close 
 in his wake. Ever and anon the rolling 
 Avave that followed him, as he glided over 
 the shallows, displayed his great size, and 
 made some of the knowing old hounds spring 
 to the front and grab at his hide; but, as 
 yet, he was too tough a mouthful for any 
 single set of jaws, and on he struggled 
 bravely in defiance of such attacks. At 
 length he reached a long pool, deep and 
 dark as the Stygian lake, evidently his point 
 from the first; and there, taking refuge in the 
 roots of an oak tree which proved to be 
 hollow, he gained a stronghold that bid fair 
 to save his life. His portcullis was down, 
 for the bole of the tree was partly immersed 
 in water, and no terrier could get in to bolt 
 him; while, after the sharp pursuit from 
 which he had so narrowly escaped, crowbars
 
 230 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 and the stamping of many lieels were treated 
 witli equal scorn. 
 
 Even Ben was in despair and the Squire at 
 his wits' end ; the holt had often before been 
 found impregnable, and the hounds, from 
 their inability to wind him, had all grown 
 slack and ceased to throw their tongues. But 
 a Deus ex machind was at hand in the person 
 of the Quaker : " Knowest thou, friend," he 
 said to Frank, " to whoin this land and tree 
 belong ? " 
 
 " The owner is here, I believe," said Frank,, 
 pointing to an old-fashioned farmer in a 
 fustian coat ; " he is called Hoppin, and will 
 give you, I feel sure, a jug of cider, if you 
 are thirsty after the sport." 
 
 " My tongue needeth no cider at present, 
 I thank thee, young friend ; but I would fain 
 see that tree cut down and the wild animal 
 dislodged therefrom. Thinkest thou money 
 would buy it ? " 
 
 "Buy anything, no doubt," said Franks 
 wondering what the Quaker would propose 
 next ; at the same time he shouted to Hoppin 
 to come up and secure a customer if he was 
 disposed to sell the oak as it then stood.
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 231 
 
 The farmer, however, who at once compre- 
 hended the object in view, flatly refused to 
 take any money for the tree : " Naw," he 
 said, '' I b'ant a going to sell un, but ef you 
 want to turn out thikky otter, I'll cut un 
 down for ee and welcome." Then calling to 
 a farm-boy, he continued, " Rin home, Rab, 
 and fetch th' axe ; mistiss want'th zum kind- 
 ling for th' house, and us'll zoon knack un 
 down." 
 
 In less than ten minutes, Hoppin, jerking 
 every thought of cupidity to the winds, and 
 animated only by a genuine love for the 
 chase, had thrown off his coat, and was deal- 
 ing blows on the butt of the tree that made it 
 tremble to its topmost leaf. He had chosen 
 a weak spot, and at every stroke of the axe, 
 swung with tremendous force, it fell half- 
 buried in the decayed timber ; but not until 
 daylight was admitted, and the bum-bailiff, 
 Prince, popped into the cavity, could the 
 writ of ejectment be served on the tenant 
 within. Then, however, a terrible tussle 
 ensued — a fight, it sounded, for dear life — 
 while outside the tree the excitement of the 
 hounds was a sight never to be forgotten.
 
 232 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 At length came a sliort lull, and then a 
 scream from Ben that sent every hound 
 bounding into the pool. The otter had 
 bolted, but no longer fancying the water, 
 had shot across, and, landing in a brake on 
 the opposite bank, he threaded it to the upper 
 end, when, hard pressed by the hounds, he 
 just managed to reach the water, and, again 
 crossing it, landed in the meadow within five 
 yards of John Brock's feet. Off went his hat, 
 and never was a wild beast greeted with a 
 finer view-halloa than burst from the Quaker's 
 lips at that sight ! But the hounds needed it 
 not, for though the beast was a stout one, the 
 odds were against him ; and they pulled him 
 down at the end of the meadow — an old dog- 
 otter, weighing 24 lbs.
 
 FKANK RALEIGH. 233 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 " Blessed be the wild sequestered shade, 
 And blessed the day and hour, 
 Where Peggy's charms I first surveyed — 
 Where first I felt their power ! " 
 
 Burns. 
 
 '' I've seen many a good entry in my clay," 
 said the Squire of Water combe, describing 
 the sport on the Aune to a hunting com- 
 panion, " but never yet saw a middle-aged 
 man take to it so kindly or so keenly as our 
 new friend the Quaker. Frank had made up 
 his mind to station him on a stickle, and, 
 boy-like, if possible to lure him into deeper 
 water ; but happily the otter, by constantly 
 forging ahead and going up stream, never 
 gave him a chance ; so the youngster, I am 
 thankful to say, was baulked of his fun. To 
 have played a practical joke on such a man
 
 234 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 would have been unpardonable even in a 
 schoolboy." 
 
 " We were boys ourselves one day, old 
 friend ; and if Frank had dropped him into a 
 hole, it's only what you and I would have 
 done in ' the merry days when we were 
 young,' " replied his companion, who was no 
 other than Squire Luscombe, the chief of the 
 Eed Lion bacchanals, the pioneer of the party 
 who had gone forth so fruitlessly in search 
 of Frank during the previous night. On 
 returning, however, from the moor to his 
 own home at Woodwell, he had fallen in with 
 a company of the Stanley gipsies, one of 
 whom informed him that they had passed 
 the otter-hounds at New Bridge, and, more- 
 over, had not only seen young Frank Raleigh, 
 but had offered to tell him his fortune, as he 
 descended from the Nonpareil coach and 
 joined the hounds. So delighted was he 
 with this good news that he gave the gipsies 
 leave to cut as many " fags " as they required 
 for their camp fires in crossing the Woodwell 
 Moors, telling them at the same time, if they 
 came across any '' lang-cripples " or " hedgy- 
 boars," they might catch and cook them into
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 235 
 
 tlie bargain. He then hastened home ; but 
 instead of seeking, as might be supposed he 
 would have done, the indulgence of a nap 
 after the long ride and sleepless night he had 
 passed on the moor, he sent for a stable-boy 
 to burnish over his dirty top-boots while he 
 sat in them and swallowed his breakfast, and 
 then, ordering out a rough pony, started for 
 the Aune. 
 
 The point he had made for was Gara Mill, 
 some miles below New Bridge, and famous for 
 the many otters found, first and last, in its 
 vicinity ; but as the hounds had forced the 
 otter up stream instead of down, as reported 
 by the gipsies, Luscombe did not overtake 
 them till the sport was all over. So, as they 
 jogged along slowly on their homeward way 
 together, Raleigh, who was almost as good at 
 killing a fox or an otter over his mahogany 
 as on the banks of a stream or on the wild 
 moor, described minutely every passage of the 
 chase, attributing the glorious finale arrived 
 at mainly to the energy of the Quaker. 
 
 " The view-holloa he gave," said he, "would 
 have electrified you ; and so eager was he to 
 bolt the otter, that I verily believe, if Hoppin,.
 
 236 FRANK EALEIGH. 
 
 after consenting to cut clown the tree, had 
 not himself wielded the axe, the Quaker 
 "vvould have felled it with his own hands. 
 Never was the natural love of huntinc: so 
 speedily evinced ; never the manner of a man 
 so changed in one short hour ! St. Huhert 
 might have been proud of him." 
 
 '' I know the man well," said Luscombe. 
 " An honester fellow than John Brock no 
 country can boast. He does what he has to 
 do with his whole might ; and, depend upon 
 it, if he has taken to this game, he'll play it 
 out to the last throw. So you'll see him 
 again at the cover-side, I prophesy." 
 
 " The sooner the better," replied Ealeigh. 
 '' Such a man will be a clear gain to our 
 field. He will come out to enjoy hunting, 
 not to display the polish of his top-boots nor 
 the recent handiwork of his London tailor ; 
 for I have observed that those who are over- 
 keen on such points are in general utterly 
 indifferent to the work of hounds." 
 
 " I quite agree with you, Raleigh. Dan- 
 dyism on the j'j'az;^' is bad enough ; but in the 
 field it is unendurable. Look at that Tom 
 Townshend, for instance, who sometimes
 
 FrvANK RALEIGH. 237' 
 
 honours you with his company. Did the 
 world ever see such an effeminate coxcomb ? 
 — so plastered with pomatum and scent that 
 I wonder the hounds don't check whenever 
 he comes within reach of them." 
 
 ^' Happily that is not very often the case," 
 replied the Squire, " or he might really da 
 some mischief in that way. However, to do 
 him justice, he certainly is a man of retiring^ 
 habits, for the first shower of rain invariably 
 sends him home. I am shocked to say it is- 
 quite true that Ben, who, kill after kill, had 
 missed his half-crown, begged 4iim7one day 
 with all solemnity to bring out his umbrella 
 the next time he hunted, and then he might 
 stop to see the finish. Townshend was so 
 tickled with the idea that, instead of resenting 
 the irony, he gave him a spade-guinea, telling- 
 him he was an unmitigated rufSan, and that 
 his tongue would be the better for more oil 
 and less vinegar." 
 
 But while the hounds are trotting home to 
 their kennel, and the two Squires are indulging 
 in horse-and-hound talk to their hearts' con- 
 tent, let us now follow the pony-carriage 
 containing Mrs. Cornish and her fair daughter,,
 
 238 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 who, accompanied by Frank and the Quaker, 
 were wending their way, by flowery banks 
 and green meadows, down to the high road 
 leading to G-ara Bridge. Frank's feelings 
 towards the latter, after the unmistakable 
 zest he had evinced for the sport and the real 
 fox-hound dash he had displayed in pursuing 
 it, had undergone a complete change ; and 
 he now regarded him, not only with high 
 respect, but with that hero-worship which 
 boys of warm temperament are so apt to feel 
 and pay to manly characters in sympathy 
 with themselves. 
 
 It was, therefore, with no little regret that, 
 on reaching the main road, Frank found his 
 companionship, at least for the present, 
 now drawing to a close ; John Brock an- 
 nouncing his intention of proceeding on foot 
 towards Exeter, while Frank, who had accepted 
 a seat in the rumble of the pony-carriage, 
 was about to return to the schoolhouse at 
 Buckbury, under the wing of the attractive 
 widow. 
 
 " We shall meet again soon, I hope," said 
 Frank, as he wrote down on the lining of 
 his hat the Quaker's address — John Brock,
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 239 
 
 Badgery Combe, Plymleigh. " My father, 
 you know, never advertises the meets of his 
 otter-hounds, owing to the crowds that attend 
 and trample down the meadow-grass ; but, 
 never fear, you shall have them regularly 
 from me as soon as ever I get back to dear 
 old Watercombe, and that will be in less than 
 a fortnight." 
 
 " If thou wilt hold me in remembrance and 
 do so much for me, thou wilt earn my best 
 thanks," said the Quaker, grasping Frank's 
 hand, as if he was really loth to part with him ; 
 " but I would not put thee to inconvenience 
 on any account, my young friend." 
 
 " No inconvenience whatever ; Ben or I 
 will always manage to send you word the 
 day before the meet ; and then, if you can 
 come, we shall be delighted to see you." 
 
 At the mention of Ben's name, an expres- 
 sion almost of alarm crossed the Quaker's 
 face ; he had found the man so utterly dif- 
 ferent in manner from any West-country 
 servants who had come under his observation; 
 so short and discourteous in his speech, so 
 arbitrary and even fierce in demeanour while 
 hounds were at work ; and, judging from his
 
 240 FKANK KALEIGH. 
 
 conduct to himself, lie had come to the con- 
 clusion that, either from his personal appear- 
 ance, or perhaps from his ignorance of the 
 chase, the huntsman had conceived a strong* 
 prejudice against him, and would be a very 
 unlikely man to communicate the meets if the 
 matter were left in his hands. But John 
 Brock's inference was a wrong one ; Ben was 
 a dragon to all alike at such times ; and 
 whether a man wore a black coat or a brown 
 one, a broad brim or an ordinary " beaver," 
 if he interfered with Ben in his work, he was 
 quite certain to get the rough side of his 
 tongue and be taught a lesson which he 
 would not readily forget. 
 
 As yet the Quaker had only seen him with 
 his red paint on and the war-song on his 
 tongue, at a time when he was fretted b}^ 
 the difficulty of keeping a lot of young, high- 
 couraged hounds from breaking away and 
 running riot, owing to the prolonged absence 
 of the Squire ; and when, after the chase had 
 commenced, and all the energies of his mind 
 and body were concentrated upon it, the 
 silliest of questions were being constantly 
 put to him by amateurs, who, if they knew
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 241 
 
 little of hounds' ways, adopted, like our 
 friend the Quaker, a somewhat indiscreet 
 mode of improving their knowledge by such 
 ill-timed and irrelevant inquiries. So the 
 honest but uncivilized nature of the hunts- 
 man, writhing under the infliction, too fre- 
 quently found his tongue, as he was wont to 
 say, " running away with him," and dealing 
 out hard words on their devoted heads. 
 
 But, in after years, when John Brock had 
 become himself a true worshipper of Diana, 
 and could tell, as far as he could see him, a 
 fresh from a hunted fox, could distinguish the 
 note of an authentic hound from that of §t 
 babbler, and keep a good place when hounds 
 were, five couple abreast, travelling like a 
 hurricane over Stall Moor, no man understood 
 and valued Ben more than he did ; and cer- 
 tainly few of the field had so little cause as 
 he had to complain of his rough tongue and 
 wild ways. As yet, however, we only see him 
 in his noviciate, and so far, no doubt, the first 
 impressions he received of Ben's character 
 were calculated to alarm a stouter man than 
 the mild and kindly Quaker. 
 
 "I would rather, friend, hear from thyself," 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242' FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 lie replied, "if tlioa wilt send me but one line; 
 or, if time should fail thee, thy butler would 
 perhaps do it for thee." 
 
 " He write — old Matthews, no ! couldn't 
 make a pothook for his life, nor any other 
 servant in our family ; but I'll do it, never 
 fear." 
 
 This was quite true ; the schoolmaster was 
 not yet abroad, much less had he penetrated 
 into the remote villages bordering on Dart- 
 moor. In them, as the parish registers will 
 still show, with the exception of the Squire's 
 own family and that of the clergyman, if 
 happily they possessed such magnates, few 
 indeed were they of the inhabitants who, as 
 autographers, could do more than inscribe his 
 or her mark on such parochial documents as 
 required their signatures. Men, even of 
 liberal views, in those days were wont to 
 believe that to educate the peasant would be 
 to make him discontented with his lowly lot, 
 and so unfit him for the labour he was born 
 to do. Besides, future grave ills, alike mis- 
 chievous to social and domestic comfort, if 
 not dangerous to the state, were anticipated 
 from the mental cultivation which here and
 
 rKA:N'K RALEIGH. 243 
 
 there a few daring pioneers were even now 
 venturing to urge on the British pubHc. 
 
 "I warn you, gentlemen," said the rector of 
 an important agricultural parish in the South 
 Hams of Devon about this time, " that if you 
 support this educational movement, you will 
 only be preparing a rod for your own backs." 
 
 On the other hand, one of our most enlight- 
 ened statesmen recently told the House of 
 Commons, that the day was coming when the 
 working men would be the lawgivers of this 
 country ; and, if that was to be the case, it 
 behoved us to set to work at once to educate 
 those who were steadily coming to the front, 
 and would be our future masters. Which 
 advice yAII prove the best, that of the old- 
 fashioned parson or that of the modern 
 Ulysses, time alone will reveal. 
 
 The skid, however, with which the former 
 would have retarded the progress of the 
 educational coach has long since been dis- 
 carded, and fast trains are now employed to 
 carry knowledge of every conceivable descrip- 
 tion, from the love letters of Jeames de la 
 Plushe to the theories of Professor Tyndall, 
 into every nook and corner of the land. The *
 
 244 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 back, too, of many a poor postman, stag- 
 gering under his burden in town or country, 
 will bear witness to the progress of education 
 and to the industry with which it is cultivated 
 under the auspices of the penny post. Broad- 
 cast is the seed being sown by this machine, 
 and fortunate indeed will the country be, if its 
 future crop prove to be one of good wheat 
 rather than one of tares. Let us be content 
 to hope for the best ; for one glimpse of the 
 future would probably be as fatal to our 
 happiness as.it was to that of Cassandra. 
 
 John Brock, having secured a promise 
 from Frank that he would regularly send him 
 the meets of his father's otter-hounds, now 
 took his leave ; and, breasting the steep hill 
 in the direction of Totnes, was soon lost to 
 sight amid the dense foliage and ferny banks 
 that fringed the road, and gave it the appear- 
 ance of a long, green arbour, very grateful to 
 the traveller on a long summer's day. 
 
 " I never conversed with a Quaker before," 
 said Frank, as he vaulted into the little hind 
 seat of Mrs. Cornish's pony-carriage ; and if 
 the rest of his tribe are anything like him, I 
 shouldn't much mind being a Quaker myself."
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 245 
 
 " What ! and be dressed in tliat grotesque 
 suit of sober brown and broad-brimmed hat ? 
 Never ! " said the fair widow, with a ringing 
 laugh. " Adonis himself would look a fright 
 in such a garb." 
 
 " I rather like the colour of it," replied 
 Frank ; "it puts me in mind of the brown 
 woods, when hunting begins and the wood- 
 cocks drop in, which, according to my father's 
 fancy, is the most enjoyable season of the 
 year. But I never thought of the dress, only 
 of the man inside it." 
 
 " The fashion of it is that of a past age, 
 and perhaps does your friend an injustice ; 
 gives him the air of a Puritan, which, to 
 judge by his action, he certainly is not." 
 
 The road up which they were now as- 
 cending became so steep near the summit of 
 the hill that, in order to ease the strain on 
 the pony's collar, the two ladies and Frank 
 had quitted the carriage and were following 
 its slow progress under the shade of the fine 
 overhanging trees of Hart's Wood ; Mary, 
 however, still guiding the pony as she lei- 
 surely walked by its side. Not a word as yet 
 had Frank addressed to her personally ; for,
 
 246 FKANK RALEIGH. 
 
 although he was in no wise troubled with 
 what the French call mauvaise honte, still, on 
 this present occasion, something very like it 
 seemed to tie his tongue and create a feeling 
 of constraint he had never known before. It 
 was, therefore, no little relief to him to 
 observe how engrossed the young lady ap- 
 peared to be in patting and encouraging the 
 pony, as the brave little beast toiled against 
 the declivity like a miniature drayhorse ; for, 
 while she was so engaged, he did not feel 
 compelled to break the silence that so far had 
 been maintained between them. 
 
 Mary Cornish, however, was not a girl to 
 repel conversation ; but, on the contrary, her 
 simplicity of character, the tone of her voice, 
 and sweet, affable manner were attractive 
 enough, when she spoke, to unloose the 
 tongue of a Trappist. She was just seven- 
 teen ; but any one, not knowing that secret, 
 would have pronounced her to be at least 
 twenty, so developed was her lithe and grace- 
 ful figure in all the beauty of full woman- 
 hood. Then her face, true Devon in the 
 peach-like complexion and soft texture of the 
 skin, and radiant with sensibility, had a
 
 FRAXK RALEIGH. 247 
 
 charm in its expression that might well set a 
 boy's heart in a wild flame at first sight, and 
 his blood boiling and surging up to fever 
 heat. But whether Frank had been so 
 scorched, as if struck by an electric flash, 
 must be left to the judgment of those who, 
 like Byron, have undergone the bitter expe- 
 rience of such shocks in early youth, and 
 carried their scars with them down to the 
 grave. Generally, however, a boy's love is 
 like a lucifer match — a fierce flash and a 
 bright flame — while it lasts ; but, happily for 
 the sufferer, like the match, it burns out with 
 wondrous and merciful rapidity. It was i^o 
 foolish fancy of Anacreon's, when he sang of 
 Cytherea endeavouring, after Yulcan had 
 forged them, to soften the tips of Cupid's 
 darts and quench their flame with honey. 
 The poet, to judge from his odes, must have 
 been a standing target, early and late, for the 
 little god's practice, and often been hit and 
 scorched sorely by those fiery shafts ; and 
 these probably drove him to that wine-cup, 
 the praises of which he sang so sweetly on 
 his harmonious lyre. 
 
 The trio, on gaining the level ground
 
 248 FRAXK RALEIGH. 
 
 beyond the village of Lupridge, liad again 
 taken their seats in the pony-carriage which, 
 with Taffy's thoughts intent on the manger, 
 was travelling briskly homewards in the 
 direction of Buckbury. 
 
 " One of our fellows at school," said Frank, 
 whose shyness, while the ladies' backs were 
 turned on him, appeared to be gradually 
 wearing off, " is always bringing out some- 
 thing new in the shape of riddles, which we 
 suspect he gets from the 'Gentleman's Maga- 
 zine ' or ' Woolmer's Gazette.' This was his 
 last : ' Why is a horse the most generous, the 
 most miserable, and the most sympathetic of 
 all animals ? ' " 
 
 '•'• I never guessed a riddle in my life," said 
 the elder lady; " and my knowledge of horses 
 is so limited that I'm sure I should never 
 guess that ; so I'll give it up." 
 
 '' Can you guess it ? " said Frank, ad- 
 dressing Mary, on whose golden locks and 
 fair cheek his gaze was now riveted ; " what 
 do you say. Miss Mary ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I'll give it up too ; though I know 
 all about Taffy, ever since Farmer Pitts 
 bought him for us out of a Welsh drove."
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 249 
 
 " Well, a horse is the most generous of 
 animals, because he'll give the very bit out of 
 his mouth ; he is the most miserable, because 
 his thoughts are always on the rack ; and 
 he's the most sympathetic, because his ear is 
 always open to the cry of ' Wo.' " 
 
 Frank had scarcely concluded the explana- 
 tion, when the clatter of a horse's heels, 
 rapidly following them, arrested the attention 
 of all the party ; while Mary, with the inten- 
 tion of allowing the traveller to pass them, 
 guided the pony to the near side of the road 
 and slackened his pace. 
 
 " It's one of the doctor's old screws, I de- 
 clare," said Frank, who had turned his hea'd 
 and instantly recognized a white-faced chest- 
 nut mare, the property of Mr. Host. It was 
 a long, weedy animal, once a noted racer, but 
 now displaying the Devonshire arms on both 
 knees ; and, although bought at Brent Goose- 
 Fair for a ten-pound note, she was still by far 
 the best hack in his stable. " I'd know that 
 mare's gallop a mile off ; 'tis easy and suent 
 as a fox's ; but no one who values his neck 
 dare ride her at any other pace ; for down she 
 comes like a ninepin at a walk or slow-trot
 
 250 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 Old Ben calls lier * a good parson's horse/ 
 because she goes to prayers so often ; 
 though, over the moor, ' Casket ' is as safe 
 as a cax. 
 
 " I wonder," said Mrs. Cornish, " that a 
 sensible man like Mr. Host should ride such 
 a dangerous animal, for he can't always be 
 keeping her at a full gallop. I know well 
 he has had many serious falls, and probably 
 from that very animal." 
 
 " That's quite true ; for I heard him tell 
 my flither one day he had broken almost 
 every bone in his body but the backbone ; 
 and that, too, chiefly at night-time, when 
 visiting poor patients on the borders of the 
 moor." 
 
 " Where, of course, he found no one to 
 help him," said the widow, sympathetically. 
 " I shall certainly beg him to get rid of so 
 worthless a ' Casket ' as soon as he can ; a 
 better name for her, I think, would be 
 Atropos, for she'll sever his thread of life 
 some night to a certainty." 
 
 This Delphic utterance, which at a future 
 time proved to be too near the truth, had 
 scarcely been made when the mare and her
 
 FRANK RALEiaH. 251 
 
 rider ranged alongside the carriage ; but still 
 the same pace was maintained, and, instead of 
 pulling up, as the trio expected Mr. Host 
 would have done, they shot by the carriage 
 and passed on in full swing. Time enough, 
 however, was given both to the ladies and 
 Frank to observe that the rider was not 
 Mr. Host, but a young assistant, called 
 Amyatt, who had recently joined him, and 
 who, to their intense horror, while he guided 
 the mare with his bridle-hand, carried with 
 the other a man's leg — a grey worsted stock- 
 ing, its late owner's, into which it had been 
 thrust, supplying but a scanty covering to the 
 lower part of the limb, while that portion 
 of it above the knee, where it had been 
 amputated, was wrapped round with a red 
 pocket-handkerchief, which, as it failed to 
 hide the wet blood oozing through its 
 texture and left the knee-joint completely 
 bare, disclosed a sickening sight too dreadful 
 to behold. 
 
 But the worst was yet to come. Mr. 
 Amyatt, in his anxiety to lift his hat as 
 he passed the ladies, which he endeavoured 
 to do with his bridle-hand, caught the hand-
 
 252 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 kerchief with one of the reins and dragged 
 it completely off the leg. The ghastly stump 
 was now exposed, with the bone protruding 
 far beyond the flesh ; and, as he pulled 
 up the mare to re-adjust the handkerchief, 
 which luckily had not fallen to the ground, a 
 full view of the revolting spectacle was again 
 inflicted on the ladies, both of whom turned 
 deadly pale, and were almost fainting on the 
 spot. 
 
 " I've seen many an ugly sight," said 
 Frank, " in our shambles at home, but that 
 beats all the carrion I ever saw. What a 
 savage the man must be to carry it in that 
 fashion along the high road, just as a butcher- 
 boy would carry a leg of mutton ! " 
 
 " Disgusting, indeed!" replied Mrs. Cornish, 
 now averting her head to shut out the odious 
 sight. " The young man's professional 
 ardour has evidently led him to forget 
 the feelings of the public, or he would 
 surely have taken more pains to conceal 
 such a burden. Do, Mary, stop the pony, 
 and let him get out of sight as soon as 
 possible." 
 
 It transpired afterwards that Host, just
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 253 
 
 as he was about to leave home with the 
 intention of joining the otter-hounds, was 
 summoned to attend a labourer who, return- 
 ing with a waggon-load of lime from the 
 kilns at North Huish, had slipped from the 
 shafts in a state of intoxication, and fallen 
 under the wheels. One leg had escaped 
 injury, but the other had been so frightfully 
 crushed that nothing but its immediate 
 amputation, in Host's opinion, could save the 
 poor fellow's life. Accordingly, with that 
 promptitude of action which characterized the 
 man when he saw that an operation was 
 indispensable, he set to work at once, and, 
 with the aid of his assistant, removed the 
 limb. 
 
 Of the latter's share in the operation (the 
 first serious one he had ever witnessed) the 
 young man was so proud that he begged 
 permission to carry the amputated leg with 
 him back to Buckbury. This favour was 
 readily granted, on the ground that the 
 dissection of the limb would be likely to 
 promote the youth's knowledge of surgery ; 
 but little did Host dream that the vain fellow 
 would expose it, as he did, to the disgust
 
 254 FRANK RALEian. 
 
 of the public, and parade it as a tropliy of 
 their mutual skill.* 
 
 In about an hour after this adventure, the 
 pony-carriage commencing its descent towards 
 the suburbs of Buckbury, Mrs. Cornish drew 
 Frank's attention to the verdant and pic- 
 turesque scenery surrounding that primitive 
 town. Woods and meadows luxuriant with 
 flowers ; a broad, sparkling brook, overhung 
 with fern and still flecked with foam, dancing 
 merrily on to " join the brimming river ; " 
 the old shaggy moor in the background 
 looking down majestically on the vale below, 
 as the rays of the declining sun gilded its 
 rugged tors with a crown of glory : these 
 all, taken in by the eye at one glance, com- 
 bined to form a landscape such as Claude 
 Lorraine himself would have been charmed 
 to paint. 
 
 " The site of the little town, too," said Mrs. 
 Cornish, " is perfect, with its grand tower 
 and that old Grothic schoolhouse standing out 
 in such bold relief against those noble elms ! 
 I almost envy the happiness of its inmates ; 
 
 * There are those now living (1877) who witnessed this 
 offensive exhibition.
 
 FRANK RALETGH. 255 
 
 for may not the poet say of tliem, as he said 
 of the Eton boys : 
 
 'No sense have they of ills to come, 
 Nor care beyond to-day.'" 
 
 Frank's forbearance could hold out no 
 longer, as, with a lump rising like an apple 
 in his throat at the prospect of being again so 
 soon within those hated walls, he said : 
 
 " If that poet had ever felt the weight 
 of old Twigg's lexicon on his head, and known 
 something about the ^ ills ' of the past, he 
 would certainly have told a different tale and 
 acquired a better sense of the ' ills to come ' 
 at that school. Why, he'll knock down a 
 boy like a snuff-box at a fair, if he only makes 
 a false quantity in a Sapphic verse. No ! I'd 
 rather be kennel-boy to Ben Head than sub- 
 mit to such tyranny." 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Cornish, mildly, though 
 scarcely knowing how to answer Frank's 
 statement, "as the holidays are so near, and 
 you expect your commission so soon, do make 
 the best of your short stay here. Believe me, 
 the Doctor is very easily disarmed by the 
 obedience and attention of his scholars,
 
 256 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 though, doubtless, he may sometimes be a 
 little severe in correcting their faults." 
 
 The party by this time had arrived at the 
 dread portals of the schoolhouse, into which, 
 under the wing of his kind friend, Frank now 
 entered, but not without a feeling very much 
 akin to that an amateur would be likely to 
 feel on entering a lion's den. However, the 
 boy showed no fear, carried his head high, 
 and stepped along even lightly into the awful 
 presence of Dr. Twigg. 
 
 There, then, we must now leave him, and 
 report the interview at a future time.
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 257 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Tu, nisi ventis 
 
 Debes ludibrium, cave 
 
 HOR. 
 
 In going to tlie otter-hunt that morning, the 
 coach had not been ten minutes oif the stones 
 ere the whirl and excitement of the start, tLe 
 spanking team, and the pleasant sallies of 
 Jack Groodwin's wit had speedily and effec- 
 tually banished from Frank's mind all 
 thoughts of Buckbury and Dr. Twigg for the 
 rest of the day. Even the earnest appeal of 
 Mrs. Hopkins, the kind-hearted housekeeper, 
 striving hard, as she expressed it, to save 
 him from ruin, no longer rung on his ears ; 
 nor, for one moment, in the all-engrossing 
 presence of the hounds, did the chase lose an 
 iota of its charms by a single twinge of appre- 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 hension as to the fate awaiting him on his 
 return to school. 
 
 " The sunshine of the hour " he had 
 thoroughly enjoyed, and probably none the 
 less so because it was a stolen ray ; for in the 
 Songs of Schiller, so exquisitely translated by 
 the late Lord Lytton, is it not said — 
 
 " Ah ! never he has rapture known 
 
 Who has not, where the waves are driven 
 Upon the fearful shores of Hell, 
 
 Pluck'd fruits that taste of Heaven ? " 
 
 But back once more within those prison 
 walls, and again under the very eye of the 
 pedagogue, whose severity in all cases of 
 breach of discipline amounted to a proverb, 
 Frank might well believe that "the ills to 
 come " were now at hand, and that a heavy 
 sentence of punishment would be pronounced 
 without mercy on his guilty head. Still his 
 cheek was not blanched, nor could any sign 
 of the downcast culprit be traced in the open 
 expression of his countenance ; his step, too, 
 was firm, and, though exhibiting no bravado, 
 he followed the fair widow into the Doctor's 
 den without a shadow of fear or trepidation 
 observable in his whole demeanour.
 
 FRAJS^K RALEIGH. 259 
 
 Was it then the natural courage of the boy 
 that, in the face of the flagrant act of which 
 he was conscious, gave him composure, if not 
 confidence, in the presence of the pedagogue ? 
 Or was it that, knowing how soon he would 
 be emancipated from the school-trammels by 
 which he was now hampered, he was nerved 
 to meet without alarm an ordeal, usually held 
 so terrible by every truant, under the belief 
 that this would probably be the last he 
 should ever be subjected to within those 
 walls ? 
 
 To this feeling, doubtless, and to his high 
 spirit was the self-possession that sustained 
 him partly due ; but there was yet another 
 and a stronger reason that influenced Frank's 
 manner and encouraged him to expect a 
 light sentence in the present interview. The 
 widow's power over the pedagogue was no 
 secret to him ; indeed, he had already turned 
 it to account by obtaining a holiday on the 
 previous day, when it was well known that 
 to every one else but that lady the Doctor 
 would have given a stern refusal. Under 
 her wing, therefore, Frank felt tolerably 
 secure, and entered into the awful den not
 
 260 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 only without a shudder, but with a step that 
 jEneas might have envied when, bearing the 
 golden bough and supported by the Sibyl, he 
 entered the realms of the inexorable Pluto. 
 
 '' Delighted to see you, my dear madam,'' 
 said the Doctor, rising to receive the lady 
 with a gratified air and the blandest of 
 smiles ; "a visit from you is indeed a great 
 honour. Pray be seated, and let me know in 
 what way I can serve you." 
 
 So complete was the transmutation of the 
 man's countenance and manner, that Frank 
 could scarcely believe in his own ears and 
 eyes that he heard and saw the veritable Dr. 
 Twigg. The moment, however, the eye of 
 the pedagogue fell on him, and that old 
 Burleigh nod, so full of dignity and dark 
 import, bid the boy understand that he too 
 was to take a chair, Frank's doubts vanished 
 like a dream ; that one look and nod were 
 enough ; it was the wielder of the Hederich 
 that stood before him — "old Twigg" incar- 
 nate, and no other. 
 
 "You are always so very kind," replied 
 Mrs. Cornish, in the gentlest and sweetest of 
 tones, "or I could not have ventured to
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 261 
 
 trouble you so soon again with another 
 petition." 
 
 " Whatever that petition may be, madam, 
 pray consider it as abeady granted," inter- 
 posed the Doctor, with all the gallantry of 
 which he was capable. 
 
 " Thank you a thousand times," said the 
 lady, looking round hopefully at Frank, with 
 a view to cheer him. " My young friend, I 
 fear, has been absent without leave ; and as he 
 is conscious of having seriously transgressed 
 your rules and taken an unwarrantable 
 liberty with you, he is come to express his 
 deep regret at having done so. Let me add 
 that, as I am in some measure responsible for 
 the night adventure that led to this breach of 
 discipline, I must beg you to consider me a 
 co-culprit in the matter, and deal leniently 
 with us both." 
 
 Not one word of regret, not a syllable of 
 penitence had Frank expressed, either directly 
 or indirectly, to Mrs. Cornish ; and although 
 he felt it was quite true he had broken the 
 rules of the establishment, and given dire 
 offence thereby, his pride rebelled at the idea 
 of cringing to " old Twigg," and begging for
 
 262 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 mercy at his hands. A thousand times 
 rather would he have submitted to another 
 blow from the Hederich, or any other punish- 
 ment in the power of the pedagogue to 
 inflict, than knock under by asking his pardon, 
 and run the risk of being considered " a 
 funk " by his schoolfellows so long as he lived. 
 
 Besides, the confession of his fault, he 
 thought, would be such a triumph for the 
 man who had impressed his mark on him by 
 so many acts of savage violence, and whom 
 he had now come to regard, not simply in the 
 light of a severe taskmaster, but as an 
 oppressor and a brute. No ! he'd bite out his 
 tongue rather than say he was sorry to " old 
 Twigg : " better death than such humiliation. 
 
 Such was Frank's determination, as he 
 listened impatiently to the widow's report, 
 representing him as returning in a penitent 
 mood and expressing a sorrow on his account 
 which he did not feel, and certainly would 
 not own. 
 
 This feeling on his part, if not a Christian, 
 was only a too natural one ; for, in memory 
 at least, he was still smarting under the 
 degradation to which he had been compelled
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 263 
 
 SO often to submit ; and to be called upon now 
 to kiss the rod, and perhaps be threatened 
 again with the same indignity, was a penance 
 but too likely to rouse the spirit of a lad pos- 
 sessing far less mettle than Frank Ealeigh 
 into downright, open rebellion. 
 
 The explanation and appeal for clemency 
 so kindly proffered by Mrs. Cornish, in which 
 her own fault, as she insisted on calling it, 
 was ingeniously interwoven with that of 
 Frank's, drew from the Doctor, as might be 
 expected, a low and approving nod : " Your 
 complicity in this sad affair, my dear madam," 
 he then said, " is due only to the good-nature 
 and kindness of your heart, and, if they have 
 been abused by a gross breach of discij5lino 
 on the part of this truant, he, and not you, 
 must suffer the consequences." 
 
 The Doctor having so far adjudicated on 
 the widow's case, the form of his visage 
 became changed as, with a dark scowl upon 
 it, he turned round to Frank, and thus ad- 
 dressed him : — 
 
 " You, sir, as you must know, have no title 
 to any indulgence at my hands. You have 
 been consistently negligent of your studies,
 
 264 FRANK RALEiaH. 
 
 followed field sports as if you were born to 
 be a gamekeeper, and were sent here to learn 
 your trade ; and, lastly, you have thought fit 
 to violate my rules by an act of insubordina- 
 tion alike injurious, by its example, to the 
 pupils as well as to the reputation of this 
 establishment. To overlook such wilful and 
 daring misconduct would be to neglect a duty 
 I owe not less to you than to your father, as 
 well as to the other pupils and to myself. 
 But, sir, in deference to this lady's appeal, 
 instead of expelling you, which I had made 
 up my mind to do, you will transcribe in 
 plain, legible characters the fourth book of 
 Homer's ^ Iliad,' and this task you will accom- 
 plish before the holidays : you may now go." 
 No expression of regret, then, was de- 
 manded from him, no promise of future 
 amendment; so Frank's eye positively bright- 
 ened as he listened to the terms of this sen- 
 tence passed upon him. He then rose in 
 haste, and, with a few words of hearty thanks 
 to Mrs. Cornish, quitted the apartment ; not, 
 however, before that lady had reminded him 
 of his promise to join her pic-nic at Holne 
 Chase on the following Thursday, his next
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 265 
 
 holiday ; " And don't forget," she added, 
 pressing his hand significantly, " to bring 
 your friend Somers with you." 
 
 The expiation of his fault by an imposition, 
 no matter of what length nor in what lan- 
 guage, troubled Frank so little that, on 
 joining his schoolfellows, a knot of whom 
 were waiting for him outside the Doctor's 
 den, he broke out into a roar of merriment. 
 " Beat the old grinder again, by Jingo, boys ! 
 Grot an imposition, such a whacker ! the 
 fourth book of the ' Iliad ' to transcribe : why 
 'twould keep poor Powell in roast beef for a 
 month to come." 
 
 " And thankful enough he'd be for it," said 
 Somers, joining in the mirth ; " for I know 
 he and his children have been living on short 
 commons for many a past week, and his wife 
 looks like a skeleton." 
 
 It will now be necessary to revert to a 
 period of twelve months antecedent to the 
 present history, in order to introduce the 
 reader to the gentleman on whom this imposi- 
 tion was likely to confer so great a boon. 
 
 The Rev. Llewellyn Powell, the individual 
 referred to, was the curate of an outlying
 
 266 FRAI^K EALEIGH. 
 
 cliapelry attached to Buckbury; but as it 
 possessed no parocbial residence for the clergy- 
 man, he and his family were compelled to 
 occupy a set of wretched apartments over 
 a carpenter's shop in the suburbs of that town. 
 For this accommodation and the service of 
 one of the landlord's daughters, who waited 
 on them as maid-of-all-work, he was required 
 to pay the weekly sum of ten shillings out of an 
 annual stipend amounting to seventy pounds. 
 This income, with the addition of a few 
 pounds earned casually, by the use of his pen, 
 included every penny poor Powell had to 
 depend upon for the support of a delicate wife 
 and three hungry children. He had no sooner 
 taken orders as a literate, educated in one of 
 the theological - schools of the Principality, 
 than he hastq^ied, like a bold man, to fulfil an 
 engagement he had entered into, in an evil 
 hour, with a fair-haired " penniless lass " of 
 his own country ; and with the hope of 
 obtaining a better-paid curacy than Cardigan- 
 shire was likely to supply, he had migrated 
 into Devon, where we now find him on the 
 outskirts of Dartmoor, half fed and in thread- 
 bare attire.
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 267 
 
 But not withstanding tlie poverty indicated 
 by his dress, always a linsey-wolsey suit 
 of shepherd's-plaid pattern, woven in his 
 native looms, but so darned and be-roughed 
 by thorns that its own fabricator would have 
 been puzzled to recognize it, Powell's nature 
 was so joyous, and his fine, manly form and 
 clear-cut, handsome features so prepossessing, 
 that no one, looking at his countenance, would 
 think of his dress a second time. 
 
 Nor in appearance only was his manliness 
 displayed ; in that of his conduct it was far 
 more striking. He had been three years 
 at Buckbury, enduring not only the want 
 of almost every comfort supposed to sweeten 
 life, but grinding penury into the bargain ; 
 yet he owed no man a shilling, nor was a 
 murmur of discontent ever heard on his lips. 
 Yerily, he was a living instance that " to 
 poverty only do the gods give content." 
 
 Besides being " a fisher of men," Powell- 
 devoted no small portion of his time to fishing 
 for trout ; and if his success in the former 
 capacity had only equalled his capture of the 
 latter, he Avould have been entitled to the best 
 stall in the Bishop of Exeter's gift. In that
 
 '26S FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 craft he was indeed a profound artist ; could 
 tie a fly and throw it with consummate 
 delicacy, and fill his basket on a cold easterly 
 wind day, when no one else could lure a fish 
 to the surface. But not for his recreation 
 only did he follow this pastime with such 
 ardour and assiduity : from February to 
 September the fish he caught constituted the 
 chief animal food on which he and his family 
 subsisted for months together; and but for 
 this nutritive diet the hard times they saw 
 would have been harder still on his already 
 sorely pinched household. 
 
 When September came, however, matters 
 mended; the hollow cheek of his wife was 
 no longer so apparent, nor the looks of his 
 children half so delicate. From the first day 
 of that month a more substantial fare, in the 
 form of game and rabbits, fell to their lot ; 
 for in those days, the pheasant being a rara 
 avis in that country, Powell, gun in hand, 
 was not only j)ermitted to wander where 
 he would and shoot what he could, but was 
 invited to do so by the farmers far and near. 
 If the land had been his own free warren he 
 -could scarcely have had a freer range. Then,
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 269 
 
 the prevalence of the furze-bush, bristHng on 
 almost every hedgerow, and the number of 
 furze-brakes, grown for "kindlmg" purposes, 
 and occupying no inconsiderable percentage of 
 most Devonshire farms, insured for him a 
 never-failing supply of rabbits, and right 
 welcome were his visits to many a poor 
 farmer suffering from the depredations of 
 too large a stock. 
 
 Frank had scarcely been a week at school 
 before a warm friendship, founded on their 
 similar tastes for out-of-door life, sprang up 
 between him and the poor curate of Blacky- 
 down. He it was who had taught him so 
 many of the secrets of the " gentle art," and 
 had helped him to build a coracle after the 
 ancient British type, such as Tacitus 
 describes, and such as are to this day used 
 by the fishermen of the Teivi and other 
 Cambrian rivers. Canvas, however, satu- 
 rated with tar and tallow, has been substi- 
 tuted for the bullock's hide, or corium, which 
 they stretched over its osier-and-ash ribs in 
 former days, and to which Latin word it 
 is erroneously supposed to be indebted for its 
 present name.
 
 270 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 The object of this boat, weighing about 
 seventy pounds, and in shape very Hke an 
 old-fashioned coal-scuttle, or the tail-end of a 
 duck's body, supposing it chopped in twain, 
 was to enable Frank to fish certain portions 
 of the lower river, which, owing to its dense 
 fringe of overhanging timber, was utterly 
 unapproachable by any other means ; and 
 there, as imagination will always magnify the 
 unknown, of course lay the biggest fish, the 
 Tritons of the stream. 
 
 The low ebb of Powell's exchequer was 
 well known to the whole school, and excited 
 ix strong sympathy among the boys of the 
 upper forms, who had frequently discussed 
 the subject among themselves, and lamented 
 the cruel fate that assigned such slender 
 means to so good a fellow. Nor were plans 
 wanting by which they proposed to relieve 
 in* some measure the financial difficulties 
 pressing upon him ; but among the many 
 advanced, no proposition sufficiently feasible 
 could be hit upon ; not one to which the 
 leaders of the school would give their ad- 
 hesion : still the subject was not shelved. 
 One day — it was in the previous warm
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 271 
 
 summer — several of tlie fifth and sixth 
 form boys had gone on a bathing expedi- 
 tion for the purpose of testing the capabiHties 
 of the coracle, then newly built, and of 
 practising the very ticklish task of getting 
 in and out of her without capsizing the frail 
 bark. 
 
 Naked as sinless Adam had Frank first, 
 and every boy in turn, essayed the embarca- 
 tion; but, like a vicious mule under an 
 unskilled rider, the crazy craft wriggled and 
 winced under its burden and sent every 
 boy one after the other spinning into the 
 pool. Once it capsized on the top of 
 young Carew's head; and he, not being of 
 an agile turn nor an expert swimmer, must 
 have been drowned but for Powell, who, 
 although in his clothes, dived instantly down, 
 caught him by the legs, and dragged him to 
 land. 
 
 On that first day of trial not one of the 
 party could keep his seat for two seconds, 
 and the thorough ducking they all sustained 
 would have probably damped their ardour, 
 keen as it was, if Powell had not warned 
 them that the management of a coracle by
 
 272 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 a beginner was usually attended by such 
 consequences. 
 
 While returning from this expedition, and 
 sauntering among the beautiful green 
 meadows leading up stream in the direction 
 of Buckbury, the old subject of the parson's 
 penury was again broached by the boys; 
 he in the mean time having jumped into the 
 coracle and started down stream in pursuit of 
 his finny prey. 
 
 "I'll tell you what, boys," said Carew, his 
 heavy, good-natured countenance being more 
 than usually animated, "I know how we 
 could do the parson a good turn. We'll con- 
 coct a letter to my governor, and tell him 
 of my wonderful escape, and how the curate 
 jumped in and risked his own life to save 
 mine. Then, can't I hear him say, ' That's the 
 man I'll give Duckyford to ; he has saved my 
 son's life, and shall have the best living in 
 my gift ' ? " 
 
 " But isn't that old Nutcombe's parish ? " 
 said Frank ; " what are you going to do with 
 him ? He's alive and kicking, and likely 
 to live, I should say. Why, there isn't a man 
 out can beat him over the moor now, when
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 273 
 
 the hounds find on his side the country. Sir 
 Anthony must bury him first before he can 
 appoint another man." 
 
 " Don't be so sure of that, Frank," 
 answered Carew, not at all relishing the laugli 
 raised at his expense ; "no one can under- 
 stand a word old Nutcombe says, either in 
 the desk or pulpit ; and the farmers declare a 
 cast-iron parson would be just as useful to 
 the parish. The Ranters are getting the 
 upper hand, too, and my father is going 
 to offer the old fellow a good pension, if 
 he will quietly slip out of harness and resign 
 the living : so, I say, there's a chance for 
 Powell." 
 
 " A very good one, too," said Harry 
 Somers, " if Sir Anthony has not already 
 another man in his eye." 
 
 This suggestion, then, of Carew's appeared 
 to be by far the most sensible as yet pro- 
 posed; and, with the concurrence of all 
 present, it was arranged that a letter should 
 be forthwith addressed to Sir Anthony 
 Carew, describing the accident and Powell's 
 magnanimous conduct in rescuing his son 
 from imminent death. Powell's circuni- 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 stances were then to be disclosed, and an 
 entreaty added that when Duckyford became 
 vacant Sir Anthony would bestow it on 
 him. 
 
 This was accordingly done, and the docu- 
 ment, including a minute description of all 
 particulars likely to promote its success, duly 
 forwarded to Sir Anthony Carew. The fol- 
 lowing post brought an answer, addressed, 
 not to his son, but to Dr. Twigg, which the 
 latter thought proper to read aloud before the 
 whole school. Not one word of gratitude for 
 the escape of his son did the letter contain, 
 but an unsparing invective against the lax 
 discipline of a school which could per2nit boys 
 to waste their time in building coracles and 
 risking their lives by using them. To this 
 was added a short postscript, begging that an 
 enclosed five-pound note might be handed 
 over to the distressed curate. 
 
 The Doctor's face was positively black with 
 rage, so galled was he by the taunt reflecting 
 on his establishment. " Carew ! " he said, in 
 a voice deeper and more guttural than usual, 
 " who were your accomplices on this occa- 
 sion ? and who is the owner of this boat ? "
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 275 
 
 Before Oarew, however, could give an 
 answer, Frank started to his feet and 
 announced himself as the constructor and 
 sole owner. 
 
 The Doctor at first appeared a little taken 
 aback by this straightforward admission ; 
 but instead of giving Frank credit for his 
 candour, he attacked him at once in the most 
 vituperative language his powers of speech 
 could command. " I knew it ! " he said, 
 bitterly ; "I knew you, sir, would be the 
 ringleader in this matter, as you always have 
 been in every plot and act calculated to out- 
 rage my rules ever since you entered this 
 establishment. This last aggression is one*of 
 lawless audacity, and has brought a reproach 
 on me such as I never yet was subjected to. 
 ' Lax discipline,' indeed ! I'll take care that 
 that complaint shall never be brought to my 
 door again." 
 
 It was a matter of grave import always 
 when the Doctor in addressing his pupils 
 exceeded the significant nod and monosyl- 
 labic words in which he usually indulged ; 
 and during the delivery of that long philippic 
 so hushed were the auditors that a pin fiill-
 
 276 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 ing might have been heard all over the 
 school. 
 
 " And who, sir, were your other accomplices 
 besides Carew?" he demanded, still holding 
 Frank with his eye, as the ancient mariner 
 held the wedding guest. 
 
 A dead silence followed this question, and 
 for some seconds it seemed as if Frank, im- 
 willing to incriminate his schoolfellows, meant 
 to make no response : but however this might 
 have been, seven boys stepped forward and 
 acknowledged themselves as participators with 
 Frank in making trial of the coracle ; at 
 the same time stating that, as they had gone 
 to bathe, they had no intention whatever 
 of committing a breach of discipline by 
 that act. 
 
 Dr. Twigg, however, appeared to think 
 otherwise, for, without taking any notice of 
 the explanation, he proceeded at once to 
 allot a heavy imposition to each boy, re- 
 quiring him to write out the first chapter of 
 St. Luke's Grospel in Greek ; but to Frank 
 giving the second chapter as well. At the 
 same time he inhibited the use of the coracle 
 for evermore, adding that expulsion would be
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 277 
 
 the instant penalty imposed on every boy 
 trangressing that order. He then withdrew 
 to his den. 
 
 " I shouldn't have so much minded the 
 double allowance he gave me," said Frank, 
 " if he hadn't been down on the coracle so. 
 A pretty kettle of fish you've made of it, 
 Carew, you and your fat living of Ducky- 
 ford ! " 
 
 " I did it for the best," replied the other, 
 mildly, " and you fellows all agreed to it ; 
 but who would have thought the old Patri- 
 arch (this was the name for Sir Anthony) 
 would have cut up so crusty ? " , 
 
 " He don't seem to think much of you," 
 said Frank, '^ or he might have sent the poor 
 parson fifty instead of that flimsy fiver." 
 
 '' Hold hard," said another, equally vexed 
 at the result of i\\Q petition, " ^yq pounds is 
 a big price, and, in my opinion, Powell has 
 already been overpaid for the job." 
 
 "Well," said Carew, still maintaining his 
 good-temper and ready to defend his father, 
 " you forget there are twelve of us at 
 home, and that I am the Benjamin of the 
 bunch."
 
 278 FRANK RALEIGIT. 
 
 " So I should think," repHed Frank, " by 
 the mess we have all dropped into, and of 
 which you certainly should have had the 
 double allowance." 
 
 Happily, Carew's nature was not a conten- 
 tious one, or a fight, for a certainty, with one 
 or the other of those who badgered him would 
 have been the inevitable finale to that conver- 
 sation. School for the day being now over, 
 and the irritation all but forgotten, an 
 adjournment to the football field in the rear 
 of the town then took place by general 
 consent. Here were already assembled a 
 large party of the lower boys playing cricket, 
 a new game only lately imported into the 
 western counties from Kent, and bidding fair 
 to be very poj)ular among the athletes of the 
 school. 
 
 Watching the players from an open window 
 over the carpenter's shop adjoining this 
 ground stood Powell, head and shoulders 
 out, as if taking a warm interest in the 
 features of this novel and manly game. 
 Frank and his coracle crew spied him in a 
 moment, and, rushing up, the tale of all 
 their disasters was duly told, from the angry
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 279 
 
 letter of Sir Anthony Carew to the inter- 
 diction of the coracle, on which last point 
 Frank's outburst of eloquence on "old 
 Twigg's " cruelty must have made that 
 pedagogue's left ear tingle to its very roots. 
 
 "I'll give you the coracle, Mr. Powell, 
 with all my heart," said Frank, as the 
 thought occurred to him that even yet the 
 Doctor might probably impound it ; " and 
 then, you know, if you should miss it some 
 fine afternoon, you'll perhaps be able to guess 
 who has borrowed it." 
 
 Powell, however, at once foreseeing that if 
 he accepted the coracle and Frank used it, iie 
 would be indirectly aiding and abetting him 
 in breaking Dr. Twigg's mandate, promptly 
 declined the proffered gift, and, at the same 
 time, strongly recommended the virtue of 
 submission. " It's no use kicking against the 
 pricks," he said, kindly; "and so long as 
 you are under authority, obedience to it will, 
 depend upon it, be your best policy." 
 
 Never before had Powell spoken to Frank 
 in this monitory way ; but the kind tone in 
 which he did it, and the real chumship that 
 existed between them, produced their instan-
 
 280 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 taneous effect on the warm-hearted and 
 impulsive lad. 
 
 " I'm sure that's good advice, Mr. Powell," 
 said he ; " but it does go so against my 
 grain to feel that every word I say is either 
 doubted or disbelieved, when I do all I can 
 to ' speak the truth and shame the devil.' 
 It's enough to make a fellow turn sneak 
 for ever." 
 
 The remittance of the five-pound note by 
 Sir Anthony had not as yet been mentioned 
 by the boys, an instinctive feeling of delicacy 
 as to what Powell would think of it causing 
 them to keep that in the background to the 
 last. At length out it came, and in a moment 
 it was evident that poor as Powell was, 
 poverty had done little to subdue a certain 
 spirit of pride that still ruled within the 
 man. 
 
 Some one has written that " Cupid and cold 
 mutton do not go well together," and certainly 
 it may be said that no two yoke-fellows are so 
 ill-matched together as pride and poverty. 
 Was it not Churchill who wrote — 
 
 " Were I to curse the man I hate, 
 Attendance and dependence be his fate ;
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 281 
 
 And to entail but one curse more, 
 
 Let him be very proud and very poor " ? 
 
 The idea of having a five-pound note sent 
 him through Dr. Twigg, without one word of 
 thanks, in payment for what he had done, 
 grated so on his feelings that, much as he 
 wanted it, he determined at once to refuse 
 the money. 
 
 " No," he said to himself, '' my financial 
 affairs may be at a low ebb, but if they never 
 rise again, I could not accept a douceur on 
 such terms. The gratification of having saved 
 my young friend's life is of itself an ample, 
 as it shall be my sole, reward." • 
 
 The boys then withdrew towards the 
 cricket ground ; and the subject of the im- 
 positions being reverted to, with many a 
 groan over the difficulty of writing the 
 Greek characters, a rare young scamp, 
 called Cockburn, inquired why they didn't 
 follow the plan adopted at Oxford, and get 
 their impositions written by a scribe paid for 
 the work. " I've often," he said, " heard my 
 brother at Christ Church boast that he had 
 never done an imposition himself, and that 
 for a guinea he could always get a Greek
 
 282 FRANK RALEIGH. 
 
 play, or a whole book of Homer, written out 
 in a few hours. Why don't we do the same 
 thing, I say ? " 
 
 A general buzz of approbation greeted this 
 suggestion, and before that day was over, all 
 the boys of the upper school had agreed to 
 form and subscribe to a fund which should 
 be available for that purpose. This being 
 arranged, a deputation, consisting of Frank 
 and a few of his most intimate friends, 
 waited on Powell ; but although a long dis- 
 cussion ensued, his home wants, as may be 
 imagined, staring him in the face, Powell 
 was far too true-hearted and loyal a man to 
 give way on a point of principle ; and, not- 
 withstanding the earnest endeavours made 
 to subdue his scruples, the boys in the end 
 were compelled to retire defeated. 
 
 The aphorism, therefore, " Necessitas ad 
 turpia cogit^' did not in this case apply to 
 him. Powell's needs indeed pressed upon 
 him sorely — his children's hollow cheeks, his 
 wife's spectre form, could not but be j)resent 
 to his mind ; yet, for all that, he could not 
 bring himself to an act of dishonour, which 
 would have been strikingly inconsistent with
 
 FRANK RALEIGH. 28.'] 
 
 tlie advice lie had previously given to tlie 
 boys on the subject of the coracle and sub- 
 mission to authority. So he stood his ground 
 manfully, and said " Nay." 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 'RINTEU AT THE C'AXTON TRESS, BECCl.KS.
 
 j^^^