LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 521, 18 February 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

HOW MY GRANDMOTHER CAME TO MARRY MY GRANDFATHER. Continued. ‘ ‘ You’d better turn back, young woman, and make all the haste you can home, for I’ve just been attacked by two scoundrels this side of Conditcote’s Wood; and if you go on, murdered you’ll be as sure as my name’s what it is.’ ‘ * But my home is on the other side of the wood, sir,’ I answered, in vast consternation, ‘ and I must get back to-night, for I’m going to be married to-morrow.’ * * Buried more likely,’ rejoined he bluntly, * unless you take my advice,’ * J stood silent, scarce able to think for terror and anxiety—terror lest I should bo waylaid and robbed of my twenty pounds,, which I carried in a little bag upon my arm; anxiety lest Fred should even now be on his way towards the wood, and thus fall a prey to these fellows’ bludgeons before I oouldi warn him of his danger, ‘ ‘ I tell you what,’ exclaimed the man r suddenly, * you jump up behind me, and I’ll take you as far as the cross roads ; you’ll be able to go home another way then. Go back with you I can’t, for I already ran a fair chance of being benighted.’ ‘ ‘O, but, sir,’ I commenced plaintively, ready to burst out a-crying, I was so perplexed and alarmed. , * * You needn’t be afraid of trusting yourself with me,’ he pursued ; ‘ I’m a butcher, of Swetteuham, by name John Pretyman, with a mother and sister, and as well known as the town-clock.’ * ‘Yes, I daresay,’ I answered; ‘but if it was ever so I couldn’t turn back now, for my —my intended’s coming to meet me at the wood; and if I don’t get there before him r he’ll be murdered as sure as sure.’ ‘ And therewith I started off to run as fast as my legs could carry me. But John Pretyman was a man of spirit, and not tobe outdone in resolution by a girl. * * Stop a minute !’ cried he, spurring after me. ‘ As you value your good name, stop 1’ ‘ I stopped. “If you will go on,’ continued he, seeing that I had come to a standstill, ‘which! think downright wrong, mind you,—if you will go on, however, let me do this. Ffl

ride after you to that clump of oaks, do you see ?’ pointing with his whip to three trees which grew together by the side of the road, ‘and then I’ll talk and laugh as loud as ever I can, so that these rascals, who, if stayed where I left them, aren’t far off, may fancy that some one’s nigh at hand, and to let you pass unmolested for fear of being caught.’ “0, thank you, sir,’ I exclaimed with deepest gratitude. * 4 And if I hear you scream, ’ he went on, ‘l’ll come to your assistance, that you may be sure ; besides, you can say if they meddle with you that your brother’s just behind. And now good-night, and may God protect you.’ 4 * Amen !’ I said; and I set my face towards the wood as faint of heart as a mouse.

4 By degrees, however, my agitation subsided a little, and the moon chancing j ust then to show her face among the clouds, I was able to see things more clearly as they were ; also I could hear John Pretyman ha-ha-ing and shouting in the distance enough for six, and that alone gave me no small confidence—for he was a stout and lusty man to all appearance, and one on whom dependence might be placed, * At the time of which I am speaking, now some fifty years ,ago, Conditcote and the country thereabouts was as wild as any you could well find, for the railways, though thought of, and even begun in some places— I remember it wasn’t long after that that poor Mr Huskisson lost his life at Parkside—hadn’t got as far as us, and everything was pretty much the same as in the days when Baron Gilbert the robber lived in the White Cave with Dame Isola and Father James, and the people used to keep him in food and wine as good as could be got for fear of having their houses burnt about their ears by his black riders, * The wood, or rather plantation, where I expected to meet Fred, and beneath which in all probability lurked the highwaymen secure from detection among the bracken and brambles fringing the hedge, lay on my right hand just beyond the bend in the road which I was fast approaching. On I walked, quick and straight, commending my soul meanwhile to God if so be that I should be killed, and praying that no mischance might happen to him who was so dear to me. The moon still lent me her welcome light, and a star glittered here and there; a little wind sprang up too, I remember, and rustled the leaves overhead, so that I had hard work not to break into a run, I was so frightened; and I did not care to run, having heard that nothing so surely provokes the brutality of cowards as defencelessness and fear. ‘So I fared till I reached the turn. Then I stopped short, as if rooted to the ground. Even now the horror of that awful moment rises fresh and vivid in my mind. ’ And she paused, and held her hand before her eyes. 4 1 sat dumb and motionless, absorbed in expectation. 4 Coming up the road, which was now flooded with moonshine, and as white as ivory, was Fred. I could not mistake his walk, his voice; he was singing a favourite song of mine, ‘Torn Bowling.’ 4 Perhaps you know it.’ I nodded. * I don’t know whether he saw me. I think he scarcely could have, for hardly had I set eyes on him when out sprang two men from the hedge right into his path, and down he went beneath them like a sack of coals. I screamed, I yelled, till my eyes were ready to drop out of my head : for all the hope I had of ever seeing him again alive lay in my being able to attract J ohn Pretyraan’s attention, and bring him to the rescue. That he heard me was soon made evident, for before my third shriek had died away, a horse’s . hoofs sounded in the distance, and I heard him shouting with all his might, ‘Thieves! murder ! help, help!’ Then I took courage, < and ran as fast as I could to where the rascals were bending over my poor dear, stripping him perhaps of every penny of ready money he had in the world, and so . making us beggars for the next six months to come. 4 No sooner did they see me, the paltry wretches, than they straightened themselves up, and made off to right and left. One scrambled up into the wood, and the other broke through the hedge into the fields, leaving Fred stretched out upon the road insensible, his face crimson with blood which flowed from a cut over his left temple, and one arm broken from a blow with a loaded cane, which was afterwards found with that picture in the ditch. 4 To sit me down upon the road and take his dear head, all the pretty golden hair . dank and dark with blood, upon my lap, was the work of a moment; another, and John [ Pretyman was beside me. ‘ Poor chap ! ’ said he ; ‘ he’ll have some ado to get the better of this night’s frolic.' 4 4 0, sir,’ I said, looking up at him, the tears running down my face, 4 be grave, I pray, and tell me what is best to do 7 ’ ‘ Just then the grind of wheels struck gratefully upon my ear. * ‘ Something is coming, ’ I exclaimed, ‘ a cart, a carriage. Perhaps the driver will take him to my home. It is not far, not more than two miles,’ ‘‘Where dost live?’ asked John Pretyman. 4 ‘ At the Mere Farm,’ I answered. ‘I am Charity Rose, Farmer Rose’s daughter,’ * ‘ Nay, is it possible ?’ cried he in vast surprise. ‘ Why, I know your father well; him andme’s had many a dealing,’ ‘ 4 Hulloa !’ called the driver of the waggon, which had rounded the turn while we spoke. 4 * What be’st a-doin’ theer ?’ “It’s easy told,’ answered John Pretyman, prompt and free; and therewith he went up to the man, and having explained how it was that we cut such a sorry figure, asked if he would kindly give Fred and me a lift. ‘ ‘ That I ’uH,’ replied the carter; 4 but I should fust loike to ’ave a look for them yilluns. I got a bit o’ rope ’ere as I could tie ’em to the cart’s tail with, and I’ll warrant I’d make ’em trot!’ smacking his long whip with meaning. 4 4 But he’ll bleed to death,’ I interposed, tearing a strip off my cambric gown to bind about my dear’s head : the blood had already oozed through two pocket-handerchiefs. ‘ Surely it is better to save the life of one honest man than hang two rogues.’ ‘ 4 That’s downright good sense,’ said J ohn Pretyman. 4 That Rose’s daughter all over. Lend a hand, master, and we’ll have him on that straw in a trice.’ 4 Gently they lifted him up into the waggon Quickly I got in, and sat down by his side, MrPretyman remounted his horse, the carter ’ and cracked his whip, and away • ttburnful a sight aa can well be . . . To He