"What! Nor yet the name of the man you're about to pay visit to?"

"I confess I do not."

"Nor anything else of him?"

"Nothing whatever."

He was on the point of adding, "Only that I've been told something about a pair of pretty girls," when it occurred to him he might be touching on a subject in which his cousin had a tender concern.

"'Pon my honour!" rejoined the latter, making an uphill attempt to laugh, "the tale grows stranger and stranger! You, of the King's Household, on your way to make acquaintance--friendly, of course--with one of his Majesty's greatest and most p.r.o.nounced enemies--a man who hates King, Court, and Church; above all, bitter against your especial patroness, the Queen. I've heard him call her a Jezebel, with other opprobrious epithets."

"Odd in you, Rej, such a devoted Royalist, to have listened calmly to all that?"

"I didn't listen calmly; would have quickly stopped his seditious chattering, but for--"

"For what?" asked the other, seeing he hesitated.

"Oh, certain reasons I may some day make known to you. Like yourself, Eust, I have some secrets."

Eust thought he could give a good guess at one of them, but mercifully forbore allusion to it.

"But," he said, with an air of pretended surprise, "you've been just visiting this terrible king-hater yourself, Rej? If I mistake not, you came out of the park. You were up to the house, were you not?"

"I was."

"And has it shaken your loyalty, or in any way weakened it?"

"On the contrary, strengthened it. My errand to Ambrose Powell, with the reception he vouchsafed me--the ill-grained curmudgeon--has had all that effect."

"Then you've been quarrelling, too! Have you any objection to tell me what about?"

"Not the slightest. I was the bearer of a letter of Privy Seal to him-- for a loan. Sir John Wintour, as you may be aware, has been appointed one of the King's Commissioners of Array for West Gloucestershire and the Forest. You know I'm in his service, which will make the matter understandable to you."

"And you haven't got the money? I needn't ask; there's the signs of refusal in your face."

"Got the money! Zounds! no. Instead, the recusant tore the letter into shreds, and flung them at his feet; defying me, Sir John, King, and all!

Ah! well; that won't be the end of it. I shall be sure of having occasion to visit Hollymead again, and ere long! Next time the tables will be turned. But, cousin, after hearing what I've told you, are you still in the mind to go on to that seditious den? If you take my advice, you'll turn your back on Hollymead House, and come along with me. I'm making for Ross."

"To take your advice, Rej, would be to do as rude a thing as a man well could--ruder than I ever did in my life. Disloyal, too--doubly so; I should be traitor to grat.i.tude, as to courtesy. Indeed, I've trenched scandalously on good manners now, by keeping yonder gentleman so long waiting for me."

He nodded towards Sir Richard, who had halted at some distance up the avenue.

"Oh, very well," sneeringly rejoined Sir John Wintour's emissary. "Of course, you can do as you like, Eust. I'm not your master, though yonder gentleman, as you call him, seems to be. Good-evening!"

And with this curt leave-taking, the sneer still on his face, he dug the spurs deep into his horse's ribs, and went off at a gallop along the road for Ross.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

THREE CURIOUS CHARACTERS.

"Yee-up, Jink.u.m! Yee-up!"

The exclamations were accompanied by the thwack of a stick over the hips of a donkey half-hidden under a pair of panniers.

"Don't press the poor creetur, Jack. It be a hardish climb up the pitch. Gie't its time."

"But you know, Winny, the panners be most nigh empty--more's the pity."

"True o' that. But consider how fur's been the day. Seven mile to Monnerth--a good full load goin'--an' same back, whens we be home. An't han't had thing to eat, 'cept the pickin's 'long the roadside."

"All the more reezun for gittin' 'im soon home. I'd lay wager, if the anymal kud speak, 't 'ud say the same."

"Might. But, for all that, him's rightdown tired. If him want, there wud be no need yer slappin' he. Don't slap him any more, Jack."

"Well, I won't. Yee-up, Jink.u.m! I 'ant a-goin' to gi' ye the stick agen. 'Nother mile, and ye'll be back to yer own bit o' paster in the ole orchart, whar the gra.s.s'll be up to yer ears. Yee-up!"

At which Jink.u.m, as though comprehending the merciful disposition towards him, and grateful for it, seemed to improve his pace.

The speakers were a man and woman, both of uncommon appearance--the man a diminutive specimen of humanity, who walked with a jerking gait, due to his having a wooden leg. The woman was taller than he, by the head and shoulders quite; while in every other way above the usual dimensions of her s.e.x. Of a somewhat masculine aspect, she was withal far from ill-favoured--rather the contrary. Her gown of coa.r.s.e homespun, dust-stained and _delabre_, could not conceal a voluptuous outline of figure; while to have her eyes and hair many a queen would have been glad to give the costliest jewel in her crown. The complexion was dark, the features of a gipsy type--though she was not one--the hair, a very hatful, carelessly coiled around her head, black as the wing of a crow.

The first thought of one beholding her would be: "What a woman, if but washed and becomingly clad?" For both skin and dress showed something more than the dust that day caught up from the road--smouches of older date. Despite all, she was a grand, imposing personage; of tireless strength, too, as evinced by her easy, elastic step while breasting that steep pitch on her twenty-second mile since morning. The journey seemed to have had little effect on her, however it may have jaded Jink.u.m.

Notwithstanding the disparity in size between the man and woman--a good deal also in their age, he being much her senior--they bore a certain resemblance to one another. It lay in their features and complexion; Jack having a gipsyish look, too. Nor any wonder at their being some little alike, since they were _not_ man and wife, but brother and sister--both born Foresters. There was nothing in the character of either at all disreputable, though their business was such as usually brings suspicion on those who follow it. Known all over the forest, and for miles around it, as cadgers, they trafficked in every conceivable thing by which an honest penny might be made, though their speciality was the transport of fowls, with other products of the farmyard, to the markets of Ross and Monmouth--generally on freight account--taking back such parcels as they could pick up. Ruardean was their port of departure and return; their home, when they were at home, being a cottage in the outskirts of that elevated village.

Rarely, if ever, were "Jerky Jack"--the soubriquet his gait had gained for him--and his big sister seen apart; Winny, or Winifred--for such was her baptismal name--being a valuable helpmate to him. Some said she was more--his master.

That day they had been to Monmouth market, and now, at a late hour of the evening--after sunset--they were climbing Cat's Hill on their return homeward. As already said, there was then no Kerne bridge, and they had crossed by the ferry at Goodrich; a roundabout way to where they now were, but unavoidable--making good the woman's estimate of the distance.

Up the remainder of the pitch, Jerky kept his word, and no more stick was administered to Jink.u.m. But before reaching the summit the tired animal was treated to a spell of rest, for which it might thank a man there met, or rather one who dropped upon them as from the clouds. For he had come slithering down a steep shelving bank that bordered the road, suddenly presenting himself to their view outside the selvage of bushes.

Notwithstanding his _impromptu_ appearance, neither showed sign of alarm nor surprise. Evidently they expected him; for but the minute before a sound resembling the call of the green woodp.e.c.k.e.r--the "heekul," as known to them--had reached their ears, causing them to turn their eyes toward the direction whence it came. From the wood, where, of course, they could see nothing; but there was a peculiarity in the intonation of the sound, telling them it proceeded not from the throat of a bird, but was in some way made by a man. That the woman knew how, and who the man, she gave evidence by saying, "That be Rob!" as she spoke a pleased expression coming over her countenance.

Whether Rob or no, he who so mysteriously and fantastically presented himself to their notice was a man of aspect remarkable as either of them. In size a Colossus; dark-complexioned like themselves, with full beard, and thick shock of brown-black hair standing out around his neck in curls and tangles. His coat of bottle-green cloth--amply skirted-- and red plush waistcoat, showed creased and frowsy, as if he had pa.s.sed the previous night, and many preceding it, in a shed or under a tree.

For all, there was something majestic in his mien, just as with the woman--a savage grandeur independent of garb, which could a.s.sert itself under a drapery of rags.

As the three came together, he was the first to speak, more particularly addressing himself to Jerky. For the sister had a little side business to transact, plunging her hand into one of the panniers, and bringing forth a basket, out of which the neck of a bottle protruded.

"Well, Jack! What's the news down Monnerth way?" was the commencement of the colloquy.

"Lots, Rob; 'nough if they were wrote out on paper to fill them panners, an' load the donkey down."

Jink.u.m's owner was of a humorous turn, and dealt in figures of speech, often odd and varied as his bills of lading.

"Tell us some o' 'em," requested Rob, placing himself in an att.i.tude to listen.

"Well," proceeded the cadger, "it be most all 'bout politicks there now, wi' rumours o' war, they say be a brewin'. The market war full o' them rough 'uns from Raglan side, Lord Worster's people, bullyin' everybody an' threetenin' all as wudn't cry out for the King."