Lavengro

G >> George Borrow >> Lavengro


The packet was lying where it had been left--I took it up; had the
envelope, which consisted of whitish brown paper, been secured by a
string or a seal, I should not have opened it, as I should have
considered such an act almost in the light of a crime; the books,
however, had been merely folded up, and I therefore considered that there
could be no possible harm in inspecting them, more especially as I had
received no injunction to the contrary. Perhaps there was something
unsound in this reasoning, something sophistical; but a child is
sometimes as ready as a grown-up person in finding excuses for doing that
which he is inclined to. But whether the action was right or wrong, and
I am afraid it was not altogether right, I undid the packet: it contained
three books; two from their similarity seemed to be separate parts of one
and the same work; they were handsomely bound, and to them I first turned
my attention. I opened them successively, and endeavoured to make out
their meaning; their contents, however, as far as I was able to
understand them, were by no means interesting: whoever pleases may read
these books for me, and keep them, too, into the bargain, said I to
myself.

I now took up the third book: it did not resemble the others, being
longer and considerably thicker; the binding was of dingy calf-skin. I
opened it, and as I did so another strange thrill of pleasure shot
through my frame. The first object on which my eyes rested was a
picture; it was exceedingly well executed, at least the scene which it
represented made a vivid impression upon me, which would hardly have been
the case had the artist not been faithful to nature. A wild scene it
was--a heavy sea and rocky shore, with mountains in the background, above
which the moon was peering. Not far from the shore, upon the water, was
a boat with two figures in it, one of which stood at the bow, pointing
with what I knew to be a gun at a dreadful shape in the water; fire was
flashing from the muzzle of the gun, and the monster appeared to be
transfixed. I almost thought I heard its cry. I remained motionless,
gazing upon the picture, scarcely daring to draw my breath, lest the new
and wondrous world should vanish of which I had now obtained a glimpse.
'Who are those people, and what could have brought them into that strange
situation?' I asked of myself; and now the seed of curiosity, which had
so long lain dormant, began to expand, and I vowed to myself to become
speedily acquainted with the whole history of the people in the boat.
After looking on the picture till every mark and line in it were familiar
to me, I turned over various leaves till I came to another engraving; a
new source of wonder--a low sandy beach on which the furious sea was
breaking in mountain-like billows; cloud and rack deformed the firmament,
which wore a dull and leaden-like hue; gulls and other aquatic fowls were
toppling upon the blast, or skimming over the tops of the maddening
waves--'Mercy upon him! he must be drowned!' I exclaimed, as my eyes
fell upon a poor wretch who appeared to be striving to reach the shore;
he was upon his legs, but was evidently half smothered with the brine;
high above his head curled a horrible billow, as if to engulf him for
ever. 'He must be drowned! he must be drowned!' I almost shrieked, and
dropped the book. I soon snatched it up again, and now my eye lighted on
a third picture: again a shore, but what a sweet and lovely one, and how
I wished to be treading it; there were beautiful shells lying on the
smooth white sand, some were empty like those I had occasionally seen on
marble mantelpieces, but out of others peered the heads and bodies of
wondrous crayfish, a wood of thick green trees skirted the beach and
partly shaded it from the rays of the sun, which shone hot above, while
blue waves slightly crested with foam were gently curling against it;
there was a human figure upon the beach, wild and uncouth, clad in the
skins of animals, with a huge cap on his head, a hatchet at his girdle,
and in his hand a gun; his feet and legs were bare; he stood in an
attitude of horror and surprise; his body was bent far back, and his
eyes, which seemed starting out of his head, were fixed upon a mark on
the sand--a large distinct mark--a human footprint. . . .

Reader, is it necessary to name the book which now stood open in my hand,
and whose very prints, feeble expounders of its wondrous lines, had
produced within me emotions strange and novel? Scarcely--for it was a
book which has exerted over the minds of Englishmen an influence
certainly greater than any other of modern times--which has been in most
people's hands, and with the contents of which even those who cannot read
are to a certain extent acquainted--a book from which the most luxuriant
and fertile of our modern prose writers have drunk inspiration--a book,
moreover, to which, from the hardy deeds which it narrates, and the
spirit of strange and romantic enterprise which it tends to awaken,
England owes many of her astonishing discoveries both by sea and land,
and no inconsiderable part of her naval glory.

Hail to thee, spirit of De Foe! What does not my own poor self owe to
thee? England has better bards than either Greece or Rome, yet I could
spare them easier far than De Foe, 'unabashed De Foe,' as the hunchbacked
rhymer styled him.

The true chord had now been touched; a raging curiosity with respect to
the contents of the volume, whose engravings had fascinated my eye,
burned within me, and I never rested until I had fully satisfied it;
weeks succeeded weeks, months followed months, and the wondrous volume
was my only study and principal source of amusement. For hours together
I would sit poring over a page till I had become acquainted with the
import of every line. My progress, slow enough at first, became by
degrees more rapid, till at last, under 'a shoulder of mutton sail,' I
found myself cantering before a steady breeze over an ocean of
enchantment, so well pleased with my voyage that I cared not how long it
might be ere it reached its termination.

And it was in this manner that I first took to the paths of knowledge.

About this time I began to be somewhat impressed with religious feelings.
My parents were, to a certain extent, religious people; but, though they
had done their best to afford me instruction on religious points, I had
either paid no attention to what they endeavoured to communicate, or had
listened with an ear far too obtuse to derive any benefit. But my mind
had now become awakened from the drowsy torpor in which it had lain so
long, and the reasoning powers which I possessed were no longer inactive.
Hitherto I had entertained no conception whatever of the nature and
properties of God, and with the most perfect indifference had heard the
divine name proceeding from the mouths of people--frequently, alas! on
occasions when it ought not to be employed; but I now never heard it
without a tremor, for I now knew that God was an awful and inscrutable
Being, the Maker of all things; that we were His children, and that we,
by our sins, had justly offended Him; that we were in very great peril
from His anger, not so much in this life as in another and far stranger
state of being yet to come; that we had a Saviour withal to whom it was
necessary to look for help: upon this point, however, I was yet very much
in the dark, as, indeed, were most of those with whom I was connected.
The power and terrors of God were uppermost in my thoughts; they
fascinated though they astounded me. Twice every Sunday I was regularly
taken to the church, where, from a corner of the large spacious pew,
lined with black leather, I would fix my eyes on the dignified
High-Church rector, and the dignified High-Church clerk, and watch the
movement of their lips, from which, as they read their respective
portions of the venerable liturgy, would roll many a portentous word
descriptive of the wondrous works of the Most High.

_Rector_. Thou didst divide the sea, through thy power: thou brakest the
heads of the dragons in the waters.

_Philoh_. Thou smotest the heads of Leviathan in pieces: and gavest him
to be meat for the people in the wilderness.

_Rector_. Thou broughtest out fountains, and waters out of the hard
rocks: thou driedst up mighty waters.

_Philoh_. The day is thine, and the night is thine: thou hast prepared
the light and the sun.

Peace to your memories, dignified rector, and yet more dignified
clerk!--by this time ye are probably gone to your long homes, and your
voices are no longer heard sounding down the aisles of the venerable
church--nay, doubtless, this has already long since been the fate of him
of the sonorous 'Amen!'--the one of the two who, with all due respect to
the rector, principally engrossed my boyish admiration--he, at least, is
scarcely now among the living! Living! why, I have heard say that he blew
a fife--for he was a musical as well as a Christian professor--a bold
fife, to cheer the Guards and the brave Marines, as they marched with
measured step, obeying an insane command, up Bunker's height, whilst the
rifles of the sturdy Yankees were sending the leaden hail sharp and thick
amidst the red-coated ranks; for Philoh had not always been a man of
peace, nor an exhorter to turn the other cheek to the smiter, but had
even arrived at the dignity of a halberd in his country's service before
his six-foot form required rest, and the gray-haired veteran retired,
after a long peregrination, to his native town, to enjoy ease and
respectability on a pension of 'eighteenpence a day'; and well did his
fellow-townsmen act, when, to increase that ease and respectability, and
with a thoughtful regard for the dignity of the good church service, they
made him clerk and precentor--the man of the tall form and of the audible
voice, which sounded loud and clear as his own Bunker fife. Well, peace
to thee, thou fine old chap, despiser of dissenters, and hater of
papists, as became a dignified and High-Church clerk; if thou art in thy
grave, the better for thee; thou wert fitted to adorn a bygone time, when
loyalty was in vogue, and smiling content lay like a sunbeam upon the
land, but thou wouldst be sadly out of place in these days of cold
philosophic latitudinarian doctrine, universal tolerism, and
half-concealed rebellion--rare times, no doubt, for papists and
dissenters, but which would assuredly have broken the heart of the loyal
soldier of George the Third, and the dignified High-Church clerk of
pretty D---.

We passed many months at this place: nothing, however, occurred requiring
any particular notice, relating to myself, beyond what I have already
stated, and I am not writing the history of others. At length my father
was recalled to his regiment, which at that time was stationed at a place
called Norman Cross, in Lincolnshire, or rather Huntingdonshire, at some
distance from the old town of Peterborough. For this place he departed,
leaving my mother and myself to follow in a few days. Our journey was a
singular one. On the second day we reached a marshy and fenny country,
which, owing to immense quantities of rain which had lately fallen, was
completely submerged. At a large town we got on board a kind of passage-
boat, crowded with people; it had neither sails nor oars, and those were
not the days of steam-vessels; it was a treck-schuyt, and was drawn by
horses. Young as I was, there was much connected with this journey which
highly surprised me, and which brought to my remembrance particular
scenes described in the book which I now generally carried in my bosom.
The country was, as I have already said, submerged--entirely drowned--no
land was visible; the trees were growing bolt upright in the flood,
whilst farmhouses and cottages were standing insulated; the horses which
drew us were up to the knees in water, and, on coming to blind pools and
'greedy depths,' were not unfrequently swimming, in which case, the boys
or urchins who mounted them sometimes stood, sometimes knelt, upon the
saddle and pillions. No accident, however, occurred either to the
quadrupeds or bipeds, who appeared respectively to be quite _au fait_ in
their business, and extricated themselves with the greatest ease from
places in which Pharaoh and all his host would have gone to the bottom.
Nightfall brought us to Peterborough, and from thence we were not slow in
reaching the place of our destination.




CHAPTER IV


Norman Cross--Wide expanse--_Vive l'Empereur_--Unpruned woods--Man with
the bag--Froth and conceit--I beg your pardon--Growing timid--About three
o'clock--Taking one's ease--Cheek on the ground--King of the
vipers--French king--Frenchmen and water.

And a strange place it was, this Norman Cross, and, at the time of which
I am speaking, a sad cross to many a Norman, being what was then styled a
French prison, that is, a receptacle for captives made in the French war.
It consisted, if I remember right, of some five or six casernes, very
long, and immensely high; each standing isolated from the rest, upon a
spot of ground which might average ten acres, and which was fenced round
with lofty palisades, the whole being compassed about by a towering wall,
beneath which, at intervals, on both sides, sentinels were stationed,
whilst outside, upon the field, stood commodious wooden barracks, capable
of containing two regiments of infantry, intended to serve as guards upon
the captives. Such was the station or prison at Norman Cross, where some
six thousand French and other foreigners, followers of the grand
Corsican, were now immured.

What a strange appearance had those mighty casernes, with their blank
blind walls, without windows or grating, and their slanting roofs, out of
which, through orifices where the tiles had been removed, would be
protruded dozens of grim heads, feasting their prison-sick eyes on the
wide expanse of country unfolded from that airy height. Ah! there was
much misery in those casernes; and from those roofs, doubtless, many a
wistful look was turned in the direction of lovely France. Much had the
poor inmates to endure, and much to complain of, to the disgrace of
England be it said--of England, in general so kind and bountiful. Rations
of carrion meat, and bread from which I have seen the very hounds
occasionally turn away, were unworthy entertainment even for the most
ruffian enemy, when helpless and a captive; and such, alas! was the fare
in those casernes. And then, those visits, or rather ruthless inroads,
called in the slang of the place 'strawplait-hunts,' when in pursuit of a
contraband article, which the prisoners, in order to procure themselves a
few of the necessaries and comforts of existence, were in the habit of
making, red-coated battalions were marched into the prisons, who, with
the bayonet's point, carried havoc and ruin into every poor convenience
which ingenious wretchedness had been endeavouring to raise around it;
and then the triumphant exit with the miserable booty; and, worst of all,
the accursed bonfire, on the barrack parade, of the plait contraband,
beneath the view of the glaring eyeballs from those lofty roofs, amidst
the hurrahs of the troops, frequently drowned in the curses poured down
from above like a tempest-shower or in the terrific warw-hoop of '_Vive
l'Empereur_!'

It was midsummer when we arrived at this place, and the weather, which
had for a long time been wet and gloomy, now became bright and glorious;
I was subjected to but little control, and passed my time pleasantly
enough, principally in wandering about the neighbouring country. It was
flat and somewhat fenny, a district more of pasture than agriculture, and
not very thickly inhabited. I soon became well acquainted with it. At
the distance of two miles from the station was a large lake, styled in
the dialect of the country 'a mere,' about whose borders tall reeds were
growing in abundance, this was a frequent haunt of mine; but my favourite
place of resort was a wild sequestered spot at a somewhat greater
distance. Here, surrounded with woods and thick groves, was the seat of
some ancient family, deserted by the proprietor, and only inhabited by a
rustic servant or two. A place more solitary and wild could scarcely be
imagined; the garden and walks were overgrown with weeds and briers, and
the unpruned woods were so tangled as to be almost impervious. About
this domain I would wander till overtaken by fatigue, and then I would
sit down with my back against some beech, elm, or stately alder tree,
and, taking out my book, would pass hours in a state of unmixed
enjoyment, my eyes now fixed on the wondrous pages, now glancing at the
sylvan scene around; and sometimes I would drop the book and listen to
the voice of the rooks and wild pigeons, and not unfrequently to the
croaking of multitudes of frogs from the neighbouring swamps and fens.

{picture:I frequently passed a tall elderly individual, dressed in rather
a quaint fashion: page31.jpg}

In going to and from this place I frequently passed a tall elderly
individual, dressed in rather a quaint fashion, with a skin cap on his
head and stout gaiters on his legs; on his shoulders hung a moderate
sized leathern sack; he seemed fond of loitering near sunny banks, and of
groping amidst furze and low scrubby bramble bushes, of which there were
plenty in the neighbourhood of Norman Cross. Once I saw him standing in
the middle of a dusty road, looking intently at a large mark which seemed
to have been drawn across it, as if by a walking stick. 'He must have
been a large one,' the old man muttered half to himself, 'or he would not
have left such a trail, I wonder if he is near; he seems to have moved
this way.' He then went behind some bushes which grew on the right side
of the road, and appeared to be in quest of something, moving behind the
bushes with his head downwards, and occasionally striking their roots
with his foot: at length he exclaimed, 'Here he is!' and forthwith I saw
him dart amongst the bushes. There was a kind of scuffling noise, the
rustling of branches, and the crackling of dry sticks. 'I have him!'
said the man at last; 'I have got him!' and presently he made his
appearance about twenty yards down the road, holding a large viper in his
hand. 'What do you think of that, my boy?' said he, as I went up to
him--'what do you think of catching such a thing as that with the naked
hand?' 'What do I think?' said I. 'Why, that I could do as much
myself.' 'You do,' said the man, 'do you? Lord! how the young people in
these days are given to conceit; it did not use to be so in my time: when
I was a child, childer knew how to behave themselves; but the childer of
these days are full of conceit, full of froth, like the mouth of this
viper'; and with his forefinger and thumb he squeezed a considerable
quantity of foam from the jaws of the viper down upon the road. 'The
childer of these days are a generation of--God forgive me, what was I
about to say?' said the old man; and opening his bag he thrust the
reptile into it, which appeared far from empty. I passed on. As I was
returning, towards the evening, I overtook the old man, who was wending
in the same direction. 'Good evening to you, sir,' said I, taking off a
cap which I wore on my head. 'Good evening,' said the old man; and then,
looking at me, 'How's this?' said he, 'you aren't, sure, the child I met
in the morning?' 'Yes,' said I, 'I am; what makes you doubt it?' 'Why,
you were then all froth and conceit,' said the old man, 'and now you take
off your cap to me.' 'I beg your pardon,' said I, 'if I was frothy and
conceited; it ill becomes a child like me to be so.' 'That's true,
dear,' said the old man; 'well, as you have begged my pardon, I truly
forgive you.' 'Thank you,' said I; 'have you caught any more of those
things?' 'Only four or five,' said the old man; 'they are getting
scarce, though this used to be a great neighbourhood for them.' 'And
what do you do with them?' said I; 'do you carry them home and play with
them?' 'I sometimes play with one or two that I tame,' said the old man;
'but I hunt them mostly for the fat which they contain, out of which I
make unguents which are good for various sore troubles, especially for
the rheumatism.' 'And do you get your living by hunting these
creatures?' I demanded. 'Not altogether,' said the old man; 'besides
being a viper-hunter, I am what they call a herbalist, one who knows the
virtue of particular herbs; I gather them at the proper season, to make
medicines with for the sick.' 'And do you live in the neighbourhood?' I
demanded. 'You seem very fond of asking questions, child. No, I do not
live in this neighbourhood in particular, I travel about; I have not been
in this neighbourhood till lately for some years.'

From this time the old man and myself formed an acquaintance; I often
accompanied him in his wanderings about the neighbourhood, and, on two or
three occasions, assisted him in catching the reptiles which he hunted.
He generally carried a viper with him which he had made quite tame, and
from which he had extracted the poisonous fangs; it would dance and
perform various kinds of tricks. He was fond of telling me anecdotes
connected with his adventures with the reptile species. 'But,' said he
one day, sighing, 'I must shortly give up this business, I am no longer
the man I was, I am become timid, and when a person is timid in viper-
hunting, he had better leave off, as it is quite clear his virtue is
leaving him. I got a fright some years ago, which I am quite sure I
shall never get the better of; my hand has been shaky more or less ever
since.' 'What frightened you?' said I. 'I had better not tell you,'
said the old man, 'or you may be frightened too, lose your virtue, and be
no longer good for the business.' 'I don't care,' said I; 'I don't
intend to follow the business: I daresay I shall be an officer, like my
father.' 'Well,' said the old man, 'I once saw the king of the vipers,
and since then--' 'The king of the vipers!' said I, interrupting him;
'have the vipers a king?' 'As sure as we have,' said the old man--'as
sure as we have King George to rule over us, have these reptiles a king
to rule over them.' 'And where did you see him?' said I. 'I will tell
you,' said the old man, 'though I don't like talking about the matter. It
may be about seven years ago that I happened to be far down yonder to the
west, on the other side of England, nearly two hundred miles from here,
following my business. It was a very sultry day, I remember, and I had
been out several hours catching creatures. It might be about three
o'clock in the afternoon, when I found myself on some heathy land near
the sea, on the ridge of a hill, the side of which, nearly as far down as
the sea, was heath; but on the top there was arable ground, which had
been planted, and from which the harvest had been gathered--oats or
barley, I know not which--but I remember that the ground was covered with
stubble. Well, about three o'clock, as I told you before, what with the
heat of the day and from having walked about for hours in a lazy way, I
felt very tired; so I determined to have a sleep, and I laid myself down,
my head just on the ridge of the hill, towards the field, and my body
over the side down amongst the heath; my bag, which was nearly filled
with creatures, lay at a little distance from my face; the creatures were
struggling in it, I remember, and I thought to myself, how much more
comfortably off I was than they; I was taking my ease on the nice open
hill, cooled with the breezes, whilst they were in the nasty close bag,
coiling about one another, and breaking their very hearts, all to no
purpose: and I felt quite comfortable and happy in the thought, and
little by little closed my eyes, and fell into the sweetest snooze that
ever I was in in all my life; and there I lay over the hill's side, with
my head half in the field, I don't know how long, all dead asleep. At
last it seemed to me that I heard a noise in my sleep, something like a
thing moving, very faint, however, far away; then it died, and then it
came again upon my ear as I slept, and now it appeared almost as if I
heard crackle, crackle; then it died again, or I became yet more dead
asleep than before, I know not which, but I certainly lay some time
without hearing it. All of a sudden I became awake, and there was I, on
the ridge of the hill, with my cheek on the ground towards the stubble,
with a noise in my ear like that of something moving towards me amongst
the stubble of the field; well, I lay a moment or two listening to the
noise, and then I became frightened, for I did not like the noise at all,
it sounded so odd; so I rolled myself on my belly, and looked towards the
stubble. Mercy upon us! there was a huge snake, or rather a dreadful
viper, for it was all yellow and gold, moving towards me, bearing its
head about a foot and a half above the ground, the dry stubble crackling
beneath its outrageous belly. It might be about five yards off when I
first saw it, making straight towards me, child, as if it would devour
me. I lay quite still, for I was stupefied with horror, whilst the
creature came still nearer; and now it was nearly upon me, when it
suddenly drew back a little, and then--what do you think?--it lifted its
head and chest high in the air, and high over my face as I looked up,
flickering at me with its tongue as if it would fly at my face. Child,
what I felt at that moment I can scarcely say, but it was a sufficient
punishment for all the sins I ever committed; and there we two were, I
looking up at the viper, and the viper looking down upon me, flickering
at me with its tongue. It was only the kindness of God that saved me:
all at once there was a loud noise, the report of a gun, for a fowler was
shooting at a covey of birds, a little way off in the stubble. Whereupon
the viper sunk its head, and immediately made off over the ridge of the
hill, down in the direction of the sea. As it passed by me, however--and
it passed close by me--it hesitated a moment, as if it was doubtful
whether it should not seize me; it did not, however, but made off down
the hill. It has often struck me that he was angry with me, and came
upon me unawares for presuming to meddle with his people, as I have
always been in the habit of doing.'