The Splendid Spur: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of Mr. John Marvel, a Servant of His Late Majesty King Charles I, in the Years 1642-3Quiller-Couch, Arthur
History
The Splendid Spur: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of Mr. John Marvel, a Servant of His Late Majesty King Charles I, in the Years 1642-3
Quiller-Couch, Arthur
Great Britain -- History -- Charles I, 1625-1649 -- Fiction
Sure there is no better, sweeter couch than this of linen spread over
hay. Early in the morning, I woke with wits clear as water, and not an
ache or ounce of weariness in my bones: and after washing at the pump
below, went in search of breakfast and Sir Bevill. The one I found,
ready laid, in the hall; the other seated in his writing-room, studying
in a map; and with apology for my haste, handed him Master Tingcomb’s
confession and told my story.
When ’twas over, Sir Bevill sat pondering, and after a while said, very
frankly——
“As a magistrate I can give this warrant; and ’twould be a pleasure, for
well, as a boy, do I remember Deakin Killigrew. Young sir——” he
rose up, and taking a turn across the room, came and laid a hand on my
shoulder, “I have seen his daughter. Is it too late to warn you against
loving her?”
“Why yes,” I answer’d blushing: “I think it is.”
“She seems both sweet and quaint. God forbid I should say a word against
one that has so taken me! But in these times a man should stand alone:
to make a friend is to run the chance of a soft heart: to marry a wife
makes the chance sure——”
He broke off, and went on again with a change of tone——
“For many reasons I would blithely issue this warrant. But how am I to
spare men to carry it out? At any moment we may be assail’d.”
“If that be your concern, sir,” answer’d I, “give me the warrant. I have
a good friend here, a seafaring man, whose vessel lies at this moment
in Looe Haven, with a crew on board that will lay Master Tingcomb by the
heels in a trice. Within three days we’ll have him clapp’d in Launceston
Jail, and there at the next Assize you shall sit on the Grand Jury and
hear his case, by which time, I hope, the King’s law shall run on easier
wheels in Cornwall. The prisoners we have already I leave you to deal
withal: only, against my will, I must claim some mercy for that rogue,
Settle.”
To this Sir Bevill consented; and, to be short, the three knaves were
next morning pack’d off to Launceston: but in time, no evidence being
brought against them, regained their freedom, which they used to come
to the gallows, each in his own way. Their doings no longer concern this
history, and so I gladly leave them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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