Hansford: A Tale of Bacon's Rebellion Part 25

This scheme met with the approbation of all present, with the exception of old Ballard, who shook his head, and muttered, that he hoped it might all be for the best. And so it was determined that early the next morning the loyal refugees should embark on board a vessel then lying off Tindal's Point, and sail for Accomac.

"And we will celebrate our departure by hanging up that young rogue, Hansford, in half an hour," said Berkeley.

"By what law, may it please your excellency?" asked Ballard, surprised at this threat.

"By martial law."

"And for what offence?"

"Why zounds, Ballard, you have turned advocate-general for all the rebels in the country," said Berkeley, petulantly.

"No, Sir William, I am advocating the cause of justice and of my king."

"Well, sir, what would you advise? To set the rogue at liberty, I suppose, and by our leniency to encourage treason."

"By no means," said Ballard. "But either to commit him to custody until he may be fairly tried by a jury of his peers, or to take him with you to Accomac, where, by further developments of this insurrection, you may better judge of the nature of his offence."

"And a hospitable reception would await me in Accomac, forsooth, if I appeared there with a prisoner of war, whom I did not have the firmness to punish as his crime deserves. No, by heaven! I will not be enc.u.mbered with prisoners. His life is forfeit to the law, and as he would prove an apostle of liberty, let him be a martyr to his cause."

"Let me add my earnest intercession to that of Colonel Ballard," said Temple, "in behalf of this unhappy man. I surely have some claim upon your benevolence, and I ask his life as a personal boon to me."

"Oh, a.s.suredly, since you rely upon your hospitable protection to us, you should have your fee," said Berkeley, with a sneer. "But not in so precious a coin as a rebel's life. If you have suffered by the protection afforded to the deputy of your king, you shall not lack remuneration. But the coin shall be the head of Carolus II.;[42] this rebel's head I claim as my own."

"Now, by heaven!" returned Temple, thoroughly aroused, "it requires all my loyalty to stomach so foul an insult. My royal master's exchequer could illy remunerate me for the gross language heaped upon me by his deputy. But let this pa.s.s. You are my guest, sir; and that I cannot separate the Governor from the man, I am prevented from resenting an insult, which else I could but little brook."

"As you please, mine host," replied Berkeley. "But, in truth, I have wronged you, Temple. But think, my friend, of the pang the shepherd must feel, when he finds that he has let a wolf into his fold, which he is unable to resist. Oh, think of this, and bear with me!"

Temple knew the old Governor too well to doubt the sincerity of this retraxit, and with a cordial grasp of the hand, he a.s.sured Berkeley of his forgiveness. "And yet," he added, warmly, "I cannot forget the cause I advocate, for this first rebuff. Believe me, Sir William, you will gain nothing, but lose much, by proceeding harshly against this unhappy young man. In the absence of any evidence of his guilt, you will arouse the indignation of the colonists to such a height, that it will be difficult to pacify them."

"Pardon me, Sir William Berkeley," said Bernard, who had joined the party, "but would it not be well to examine this knave, Berkenhead, touching the movements and intentions of the insurgents, and particularly concerning any expressions which may have fallen from this young gentleman? If it shall appear that he is guiltless of the crime imputed to him, then you may safely yield to the solicitations of these gentlemen, and liberate him. But if it shall appear that he is guilty, they, in their turn, cannot object to his meeting the penalty which his treason richly deserves."

"Now, by heaven, the young man speaks truthfully and wisely," said Temple, a.s.sured, by the former interview with Berkenhead, that he knew of nothing which could convict the prisoner. "Nor do I see, Sir William, what better course you can adopt than to follow his counsel."

"Truly," said Berkeley, "the young man has proven himself the very Elihu of counsellors. 'Great men are not always wise, neither do the aged understand judgment. But there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.' Yet I fear, Colonel Temple, you will scarcely, after my impetuosity just now, deem me a Job for patience, though Alfred may be an Elihu for understanding. Your counsel is good, young man. Let the knave be brought hither to testify, and look ye that the prisoner be introduced to confront him. My friends, Ballard and Temple, are such sticklers for law, that we must not deviate from Magna Charta or the Pet.i.tion of Right. But stay, we will postpone this matter till the morrow. I had almost forgotten it was the Sabbath. Loyal churchmen should venerate the day, even when treason is abroad in the land. Meantime, let the villain Berkenhead be kept in close custody, lest he should escape."

FOOTNOTES:

[42] The coin during the reign of Charles II.

CHAPTER XXIX.

"I tell thee what, my friend, He is a very serpent in my way."

_King John._

The reader will naturally desire to know what induced the milder counsel recommended by Alfred Bernard to the Governor. If we have been successful in impressing upon the mind of the reader a just estimate of the character of the young jesuit, he will readily conjecture that it was from no kindly feeling for his rival, and no inherent love of justice that he suggested such a policy; and if he be of a different opinion, he need only go back with us to the interview between Bernard and Berkenhead, to which allusion was made in the chapter immediately preceding the last.

We have said that Alfred Bernard followed the renegade rebel until they stood together beneath a large oak tree which stood at the corner of the house. Here they stopped as if by mutual, though tacit consent, and Berkenhead turning sharply around upon his companion, said in an offended tone-"What is your further will with me sir?"

"You seem not to like your comrade Major Hansford?"

"Oh well enough," replied Berkenhead; "there are many better and many worse than him. But I don't see how the likes and the dislikes of a poor soldier can have any concernment with you."

"I a.s.sure you," said Bernard, "it is from no impertinent curiosity, but a real desire to befriend you, that I ask the question. The Governor strongly suspects your integrity, and that you are concealing from him more than it suits you to divulge. Now, I would do you a service and advise you how you may reinstate yourself in his favour."

"Well, that seems kind on the outside," said the soldier, "seeing as you seems to be one of the blooded gentry, and I am nothing but a plain Dunstable.[43] But rough iron is as soft as polished steel."

"I believe you," said Bernard. "Now you have not much reason to waste your love on this Major Hansford. He threatened to beat you, as you say, and a freeborn Englishman does not bear an insult like that with impunity."

"No, your honour," replied the man, "and I've known the day when a Plymouth cloak[44] would protect me from insult as well as a frieze coat from cold. But I am too old for that now, and so I had better swallow an insult dry, than b.u.t.ter it with my own marrow."

"And are there not other modes of revenge than by a blow? Where are your wits, man? What makes the man stronger than the horse that carries him?

I tell you, a keen wit is to physical force what your carbine is to the tomahawk of these red-skins. It fires at a distance."

The old soldier looked up with a gleam of intelligence, and Bernard continued-

"Bethink you, did you hear nothing from Hansford by which you might infer that his ultimate design was to overturn the government?"

"Why I can't exactly say that I did," returned the fellow. "To be sure they all prate about liberty and the like, but I reckon that is an Englishman's privilege, providing he takes it out in talking. But there may be fire in the bed-straw for all my ignorance."[45]

"Well, I am sorry for you," said Bernard, "for if you could only remember any thing to convict this young rebel, I would warrant you a free pardon and a sound neck."

"Well, now, as I come to think of it," said the unscrupulous renegade, "there might be some few things he let drop, not much in themselves, but taken together, as might weave a right strong tow; and zounds, I don't think a man can be far wrong to untwist the rope about his own neck by tying it to another. For concerning of life, your honour, while I have no great care to risk it in battle, I don't crave to choke it out with one of these hemp cravats. And so being as I have already done the state some service, I feel it my duty to save her if I can."

"Now, thanks to that catch-word of the rogue," muttered Bernard, "I am like to have easy work to-night. Hark ye, Mr. Berkenhead," he added, aloud, "I think it is likely that the Governor may wish to ask you a question or two touching this matter of which we have been speaking. In the meantime here is something which may help you to get along with these soldiers," and he placed a sovereign in the fellow's hand.

"Thank your honour," said Berkenhead, humbly, "and seeing its not in the way of bribe, I suppose I may take it."

"Oh, no bribe," replied Bernard, smiling, "but mark me, tell a good story. The stronger your evidence the safer is your head."

Bernard returned, as we have seen, to the Governor, for the further development of his diabolical designs, and in a short time Berkenhead, under a guard of soldiers, was conducted to his quarters for the night, in a store-house which stood in the yard some distance from the house.

As the house to which the renegade insurgent was consigned was deemed sufficiently secure, and the soldiers wearied with a long march, were again to proceed on their journey on the morrow, it was not considered necessary to place a guard before the door of this temporary cell-the precaution, however, being taken to appoint a sentry at each side of the mansion-house, and at the door of the apartment in which the unhappy Hansford was confined.

FOOTNOTES:

[43] An old English expression for a rough, honest fellow.

[44] A bludgeon.

[45] There may be danger in the design.