Читать книгу Old Convict Times to Gold Digging Days - William Derricourt - Страница 9

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Being still in dread of my old acquaintance, the constable, following me up, I turned my face towards Warwick and Leamington. On the canal near the latter place was a slow boat tied up for the night. I pitched the captain a plausible tale, and thus obtained leave to camp for the night in a side bunk in the cabin. The next morning, careless which way I went, I started off for Banbury, and that night slept in a nice warm haystack near the town. I sank right into the hay, and was only awakened early in the morning by one of the thatcher's tolls pricking me. My starting out of the hay so frightened the man that he fell down the ladder, and I had a chance to run for it.

Leaving Banbury I followed the road which I thought would bring me to Oxford, but at last found I was on the Woodstock-road. However, as it mattered little to me whither I went, I followed it, but was soon overtaken by a man in a light cart drawn by three splendid Newfoundland dogs. The man turned out to be a hawker of small hardware and other nick-nacks. Pulling up, he asked me whither I was bound, to which I answered that I did not know—anywhere where I thought I might get a job of work so that I could have something to eat. I had, by the way, a small stock of cash, which my mother had given me, but I was very careful of it. He told me to jump up in the cart and have a talk. I readily agreed, and was then asked if I were willing to work, and if I were honest. To the last question I replied that I had never so far stolen anything from anyone. The man seemed satisfied with my looks, and said that if I behaved myself and was careful he would act like a father to me. We drove into Woodstock, and he made me caretaker of his trap and dogs while he was about his business selling his wares. During his absence I frequently strolled round the place, accompanied by the three dogs, and had a look at the parks, etc. I was used to dogs and had no trouble at all with the pedlar's. The wants of the Woodstock people in the hardware line soon being supplied, we harnessed up and took the road for Oxford. On arrival we halted at St. Thomas's and took beds at a lodging house opposite the Lamband Flag Inn. Here I was again left in charge of the dogs and of the chattels in the cart, while my master sold his wares around the streets of Oxford. I must say of my kind friend that though his trade was fairly profitable, he was much given to strong waters, and often returned from his rambles more than half seas over. At such times, and indeed on every return, he would hand me his takings to mind, such confidence had he placed in me, partly from my stoutly refusing to take drink, the evils of which I had so often seen when with my former masters, who, it will be remembered, were both publicans. When I received the takings from the pedlar I had some doubt as to their safety in the lodging-house, and so, with their owner's consent, I carried them out of town, to a spot at the end of the Holly Bush-lane on the Whitney-road, where I buried them in such a manner as to be easily found when wanted, only keeping one pound for current expenses.

After one of his trading excursions through Oxford my master failed to return home as usual, and I was soon horrified to hear that he had been found dead in one of the suburbs. There was a bottle of spirits in one of his pockets, and his basket of wares was by his side.

Here was a pretty fix for a young lad to be in. Left with a large amount of cash planted in a lane, a valuable stock-in-trade, and three grand dogs of a breed at that time rare. No one knew what had been my connection with the pedlar. He always called me "My boy," or "My son." Acting on the advice of the people in the lodging-house, I resolved to pass myself off as his son, believing that I could thus come into both cash and goods. At the inquest held on the body I took a bold stand, and all was going in my favor when some traitor from the lodging-house, who had got an inkling of the true state of affairs, completely turned the tables upon me by revealing what he knew to the coroner and jury. On further inquiry the whole truth was found out, and I was committed under a charge of false pretences. I stood my trial, was found guilty, and sentenced to be flogged at the cart's tail from the "Butter Bench," as the watchhouse was termed, to the end of the street.

On the appointed day I was tied up to the back of the cart, and the order was given to start. I had, however, only received three strokes when the whole thing was turned into a joke by the mob rushing the cart and whipping up the horse. I had, tied by the hands as I was, all I could do to keep up. But the end of the street was very soon reached, and there, by the law of the day, I was free. My easy escape was mainly due to the good turns I had done to two young girls, sisters—runaway apprentices from the dress-making business in London—who stayed in the lodging-house. They were poor, but seemingly honest, never gadding about the town, but cheering up the earlier part of our evenings indoors by ballad singing, for which they had excellent voices. By means of this singing, and my giving them a part of mine and the pedlar's rations, they had managed to live fairly well. On seeing me tied up to the cart's tail, and witnessing the first fall of the cat on my bare back, one of the sisters, picking up a paving hammer, had hit the horse in the ribs with it. As she was immediately seconded by the mob my rescue was made good.

After the inquest upon the hawker's body, his goods, cart, and dogs were seized, but the money I had planted remained mine, as nobody else knew of its whereabouts. Some time afterward, when sauntering about Somerstown, a short way out of Oxford, I was accosted by a young man, and in course of our talk he asked me whether I lived in Oxford, and, if so, whether I had seen anything of two girls, whom he described—runaways from their apprenticeship in London. They were, he said, his sisters, and he had traced them thus far. Of course I told him all I knew, and, to his great delight, took him to our lodging-house, where I joined with him in persuading the girls to return to their employment, at the same time giving them a pound out of my stock to carry them on their way. Previous to the brother's coming the sisters were often reduced to great straits, for though I had the pedlar's money safe enough I was very careful of it, not knowing to what shifts I might not be put to earn a living. In their need first one sister sold her hair, a magnificent lot, to a barber, and then the other followed suit. Seeing the first one with an odd-looking granny's cap on her head one morning, my curiosity was roused, and snatching off the cap, I found out the secret. But I paid dearly for my rashness. The two laid hold of me, and gave me as sound a basting as ever I had in my life. In all their want they were truly honest girls. Often and often was I offered sixpences by students to carry notes to them. I took the sixpences, but there was no tempting them to any appointments. That I knew well, for I had often helped them to resist impudence at the lodging-house.

As I was pretty well off for money I was in no great hurry to leave Oxford, but wandered about the place seeing what I could. One day as I was sitting on the bridge over the Isis, just where a swift mill race runs from the river, I saw a young girl of about seventeen endeavoring to dip up a bucket of water. The steps leading down to the race were slippery. The current caught her bucket so suddenly that she had no time to let go, and was dragged in headlong. I rushed on to the miller's green, seized a clothes-prop (letting a lineful of clean clothes fall into the mud), and reached one end of the pole to the girl. She seized it, but I felt the current was too strong, and that I must soon let go, or be dragged in too. No one answered to my shouting, and so chancing for a moment being able to hold the pole with one hand, I with my other tore off my boot and flung it through the mill window. This brought out the miller, who was the girl's father, and his wife. The father ran and stopped the mill, but the woman, despite that the girl was by this time within fifteen feet of the great wheel, and must in a moment lose her hold, seemed principally troubled about the spoiling of the week's wash. When the mill was stopped, we got a ladder and finished the rescue just in time. The miller insisted that I should take up my quarters with him for some days, and I was treated with the greatest kindness and gratitude by him and his daughter. The old woman, however, whom I ultimately discovered to be the miller's second wife, and therefore the girl's stepmother, always seemed to have a certain prejudice against me. She at last made herself so disagreeable that I decided to leave, but I often used to visit her husband.

While on one of these visits I strolled on the bridge and was the means of affecting another rescue from drowning. I had seen a young man starting in a skiff from a neighboring boathouse, apparently to cross the river. When, however, he reached the middle of the stream a gust of wind capsized him. I dropped off the part of the bridge on which I was to run to his assistance, but found that before I could reach the bank I must get over a high-spiked gate. I managed to do this, but in my hurry caught the third and fourth finger of my left hand on a spike, and nearly tore them off. Nevertheless, I went into the water and dragged the drowning man to shore. When I reached it I fainted quite away, and next came to my senses in the hospital, where I had to remain for a very long time. There I was often visited by the young fellow I had saved, who proved to be a student of Worcester College, and who treated me very liberally.