Diccon

“ They boasted that they would make women of us at the stake. At all events, they made not women of us beforehand. We laughed as we rowed, and Diccon whistled to the leaping fish, and the fish-hawk, and the otter lying along a fallen tree beneath the bank.
The sunset came, and the river lay beneath the coloured clouds like molten gold, with the gaunt forest black upon either hand. From the lifted paddles the water showered in golden drops. The wind died away, and with it all noises, and a dank stillness settled upon the flood and upon the endless forest. ”

“ Gammer. Gramercy, Diccon, twenty times! O, how glad cham!
If that chould do so much, your masterdom to come hither,
Master Rat, Goodwife Chat, and Diccon together,
Cha but one halfpenny, as far as ich know it,
And chill not rest this night, till ich bestow it.
If ever ye love me, let us go in and drink.
Baily. I am content, if the rest think as I think.
Master Rat, it shall be best for you if we so do,
Then shall you warm you and dress yourself too.
[64] Diccon. Soft, sirs, take us with you, the company shall be the more!
As proud comes behind, they say, as any goes before! ”

“ With his eyes upon the werowance, Diccon told an old story of a piece of Paspahegh villainy and of the payment which the English exacted, and I laughed as at the most amusing thing in the world. The story ended, we smoked with serenity for a while; then I drew my dice from my pocket, and, beginning to throw, we were at once as much absorbed in the game as if there were no other stake in the world beside the remnant of gold that I piled between us. The strange people in whose power we found ourselves looked on with grim approval, as at brave men who could laugh in Death’s face. ”

“ The hut burnt behind us like a hayrick, and I heard no more cries therefrom. "Pembru!" I cried. "Regan! Are they slain?"
"Slain or no, it does, not signify," replied Diccon. "Their ill magic retorted upon them. They are gone with it from earth—forever." He hurled the hairy book into die midst of the flame. ”

“ There shall ye find the bitch-fox and the nee'le together.
Do as I bid you, man, come on your ways hither!
Doctor Rat. Art thou sure, Diccon, the swill-tub stands not hereabout?
Diccon. I was within myself, man, even now, there is no doubt.
Go softly, make no noise; give me your foot, sir John,
Here will I wait upon you, till you come out anon.
[D. Rat creeps in.
Doctor Rat [calling from within] . Help, Diccon! out alas! I shall be slain among them!
Diccon. If they give you not the needle, tell them that ye will hang them. ”

“ But the eyes of his comrades were for me.
"Only a king could have done so," quote the older man. "Young sir, I do take you truly for Charles Stuart. At your touch Diccon was healed of the king's evil."
I folded my arms, as if I must keep my hands from doing more strangeness. I had heard, too, of that old legend of the Stuarts, without deeming myself concerned. Yet, here it had befallen. Diccon had suffered from the king's evil, which learned doctors call scrofula. My touch had driven it from his thin body. He danced and quivered with the joy of health. ”

“ Suddenly Diccon raised himself upon his elbow, and looked across at me. Our eyes had no sooner met than his hand was at his bosom. The savage nearest him, feeling the movement, as it were, lifted his head from the earth, of which it was so soon to become a part; but if he saw the knife, he saw it too late. The blade, driven down with all the strength of a desperate man, struck home; when it was drawn from its sheath of flesh, there remained to us but a foe apiece.
In the instant of its descent I had thrown myself upon the Indian nearest me. ”

“ If one pair of legs had not been worth two pair of hands,
He had had his beard shaven, if my nails would have served,
And not without a cause, for the knave it well deserved.
Diccon. By the mass, I can [282] thee thank, wench, thou didst so well acquit thee.
Chat. And th' adst seen him, Diccon, it would have made thee beshit thee
For laughter: the whoreson dolt at last caught up a club,
As though he would have slain the master-devil, Belsabub;
But I set him soon inward.
Diccon. O Lord! there is the thing,
That Hodge is so offended, that makes him start and fling. ”

“ Hodge. Hold him fast, Diccon, cham gone!
Chill not be at that fray!
THE SECOND ACT. THE SECOND SCENE. Diccon, Chat.
Diccon. Fie, shitten knave, and out upon thee!
Above all other louts, fie on thee!
Is not here a cleanly prank,
But thy matter was no better,
Nor thy presence here no sweeter,
To fly I can thee thank.
Here is a matter worthy glosing,
Of Gammer Gurton's needle losing,
[21] And a foul piece of wark!
A man I think might make a play,
And need no word to this they say
Being but half a clerk. ”

“ From the long communal houses poured forth men, women, and children; fires sprang up, dispersing the mist, and a commotion arose through the length and breadth of the place. The women made haste with their cooking and bore maize cakes and broiled fish to the warriors, who sat on the ground in front of the royal lodge. Diccon and I were loosed, brought without, and allotted our share of the food. We ate sitting side by side with our captors, and Diccon, with a great cut across his head, even made merry. ”

“ At noon the clouds broke, and an hour later the sunshine was streaming down from a cloudless heaven, beneath which the forest lay clear before us, naught stirring save shy sylvan creatures to whom it mattered not if red man or white held the land.
Side by side Diccon and I hurried on, not speaking, keeping eye and ear open, proposing with all our will to reach the goal we had set, and to reach it in time, let what might oppose. It was but another forced march; many had we made in our time, through dangers manifold, and had lived to tell the tale. ”

“ How say'st thou, Diccon, art content this shall on me depend?
Diccon. Go to, Master Baily, say on your mind, I know ye are my friend.
Baily. Then mark ye well; to recompense this thy former action,
Because thou hast offended all, to make them satisfaction, [253]
Before their faces here kneel down, and as I shall thee teach,
For thou shalt take an oath of Hodge's leather breech;
First for Master Doctor, upon pain of his curse,
Where he will pay for all, thou never draw thy purse:
And when ye meet at one pot, he shall have the first pull ”

“ My wife wrapped her mantle closer about her, and, leaning back in her seat in the stern beside me, raised her face to the wild and solemn heavens. Diccon sat apart in the bow and held his tongue. The minister bent over, and, lifting the man that lay in the bottom of the boat, laid him at full length upon the thwart before us. The moonlight streamed down upon the prostrate figure. I think it could never have shone upon a more handsome or a more wicked man. ”

“ Your hens be as good as dead, if ye leave them on the roost.
Chat. The knave dare as well go hang himself, as go upon my ground.
Diccon. Well, yet take heed, I say, I must tell you my tale round:
Have you not about your house, behind your furnace or lead,
A hole where a crafty knave may creep in for need?
Chat. Yes, by the mass, a hole broke down even within these two days.
Diccon. Hodge, he intends this same night to slip in thereaways.
Chat. O Christ, that I were sure of it! in faith, he should have his meed. [284]
Diccon. ”

“ He looked at Diccon, but Diccon stood with his face to the sea. I thought we were to have a struggle, and I was sorry for it, but my lord could and did add discretion to a valour that I never doubted. He shrugged his shoulders, burst into a laugh, and turned to Mistress Percy.
“What can one do, lady, when one is doubly a prisoner—prisoner to numbers and to beauty? E’en laugh at fate, and make the best of a bad job. Here, sir! Some day it shall be the point!”
He drew his rapier from its sheath, and presented the hilt to me. I took it with a bow, and handed it to Sparrow. ”

“ Diccon was an ingenious scoundrel. I had told him to banish the dogs, to have the house cleaned and lit, and supper upon the table; but I had not ordered the floor to be strewn with rushes, the walls draped with flowering vines, a great jar filled with sunflowers, and an illumination of a dozen torches. Nevertheless, it looked well, and I highly approved the capon and maize cakes, the venison pasty and ale, with which the table was set. Through the open doors of the two other rooms were to be seen more rushes, more flowers, and more lights. ”

“ Diccon cursed them, whereupon a savage struck him across the head with the handle of a tomahawk, stunning him for a time. As soon as I heard him move I spoke again, to know if he were much hurt; when he had answered in the negative we said no more.
It was now moonlight without the lodge and very quiet. The night was far gone; already we could smell the morning, and it would come apace. Knowing the swiftness of that approach, and what the early light would bring, I strove for a courage which should be the steadfastness of the Christian, and not the vainglorious pride of the heathen. ”

“ Diccon. What devil, man? art afraid of nought?
Hodge. Canst not tarry a little thought
Till ich make a courtesy of water?
Diccon. Stand still to it; why shouldest thou fear him?
Hodge. Gog's sides, Diccon, me-think ich hear him!
And tarry, chall mar all!
Diccon. The matter is no worse than I told it.
Hodge. By the mass, cham able no longer to hold it!
Too bad! ich must beray the hall!
Diccon. Stand to it, Hodge! stir not, you whoreson!
What devil, be thine arse-strings brusten?
Thyself a while but stay,
The devil (I smell him) will be here anon. ”

“ CHAPTER XIII HOW WE FOUGHT AN ENGLISH SHIP For the days immediately following I saw nothing of Joanna but learned from
Resolution and Diccon that her sickness had increased upon her.
"'Tis her soul, I doubt!" quoth Diccon, shaking his head. "'Tis too great for her body—'tis giant soul and her but a woman—so doth strong soul overcome weak body, and small wonder, say I?" ”

“ Diccon had the virtue of fidelity, if none other; there were a brace of Puritans, and a handful of honest fools, who, if they drilled badly, yet abhorred mutiny. But the half dozen I had taken off Argall's hands; the Dutchmen who might have been own brothers to those two Judases, Adam and Francis; the thief and the highwayman I had bought from the precious crew sent us by the King the year before; the negro and the Indians—small wonder that she shrank and cowered. ”

“ And by the time they have a while run,
I trust ye need not crave it.
But look, what lieth in both their hearts, ye are like, sure, to have it.
Hodge. Yea, Gog's soul, art alive yet? What, Diccon, dare ich come?
Diccon. A man is well hied to trust to thee; I will say nothing but mum;
But and ye come any nearer, I pray you see all be sweet!
Hodge. Tush, man, is Gammer's nee'le found? that chould gladly weet.
Diccon. She may thank thee it is not found, for if you had kept thy standing,
The devil he would have fet it out, ev'n, Hodge, at thy commanding.
Hodge. Gog's heart! ”

“ Lord Talbot advanced with a bow so low that he swept the ground with his plume, and while the two youths followed his example, Diccon's quick eye noted that she glanced for one rapid second at their weapons, then continued her steady gaze, never withdrawing it even to receive Lord Talbot's salutation as he knelt before her, though she said, "We greet you well, my good lord. Are not we well guarded, not having one man with a sword near me?" ”

“ Rat gets a broken head. Dame Chat is brought before “Master Bayly” for the assault, and the proceedings in the trial bring to light the deceptions which have been played upon them all, and Diccon stands convicted as the wicked perpetrator. In fact, the “bedlam” confesses it all, and it is finally decided by “Master Bayly” that there shall be a general reconciliation, and that Diccon shall take a solemn oath on Hodge’s breech, that he will do his best to find the lost needle. ”

“ Wilt thou be sworn thou seest dame Chat this woman's nee'le have?
Diccon. Nay, by Saint Benet, will I not, then might ye think me rave!
Gammer. Why, did'st not thou tell me so even here? canst thou for shame deny it?
Diccon. Ay, marry, gammer; but I said I would not abide by it.
Doctor Rat. Will you say a thing, and not stick to it to try it?
Diccon. "Stick to it," quoth you, Master Rat? marry, sir, I defy it!
Nay, there is many an honest man, when he such blasts hath blown
In his friend's ears, he would be loth the same by him were known. ”

“ Diccon. Here is Gammer Gurton, your neighbour, a sad and heavy wight,
Her goodly fair red cock at home was stole this last night.
Chat. Gog's soul! her cock with the yellow legs, that nightly crowded [226] so just?
Diccon. That cock is stolen.
Chat. What, was he fet out of the hen's roost?
Diccon. I cannot tell where the devil he was kept under key or lock,
But Tib hath tickled in Gammer's ear, that you should steal the cock.
Chat. Have I; strong whore! by bread and salt [227] —
Diccon. ”

“ Then, if ever, the heart sickens and the will flags, and life becomes a pageant that hath ceased to entertain. As I moved through the mist and the silence, and felt the tug of the thong that bound me to the wrist of the savage who stalked before me, I cared not how soon they made an end, seeing how stale and unprofitable were all things under the sun.
Diccon, walking behind me, stumbled over a root and fell upon his knees, dragging down with him the Indian to whom he was tied. ”