Miles Coverdale

“ You hit him an awful crack!”
“It was his own fault,” returned Coverdale. “I did not want to hurt the man if he would have fought quietly, and like a civilised Christian, instead of a raging lunatic;—but he’s only stunned—see he’s reviving already. Confound the fellow, his head is as hard as a cannon-ball, to which fact my knuckles bear witness.” ”

“ Crane slowly and solemnly, “of soliciting the honour of driving Miss Hazlehurst in my phaeton, if I may venture to hope such an arrangement will not be disagreeable to that lady:” and as he spoke, the cotton spinner, whose tall, ungainly figure, clad in a dust-coloured wrapper, white trousers, and white hat, gave him the appearance of a superannuated baker’s boy run very decidedly to seed, bowed appealingly to Alice, who, perceiving her father’s eye upon her, was forced unwillingly to consent.
“Mr. Coverdale, will you drive a lady in the pony-chaise?” inquired Hazlehurst père. ”

“ But what a child it is! what a baby! Sacré! at his age I was winning twenty pounds a day at billiards in New Orleans!—And you, Harry Coverdale, mon ami, I will teach you to watch me with black looks when I am conversing with la belle millionaire; you had better attend to your own wife now—young, pretty, and neglected! Le petit Alfred has a fair game before him, if he have but wit to play it—yes! all goes as it should! fortune fills the sails! there is a cool head and a steady hand at the helm: vogue la galère! ”

“ Coverdale glanced for a moment towards Lord Alfred, who replied carelessly, “Don’t alarm yourself, my dear fellow, I can hardly suppose even Phil Tirrett would have the face to throw me over and ride for O’Brien; but, if he should indulge in such a caprice, I know my man, and am prepared with a substitute so efficient, that I rather hope your tidings may be true.” Seeing that the Honourable William looked incredulous, he continued, “If you’re inclined to follow the hedging dodge yourself, I’m as willing as ever to back the Don against the field: how do the odds stand?” ”

“ But Coverdale had a powerful and singularly healthy mind, and even while he smarted under this severe chastening, he recognized the Hand which inflicted it, and the purpose for which it was sent; and, mindful of the lessons of his childhood, the strong man sank upon his knees by the side of his wife’s sick couch, and prayed to his Father in Heaven to spare, in His mercy, the one little ewe-lamb, without which he must wear out the rest of his earthly pilgrimage desolate and lonely-hearted. ”

“ At this moment the clatter of a horse’s hoofs was heard, and Markum, the keeper, cantered up on the shooting pony. “Ah! that’s right!” exclaimed Coverdale, who appeared suddenly to have regained his good temper—“tie the pony up to a tree and come here. Hazlehurst, you will pick me up if I require it, and Markum will do the same kind office by Mr. Styles, and I don’t intend him to have a sinecure either,” he added, sotto voce.
“You don’t mean seriously you’re going to fight the fellow:” inquired Hazlehurst. ”

“ Now, to jump through a window six feet or thereabouts from the ground, run at the top of one’s speed half-a-mile, leaping recklessly over two gates and a stile in the course of it; and to do all this in a state of anxious excitement on a day when the thermometer stands at 70° in the shade, naturally tends to make a man not only hot, but (if his temper be not semiangelic) cross also. At all events, Harry Coverdale was in the former, if not the latter, condition, when, panting and breathless, he overtook Alice Hazlehurst and Horace D’Almayne, half way across the dangerous field. ”

“ Lord Alfred agreeing, at a signal from his master the packgroom rode up, and resigning his horse to Coverdale, the friends mounted, and were about to ride off in the direction of the farm-house, when the Honourable Billy Whipcord intercepted them with a face expressing the deepest concern.
“My dear Courtland,” he began, “a report has somehow got abroad that Tirrett won’t ride for you, and that Irish blackguard, Captain O’Brien, does not scruple openly to declare that he is to ride Broth-of-a-Boy for him instead; the rumour gains ground every minute, and the Don is going down accordingly ”

“ Alice turned her head to hide her heightened colour, as she replied, in a tone of voice that was almost cross, “Really, Emily, you should be careful not to carry that absurd habit of yours of laughing at everybody too far. People will begin to call you flippant. Mr. Coverdale is so good-natured that he is the easiest person in the world to entertain. Surely, Arthur has a right to ask his friend to remain here without consulting you or me on the subject.” ”

“ I’m sure I’ve met the youngest of them somewhere—he with the petites moustaches noires, which are so irresistible that I should certainly cultivate a pair myself, if I did not feel morally certain that my prejudiced progenitor would cut them, and me, off with the same shilling.”
“In fact, cut off his heir because you would not cut off yours,” punned Coverdale. “But in regard to your beatific swells, I fancy Alice can enlighten you as to the patronymic of one of them, if she chooses; he is a very particular friend, to say nothing more, of hers. ”

“ Could those who had known Coverdale as the rough and eager sportsman, or the just, but stern and inflexible, magistrate, have seen him then, as (heedless of the pain of his injured arm) he tended with all a woman’s devotion, and more than woman’s strength and judgment, the sick couch of his (as at times he feared) dying wife, they would have been unable to recognize the same individual whose nature they, in their hasty judgment, had so wholly mistaken. His dying wife! ah! how the idea haunted him. Alice, his loved one, would die ”

“ Crossman may go and——hang herself in her own petticoat strings!” was the uncourteous rejoinder. “Ah! I see how it is,” continued the “old soldier.” “I see all about it: you’re a young hand yet, Coverdale, and I’m an old one; take my advice. You’ve married a nice gal, and a pretty gal—don’t you go and spoil her; it’s the nature of women to like to have their own way ”

“ I don’t believe I shall ever care to hit a bird or mount a horse again. I’ll go to India, and join the army as a volunteer, or start off to look for the north pole, or something. I shall hang myself if I stay at home, and do nothing but think about Alice and that detestable old Crane!” By the time his meditations had reached this point, Coverdale was unrobed, and, jumping disconsolately into bed, had not laid his head on his pillow for five minutes ere he fell sound asleep, and dreamed of a battue, in which he tried to shoot Mr. ”

“ Then placing his hand on his shoulder, and urging him forward, he continued—“D’Almayne, here’s my friend, Lord Alfred Courtland, wishes to be introduced to you: he thinks it his duty to know every well-dressed man in London, and you’re so facile princeps in that line—so transcendently got up—that he’s dying to ask your tailor’s address, and the length of tick he allows.”
“You’re so obliging as to laugh at me, Mr. Coverdale, because I cannot reconcile myself to your English Schneiders, and still patronise Blin et Fils, in that paradise of tailors, Paris ”

“ CHAPTER VIII.—HARRY CONDESCENDS TO PLAY THE AGREEABLE. “M iss Hazlehurst!—Alice! are you mad? Only sit still, don’t go and scream or anything, and all will come right.”
Thus appealed to, or rather commanded—for the tone of the speaker’s voice was unmistakably imperative—Alice, who when the horses bolted had half risen from her seat, and in an agony of terror glanced round, as though she meditated an attempt to jump out, shrank down again, and covering her eyes with her hands, remained perfectly still and motionless, thus enabling Coverdale to devote his whole attention to the horses. ”

“ Calling a Hansom cab, this industrious and zealous young man drove to his west-end lodgings, and exchanging his suit of quiet black, in which he had dressed the man-of-business character he had been pleased to enact, for more butterfly garments, went down to a certain fashionable club, where he felt sure of meeting Lord Alfred Courtland, and found him accordingly, but by no means in the amiable, docile frame of mind in which he usually rejoiced. ”

“ After the ceremony of weighing the riders had been satisfactorily performed, and other preliminaries arranged, the bell rang for saddling, and Coverdale, flinging off his wrapper, and removing a pair of leggings which had effectually concealed his top-boots, appeared in full and appropriate racing costume, to Lord Alfred’s intense surprise. ”

“ I don’t wish to quarrel with any of my tenantry, about here,” exclaimed Coverdale hastily, “they’ll be breaking pheasants’ eggs, and playing up all sorts of mischief,—no: we must have nothing of that kind—I’ll speak to the young man myself ”

“ But what were you saying about going home? why I’m just getting into shooting order; you’re not knocking up, to be sure, already.”
“No; nor six hours’ more hard walking would not do it,” returned Harry, laughing, as he mentally contrasted his own powers with those of the Colonel, who, although he had carefully assigned all the toughest of the work to his guest, was evidently beginning “to want his corn,” as Coverdale metaphorically paraphrased the fact of his entertainer’s requiring his luncheon. “I merely asked you whether Mrs. Crossman would not disapprove of our remaining out all day?” ”

“ Forcing his horse through the tangled underwood, Coverdale came suddenly upon a group of men, amongst whom he recognised several of his own farm labourers, while two under-keepers were kneeling beside the prostrate figure of a man who, from the stiff, unnatural attitude in which he lay, appeared either dead or dying. ”

“ Hastily springing to the saddle, Coverdale made Giles attach a small cord he had brought with him to the end of the leash, against which the bloodhound now strained impatiently; then twisting the other end round his own wrist, he was about to desire the under-keeper to return, when the patrol interfered by observing,—
“Better take Giles with us, sir!”
“Why so, policeman?” rejoined Coverdale, sharply; “we’re two to two, fresh men against tired ones; besides, you’re armed, and they’re not.” ”

“ CHAPTER LVI.—THE CATASTROPHE. Stunned by the violence of the shock, Harry was aware vaguely, and as in a dream, that the horse had risen, and that some person was soothing and caressing it; from this state of semi-unconsciousness he was aroused by the voice of Dick, the groom, exclaiming, “If you b’aint too much hurt, Mr. Coverdale, you may do it yet, sir, if so be as you can sit your horse; for Black Eagle has refused the gap, and Tirrett’s a bullying him to get him over now.” ”

“ Lord Alfred gazed after him eagerly.
“Who is your mysterious friend?” inquired Harry.
“I can’t be certain,” was the reply, “but the figure, and the way in which he sits his horse, are very like that young scoundrel, Tirrett; I’ve a great mind to gallop after him, and either make him ride for me, or horsewhip him;” and Lord Alfred looked quite fierce and determined, as if he meant to do as he said, and was able; but Coverdale, smiling at his energy, restrained him—
“Gently there—take it coolly! why, you’re becoming quite a fire-eater,” he said, laughing ”

“ This speech, which Harry delivered eagerly and with evidences of deep feeling, appealed to Lord Alfred’s better nature; he grew more and more excited as it proceeded, and at its conclusion he sprang up, exclaiming:—
“’Pon my word—’pon my honour as a gentleman, Coverdale, I assure you you are worrying yourself about nothing! I own I have behaved wrongly—foolishly in this matter, and I am very sorry for it. But your wife is an angel, and cares for you and you only: she treated me with friendly kindness, but nothing more: I am to blame entirely.” ”

“ If any one had that morning told Alice Hazlehurst that before the day should be over she would have appealed for protection to, and confided in, “Arthur’s cross, disagreeable friend,” she would have utterly disbelieved the statement—and yet so it was to be. The moment Mr. Crane left her side, she turned to Harry exclaiming—
“Oh, Mr. Coverdale, I am so frightened! He will never be able to manage those horses: he could scarcely hold them in this morning, and the groom was forced to get down to them twice—he does not know how to drive one bit!” ”

“ So saying, Coverdale gathered up the reins, and without waiting the groom’s reply, rode off at a brisk canter. As he approached the wood, he drew in and paused, uncertain whether Markum might yet have reached the scene of action: as he listened, the sound of men crashing through the dry underwood became distinctly audible; then shouts and a clamour of angry voices, and finally, the unmistakeable noise of a conflict met his ear. Pausing no longer, he put his horse into a gallop, and dashed on till he reached a hand-gate leading into the wood. This, to his annoyance, he found locked ”

“ I do know how to deal with men, or with green boys, who give themselves the airs of men, before they have acquired a man’s strength, either of mind or body!” He took a turn up and down the room, then continued in a milder tone—“Come, Alfred, do not let us quarrel about this foolish affair; you see I am in earnest, so satisfy me on this one point, and let there be an end of these absurd misunderstandings between us.”
“You pay Mrs. Coverdale a very bad compliment,” rejoined Lord Alfred, “when you make out that she refused to comply with her husband’s wish without some very good reason ”

“ Coverdale could scarcely believe his ears; however, he contrived by a strong effort to subdue his rising passion, as he answered; “If, as I imagine, you are the son of old Farmer Styles, of Wild Acre, you must be aware, sir, that the farm your father rents is my property, and that the rabbits you are shooting are my rabbits; I must, therefore, trouble you to hand over the one you have just killed, and to abstain from shooting entirely, except on any occasion when I may invite you to join me, or otherwise give you permission.” ”