Rumbold

“ To you it may seem that many of those bright eyes, and laughing lips, and all the rest of it, rival the charms of Queen Ruth, Young Mistress Ruth Rumbold, the only child of Master Richard Rumbold of the Rye House, whose embattled gate-tower roof just shows yonder through the trees, with its gilded vane gleaming in the setting sun-rays. But then you do not know Ruth as all these good people have known her for fifteen years turned last Martlemas-tide, when she was left a motherless three months old babe to the care of Nurse Maudlin—Maudlin Sweetapple. ”

“ But 'twill serve—'twill serve. Set the paper close—closer;" and then with infinite labour he made the cross mark. "Ruth Rumbold!" he cried, as he moved his hand, and the full light of the lamp fell upon the clear, boldly-marked characters of her signature beneath. "This man—Richard Rumbold's—daughter!" and his eyes fixed upon her in a stare of mingled horror and pity. ”

“ Nowadays, if a man sin against his brother, and kings are our brothers, eh, father? in a fashion of speaking they are our elder brothers, eh, father, dear?"
"Beshrew thee, child," impatiently frowned the maltster, "what has come to you?"
"I say 'tis a stretch if that man shall be forgiven twice, that is what I am thinking of; and those who plotted the killing of Charles the First, and were pardoned, would scarce be let go a second time, if—if—" she faltered, and coloured deeply.
"If what, mistress?" sternly challenged Rumbold. ”

“ The word on his lips was scarcely one calculated to win over the young man to his ideas, and he substituted the milder epithet of "featherbrain."
"I thank you for your compliment, Master Rumbold," said Lawrence swelling a little, and glancing silently, but proudly, round on his neat barns and ricks, among which they chanced to be standing. "I flattered myself my brains were none so empty."
"Psha!" returned Rumbold; "a man may be a Mr. Worldly Wise, and still a fool and a beggar touching the treasure that waxeth not old. ”

“ The maltster in better humour.
"'Tis Madam Lee is the goose to be spoiling thee so," smiled Rumbold good-humouredly. "She always is promising thee some fine thing or another. Well, well, go thy ways then, Ruth, for the green gooseberries, and a pleasant walk, and if by hap thou shouldst chance across Lawrence Lee,—and 'tis possible that, eh?" ”

“ But Ruth only shook her head.
"Why, what then?" he insisted. "Was perhaps the White Woman walking? Ah! for shame, child, on thy foolish fancies!"
"Alack! father, 'twas no fancy," answered she. "It was no White Woman's spirit that haunted yonder room last night; but the black one of an evil, wicked-hearted man."
"Psha!" said Rumbold with an uneasy laugh. "Let us have done with riddles. I understand you now. You heard me and my boys—" He stopped with a confused, shamefaced smile. "That is what the foolish fellows, you know, love to call themselves. ”

“ A burning shame.
"Pah! pish! a seemly time this for England to be merry! when she needs bow her head even to the dust for the weight of her sins!" and he turned and threw the book angrily into the fire. "That for your chap-book saints!"
"Now," thought poor Ruth, "he would be as cruel to them, if they were real flesh and blood men, as ever Bishop Bonner and Queen Mary were to the poor Protestant martyrs;" and silently, for she dared not trust herself to speak, she began to turn the pages of the volume on her knee; but Rumbold took it from her. ”

“ He's but a stripling; and old heads are the only ones for our sort of work, depend upon't. There's what one may call a kind of touch-and-go slipperiness"— The rest of what the speaker might be having to say was lost in a deafening clash of steel, while he himself disappeared totally from Ruth's range of sight, in what seemed a flash of blue lightning.
"Lookye, Colonel!" said Rumbold, when, after a brief interval, he had succeeded, with Master Sheppard's aid, in hauling Rumsey to his feet again and landing him safe on the top of the steps. ”

“ Rumbold's defence was conducted with great ability by George Hardinge [q. v.] The charges against him were in substance that his dealings with the zemindars of the circars were oppressive and corrupt; that his dealings with the nabob of Arcot were corrupt; that, by the reduction of Pondicherry and Mahé, the occupation of the Guntur circar, the subsequent brush with Haidar's troops, and the affair of the tribute, he had so irritated Haidar and the nizam of the Deccan as to occasion the formation of the confederacy which eventually took the field against the British. ”

“ A fair visitor.
"So please you, there is one," answered Mistress Sheppard. "Nay, names matter little. One who earnestly desires an audience—a word with you, before you go. A young girl—"
"Let her come in," said Charles with animation.
CHAPTER XXXI.
RUMSEY MEETS HIS MATCH.
"Mistress, your servant," said the king, his voice dropping to a gentle gravity, as the door opened, and disclosed the gray-clad figure of Ruth Rumbold. "What can we do for you?" ”

“ Yes, yes, woman I am, and Ruth here has told me all about it; and how the others being gone away—"
"Others?" wonderingly interrupted the king. "Gone away?"
"Ay, for sure. The other conspirators, your Majesty—being gone down into the vaults with Master Rumbold, to see the way they should escape by, if—when—" She hesitated a moment.
"Go on, my good woman. I understand," said the king, "when their purpose should be accomplished."
"And they left Master Goodenough, who had fallen asleep in the window, alone with this Rumsey here ”

“ Standing in a sheltered doorway a tramp, with a slouch hat crammed low over a notably unwashed face, watched the outside of the new works canteen of the Sir William Rumbold Ltd., Engineering Company. Perhaps because they were workers while he was a tramp, he had an air of compassionate cynicism as the audience assembled and thronged into the building, which, as prodigally advertised throughout Calderside, was to be opened that night by Sir William in person.
There being no one to observe him, the tramp could be frank with his cynicism; but inside the building, in the platform ante-room, Mr. ”

“ Rumble's picture, and had my bottled resentment ready when, later on, I found my distracted friend had been stuffed by Mrs. Wimbush into the mouth of another cannon. A young artist in whom she was intensely interested, and who had no connection with Mr. Rumble, was to show how far he could shoot him. Poor Paraday, in return, was naturally to write something somewhere about the young artist. She played her victims against each other with admirable ingenuity, and her establishment was a huge machine in which the tiniest and the biggest wheels went round to the same treadle. ”

“ And with her Etzel the mighty, why hold we back therefrom?
Who is loth with us to journey, e’en let him linger at home!”
(C) “In troth,” made answer Rumold, “I will be one at the least
Who never will cross Rhine-river unto Etzel’s high-tide feast.
The better part I have chosen shall I on the hazard fling?
So long as my strength availeth to my one life will I cling.”
(C) “So likewise am I minded,” spake to him Ortwein the thane;
“I will help thee to ward the kingdom, and the peace of the home to maintain.” ”

“ Becoming dissatisfied with the results of his ministry in Ireland, Rumold resolved to go abroad, where his countrymen were then much valued. Crossing over to Britain in a coracle or skin-boat, ‘after the manner of his nation,’ he passed to Gaul, and ‘wherever he went he was always speaking of Jesus, and instructing the people about God and life everlasting.’ Crossing the Alps, he visited Rome, and saw with wonder the city ‘whither all the demons of the world used to congregate.’ Returning through France, he settled at Mechlin, near the Scheldt. ”

“ In most people’s minds there is a sort of wonder whether he could be a real Count if his business in life was—stoves. Some of us elders of our day had fathers who knew Count Rumford, and who remembered and talked of him, not in connection with stoves, but as a nobleman of great knowledge, of an active inquiring spirit, of great administrative faculty, and the most indefatigable, resolute, vigilant and enterprising benevolence. Whenever society needs the largest amount of comfort at the smallest cost, the name and memory of Count Rumford come up again. ”

“ As Rump saw them in the act of dismounting, the manly fortitude which he had endeavored to summon up instantly forsook him, and he seized his hat and fled with precipitation from the house through a back door. The wretched man ran with speed until he reached a wood on the outskirts of his farm, where he wandered for hours, like one who had been driven an outcast from association with his kind. ”

“ Henry Rumley shrank back against one of the log walls. He bent over, lifted out one of the worn floor-boards and called his dogs to him for company. Even the dogs seemed to feel the presence of some ghastly thing.
Once more there came that terrible, nasal-toned cry, and this time Rumley knew it was nearer, for it was so loud that it was like thunder
“Henry!”
“O Lord!” chattered Henry Rumley, and he sank to his knees on the floor among his dogs, friends who could not offer solace now in this his extremity. “O Lord! O Lord!” ”

“ The bolts were hastily drawn back, the door dashed violently upwards, and each man sprang on the platform with the agility of a tiger. The group of conspirators were so intently occupied in watching or aiding the efforts of Captain Whitehead to detach a stone, that three or four of Charles’s friends were on the platform and had heard his cries for help before they were perceived. The conspirators had no time to consider whether to fight or fly, for the cavaliers were upon them, hewing and striking almost at random. ”

“ Lumley glared at him like a trapped beast.
"You're just the one to come back, ain't you?" he exclaimed. "A cove what murdered his own mate for a bit of flimsy. You're one to be trusted, ain't you?"
"You must believe that if you will," said Gray calmly. His voice faltered as he went on after a momentary pause. "I betrayed my mate—the truest, best mate man ever had; but I'll be true to you, Lumley, if you'll give me the chance. I am not the man I was."
The only answer Lumley vouchsafed to that was a harsh mocking laugh. ”

“ He knew the voice now: it was Lumley's voice. But it was as cruel and mocking as ever. Gray's dream of help from him vanished like a breath as he heard it.
He stumbled on across the sand hillocks, and presently could discern a huddled figure on the ground, with its back propped up against a hillock. The moonlight was full on the haggard blistered face that looked up at Gray with twitching lips.
"Welcome, partner," were Lumley's first words. "You didn't expect to see me again, did you now?" ”

“ He looked forward very anxiously for the period of the equinox; his impatience made each day appear as long as a year. The long wished-for time at last arrived; and the night previous he could not close his eyes, on account of his eager anticipations: his heart beat strong, and he felt as if the blood was about to burst from his veins, just as it was in the castle of Rummelsburg before the spectre’s appearance. He rose at daybreak, in order not to let his unknown friend wait, and hastened to the bridge, which he found quite deserted. ”

“ I, myself, tossing in agony three rooms off, have been enabled to accurately follow the breathing of that worthy man, and to trace how the grunt swells into a rumble, the rumble reaches a harsh, grating sound, which broadens into the circular saw movement, until glasses ring, roofs shake, and the terrified listener, convinced that in another instant Mountain must either suffocate or burst, hears with relief the terrific blast softened to a strangled whistle, and finally dies away into a soothing murmur, full of deceitful promises of silence. ”

“ Pocket and Drummle while I was attentive to my knife and fork, spoon, glasses, and other instruments of self-destruction, that Drummle, whose christian name was Bentley, was actually the next heir but one to a baronetcy. It further appeared that the book I had seen Mrs. Pocket reading in the garden, was all about titles, and that she knew the exact date at which her grandpapa would have come into the book, if he ever had come at all. ”

“ The one with whom he was acquainted nodded familiarly to the pawnbroker, while he of the rueful countenance pulled off his ulster and threw it on the counter, saying:
“How much will you give me on that?”
Rumble, who was a large man, rather fleshy and slow of movement, started toward the back of the shop with a lazy roll, like a ship under half sail. He made a tack around the end of the counter and hove to behind it, opposite the men who had just come in. ”

“ At all events, he does not seem to have suspected treachery, and in the thoughts of deceiving his master was as quiet as the conspirators could desire. He did not remain long in this fool’s-paradise; for a dark figure which knelt beside the girl, after remaining motionless for a moment, suddenly thrust its arm upwards, a dull gleam was visible in the darkness, and the girl felt the man she was clasping in her arms slide gently from them to the ground without uttering a sound. ”

“ Jaggers, putting the decanters on from his dumb-waiter, filled his glass and passed round the wine.
“At half-past nine, gentlemen,” said he, “we must break up. Pray make the best use of your time. I am glad to see you all. Mr. Drummle, I drink to you.”
If his object in singling out Drummle were to bring him out still more, it perfectly succeeded. In a sulky triumph, Drummle showed his morose depreciation of the rest of us, in a more and more offensive degree, until he became downright intolerable. ”