THE WIDOW.
The serenity1 of the Hall has been suddenly interrupted by a very important occurrence. In the course of this morning a posse of villagers was seen trooping up the avenue, with boys shouting in advance. As it drew near, we perceived Ready-Money Jack2 Tibbets striding along, wielding3 his cudgel in one hand, and with the other grasping the collar of a tall fellow, whom, on still nearer approach, we recognised for the redoubtable4 gipsy hero, Starlight Tom. He was now, however, completely cowed and crestfallen5, and his courage seemed to have quailed7 in the iron gripe of the lion-hearted Jack.
The whole gang of gipsy women and children came draggling in the rear; some in tears, others making a violent clamour about the ears of old Ready-Money, who, however, trudged8 on in silence with his prey9, heeding10 their abuse as little as a hawk11 that has pounced12 upon a barn-door hero regards the outcries and cacklings of his whole feathered seraglio.
He had passed through the village on his way to the Hall, and of course had made a great sensation in that most excitable place, where every event is a matter of gaze and gossip. The report flew like wildfire that Starlight Tom was in custody13. The ale-drinkers forthwith abandoned the tap-room; Slingsby's school broke loose, and master and boys swelled14 the tide that came rolling at the heels of old Ready-Money and his captive.
The uproar15 increased as they approached the Hall; it aroused the whole garrison16 of dogs, and the crew of hangers-on. The great mastiff barked from the dog-house; the staghound, and the greyhound, and the spaniel, issued barking from the Hall door, and my Lady Lillycraft's little dogs ramped17 and barked from the parlour window. I remarked, however, that the gipsy dogs made no reply to all these menaces and insults, but crept close to the gang, looking round with a guilty, poaching air, and now and then glancing up a dubious19 eye to their owners; which shows that the moral dignity, even of dogs, may be ruined by bad company!
Conscience Makes Cowards of the Dogs
When the throng20 reached the front of the house, they were brought to a halt by a kind of advanced guard, composed of old Christy, the gamekeeper, and two or three servants of the house, who had been brought out by the noise. The common herd21 of the village fell back with respect; the boys were driven back by Christy and his compeers; while Ready-Money Jack maintained his ground and his hold of the prisoner, and was surrounded by the tailor, the schoolmaster, and several other dignitaries of the village, and by the clamorous22 brood of gipsies, who were neither to be silenced nor intimidated23.
By this time the whole household were brought to the doors and windows, and the squire24 to the portal. An audience was demanded by Ready-Money Jack, who had detected the prisoner in the very act of sheep-stealing on his domains26, and had borne him off to be examined before the squire, who is in the commission of the peace.
A kind of tribunal was immediately held in the servants' hall, a large chamber27 with a stone floor and a long table in the centre, at one end of which, just under an enormous clock, was placed the squire's chair of justice, while Master Simon took his place at the table as clerk of the court. An attempt had been made by old Christy to keep out the gipsy gang, but in vain; and they, with the village worthies28, and the household, half filled the hall. The old housekeeper29 and the butler were in a panic at this dangerous irruption. They hurried away all the valuable things and portable articles that were at hand, and even kept a dragon watch on the gipsies, lest they should carry off the house clock or the deal table.
The Tribunal
Old Christy, and his faithful coadjutor, the gamekeeper, acted as constables30 to guard the prisoner, triumphing in having at last got this terrible offender31 in their clutches. Indeed I am inclined to think the old man bore some peevish32 recollection of having been handled rather roughly by the gipsy in the chance-medley affair of May-day.
Silence was now commanded by Master Simon; but it was difficult to be enforced in such a motley assemblage. There was a continued snarling33 and yelping34 of dogs, and, as fast as it was quelled35 in one corner, it broke out in another. The poor gipsy curs, who, like errant thieves, could not hold up their heads in an honest house, were worried and insulted by the gentleman dogs of the establishment, without offering to make resistance; the very curs of my Lady Lillycraft bullied36 them with impunity37.
The examination was conducted with great mildness and indulgence by the squire, partly from the kindness of his nature, and partly, I suspect, because his heart yearned38 towards the culprit, who had found great favour in his eyes, as I have already observed, from the skill he had at various times displayed in archery, morris-dancing, and other obsolete39 accomplishments40. Proofs, however, were too strong. Ready-Money Jack told his story in a straightforward41 independent way, nothing daunted42 by the presence in which he found himself. He had suffered from various depredations43 on his sheep-fold and poultry-yard, and had at length kept watch, and caught the delinquent44 in the very act of making off with a sheep on his shoulders.
Tibbets was repeatedly interrupted, in the course of his testimony45, by the culprit's mother, a furious old beldame, with an insufferable tongue, and who, in fact, was several times kept, with some difficulty, from flying at him tooth and nail. The wife, too, of the prisoner, whom I am told he does not beat above half a dozen times a week, completely interested Lady Lillycraft in her husband's behalf, by her tears and supplications; and several of the other gipsy women were awakening46 strong sympathy among the young girls and maid-servants in the background. The pretty, black-eyed gipsy girl, whom I have mentioned on a former occasion as the sibyl that read the fortunes of the general, endeavoured to wheedle47 that doughty48 warrior49 into their interests, and even made some approaches to her old acquaintance, Master Simon; but was repelled50 by the latter with all the dignity of office, having assumed a look of gravity and importance suitable to the occasion.
I was a little surprised, at first, to find honest Slingsby, the schoolmaster, rather opposed to his old crony Tibbets, and coming forwards as a kind of advocate for the accused. It seems that he had taken compassion51 on the forlorn fortunes of Starlight Tom, and had been trying his eloquence52 in his favour the whole way from the village, but without effect. During the examination of Ready-Money Jack, Slingsby had stood like "dejected Pity at his side," seeking every now and then, by a soft word, to soothe53 any
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