FullReads

“The very man!” said Spry, under his breath.

“The wicked flee, whom no man pursueth,” said my grandfather, looking after the man; but Bligh turned his head neither to the right hand nor to the left.

“Oh–oh–oh!” squealed a voice inside the church.

“Whatever was that,” cries Arch’laus Spry, giving a jump. They both stared at the porch.

“Oh–oh–oh!” squealed the voice again.

“It certainly comes from inside,” said Arch’laus Spry.

“It’s Mrs. Polwhele!” said my grandfather; “and by the noise of it she’s having hysterics.”

And with that he scrambled up and ran; and Spry heaved himself over the wall and followed. And there, in the south aisle, they found Mrs. Polwhele lying back in a pew and kicking like a stallion in a loose-box.

My grandfather took her by the shoulders, while Spry ran for the jug of holy water that stood by the font. As it happened, ’twas empty: but the sight of it fetched her to, and she raised herself up with a shiver.

“The Frenchman!” she cries out, pointing. “The Frenchman–on the coach! O Lord, deliver us!”

For a moment, as you’ll guess, my grandfather was puzzled: but he stared where the poor lady pointed, and after a bit he began to understand. I dare say you’ve seen our church, Sir, and if so, you must have taken note of a monstrous fine fig-tree growing out of the south wall–“the marvel of Manaccan,” we used to call it. When they restored the church the other day nobody had the heart to destroy the tree, for all the damage it did to the building–having come there the Lord knows how, and grown there since the Lord knows when. So they took and patched up the wall around it, and there it thrives. But in the times I’m telling of, it had split the wall so that from inside you could look straight through the crack into the churchyard; and ’twas to this crack that Mrs. Polwhele’s finger pointed.

“Eh?” said my grandfather. “The furriner that went by just now, was it he that frightened ye, Ma’am?”

Mrs. Polwhele nodded.

“But what put it into your head that he’s a Frenchman?”

“Because French is his language. With these very ears I heard him talk it! He joined the coach at Torpoint, and when I spoke him fair in honest English not a word could he answer me. Oh, Calvin, Calvin! what have I done–a poor weak woman–to be mixed up in these plots and invasions?”

But my grandfather couldn’t stop to answer that question, for a terrible light was breaking in upon him. “A Frenchman?” he called out. “And for these twenty-four hours he’s been marking out the river and taking soundings!” He glared at Arch’laus Spry, and Arch’laus dropped the brazen ewer upon the pavement and smote his forehead. “The Devil,” says he, “is among us, having great wrath!”

“And for aught we know,” says my grandfather, speaking in a slow and fearsome whisper, “the French ships may be hanging off the coast while we’m talking here!”

“You don’t mean to tell us,” cried Mrs. Polwhele, sitting up stiff in the pew, “that this man has been mapping out the river under your very noses!”

“He has, Ma’am. Oh, I see it all! What likelier place could they choose on the whole coast? And from here to Falmouth what is it but a step?”

“Let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains,” said Arch’laus Spry solemn-like.

“And me just home from Plymouth with a fine new roasting-jack!” chimed in Mrs. Polwhele. “As though the day of wrath weren’t bad enough without that waste o’ money! Run, Calvin–run and tell the Vicar this instant–no, no, don’t leave me behind! Take me home, that’s a good man: else I shall faint at my own shadow!”

Well, they hurried off to the Vicarage: but, of course, there was no Parson to be found, for by this time he was half-way towards Little Dinnis, and running like a madman under the hot sun to see what damage had befallen his dearly-loved camp. The servants hadn’t seen him leave the house; ne’er a word could they tell of him except that Martha, the cook, when she cleared away the breakfast things, had left him seated in his chair and smoking.