The Broken Font: A Story of the Civil War, Vol. 2 (of 2), Page 4

  CHAP. IV.

  Food for powder, food for powder; they'll fill a pit as well as better: tush, man, mortal men, mortal men. _King Henry IV._

  Although Cuthbert Noble was by degrees gaining a little experience inhis new and unsuitable calling, yet it must be confessed that a littleof his enthusiasm evaporated under the necessary process of beingdrilled and taught his exercise; and not only so, but he began to bevery much puzzled and perplexed at the opinions and the conduct ofmany with whom he was now to live and to act. The Colonel of theregiment in which he had received his appointment was, indeed, a maneminently worthy of respect and esteem. He was a devout, reservedperson, of a noble and grave presence,--an approved soldier, and asincere and sound patriot. He considered himself to be opposing thecrown upon strict constitutional principles; and, beingconscientiously attached to the Presbyterian form of churchgovernment, desired the overthrow of the prelacy, and the totalabolition of episcopacy. Nevertheless, he viewed with distaste and acold sufferance the extravagant proceedings of the various independentsects now loose upon society; and discouraged, as far as he could,without danger to the one great and common cause, the practices whichalready obtained in the ranks of the Parliament levies. Every vain andintoxicated fanatic, who had the power of uttering a few dozenunconnected and rambling sentences without book, claimed for hisshallow babbling the authority of inspiration, and asserted his giftof speech as a divine commission, by which he was called to the officeof a preacher of the word of God. His own religion was serious,practical, intelligible; and he had a sternness of sound judgment,before which all flighty pretensions and false confidences fell downor fled away. His name was Maxwell: he had been a friend of the fatherof Francis Heywood, and was very well acquainted with Francis. Owingto this circumstance Cuthbert was favourably introduced to him, andwas always very considerately treated; but their characters, theirages, and their relative situations in the regiment, made itimpossible for them to become intimate with each other. Moreover, theearliest and latest waking thoughts of Colonel Maxwell were whollytaken up with the very important duties of preparing his corps bystrict discipline and close training for the day of trial, which couldnot be very far distant; therefore Cuthbert was left, soon after hejoined, to make out as well as he could with the society of thecaptain of his company and his brother lieutenant. At first, indeed,for a very few days, he had enjoyed the comfort of having FrancisHeywood in the same quarters, but the horse had marched down toNorthampton, and they were thus separated. Now the captain ofCuthbert's company had been a master butcher, of the name of Ruddiman,about forty years of age: a fine portly man, standing about six feetthree inches in height, with ample chest and broad shoulders, littleeyes, red cheeks, a low forehead, and coarse greasy black hair. Hehad a fist that would fell a bullock, and a voice that would frightena herd of them. In spite of the very hardening influence of hiscalling, he had nothing unkind in his temper. He had thrived greatlyin his business, was honest and just in all his dealings, a goodhusband, a good father, and a good citizen--with a house full ofchildren, and a pretty pasture farm in the county of Hertfordshire. Hewas as bold as he was strong; but was here, nevertheless, solely inobedience to the wishes of an active, ambitious, meddling wife, whowas a bitter, censorious, religious politician, and whose pride it wasthat her husband should be a down-king man, and a captain in theParliament army. The good captain himself, meanwhile, barring hiswife's sovereign will, and the honour of the title, would much ratherhave looked after his business at home; or, at all events, have beenpermitted to join a horse regiment, though only as a sergeant. ButMrs. Ruddiman had decided otherwise, and had told him that, if he onlyserved for a few weeks or months as a captain, and looked well abouthim, he might get made a commissary and get a contract, and make hisfortune. This last consideration was not without its weight; forMaster Ruddiman had always a keen eye to the main chance. The brotherlieutenant of Cuthbert was a very different sort of personage. He wasa thin man, of middle stature, with a pale face and red hair, underthirty years of age. His trade had been that of a dyer: he hadrendered conspicuous service at the last election, in securing thereturn of a Puritan to Parliament, and had been rewarded thus: he wasneedy, and the pay of his humble rank an object to him. He had greatfluency of words, and was a raving Independent of the most virulentorder. His name was Elkanah Sippet: he was ignorant, irritable, andvain. He knew a little Latin, with which he was wont to garnish histalk when he wanted to pass off for a scholar, and puzzle big CaptainRuddiman; and he could fill his mouth with Scripture phrases and textswhen he wished to impress Cuthbert with a favourable notion of hispiety. Ruddiman and Sippet hated each other with about as natural andas cordial a hatred as might consist with their being on the same sidein this contest. Neither of them could understand or like poorCuthbert; but both took refuge from the uneasy contempt with whichthey regarded each other, by endeavouring to conciliate his goodopinion, or rather his preference.

  To choose between them was easy: Ruddiman was worth a dozen Sippets inthe qualities of his nature; nor was there any thing of the hypocritein him. He was dull, and slow of comprehension; therefore he seldomsuffered himself to speak about religion, but passively knelt andpassively listened to the long prayers and longer preachings of thechaplain. He had been so stupified and subdued at home about points offaith and church government by his wife's brother, a warm and wordybrazier, the godly elder of the congregation to which his wifebelonged, that he yielded, partly for the sake of peace, and partly indistrust of his own reason. Thus, in plain fact, he feared God trulyfor himself, and received the interpretations of Scripture deliveredby the clergy, and the lay elders of his sect, with a submission asimplicit, and an apprehension as confused, as the Italian peasantlistens to the Latin oration of a Franciscan friar. His politics weremore simple; and he was in the habit of expressing what he felt aboutthem by always calling the King _the man Charles Stuart_, and all theprincipal leaders of the Parliament party right honest and God-fearingworthies. "A man's a man," he would say: "I don't see why any oneshould be called lord over another; and as for bishops, bless us, whyshould they live in palaces, and hold forth about taxes in the Houseof Lords?--Don't you think that's wrong, Master Noble, quite wrong?Why it is writ in the Bible that the kingdom of Christ is not of thisworld." To this political creed Cuthbert would give assent; but aquick memory whispered to his inner man, "Why then do my servantsfight?" As for his brother lieutenant, his tone was always rancorousand unchristian: he was of a mean and narrow mind, without charity andwithout patience; selfish and tricky, and, withal, quite intent onrising upon the ruin of his betters. He felt a sort of inferiority inthe presence of Cuthbert that a little awed him; but his nature wouldbreak out occasionally. It was no small advantage to Cuthbert that histwo companions had seen him, for a few days, often walking andconversing with Francis Heywood, whose soldierly appearance hadattracted general attention among the troops. Moreover, though farindeed from the aptitude desired by Colonel Maxwell, the intelligenceof Cuthbert in the field of exercise was greater than that of eitherRuddiman or Sippet. Perhaps, after all, the greatest trial of Cuthbertarose from the manners of those with whom he was now compelled, by thedistribution of quarters, to live night and day. As officers of thesame company, Captain Ruddiman, Sippet, and himself, took their mealstogether, and he was compelled to occupy a stretcher in the samesleeping chamber with Sippet. Now Ruddiman was a very gross andunclean feeder, and had a most disgusting habit of hawking andspitting on the floor all day long; while Sippet, who secretlyindulged in the too frequent use of strong waters, always stunk ofspirits, and snored through his nights so loudly, as very seriously todisturb the rest of Cuthbert: nor was it possible, with so irritatingan accompaniment, to comfort his wakeful hours with those meditationswith which he had often solaced his night watches at Milverton whileconfined by his wound. However, his spirit, though fretted, did notsink under these annoyances: he rose constantly with the first glimmerof dawn: he di
d his utmost to perfect himself in all matters of drilland discipline. He gave his best attention to all his instructors, andhe performed all his duties with manly cheerfulness, and in the bestpossible spirit. Colonel Maxwell saw this with silent satisfaction;but he was not a man for lavish praises and sudden intimacies, nor washe without a clear perception that Cuthbert would never make athorough soldier; indeed his immovable gravity was sometimes very nearbeing altogether conquered by a burst of laughter at the mode in whichCuthbert exhibited the solemn earnestness of his desire to learn hisexercises thoroughly, and to command his men properly.

  One day, for instance, very soon after Cuthbert's arrival, as he rodethrough the different squads of recruits who were learning theirfacings, he found Cuthbert in one corner of the field, with his headin the air, and a corporal giving him private instructions; and,unperceived by the former, he heard the following strangequery:--"Now, my brave man, pray have the goodness to explain to me,very exactly, how it is, that is, upon what principle it is, that, ifI place my feet in this extraordinary manner, I shall come to what youcall 'the right about face?'"

  "Principle! God save you, master! I know nothing at all aboutprinciples; but I know, if you do as I bid you, and put the ball ofyour right toe to your left heel, and raise the fore part of yourfeet, and come smartly, heel round, on your two heels, and bring backyour right sharply and square with the left, you will come to theright about like a man and a musketeer."

  Again, at an after period, as the Colonel passed the spot where acompany of pikemen was parading under the orders of Cuthbert, thewarlike student, who was just fresh from the perusal of a militarytreatise in Greek, having taken post at a farther distance than usualin the front, and noticing a little whispering and unsteadiness,called out with most innocent seriousness,--"Silence, men, silence:the Lacedaemonians never spoke in the ranks."

  The pikemen seeing the Colonel near became silent, rather in respectto his presence than obedience to their simple-hearted lieutenant, andwondered the while what county militia these Lacedaemonians might be.The commanding officer, averting his head to conceal his irrepressiblesmiles, went forward; and Cuthbert, quite unconscious of any thingstrange or ridiculous, proceeded to number off, and prove his pikemenaccording to the intricate system of the slow and cumbrous movementsof those days.

  Never, however, was a human being more thoroughly out of his elementthan Master Cuthbert as lieutenant in this said company of pikemenunder the orders of Captain Ruddiman. He could contrive, indeed, alittle leisure and a little solitude most days; but even those briefseasons of meditation and enjoyment were often broken in upon by asergeant hurrying after him to say that perhaps eleven set of newstraps for back and breast pieces were wanting, or that two pikes werebroken, and three men had lost the scabbards of their tucks.

  Moreover, he could hardly find a private path or walk near St. Albans,where he did not come suddenly upon a few military sinners, who hadstolen out of the sight of their preaching officers and prayingcomrades to have a game of trap-ball, tip-cat, or the greaterabominations of cross and pile, pitch and hustle, and chuck farthing.Nay, upon one occasion, he surprised a little party under a buttressof the abbey playing at primero, trump, put, or beat the knave out ofdoors, with two dollys sitting in their company, of whom it might beplainly seen that they had no business in a garrison of Puritans. Buthe was in these moments usually in too absorbed a mood to take noticeof and reprove these transgressors, and was quite as anxious to turnaway his eyes as the soldiers were to see them so averted.

  One day, as he wandered into the abbey a little before sunset, and wasstanding lost in thought before the monument of Lord Bacon, andcontemplating the fine alabaster effigy of that great philosopher, heheard himself gently addressed by name, and turning to the speaker, herecognised, with as much surprise as delight, his worthy andinvaluable friend Randal, the surgeon of Warwick, to whose skilfulcare and kind treatment he held himself indebted, under God, for hislife.

  Their pleasure at meeting was mutual, and was increased when theyfound that they were again providentially brought together, and heldcommissions in the same corps. Randal had offered his services to theParliament, and had been appointed the surgeon of this levy.Henceforth Cuthbert would enjoy the comfort of his society and theadvantage of his counsel. They agreed instantly to live and messtogether; and, after a long and interesting conversation aboutMilverton, the Heywoods, and his friend Juxon, they walked together tothe Colonel's quarter, where Randal had been invited to sup; andCuthbert returned, in high spirits, and with a heart full of joy andthanksgiving, to take his own meal with Ruddiman and Sippet, and tomake known to them his intention of leaving their mess, and living infuture with his old friend Randal. Ruddiman was sincerely vexed, ateless, and hawked rather more than usual, and proposed as anarrangement, not unnatural, that the surgeon should join their partyinstead of this breaking up; and Lieutenant Sippet, who wished much toavoid being left alone with Ruddiman, very earnestly seconded thisproposal; observing, that he thought it a very proper subject for mostserious consideration, and that they ought to seek the Lord forguidance, that they might plainly discern his will in this importantmatter.

  This, Cuthbert said, he deemed to be an occasion on which so solemn aproceeding was altogether uncalled for and improper. Sippet misquotedand misapplied a shower of texts, which, in a sadder mood, would havemade poor Cuthbert's head ache. Ruddiman did not see what they were topray about, for his part, and thought a man might do his duty to Godand his neighbour very well without so much prayer. "But if you mustpray," said he, "Friend Sippet, pray to be kept from putting yourmouth so often to that stone bottle of strong waters at the corner ofyour bed, and from snoring so loud every night, man. Why, though I amnext room, you waked me this morning before cock-crow; and I doubt ifMaster Noble has had a sound night's sleep since he joined us."Cuthbert hastily wished them good night, and withdrew; so in whatmanner the wrathful Sippet resented this affront, or whether he did soat all, he never heard.