When he had done, he turned round to the new-comers and asked how he could serve them? whereupon Mr. Wood (for such was the name he adopted, and by such we shall call him to the end) wittily remarked that however he might wish to serve THEM, he seemed mightily inclined to serve that young gentleman first.
"It's no joking matter," said the blacksmith: "if I don't serve him so now, he'll be worse off in his old age. He'll come to the gallows, as sure as his name is Bill---never mind what his name is."And so saying, he gave the urchin another cut; which elicited, of course, another scream.
"Oh! his name is Bill?" said Captain Wood.
"His name's NOT Bill!" said the blacksmith, sulkily. "He's no name;and no heart, neither. My wife took the brat in, seven years ago, from a beggarly French chap to nurse, and she kept him, for she was a good soul" (here his eyes began to wink), "and she's--she's gone now" (here he began fairly to blubber). "And d--- him, out of love for her, I kept him too, and the scoundrel is a liar and a thief.
This blessed day, merely to vex me and my boys here, he spoke ill of her, he did, and I'll--cut--his--life--out--I--will!" and with each word honest Mulciber applied a whack on the body of little Tom Billings; who, by shrill shrieks, and oaths in treble, acknowledged the receipt of the blows.
"Come, come," said Mr. Wood, "set the boy down, and the bellows a-going; my horse wants shoeing, and the poor lad has had strapping enough."The blacksmith obeyed, and cast poor Master Thomas loose. As he staggered away and looked back at his tormentor, his countenance assumed an expression which made Mr. Wood say, grasping hold of Macshane's arm, "It's the boy, it's the boy! When his mother gave Galgenstein the laudanum, she had the self-same look with her!""Had she really now?" said Mr. Macshane. "And pree, Meejor, who WAShis mother?"
"Mrs. Cat, you fool!" answered Wood.
"Then, upon my secred word of honour, she has a mighty fine KITTENanyhow, my dear. Aha!"
"They don't DROWN such kittens," said Mr. Wood, archly; and Macshane, taking the allusion, clapped his finger to his nose in token of perfect approbation of his commander's sentiment.
While the blacksmith was shoeing the horse, Mr. Wood asked him many questions concerning the lad whom he had just been chastising, and succeeded, beyond a doubt, in establishing his identity with the child whom Catherine Hall had brought into the world seven years since. Billings told him of all the virtues of his wife, and the manifold crimes of the lad: how he stole, and fought, and lied, and swore; and though the youngest under his roof, exercised the most baneful influence over all the rest of his family. He was determined at last, he said, to put him to the parish, for he did not dare to keep him.
"He's a fine whelp, and would fetch ten pieces in Virginny," sighed the Ensign.
"Crimp, of Bristol, would give five for him," said Mr. Wood, ruminating.
"Why not take him?" said the Ensign.
"Faith, why not?" said Mr. Wood. "His keep, meanwhile, will not be sixpence a day." Then turning round to the blacksmith, "Mr.
Billings," said he, "you will be surprised, perhaps, to hear that Iknow everything regarding that poor lad's history. His mother was an unfortunate lady of high family, now no more; his father a German nobleman, Count de Galgenstein by name.""The very man!" said Billings: "a young, fair-haired man, who came here with the child, and a dragoon sergeant.""Count de Galgenstein by name, who, on the point of death, recommended the infant to me.""And did he pay you seven years' boarding?" said Mr. Billings, who was quite alive at the very idea.
"Alas, sir, not a jot! He died, sir, six hundred pounds in my debt;didn't he, Ensign?"
"Six hundred, upon my secred honour! I remember when he got into the house along with the poli--""Psha! what matters it?" here broke out Mr. Wood, looking fiercely at the Ensign. "Six hundred pounds he owes me: how was he to pay you? But he told me to take charge of this boy, if I found him; and found him I have, and WILL take charge of him, if you will hand him over.""Send our Tom!" cried Billings. And when that youth appeared, scowling, and yet trembling, and prepared, as it seemed, for another castigation, his father, to his surprise, asked him if he was willing to go along with those gentlemen, or whether he would be a good lad and stay with him.
Mr. Tom replied immediately, "I won't be a good lad, and I'd rather go to ---- than stay with you!""Will you leave your brothers and sisters?" said Billings, looking very dismal.
"Hang my brothers and sisters--I hate 'em; and, besides, I haven't got any!""But you had a good mother, hadn't you, Tom?"Tom paused for a moment.
"Mother's gone," said he, "and you flog me, and I'll go with these men.""Well, then, go thy ways," said Billings, starting up in a passion:
"go thy ways for a graceless reprobate; and if this gentleman will take you, he may do so."After some further parley, the conversation ended, and the next morning Mr. Wood's party consisted of three: a little boy being mounted upon the bay horse, in addition to the Ensign or himself;and the whole company went journeying towards Bristol.
We have said that Mrs. Hayes had, on a sudden, taken a fit of maternal affection, and was bent upon being restored to her child;and that benign destiny which watched over the life of this lucky lady instantly set about gratifying her wish, and, without cost to herself of coach-hire or saddle-horse, sent the young gentleman very quickly to her arms. The village in which the Hayeses dwelt was but a very few miles out of the road from Bristol; whither, on the benevolent mission above, hinted at, our party of worthies were bound: and coming, towards the afternoon, in sight of the house of that very Justice Ballance who had been so nearly the ruin of Ensign Macshane, that officer narrated, for the hundredth time, and with much glee, the circumstances which had then befallen him, and the manner in which Mrs. Hayes the elder had come forward to his rescue.