hidden from them of whom it is written 'haste to the spoil.' Come, speak out. A crown if thou dost speak--the lash if thou wilt not answer, thou dumb dog.'
Stead was really not far removed from a dumb dog. All his faculties were so entirely wrought up to resistance that he had hardly distinguished the words.
'Come, come, Stead,' said Jeph, 'thou art too old for thine old sulky moods. Speak up, and tell if thou know'st aught of the Communion Cup and dish, or it will be the worse for thee. Yes or no?'
Stead made a move with his shoulder to push away his brother, and still stood silent.
'There,' said Jeph, 'it is all Faithful's fault for his rough handling. His back is set up. It was always so from a boy, and you'll get nought out of him.'
'Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him,' quoted the Corporal, taking up a waggoner's whip which stood by the inn door, and the like of which had no doubt once been a more familiar weapon to him than the sword.
'Speak lad--or--' and as no speech came, the lash descended on Stead's shoulders, not, however, hurting him much save where it grazed the skin of his face.
'Now? Not a word? Take off his leathern coat, Faithful, then shall he feel the reward of sullenness.'
That Jeph did not interfere, while Faithful and another soldier tugged off his leathern coat, buffeting and kicking him roughly as they did so, brought additional hardness to Stead. He had been flogged in his time before, and not without reason, and had taken a pride in not giving in, or crying out for pain; and the ancient habit acquired in a worse cause, came to his help. He scarcely recollected the cause of his resistance; all his powers were concentrated in holding out, and when after another 'Now, vile prelatic spawn, is thy heart still hardened? Yes or no?' the terrible whip came stinging and biting down on his shoulders and back, only protected by his shirt, he was entirely bound up in the determination to endure the pain without a groan or cry.
But after blows enough had fallen to mark the shirt with streaks of blood, Jeph could bear it no longer.
'Hold!' he said. 'You will never make him speak that way. Father and mother never could. Strokes do but harden him.'
'The sure token of a fool,' said the corporal, and prepared for another lash.
''Tis plain he knows,' said one of the others. 'He would never stand this if a word would save him.'
'Mere malice and obstinacy,' said Faithful, 'and wilfulness. He will not utter a word. I would beat it out of him, as I was wont with our old ass.'
Another stroke descended, worse than all the others after the brief interval, but Jeph again spoke, 'Look you, I know the lad of old and you'll get no more that way than if you were flogging the sign-post there. Whether he knows where the things are or not, the temper that is in him will never answer while you beat him, were it to save his life. Leave him to me, and I'll be bound to get an answer from him.'
'And I am constable, and I must say,' said Blacksmith Blane, moving forwards, with a bar of iron in his hand, and four or five stout men behind him, 'that to come and abuse and flog a hard-working, fatherless lad, that never did you no harm, nor anyone else, is not what honest men look for from soldiers that talk so big about Parliament and rights and what not!'
''Twas for contumacy,' began the corporal.
'Contumacy forsooth, as though 'twas the will of the honest gentlemen in Parliament that boys should be misused for nothing at all!'
'If the young dog would have spoken,' began the corporal, but somehow he did not like the look of Blane's iron bar, and thought it best to look up at the sun, and discover that it was time to depart if the party were to be in time for roll-call. As it was a private marauding speculation, it might not be well to have complaints made to Captain Venn, who never sanctioned plunder nor unnecessary violence. Even Jeph had to march off, and Steadfast, who had no mind to be pitied, nor asked by the neighbours what was the real fact, had picked up his spade and jerkin, and was out of sight while the villagers were watching the soldiers away.
The first thing he did was to give thanks in heart that he had been aided thus far not to betray his trust, and then to feel that Corporal Dodd's flogging was a far severer matter than the worst chastisement he had ever received from his father, even when he kept Jeph's secret about the stolen apples. Putting on his coat was impossible, and he was so stiff and sore that he could not hope to conceal his condition from Patience.
At home all were watching for him. They ran up in anxiety, for one of the ever ready messengers of evil had rushed down the glen to tell Patience that the soldiers were beating Stead shamefully, and Jeph standing by not saying one word. Little Ben broke out with 'Poor, poor!' and Rusha burst into tears at sight of the blood, while Emlyn said 'Just what comes of going among the rascal Roundheads,' and Patience looked up at him and said 'Was it--?' he nodded, and she quietly said 'I'm glad.' He added, 'Jeph's coming soon,' and she knew that the trial was not over. The brother and sister needed very few words to understand one another, and they were afraid to say anything that the younger ones could understand. Patience washed the weals with warm water and milk, and wrapped a cloak round him, but even the next morning, he could not use his arms without fresh bleeding, and the hindrance to the work was serious. He could do nothing but herd the cattle, and he was much inclined to drive them to the further end of the moorland where Jephthah would hardly find him, but then he recollected that Patience would be left to bear the brunt of the attack, so that he would not go far off, never guessing, poor fellow, that in his dull, almost blundering fashion, he was doing like the heroes and the martyrs, but only feeling that he must keep his trust at all costs. Jeph, however, did not come that day or the next, so that inwardly, the wound-up feeling had passed into a weariness of expectation, and outwardly the stripes had healed enough for Stead to go about his work as usual only a little stiffly. He went into Bristol on market day as usual, and then it was, on his way out that Jeph joined him, saying it was to bid Patience and the little ones farewell, since the marching orders were for the morrow. He was unusually kind and good-natured; he had a load of comfits for Rusha and Ben, and a stout piece of woollen stuff for Patience which he said was such as he was told godly maidens wore, and which possibly the terror of his steel cap and corslet had cheapened at the mercer's; also he had a large packet of tractates for Stead's own reading, and he enquired whether they possessed a Bible.
Stead wondered whether all this was out of regret at the treatment he had undergone, or whether it was to put him off his guard, and this occupied him when Jeph began to preach, as he did uninterruptedly for the last mile, without any of the sense, if there were any, reaching the mind of the auditor.
They reached the hut, the gifts were displayed; and when the young ones, who were all a little afraid of the elder brother, had gone off to feast upon the sweets, Jeph began with enquiries after Steadfast's back, and he replied that it was mending fast, while Patience exclaimed at the cruelty and wickedness of so using him.
'Why wouldn't he speak then?' said Jeph. 'Yea or nay would have ended it in a moment, but that's Stead's way. He looks like it now!' and he did, elbows on knees, and chin on hands.
'Come now, Stead, thou canst speak to me! Was it all because Faithful hauled thee about?'
'He did, and he had no call to,' said Stead, surlily.
'Well, that's true, but I'm not hauling thee. Tell me, Stead, I mind now that thou wast out with father that last day ere the Parson was taken to receive his deserts. I don't believe that even thy churlishness would have stood such blows if thou hadst known naught of the idolatrous vessels, and couldst have saved thy skin by saying so! No answer. Why, what have these malignants done for thee that thou shouldst hold by them? Slain thy father! Burnt thine house! No fault of theirs that thou art alive this day! Canst not speak?'
Jeph's temper giving way at the provocation, he forgot his conciliatory intentions and seizing Stead by the collar shook him violently. Growler almost broke his chain with rage, Patience screamed and flew to the rescue, just as she had often done when they were all children together, and Jeph threw his brother from him so that he fell on the root of a tree, and lay for a moment or two still, then picked himself up again evidently with pain, though he answered Patience cheerfully that it was nought.
'Thou art enough to drive a man mad with thy surly silence,' exclaimed Jeph, whom this tussle had rendered much more like his old self, 'and after all, knowing that even though thou art not one of the holy ones, thou wilt not tell a lie, it comes to the same thing. I know thou wottest where these things are, and it is only thy sullen scruples that hinder thee from speaking. Nevertheless, I shall leave no stone unturned till I find them! For what is written 'Thou shalt break down their altars.''
'Jeph,' said Stead, firmly. 'You left home because of your grief and rage at father's death. Would you have me break the solemn charge he laid on me?'
'Father was a good man after his light,' said Jeph, a little staggered, 'but that light was but darkness, and we to whom the day itself is vouchsafed are not bound by a charge laid on us in ignorance. Any way, he laid no bonds
