“Jacob,” said I, when I made sure that we were all alone in the straw shed, “Jacob, did you ever hear of a man called Philip Lisle?”
“Ay, marry,” said Jacob, sticking his fork into a great heap of straw, and lifting the latter on his back with a prodigious grunt. “Ay, marry, have I! What, man, and so hast thou. Did I never tell ’ee of Black Phil?”
“What, Black Phil the highwayman? Is he the same as Philip Lisle?”
“Od’s mercy, ay, and no other! Ay, Philip Lisle he was called once upon a time, but now Black Phil, by reason of his dark face. Natheless, ’tis a gentleman born, and hath rank and blood. But what matter—he is a highwayman, and must finally swing on gallow tree. For look ’ee, William, boy, as you go through the world you will see one thing—namely, that if a man give himself to evil courses he may prosper for awhile, but ’tis the gallows in the end that rewardeth him, even as it saith in Holy Writ.”
And Jacob went down the fold with his straw, and into the beast-place, and there made such a rattling and shouting amongst the fat oxen, that the whole place shook again. Which done, he came leisurely across the fold, picking up a fork full of straw here and there, and coming into the straw-shed again, continued his discourse.
“This trade of highwayman, William, boy, is a parlous one, and many a man that hath gone into it hath oft wished he could get out on’t as easy as he went in. For look you, lad, your highwayman, though he ride a good horse and wear fine clothes, doth neither at his own expense, but rather at the cost of them whom he robbeth. Likewise he is against the law, which is a bad matter for any man. Howbeit, I had liefer be robbed by a highwayman than a lawyer, for your lawyer laughs in your face while he turns out your pockets, but your highwayman is as courtly as any fine court-madam. These things have I noticed, William, boy, in going through the world; for, though I be of this parish born and bred, I have travelled, yea, I have travelled even to the city of Lincoln, and again as far as Brough Hill in the county of Westmoreland, which last is as heathen a land as ever man knew, and full of high mountains and deep precipices. But as for this Black Phil, now—’tis a good heart, and the poor folk do think a deal of him. For if he rob a lord, or maybe a bishop, riding along the road in his own carriage, what doth he do but gallop off to some place where there is a hard winter or griping times, and there share the money? So that there is not a poor man ’twixt York and London that would not give Black Phil shelter and help if he were pursued by King’s officers. However, he hath not ridden in these parts this five year. And now, William, lad, go beg a mug of small beer from thy good mother, for my mouth is as dry as any limekiln.”
When I had carried Jacob his mug of small ale, I left him and went and walked by myself in the garden. And there I thought over the events of the past two days, which had been more astonishing than any that had ever come into my young life previously. I had seen a real highwayman, and had talked with him, and he spoke like other men, and was habited like a gentleman, and was, I was sure, a man of kind heart, by the way he caressed his daughter and spoke to me. And I felt very sorry for Philip Lisle, and wondered what little Rose would do when they hanged her father, as they would do in the end, because Jacob Trusty said so. However, I decided that in that case I would beg my father to let Rose live with us, knowing that she and Lucy would agree well. And I further thought that in that case Philip Lisle would leave me his horse Caesar, with the two silver pistols and fine saddle, but I did not wish the King’s officers to catch him for all that.
Now, while I walked round the garden with my hands in my pockets, I found my fingers clinging round Philip Lisle’s guinea, and fell a-wondering what I should do with it. I was very shy of speaking to anyone about my two new friends, and I knew that if I showed my money I should have to tell how I had come by it. It was not probable, I knew, that I should be allowed to keep the guinea if my mother knew whence it came. But, though I set no store by money, having no occasion for it, I was not minded to give up my guinea, for Philip Lisle had spoken kindly to me in giving it, and it might be that it really was his own to give. So I went into the house, and found a little leaden box which Jacob Trusty had once bestowed upon me, and I wrapped up the guinea within a sheet of paper, inside which I placed a primrose that Rose Lisle had pinned in my coat that afternoon, and I put the paper in the leaden box, and fetched a spade and dug a hole in the corner of my own patch of garden, and buried the leaden box two feet deep, and put stones above and below it, and stamped the earth well in, and so hid out of sight the connecting link ’twixt me and Philip Lisle.
V
Of My First Going to School
Upon
