Chapter Seven.
The Widow’s Cottage.
“About a thousand ships are wrecked, and nearly a thousand lives are lost on the shores of this country every year,” was still the burden of Mrs Foster’s dreams when she was aroused by a loud knocking at the door of her cottage, and the sound of confused voices and trampling of many feet outside.
“Ho! goodness gracious me, ma’am,” cried worthy Mrs Laker, bursting into her mistress’s apartment—“if here ain’t a thousand robbers as is come for to pillidge the ouse an’ trample down the garding. It’s from the hattic winder, I see ’em with the moon, if w’ant the lightenin’ a glanshin’ on their ’orrid faces as is never shaved nor washed, and it’s bin my dream from the years of unsuspectious hinfancy, as is come for to pass now in the days of my womanhood, with dead bodies carryin’ too, w’ich is wuss. Ho! dear, wot shall I do!”
“Go and put on your clothes while I open the door,” said Amy Russell, entering hastily at the moment in a state of comparative dishabille, with a shawl thrown round her. “Dear mamma, don’t be alarmed; it must be a mistake. They cannot mean us any harm, I am certain. May I go and open the door?”
“Open the door!” shrieked Mrs Laker in the tone of one almost paralysed by astonishment; “open the door to a thousand robbers with swords, and guns, and blood, and dead bodies!”
As Mrs Laker was robed in her night-gown, and stood erect, with her arms extended and her hair dishevelled, she looked dreadfully tragic and awful, while these fearful words flowed from her pale lips.
“Hush, Laker,” said Mrs Foster, hastily throwing on her garments with trembling hands, while she made a strong effort to restrain her agitation, “go, dear Amy, and ask what they want; but don’t open the door.”
She followed Amy to the landing outside, leaving Mrs Laker, glaring in sceptical amazement, in the middle of the room. Presently, Amy was heard downstairs speaking through the key-hole. A man’s voice replied; there was a suppressed scream and immediately the outer door was unlocked, the chain removed, and the bolts withdrawn. This was followed by the heavy tramp of men in the passage below, and a wild shriek from Mrs Foster.
Mrs Laker, still standing with uplifted arms in the middle of the bedroom, and livid with terror, glared round in search of a place of refuge, and gasped horribly. Her eye fell on the bed from which her mistress had issued. With a spring that would have done her credit in the days of her girlhood, she plunged into it, head first, and rolled herself tight up in the clothes, where she lay, quaking and listening intently.