“Pray Heaven he may!” ejaculated the Jacobite squire. “And now, daughter, let me counsel you to deport yourself with becoming dignity and reserve during our visit to the Deane family. Mr Deane is, I own, a man of credit and honour, and would never desire to injure a human being. I am, moreover, indebted to him for certain sums advanced on my estate, and of dire necessity only accepted; so that I wish he should be treated with all courtesy and respect. But he is an obstinate supporter of this vile government, and with him and one or two other exceptions, as I feel is my duty to my order and party, I hate them all, root and branch; they are a money-making, mean-spirited, trading set. It surprises me that any of the nobility and old families of the country can adhere to them. What, however, can be expected from stocking-weavers and such like? Well, well! I was speaking of that worthy man Deane. There is his wife, a good dame and a careful mother, and his two daughters. You know them better than I do—passable girls though, they seem to me; not exactly such as I might have chosen as your companions; but tempora mutantur, as we used to say at college! I’faith, most of my Latin has slipped out of my memory. And then there are those two sons. The eldest, Jasper, seems a quiet, proper-behaved young man enough. College has polished him up a little, but of the other I know but little; a broad-shouldered lad he seemed, not ill fitted to fight his way through life, as far as outward figure goes. And Master Jasper, what is to be his course in life? Will his father bring him up as a gentleman?”
“His sister Polly told me that Master Jasper is to become a physician, to follow in the footsteps of their esteemed cousin, Dr Nathaniel Deane,” answered Alethea. “I suppose that might be considered the calling of a gentleman.”
“Humph!” ejaculated the Squire, as if he had not quite made up his mind on the subject. “That, according to my notions, depends on the original position of a person. It is better than that of some others, my lord’s chaplain, or the reverend vicar’s curate, as was the lot of some of my college chums; however, I dare say, with so renowned a guide, Master Jasper will prove an honour to the profession. But the breeze feels cool beneath these trees; we will canter on, or you will not have time to change your habit, and be in readiness for Mistress Deane’s entertainment.”
At a touch of Alethea’s whip, her palfrey broke into an easy canter, and her father’s steed moving on at a trot, they soon reached Parliament Street on the confines of Nottingham, and passing Saint Anne’s Well, they entered through Bridlesmith’s Gate the broad market-place. This was, then as now, the widest open space in the town, and had many fine mansions standing round it. On their left was that long thoroughfare called the Pavement, with the grim old castle walls at the farther end, and the sparkling Trent on the other side; while close to them were butchers’ and other shops, as well as those of the handicraftsmen, from which the different entrances on that side of the once fortified town took their names.
As Mr Harwood and his daughter emerged from the somewhat ill-paved and narrow street into the broad market-place, their ears were assailed by loud cries and shouts of men and boys, numbers of whom were issuing from the narrow passages which led out of Parliament Street, while from doors and windows appeared eager faces of spectators bending forward to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. The shouts, mingled with the barking of dogs, grew louder and louder, till they approached the Squire and his daughter. Now the mob was seen to move in one direction, and now in another.
“It is nothing, I believe, but some apprentice-lads baiting an ox,” observed Mr Harwood as they moved forward.
Just at that moment the crowd, with a pack of barking dogs, came rushing on helter-skelter in hot pursuit of a brindled cow—so it seemed—whose heels its canine tormentors were ever and anon attacking, making it start forward with the pain they inflicted. At the same time a youth with his coat off and a stick in his hand was endeavouring to drive off the dogs, and shouting to the mob of rough-looking apprentices who were urging them on, to desist from the pursuit. His orders were, however, treated with but little attention, for the mob of lads and boys extending for some distance on either side continued their shouts and cries, with peals of laughter at the frantic movements of the unhappy animal. So completely was the road blocked up that Mr Harwood and his daughter were compelled to turn back to avoid them. Just, however, as they were about to do so, the maddened cow dashed forward, and before Alethea could turn her horse, its horns had struck the animal’s side, and caught the skirt of her riding-dress. Dashing on, it would have dragged her from her seat, had not the young man who had been attempting to save the creature from its tormentors at that moment sprang forward and disentangled her dress, preventing her from falling from her palfrey.
“Stand back, you young ruffians!” shouted Mr Harwood to the mob. “Understand that I am a justice of the peace, and that I will summon you one and all before the magistrates of the town for this uproar.”
The mob of apprentices, seeing the harm which their frolic might have produced, hung back, many of them taking to their heels, while others called off the dogs, which they had before been inciting to pursue the cow, which continued its course through Bridlesmith’s Gate, glad to escape its pursuers.
“I have to thank you, young man, for the service you have rendered my daughter and me, and should be glad to reward you to the best of my ability,” said Mr Harwood, turning to the youth who was holding Alethea’s bridle whilst she recovered her seat in the saddle. “I must have these scapegraces brought up for punishment before the magistrates to-morrow; such proceedings ought not to take place in a well-ordered town.”