Take Courage by Phyllis Bentley

Author:Phyllis Bentley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2013-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

6

A GHOST VISITS A COMMANDER

Then i knew what I must do. I went quickly back to the inn, and took Lady Fairfax’s little case in my hand, and slipped out without anyone seeing me—the boys were fast asleep—and set out for Boiling Hall.

At the bridge I met a company of the enemy’s foot, but since I had no fear of them, for indeed I would have been glad to die, I walked quietly by and they did not challenge me. It was so with all the soldiers whom I met on the way, though there were many; I pulled up the hood of my cloak to conceal my face, and walked steadily on, and though one or two made lewd joked about my being abroad at that hour, they did not hinder me or stay me. So I came to the gates of Boiling Hall, a very fine tall large house standing in parkland with handsome spreading trees. The birds were just beginning their first twitterings as I reached there, I remember. No one took notice of me till I came close up to the house, when a couple of scarlet-coated guards from a troop there lowered their pikes at me, though quite good-humouredly, and asked me my business.

“I am maid to Lady Fairfax,” I said, “and have brought her dressing-case that she sent for.”

“I have heard something of that, I believe,” said one of the soldiers, rubbing his unshaven chin and looking at the case thoughtfully. “There was a great to-do over it last night when my lady was brought in.”

My heart leaped with joy, and I thought: the hand of the Lord is with me; but I stayed quiet and still, not trying to hurry the man’s decision.

“Well—come with me, mistress, and I’ll take you to my officer,” he said at length, and he led me into the Hall by the back way.

Whether the soldiers there had stayed up through the night because of the night’s assault, or had risen early for a new morning attack, I do not know, but the place was full of them, all awake and laughing and shouting. My trooper took me into the great hall, a room larger than any I had ever seen, very high, with long high windows all along one side of it, so that the room was very light; across the opposite side, high up, I spied a gallery, which ran, I supposed, to the bedchambers. This great high hall was also full of redcoats; some eating and drinking at a huge long table, other polishing their pikes and muskets, others again gaming. All seemed to be talking as loudly as they could, swearing and laughing, and I was much frightened by the din and the confusion.

“Wait here, mistress,” said my trooper, and he very kindly up-ended a buffet full of coats and breast-plates, so that they all slid off to the ground with a fearful clangour, and gave me the buffet to sit on. A group in

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