The forests of masts which shot up like a pinegrove above the roofs of the houses bore witness to the great trade both with Ireland and with the Plantations which had built up so flourishing a city.
As I knew that the Duke's seat was miles on the Gloucestershire side of the city, and as I feared lest I might be arrested and examined should I attempt to pass the gates, I struck inland with intent to ride round the walls and so avoid the peril. The path which I followed led me into a country lane, which in turn opened into a broad highway crowded with travellers, both on horseback and on foot. As the troublous times required that a man should journey with his arms, there was naught in my outfit to excite remark, and I was able to jog on among the other horsemen without question or suspicion. From their appearance they were, I judged, country farmers or squires for the most part, who were riding into Bristol to hear the news, and to store away their things of price in a place of safety.
'By your leave, zur!' said a burly, heavy-faced man in a velveteen jacket, riding up upon my bridle-arm. 'Can you tell me whether his Grace of Beaufort is in Bristol or at his house o' Badminton?'
I answered that I could not tell, but that I was myself bound for his presence.
'He was in Bristol yestreen a-drilling o' the train-bands,' said the stranger; 'but, indeed, his Grace be that loyal, and works that hard for his Majesty's cause, that he's a' ower the county, and it is but chance work for to try and to catch him. But if you are about to zeek him, whither shall you go?'
'I will to Badminton,' I answered, 'and await him there. Can you tell me the way?'
'What! Not know the way to Badminton!' he cried, with a blank stare of wonder. 'Whoy, I thought all the warld knew that. You're not fra Wales or the border counties, zur, that be very clear.'
'I am a Hampshire man,' said I. 'I have come some distance to see the Duke.'
'Aye, so I should think!' he cried, laughing loudly. 'If you doan't know the way to Badminton you doan't know much! But I'll go with you, danged if I doan't, and I'll show you your road, and run my chance o' finding the Duke there. What be your name?'
'Micah Clarke is my name.'
'And Vairmer Brown is mine--John Brown by the register, but better knowed as the Vairmer. Tak' this turn to the right off the high-road. Now we can trot our beasts and not be smothered in other folk's dust. And what be you going to Beaufort for?'
'On private matters which will not brook discussion,' I answered.
'Lor', now! Affairs o' State belike,' said he, with a whistle. 'Well, a still tongue saves many a neck. I'm a cautious man myself, and these be times when I wouldna whisper some o' my thoughts--no, not into the ears o' my old brown mare here--for fear I'd see her some day standing over against me in the witness-box.'
'They seem very busy over there,' I remarked, for we were now in full sight of the walls of Bristol, where gangs of men were working hard with pick and shovel improving the defences.
'Aye, they be busy sure enough, makin' ready in case the rebels come this road. Cromwell and his tawnies found it a rasper in my vather's time, and Monmouth is like to do the same.'
'It hath a strong garrison, too,' said I, bethinking me of Saxon's advice at Salisbury. 'I see two or three regiments out yonder on the bare open space.'
'They have four thousand foot and a thousand horse,' the farmer answered. 'But the foot are only train-bands, and there's no trusting them after Axminster. They say up here that the rebels run to nigh twenty thousand, and that they give no quarter. Well, if we must have civil war, I hope it may be hot and sudden, not spun out for a dozen years like the last one. If our throats are to be cut, let it be with a shairp knife, and not with a blunt hedge shears.'
'What say you to a stoup of cider?' I asked, for we were passing an ivy-clad inn, with 'The Beaufort Arms' printed upon the sign.
'With all my heart, lad,' my companion answered.