Chapter XXX: The Tragedy of the Manor-House

by Mark Twain

　　At midnight all was over, and we sat in the presenceof four corpses. We covered them with suchrags as we could find, and started away, fastening thedoor behind us. Their home must be these people'sgrave, for they could not have Christian burial, or beadmitted to consecrated ground. They were as dogs,wild beasts, lepers, and no soul that valued its hope ofeternal life would throw it away by meddling in anysort with these rebuked and smitten outcasts.We had not moved four steps when I caught a soundas of footsteps upon gravel. My heart flew to mythroat. We must not be seen coming from that house.I plucked at the king's robe and we drew back andtook shelter behind the corner of the cabin."Now we are safe," I said, "but it was a closecall -- so to speak. If the night had been lighter hemight have seen us, no doubt, he seemed to be sonear.""Mayhap it is but a beast and not a man at all.""True. But man or beast, it will be wise to stayhere a minute and let it get by and out of the way.""Hark! It cometh hither."True again. The step was coming toward us --straight toward the hut. It must be a beast, then, andwe might as well have saved our trepidation. I wasgoing to step out, but the king laid his hand upon myarm. There was a moment of silence, then we hearda soft knock on the cabin door. It made me shiver.Presently the knock was repeated, and then we heardthese words in a guarded voice:"Mother! Father! Open -- we have got free, andwe bring news to pale your cheeks but glad yourhearts; and we may not tarry, but must fly! And --but they answer not. Mother! father! --"I drew the king toward the other end of the hut andwhispered:"Come -- now we can get to the road."The king hesitated, was going to demur; but justthen we heard the door give way, and knew that thosedesolate men were in the presence of their dead."Come, my liege! in a moment they will strike alight, and then will follow that which it would breakyour heart to hear."He did not hesitate this time. The moment we werein the road I ran; and after a moment he threw dignity aside and followed. I did not want to think ofwhat was happening in the hut -- I couldn't bear it; Iwanted to drive it out of my mind; so I struck intothe first subject that lay under that one in my mind:"I have had the disease those people died of, andso have nothing to fear; but if you have not had italso --"He broke in upon me to say he was in trouble, andit was his conscience that was troubling him:"These young men have got free, they say -- buthow? It is not likely that their lord hath set themfree.""Oh, no, I make no doubt they escaped.""That is my trouble; I have a fear that this is so,and your suspicion doth confirm it, you having thesame fear."I should not call it by that name though. I dosuspect that they escaped, but if they did, I am notsorry, certainly.""I am not sorry, I think -- but --""What is it? What is there for one to be troubledabout?""IF they did escape, then are we bound in duty tolay hands upon them and deliver them again to theirlord; for it is not seemly that one of his quality shouldsuffer a so insolent and high-handed outrage frompersons of their base degree."There it was again. He could see only one side ofit. He was born so, educated so, his veins were fullof ancestral blood that was rotten with this sort ofunconscious brutality, brought down by inheritancefrom a long procession of hearts that had each doneits share toward poisoning the stream. To imprisonthese men without proof, and starve their kindred, wasno harm, for they were merely peasants and subject tothe will and pleasure of their lord, no matter whatfearful form it might take; but for these men to breakout of unjust captivity was insult and outrage, and athing not to be countenanced by any conscientiousperson who knew his duty to his sacred caste.I worked more than half an hour before I got him tochange the subject -- and even then an outside matterdid it for me. This was a something which caught oureyes as we struck the summit of a small hill -- a redglow, a good way off."That's a fire," said I.Fires interested me considerably, because I was getting a good deal of an insurance business started, andwas also training some horses and building some steamfire-engines, with an eye to a paid fire department byand by. The priests opposed both my fire and life insurance, on the ground that it was an insolent attemptto hinder the decrees of God; and if you pointed outthat they did not hinder the decrees in the least, butonly modified the hard consequences of them if youtook out policies and had luck, they retorted that thatwas gambling against the decrees of God, and wasjust as bad. So they managed to damage those industries more or less, but I got even on my Accidentbusiness. As a rule, a knight is a lummox, and sometimes even a labrick, and hence open to pretty poorarguments when they come glibly from a superstition-monger, but even he could see the practical sideof a thing once in a while; and so of late you couldn'tclean up a tournament and pile the result without findingone of my accident-tickets in every helmet.We stood there awhile, in the thick darkness andstillness, looking toward the red blur in the distance,and trying to make out the meaning of a far-awaymurmur that rose and fell fitfully on the night. Sometimes it swelled up and for a moment seemed lessremote; but when we were hopefully expecting it tobetray its cause and nature, it dulled and sank again,carrying its mystery with it. We started down the hillin its direction, and the winding road plunged us atonce into almost solid darkness -- darkness that waspacked and crammed in between two tall forest walls.We groped along down for half a mile, perhaps, thatmurmur growing more and more distinct all the time.the coming storm threatening more and more, withnow and then a little shiver of wind, a faint show oflightning, and dull grumblings of distant thunder. Iwas in the lead. I ran against something -- a softheavy something which gave, slightly, to the impulseof my weight; at the same moment the lightning glaredout, and within a foot of my face was the writhing faceof a man who was hanging from the limb of a tree!That is, it seemed to be writhing, but it was not. Itwas a grewsome sight. Straightway there was an earsplitting explosion of thunder, and the bottom ofheaven fell out; the rain poured down in a deluge.No matter, we must try to cut this man down, on thechance that there might be life in him yet, mustn'twe? The lightning came quick and sharp now, andthe place was alternately noonday and midnight. Onemoment the man would be hanging before me in anintense light, and the next he was blotted out again inthe darkness. I told the king we must cut him down.The king at once objected."If he hanged himself, he was willing to lose himproperty to his lord; so let him be. If others hangedhim, belike they had the right -- let him hang.""But --""But me no buts, but even leave him as he is. Andfor yet another reason. When the lightning comethagain -- there, look abroad."Two others hanging, within fifty yards of us!"It is not weather meet for doing useless courtesiesunto dead folk. They are past thanking you. Come-- it is unprofitable to tarry here."There was reason in what he said, so we moved on.Within the next mile we counted six more hangingforms by the blaze of the lightning, and altogether itwas a grisly excursion. That murmur was a murmurno longer, it was a roar; a roar of men's voices. Aman came flying by now, dimly through the darkness,and other men chasing him. They disappeared. Presently another case of the kind occurred, and then another and another. Then a sudden turn of the roadbrought us in sight of that fire -- it was a large manorhouse, and little or nothing was left of it -- and everywhere men were flying and other men raging afterthem in pursuit.I warned the king that this was not a safe place forstrangers. We would better get away from the light,until matters should improve. We stepped back alittle, and hid in the edge of the wood. From thishiding-place we saw both men and women hunted bythe mob. The fearful work went on until nearly dawn.Then, the fire being out and the storm spent, the voicesand flying footsteps presently ceased, and darkness andstillness reigned again.We ventured out, and hurried cautiously away; andalthough we were worn out and sleepy, we kept onuntil we had put this place some miles behind us.Then we asked hospitality at the hut of a charcoalburner, and got what was to be had. A woman wasup and about, but the man was still asleep, on a strawshake-down, on the clay floor. The woman seemeduneasy until I explained that we were travelers and hadlost our way and been wandering in the woods allnight. She became talkative, then, and asked if wehad heard of the terrible goings-on at the manor-houseof Abblasoure. Yes, we had heard of them, but whatwe wanted now was rest and sleep. The king broke in:"Sell us the house and take yourselves away, forwe be perilous company, being late come from peoplethat died of the Spotted Death."It was good of him, but unnecessary. One of thecommonest decorations of the nation was the waffleiron face. I had early noticed that the woman and herhusband were both so decorated. She made us entirelywelcome, and had no fears; and plainly she was immensely impressed by the king's proposition; for, ofcourse, it was a good deal of an event in her life torun across a person of the king's humble appearancewho was ready to buy a man's house for the sake of anight's lodging. It gave her a large respect for us,and she strained the lean possibilities of her hovel tothe utmost to make us comfortable.We slept till far into the afternoon, and then got uphungry enough to make cotter fare quite palatable tothe king, the more particularly as it was scant in quantity. And also in variety; it consisted solely of onions,salt, and the national black bread made out of horsefeed. The woman told us about the affair of the evening before. At ten or eleven at night, when everybodywas in bed, the manor-house burst into flames. Thecountry-side swarmed to the rescue, and the familywere saved, with one exception, the master. He didnot appear. Everybody was frantic over this loss, andtwo brave yeomen sacrificed their lives in ransackingthe burning house seeking that valuable personage.But after a while he was found -- what was left ofhim -- which was his corpse. It was in a copse threehundred yards away, bound, gagged, stabbed in adozen places.Who had done this? Suspicion fell upon a humblefamily in the neighborhood who had been lately treatedwith peculiar harshness by the baron; and from thesepeople the suspicion easily extended itself to theirrelatives and familiars. A suspicion was enough; mylord's liveried retainers proclaimed an instant crusadeagainst these people, and were promptly joined by thecommunity in general. The woman's husband hadbeen active with the mob, and had not returned homeuntil nearly dawn. He was gone now to find outwhat the general result had been. While we were stilltalking he came back from his quest. His report wasrevolting enough. Eighteen persons hanged or butchered, and two yeomen and thirteen prisoners lost inthe fire."And how many prisoners were there altogether inthe vaults?""Thirteen.""Then every one of them was lost?""Yes, all.""But the people arrived in time to save the family;how is it they could save none of the prisoners?"The man looked puzzled, and said:"Would one unlock the vaults at such a time?Marry, some would have escaped.""Then you mean that nobody did unlock them?""None went near them, either to lock or unlock.It standeth to reason that the bolts were fast; wherefore it was only needful to establish a watch, so that ifany broke the bonds he might not escape, but betaken. None were taken.""Natheless, three did escape," said the king, "andye will do well to publish it and set justice upon theirtrack, for these murthered the baron and fired thehouse."I was just expecting he would come out with that.For a moment the man and his wife showed an eagerinterest in this news and an impatience to go out andspread it; then a sudden something else betrayed itselfin their faces, and they began to ask questions. Ianswered the questions myself, and narrowly watchedthe effects produced. I was soon satisfied that theknowledge of who these three prisoners were had somehow changed the atmosphere; that our hosts' continued eagerness to go and spread the news was nowonly pretended and not real. The king did not noticethe change, and I was glad of that. I worked theconversation around toward other details of the night'sproceedings, and noted that these people were relievedto have it take that direction.The painful thing observable about all this businesswas the alacrity with which this oppressed communityhad turned their cruel hands against their own class inthe interest of the common oppressor. This man andwoman seemed to feel that in a quarrel between aperson of their own class and his lord, it was thenatural and proper and rightful thing for that poordevil's whole caste to side with the master and fighthis battle for him, without ever stopping to inquireinto the rights or wrongs of the matter. This manhad been out helping to hang his neighbors, and haddone his work with zeal, and yet was aware that therewas nothing against them but a mere suspicion, withnothing back of it describable as evidence, still neitherhe nor his wife seemed to see anything horrible about it.This was depressing -- to a man with the dream of arepublic in his head. It reminded me of a time thirteencenturies away, when the "poor whites" of our Southwho were always despised and frequently insulted bythe slave-lords around them, and who owed their basecondition simply to the presence of slavery in theirmidst, were yet pusillanimously ready to side with theslave-lords in all political moves for the upholding andperpetuating of slavery, and did also finally shouldertheir muskets and pour out their lives in an effort toprevent the destruction of that very institution whichdegraded them. And there was only one redeemingfeature connected with that pitiful piece of history;and that was, that secretly the "poor white" did detest the slave-lord, and did feel his own shame. Thatfeeling was not brought to the surface, but the factthat it was there and could have been brought out, underfavoring circumstances, was something -- in fact, itwas enough; for it showed that a man is at bottom aman, after all, even if it doesn't show on the outside.Well, as it turned out, this charcoal burner was justthe twin of the Southern "poor white" of the farfuture. The king presently showed impatience, andsaid:"An ye prattle here all the day, justice will miscarry. Think ye the criminals will abide in theirfather's house? They are fleeing, they are not waiting. You should look to it that a party of horse beset upon their track."The woman paled slightly, but quite perceptibly,and the man looked flustered and irresolute. I said:"Come, friend, I will walk a little way with you,and explain which direction I think they would try totake. If they were merely resisters of the gabelle orsome kindred absurdity I would try to protect themfrom capture; but when men murder a person of highdegree and likewise burn his house, that is anothermatter."The last remark was for the king -- to quiet him.On the road the man pulled his resolution together,and began the march with a steady gait, but there wasno eagerness in it. By and by I said:"What relation were these men to you -- cousins?"He turned as white as his layer of charcoal would lethim, and stopped, trembling."Ah, my God, how know ye that?""I didn't know it; it was a chance guess.""Poor lads, they are lost. And good lads theywere, too.""Were you actually going yonder to tell on them?"He didn't quite know how to take that; but he said,hesitatingly:"Ye-s.""Then I think you are a damned scoundrel!"It made him as glad as if I had called him an angel."Say the good words again, brother! for surely yemean that ye would not betray me an I failed of myduty.""Duty? There is no duty in the matter, except theduty to keep still and let those men get away. They'vedone a righteous deed."He looked pleased; pleased, and touched with apprehension at the same time. He looked up and downthe road to see that no one was coming, and then saidin a cautious voice:"From what land come you, brother, that you speaksuch perilous words, and seem not to be afraid?""They are not perilous words when spoken to oneof my own caste, I take it. You would not tell anybody I said them?""I? I would be drawn asunder by wild horsesfirst.""Well, then, let me say my say. I have no fearsof your repeating it. I think devil's work has beendone last night upon those innocent poor people.That old baron got only what he deserved. If I hadmy way. all his kind should have the same luck."Fear and depression vanished from the man's manner,and gratefulness and a brave animation took theirplace:"Even though you be a spy, and your words a trapfor my undoing, yet are they such refreshment that tohear them again and others like to them, I would go tothe gallows happy, as having had one good feast atleast in a starved life. And I will say my say now,and ye may report it if ye be so minded. I helped tohang my neighbors for that it were peril to my ownlife to show lack of zeal in the master's cause; theothers helped for none other reason. All rejoice today that he is dead, but all do go about seeminglysorrowing, and shedding the hypocrite's tear, for inthat lies safety. I have said the words, I have said thewords! the only ones that have ever tasted good inmy mouth, and the reward of that taste is sufficient.Lead on, an ye will, be it even to the scaffold, for Iam ready."There it was, you see. A man is a man, at bottom.Whole ages of abuse and oppression cannot crush themanhood clear out of him. Whoever thinks it a mistake is himself mistaken. Yes, there is plenty goodenough material for a republic in the most degradedpeople that ever existed -- even the Russians; plentyof manhood in them -- even in the Germans -- if onecould but force it out of its timid and suspiciousprivacy, to overthrow and trample in the mud anythrone that ever was set up and any nobility that eversupported it. We should see certain things yet, let ushope and believe. First, a modified monarchy, tillArthur's days were done, then the destruction of thethrone, nobility abolished, every member of it boundout to some useful trade, universal suffrage instituted,and the whole government placed in the hands of themen and women of the nation there to remain. Yes,there was no occasion to give up my dream yet a while.