Colleen McCullough - Morgan’s Run

He did not say whereabouts they were to start their journey, nor what kind of conveyance they would inhabit, and Richard did not ask. Willy-dying to ask-was too busy wincing at the pain of Richard’s foot on top of his.

The truth was that Walter was very sorry to see the end of Richard Morgan, who had brought him a very nice profit over the three months of his incarceration. His relatives fed both him and Insell, which meant that Walter had an extra tuppence a day; his father sent a gallon jug of good rum to his office once a week; and his cousin the fancy druggist regularly dropped a crown into Walter’s cupped hand. Had it not been for these gratuities, he would have deemed Richard Morgan a potentially violent madman and sent him to be locked up in St. Peter’s Hospital out of harm’s way until Gloucester demanded him. He really was mad!

Every day he washed his entire body with soap and freezing water from the pipe-he wiped his bum on a rag and then washed it-he hovered over the privy rather than sat on it-he kept his hair shorn-he never visited the taproom-he spent most of his time reading the books his cousin the rector of St. James’s brought him-and, maddest act of all, every day he filled a great thick stone basin with water from the pipe and drank what dripped out of it into a brass dish underneath. When Walter had demanded to know what he thought he was doing, he answered that he was turning water into wine as at the wedding feast. Mad! A March hare weren’t in it!

What the two days’ grace meant to Richard was a chance to make his stay in Gloucester Gaol more comfortable.

Cousin James-of-the-clergy brought him a new greatcoat. “As you see, your cousin Elizabeth”-who was his wife-“has sewn a thick lining of wool into your coat, Richard, and given ye two sorts of gloves. The leather ones have no fingertips, the knitted ones do. And I have packed the pockets of the greatcoat.”

No wonder it was so heavy. Both pockets contained books.

“I ordered them from London through Sendall’s,” Cousin James-of-the-clergy explained, “on the thinnest paper, and I tried not to visit you with too much religion. Just a Bible and the Book of Common Prayer.” He paused. “Bunyan is a Baptist, if that can be called a religion, but I think that Pilgrim’s Progress is a great book, so I put it in. And Milton.”

There were also a volume of Shakespeare’s tragedies, one of his comedies, and John Donne’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives.

Richard took the Reverend James’s hand and held it to his cheek, eyes closed. Seven books, none very big, so thin was the paper, so flexible the cloth binding. “Between the coat, the gloves, the Bible, Bunyan, Shakespeare and Plutarch, ye’ve managed to care for my body, my soul and my mind. I cannot thank you enough.”

Cousin James-the-druggist concentrated on Richard’s health. “A new stone for your drip apparatus, though do not change it until ye have to-it is just as well the stone is not much heavier than pumice, eh? Oil of tar and some new, very hard-wearing soap-ye go through soap too fast, Richard, too fast! Some of my special asphalt ointment-’twill heal anything from an ulcer to psoriasis. Ink and paper-I have wired the cork down so the bottle cannot leak. And do look at these, Richard!” he burbled, as always delighted out of a slough of despond by some new device. “They are called ‘nibs’ because they perform the same function as the tip of a trimmed quill, and they slide into the steel end of this wooden handle. I imported them from Italy, though they were made in Araby-geese are few and far between in Araby, it seems. Another razor, just in case. A big tin of malt for when ye do not get fruit or green vegetables-it prevents the scurvy. And rags, rags, rags. Between my wife and your mother, the drapers are out of sheets. A roll of lint and some styptic. And a bottle of my patented tonic, to which I have added a drachm of gold so that ye do not break out in boils. If ye get boils or carbuncles after ye’ve no tonic left, chew some lead shot for a few days. What is not padded with rags is padded with clothes.” Busy packing the chest, he frowned. “I fear ye’ll have to stuff some of it into your greatcoat pockets, Richard.”

“They are already full,” said Richard firmly. “The Reverend James brought me books, and I cannot leave them behind. If my mind fails, Cousin James, physical well-being is irrelevant. All that has kept me sane these past three months has been the chance to read. The worst horror of a prison is the idleness. The utter lack of anything to do. In Bunyan’s day-yes, I have Pilgrim’s Progress -a man could perform useful work and even sell what he made to support his wife and children, as Bunyan did for twelve long years. In here, the gaolers do not even like us to walk. Without books I would truly have gone mad. So I must keep them.”

“I understand.”

After much packing, unpacking and rearranging, the entire treasure trove was squeezed into the box. Only after Willy sat on its lid could its two stout locks be snapped shut; the key, on a thong, went around Richard’s neck. When he lifted the chest, he estimated that it weighed at least fifty pounds.

There was a box for Willy too, smaller and much lighter.

“The words have not been invented to tell ye of my gratitude,” Richard said, his eyes alive with the purest love.

“And I thank you,” said Willy, moved to tears despite Richard.

They parted then, to meet in Gloucester at the Lent assizes.

At dawnon the 6th of January, Richard and Willy picked up their boxes and shuffled through the barred gate into the passageway, where Walter waited with another individual, a stranger armed with a cudgel. They were thrust into the ironing room; for a fleeting moment Richard thought that they were to be divested of their irons for the journey, and breathed a sigh of relief. The box was heavy enough without the weight of fetters. But no. The sorry-looking fellow who ran this chamber of horrors took a two-inch-wide band of iron and locked it around Richard’s waist. His wrists were fitted with manacles, their two-foot chains attached to the lock at the front of his belly. After which the chain between his ankles was removed and replaced with two chains, one going from his left ankle to the lock on the belt, the other from his right ankle to the lock on the belt. He could walk with a normal stride, but never with sufficient agility to escape. Four lengths of chain met at the lock above his navel.

Somehow he managed to pick up his chest, and found with an odd surge of pleasure that the wrist chains formed a cradle for it, distributing the load between his arms and his trunk.

“Hold your box so, Willy,” he said to his shadow, “and it will bear better.”

“Hold your tongue! ” barked Walter.

The piercing air outside felt and smelled like a distillation of Heaven. Nostrils and eyes dilated, Richard set out in front of their escort, who so far had not spoken a word. A Bristol bailiff?

How wondrous to be rid of that stinking dungeon! Gloucester, he knew, was a small town, therefore its gaol was bound to be more tolerable than the Bristol Newgate. Crime in rural areas was not unknown, but all the gazettes said that it was far greater in big cities. He could also comfort himself with the knowledge that he had more time in prison behind him than before him: the Gloucester Lent assizes were to be held in the latter part of March.

Oh, the air! Threatening snow, said the lowering black sky, but the only cold parts of him were his ears, unprotected now by hair. His hat shielded his scalp, but its upturned three-cornered brim could do nothing for his ears. Who cared? Eyes shining, he strode out down Narrow Wine Street, his chains jingling.