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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES.

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CHEAP JACK ZITA




BY THE SAME AUTHOR

IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA

THE QUEEN OF LOVE

CHEAP JACK ZITA

MRS. CURGENVEN OF CURGENVEN

ARMINELL

JACQUETTA

URITH

KITTY ALONE

MARGERY OF QUETHER

NOÉMI

THE BROOM-SQUIRE

DARTMOOR IDYLLS

GUAVAS THE TINNER




CHEAP JACK ZITA

BY


  S. BARING-GOULD

  FOURTH EDITION

  METHUEN & CO.
  36 ESSEX STREET, W.C.
  LONDON
  1896




CONTENTS


  CHAP.                          PAGE

  I. BEFORE THE GALILEE             1

  II. THE FLAILS                   13

  III. TWO CROWNS                  23

  IV. ON THE DROVE                 33

  V. THE FLAILS AGAIN              44

  VI. BETWEEN TWO LIGHTS           57

  VII. PROFITS                     63

  VIII. MARK RUNHAM                76

  IX. PRICKWILLOW                  88

  X. RED WINGS                    100

  XI. TIGER-HAIR                  112

  XII. ON BONE RUNNERS            122

  XIII. PIP BEAMISH               131

  XIV. ON ONE FOOTING             140

  XV. ON ANOTHER FOOTING          150

  XVI. BURNT HATS                 161

  XVII. A CRAWL ABROAD            174

  XVIII. A DROP OF GALL           188

  XIX. NO DEAL                    194

  XX. DAGGING                     201

  XXI. THE FEN RIOTS              213

  XXII. TWENTY POUNDS             221

  XXIII. TEN POUNDS               232

  XXIV. A NEW DANGER              245

  XXV. 'I DON'T CARE THAT'        253

  XXVI. A NIGHT IN ELY            259

  XXVII. SIR BATES DUDLEY'S RIDE  270

  XXVIII. TWO PLEADERS            281

  XXIX. A DEAL                    291

  XXX. IN COURT                   295

  XXXI. PISGAH                    311

  XXXII. A PARTHIAN SHOT          321

  XXXIII. PURGATORY               327

  XXXIV. WITH TOASTING-FORKS      335

  XXXV. THE JACK O' LANTERNS      347

  XXXVI. A RETURN BLOW            355

  XXXVII. A CATHERINE WHEEL       364

  XXXVIII. THE BRENT-GEESE        376

  XXXIX. THE CUT EMBANKMENT       382

  XL. THISTLES                    394




CHEAP JACK ZITA.




CHAPTER I

BEFORE THE GALILEE


What was the world coming to? The world—the centre of it—the Isle of
Ely?

What aged man in his experience through threescore years and ten had
heard of such conduct before?

What local poet, whose effusions appeared in the 'Cambridge and Ely
Post,' in his wildest flights of imagination, conceived of such a thing?

Decency must have gone to decay and been buried. Modesty must have
unfurled her wings and sped to heaven before such an event could become
possible.

Where were the constables? Were bye-laws to become dead letters? Were
order, propriety, the eternal fitness of things, to be trampled under
foot by vagabonds?

In front of the cathedral, before the Galilee,—the magnificent west
porch of the minster of St. Etheldreda,—a Cheap Jack's van was drawn
up.

Within twenty yards of the Bishop's palace, where every word uttered
was audible in every room, a Cheap Jack was offering his wares.

Effrontery was, in heraldic language, rampant and regardant.

A crowd was collected about the van; a crowd composed of all sorts and
conditions of men, jostling each other, trampling on the grass of the
lawn, climbing up the carved work of the cathedral, to hear, to see, to
bid, to buy.

Divine service was hardly over. The organ was still mumbling and
tooting, when through the west door came a drift of choristers, who had
flung off their surplices and had raced down the nave, that they might
bid against and outbid each other for the pocket-knives offered by
Cheap Jack.

Mr. Faggs, the beadle, was striding in the same direction, relaxing the
muscles of his face from the look of severe ecclesiastical solemnity
into which they were drawn during divine worship. It had occurred to
him during the singing of the anthem that there were sundry articles of
domestic utility Cheap Jack was selling that it might be well for him
to secure at a low figure.

Mr. Bowles, the chief bailiff, had come forth from evensong with his
soul lifted up with thankfulness that he was not as other men were: he
attended the cathedral daily, he subscribed to all the charities; and
now he stood looking on, his breath taken away, his feet riveted to the
soil by surprise at the audacity of the Cheap Jack, in daring to draw
up before the minster, and vend his wares during the hour of afternoon
pr