The Hound of the Baskervilles | Page 7

direct line from Hugo Baskerville, and as I had the story from my father, who
also had it from his, I have set it down with all belief that it occurred even as is here set
forth. And I would have you believe, my sons, that the same Justice which punishes sin
may also most graciously forgive it, and that no ban is so heavy but that by prayer and
repentance it may be removed. Learn then from this story not to fear the fruits of the past,
but rather to be circumspect in the future, that those foul passions whereby our family has
suffered so grievously may not again be loosed to our undoing.
"Know then that in the time of the Great Rebellion (the history of which by the learned
Lord Clarendon I most earnestly commend to your attention) this Manor of Baskerville
was held by Hugo of that name, nor can it be gainsaid that he was a most wild, profane,

and godless man. This, in truth, his neighbours might have pardoned, seeing that saints
have never flourished in those parts, but there was in him a certain wanton and cruel
humour which made his name a byword through the West. It chanced that this Hugo
came to love (if, indeed, so dark a passion may be known under so bright a name) the
daughter of a yeoman who held lands near the Baskerville estate. But the young maiden,
being discreet and of good repute, would ever avoid him, for she feared his evil name. So
it came to pass that one Michaelmas this Hugo, with five or six of his idle and wicked
companions, stole down upon the farm and carried off the maiden, her father and brothers
being from home, as he well knew. When they had brought her to the Hall the maiden
was placed in an upper chamber, while Hugo and his friends sat down to a long carouse,
as was their nightly custom. Now, the poor lass upstairs was like to have her wits turned
at the singing and shouting and terrible oaths which came up to her from below, for they
say that the words used by Hugo Baskerville, when he was in wine, were such as might
blast the man who said them. At last in the stress of her fear she did that which might
have daunted the bravest or most active man, for by the aid of the growth of ivy which
covered (and still covers) the south wall she came down from under the eaves, and so
homeward across the moor, there being three leagues betwixt the Hall and her father's
farm.
"It chanced that some little time later Hugo left his guests to carry food and drink--with
other worse things, perchance--to his captive, and so found the cage empty and the bird
escaped. Then, as it would seem, he became as one that hath a devil, for, rushing down
the stairs into the dining-hall, he sprang upon the great table, flagons and trenchers flying
before him, and he cried aloud before all the company that he would that very night
render his body and soul to the Powers of Evil if he might but overtake the wench. And
while the revellers stood aghast at the fury of the man, one more wicked or, it may be,
more drunken than the rest, cried out that they should put the hounds upon her. Whereat
Hugo ran from the house, crying to his grooms that they should saddle his mare and
unkennel the pack, and giving the hounds a kerchief of the maid's, he swung them to the
line, and so off full cry in the moonlight over the moor.
"Now, for some space the revellers stood agape, unable to understand all that had been
done in such haste. But anon their bemused wits awoke to the nature of the deed which
was like to be done upon the moorlands. Everything was now in an uproar, some calling
for their pistols, some for their horses, and some for another flask of wine. But at length
some sense came back to their crazed minds, and the whole of them, thirteen in number,
took horse and started in pursuit. The moon shone clear above them, and they rode
swiftly abreast, taking that course which the maid must needs have taken if she were to
reach her own home.
"They had gone a mile or two when they passed one of the night shepherds upon the
moorlands, and they cried to him to know if he had seen the hunt. And the man, as the
story goes, was so crazed with fear that he could scarce speak, but at last he said that he
had indeed seen the unhappy maiden, with the hounds