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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Andrew Golding, by Annie E. Keeling
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Andrew Golding
+       A Tale of the Great Plague
+
+Author: Annie E. Keeling
+
+Release Date: January 8, 2004 [EBook #10628]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANDREW GOLDING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A noisy rabblement of people came running up]
+
+
+
+
+ANDREW GOLDING: A Tale of the Great Plague.
+
+By
+
+ANNIE E. KEELING
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAP.
+
+INTRODUCTION.--HOW I, LUCIA DACRE, CAME TO WRITE THIS HISTORY
+
+I. HOW WE WERE VISITED BY TWO OF OUR KINSFOLK, OUR FATHER BEING DEAD;
+AND HOW THEY BEHAVED THEMSELVES TOWARD US
+
+II. HOW WE JOURNEYED UP TO YORKSHIRE; AND HOW WE WERE WELCOMED THERE
+
+III. HOW MR. TRUELOCKE PREACHED HIS LAST SERMON IN WEST FAZEBY
+
+IV. HOW HARRY TRUELOCKE LEFT US FOR THE SEA
+
+V. HOW ANDREW MADE ONE ENEMY, AND WAS LIKE TO HAVE ANOTHER
+
+VI. HOW MR. TRUELOCKE AND MRS. GOLDING LEFT US
+
+VII. HOW ANDREW CAME TO THE GRANGE BY NIGHT
+
+VIII. HOW A STRANGE MESSENGER BROUGHT US NEWS OF ANDREW
+
+IX. HOW WE WENT UP TO LONDON, AND FOUND NO FRIENDS THERE
+
+X. HOW WE DWELT IN A HOUSE THAI' WAS NOT OUR OWN
+
+XI. HOW THERE CAME NEW GUESTS INTO THE HOUSE
+
+XII. HOW WE SAILED FOR FRANCE IN THE 'MARIE-ROYALE'
+
+CONCLUSION.--HOW LUCIA DWELLS IN ENGLAND, AND ALTHEA OTHERWHERE
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+HOW I, LUCIA DACRE, CAME TO WRITE THIS HISTORY, AT THE TIME THAT I WITH
+MY SISTER WAS LODGED IN A DESERTED HOUSE IN LONDON, WHEN THE GREAT
+PLAGUE WAS AT ITS HEIGHT; WHICH WAS IN THE MONTHS OF JULY AND AUGUST,
+ANNO SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE.
+
+Now that my sister and myself are in such a strange melancholy case, and
+I enforced to spend many hours daily in idleness, I find the time hang
+very heavy; for I cannot, like Althea, entertain any longer the hopes
+that brought us hither. She continues daily to make great exertions in
+pursuing them, but does not often admit my help; and, being afraid that
+I may fall into mere desperation, I have bethought me how to amuse some
+hours daily by setting down the manner of our present troubles and the
+beginnings that led to them. May I live to write of their happy end! but
+my fears are very great, and almost forbid me to pray thus.
+
+Having thus resolved how to beguile the heavy time, I began spying about
+for paper and pens and ink; and finding in a kind of lumber room a great
+many sheets of coarse paper, I stitched them together; then with much
+trembling I peeped into the study of the late poor master of the house,
+and there found a bundle of quills and some ink; and, leaving money in
+his desk to the full value of the things I took, I carried my
+writing-tools into the great front parlour, and set myself to the work.
+
+Now while I sat considering how to begin, Althea comes softly behind me,
+and, looking over my shoulder, asks me what I would be at; and when I
+told her, 'What, child,' says she, 'art going to turn historian? Thy
+spirits are more settled than mine, if thou canst sit quietly down to
+such work, with sights like these daily before thine eyes,' pointing
+with her hand to the window. Now I had pulled the table into a corner
+well out of sight from the street, wishing not to be discerned; for as
+yet but one knows of our being hidden in this house, and we would fain
+keep it a secret still. But rising and following with my eyes her
+pointing hand, I could behold a sight common enough, but too dismal to
+be looked on without fresh apprehension each time: in the middle of the
+street, which is quite grown with grass, a horse and cart standing, no
+driver in sight near it, and the cart as we too well knew being that
+which goes round daily to take away such as die of the Plague, though as
+it then stood we could not discern if any dead person lay in it.
+
+'It is waiting for our neighbour next door,' says Althea. 'As I stood by
+an open casement up-stairs I plainly heard the family bemoaning
+themselves because the master is dead; I heard also how they are
+devising to get away unobserved in the early morning, and escape to some
+place of safety in the country. How sayest thou, Lucy? were it not well
+for thee to go also in their company?'
+
+'Never I, while you stay here,' I answered.
+
+'It repents me often,' she said, 'that I discovered to you my design of
+coming up hither. I would you were safe at home again.'
+
+'I have no home, but where you are,' said I.
+
+'Poor faithful little heart!' she says, sighing. 'Well, get on with thy
+history-writing; I must go forth presently, when all is quiet again;
+and when I return thou shalt show me what thou hast written. Tell the
+tale orderly, Lucy; begin at the beginning with "Once upon a time there
+lived two sisters; the elder was a fool, but the younger one loved
+her"'--and before I could say a word she had slipt away.
+
+I sat awhile, too much disquieted to write, listening against my will
+for the heavy sounds that told how the dead man next door was being
+carried forth and laid in the cart; but the thing lumbered away at last,
+its cracked bell tinkling dolefully; and I found courage to take to my
+work.
+
+But to begin at the beginning is not so easy, especially for one so
+unskilful with her pen as I. And who shall say what are the beginnings
+of the things that befall us? Perhaps they lie far off, long before our
+little life itself began.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+HOW WE WERE VISITED BY TWO OF OUR KINSFOLK, OUR FATHER BEING DEAD; AND
+HOW THEY BEHAVED THEMSELVES TOWARD US.
+
+Think, however, that the troubles that now lie upon us might not have
+been ours had not our father died when he did, which was the cause of
+our being taken into the house of our mother's sister, Mrs. Margaret
+Golding;--a happy thing we then thought it, that she would receive us,
+for we were in great straits;--so I will begin my history at that sad
+period.
+
+Our father, William Dacre, was indeed a gentleman, born to a competent
+estate, and married into an honest stock and to some fortune, but his
+fair prospects were all blighted and our mother's money well-nigh wasted
+before he died. To his great loss, he stood steadily for the king
+against the Parliament all through the late Rebellion, as he would ever
+call it; and, our mother's people being very stiff on the other side,
+and she dying while we were little children, we were sundered from them
+while our father lived. He took such care of us as he could, striving to
+breed us up like gentlewomen; sometimes we lived with him in London
+lodgings, sometimes were left at his manor-house of Milthorpe; but the
+last two years of his life were very uneasy to him and to us.
+
+For when the young king, Charles the Second, was brought in again, five
+years agone, our father was drawn up to Court by some I will not name,
+who tempted him with hopes of preferments and rewards to recompense his
+loyalty. He wasted his means much through the ill counsel of these false
+friends, but obtained no fruit of their promises, and at last he died
+suddenly; whether broken-hearted or not I leave to the judgment of God,
+and to the consciences of the men who for their own ends had betrayed
+him into those vain expectations. At that time Althea was barely
+nineteen, and I a little past sixteen; we had no brother nor other
+sister.
+
+We were then at Milthorpe; and thither our father was brought to be
+buried. That was a black time for us. Though lately we had been kept
+apart from our father, we loved him dearly, and we knew of no other
+friend and protector. And when the funeral was over we could not tell
+which way to turn; for we found our father's land must needs pass to the
+next male heir, Mr. John Dacre, our distant cousin. He, I know not how,
+had contrived to thrive where our father had decayed, and had gotten a
+good share of favour at the new Court.
+
+My memory offers things past to me as if in separate pictures, this and
+that accident that befell us showing much more clear and bright than
+things quite as important which lie between. I remember but dimly all
+the sad time of our father's death and burial, the grief I myself felt,
+and all the bustle and stir about us, making those days cloudy to me;
+but all the more plainly I remember a certain day that followed the
+funeral, when Althea and I were sitting together in a little parlour
+where we had been wont to sew,--I weeping on her neck, and she trying to
+turn my thoughts from my grief with planning how we two should
+live,--when, the door opening, some one came briskly in who called us by
+our names.
+
+'What, Althea! what, Lucy! All in the dumps, and not a word to say to
+your mother's own sister?' and, in great surprise, we looked up on our
+aunt, whom we had seen but once since our mother died, when we were
+quite little. She was looking kindly on us; her eyes were quick, black,
+and sparkling, but had something very tender in them at that moment. I
+noticed directly how plain she was as to her clothes, wearing a common
+country-made riding-suit, all of black, and how her shape was a little
+too plump for her low stature, while her comely face was tanned quite
+brown with the sun; but methought the kind look she bent on us was even
+sweeter because of her homely aspect. So I got up and ran to her,
+holding out both my hands; but she took me into her arms, and kissed me
+lovingly, saying,--
+
+'Poor lamb! poor fatherless, motherless lamb! thou shalt feel no lack of
+a mother while I live.'
+
+Then, holding me in one arm, she stretched out the other hand to Althea,
+who had come up more slowly, and she said,--
+
+'And you too, my fair lady-niece; I have room in my heart for the two of
+you, if you will come in;' on which the water stood in Althea's eyes,
+and she took our aunt's hand and kissed it, saying,--
+
+'God reward you, madam, for your goodness to us desolate orphans! I
+receive it most thankfully.'
+
+'That's well,' quoth our aunt cordially. And she proceeded to tell us
+how, when she got the news of our father's death, she made haste to come
+down to Milthorpe. 'Not that I hoped,' said she, 'to be here in time for
+the burying; but it was borne in on my mind there should be a friend of
+our side of the house to stand by you. Is Mr. Dacre here?'
+
+'He came down to the funeral,' said Althea, 'and hath spoken to us on
+some small business matters; but he has been constantly out of the
+house, riding about the estate, and so we have seen little of him.'
+
+As she said this the door opened again, and our cousin, the new master
+of Milthorpe, entered. I had scarce noted his looks, being drowned in my
+grief at the time when, as Althea said, he had talked with us on
+business, accounting to us for some moneys, the poor wreck of our
+fortunes, which had been lodged in his hands; but I now thought what a
+grand gentleman he looked in his rich mourning suit; and indeed he was
+of a very graceful appearance, and smiled on us most courtly. He held
+his plumed hat in his hand, and, bowing low to our aunt,--
+
+'I am much honoured,' said he, 'that Mrs. Golding should grace my poor
+house with her presence before I have had time to sue for it. Will it
+please you, ladies, to step into the dining-parlour and sit down with me
+to a homely refection I have ordered to be spread there? I must return
+to-day to town; so if Mrs. Golding will bestow half an hour of her time
+on me to talk over some needful matters, I shall take it as a favour.'
+
+Mrs. Golding bent her head to him, saying, 'At your pleasure, sir;' and
+we followed to the dining-room, where we found what I should have called
+a plentiful dinner, but Mr. Dacre kept excusing its meanness at every
+dish he offered us. This was very grating to Althea, seeming a
+reflection both on our ways at Milthorpe and on our poor old faithful
+servants; and Mrs. Golding liked it no better. I saw her turning very
+red; and at last she said bluntly,--
+
+'The dinner is all very well, and I think Margery cook needs not so many
+excuses; so will you please leave speaking of meats and drinks, and turn
+to the needful matters you spoke of instead?'
+
+'I might have chosen,' says Mr. Dacre, 'to talk to you in private first
+about those things; but perhaps it's as well my fair cousins should hear
+at once what I have to say. I am a married man, as you know, Mrs.
+Golding; and my wife loves the town, and cannot endure to hear of a
+country life. I have no hope she will ever live at the Manor here. But I
+will not let it; and I shall want it kept in good order against my
+coming down, which will be frequent. So if my cousin, Mistress Althea,
+likes to remain here as housekeeper, she will be very welcome.'
+
+'And what do you think of paying her for her services?' said our aunt.
+
+Mr. Dacre lifted his eyebrows, and looked at her as if much surprised.
+'She would have meat and lodging free,' said he, 'and servants to do her
+bidding. Also, if she can make anything by keeping of a dairy, or of
+fowls, or selling of fruit from the gardens, or such like devices of
+country dames, I shall ask no account of her gains; and if her
+management pleases me, I shall find a broad piece for her from time to
+time, I doubt not; so she may do very well.'
+
+'And is her sister, Mistress Lucia, to dwell in your house and receive
+your bounty also?' said Mrs. Golding.
+
+'That made no part of my plans,' said he, smiling and bowing. 'I shall
+hardly need two housekeepers here.'
+
+'Then it may chance you must look otherwhere for your one housekeeper,'
+said Mrs. Golding. 'What sayest, Althea? Wilt be parted from thy sister
+that thou mayest have the honour of keeping house for so liberal a
+kinsman and master? or wilt go with Lucy and me to my farm, at West
+Fazeby, where you two shall be to me as daughters? for I am a childless
+widow, and will gladly cherish you young things. The choice lies before
+you, Althea.'
+
+Althea was now red as any rose; and the tears' that had been in her eyes
+seemed turned to sparks of fire. She rose from the table and made a deep
+curtsey to Mr. Dacre.
+
+'I am exceeding grateful for your preference of me,' she said; 'but
+seeing I am only a young maid, and inexpert in the management of a
+house, I must beg to refuse your princely offer'--she spoke with
+infinite scorn--'and betake myself instead to the home Mrs. Golding will
+give me, where I may improve myself, and become fitter in time, both in
+years and skill, for some such post as you would now prefer me to.' She
+stopped and panted, being quite out of breath.
+
+Mr. Dacre did but lift his eyebrows again and say, 'As you will,
+madam,' and then begged she would sit down and finish eating; but she
+remained standing, and looked pitifully at Mrs. Golding; on which our
+aunt rose also, and I doing the same,--
+
+'You go to town to-day, I think you said?' questioned Mrs. Golding; 'we
+will therefore take our leave of you now, not to importune you further.
+My nieces and I will endeavour to be gone from here to-morrow, so please
+you to endure their presence in their father's house until then; for you
+must think it will ask a few hours for them to remove their apparel and
+other goods.'
+
+'Assuredly, madam; they have full liberty,' said Mr. Dacre, rising and
+bowing, and, for a wonder, looking a little abashed.
+
+'And I think it were well we lost no time,' continued our aunt.
+
+So we took our leave of him gladly enough, and I think he was full as
+glad to have us go; and we went back to the little parlour.
+
+'I guessed what sort of kindness John Dacre would show you,' said our
+aunt, looking at us with a smile. 'Your father, my sweet maidens, of
+whom you have a heavy loss indeed, was of a much nobler nature than
+this his kinsman; and it's doubtless for that reason that one of them
+has thriven in the bad air where the other could not thrive, but
+perished;' and then came tears into her lively black eyes, and she was
+fain to sit down and weep awhile, in which we bore her company.
+
+Then Althea wiped her eyes, and said, with a trembling voice,--
+
+'I cannot think, however, why our cousin should make so strange a
+proffer to me--one so unfitting for a well-taught maiden to accept.'
+
+'He made it that you might refuse it, child,' said our aunt. 'Now he can
+truly say he was willing to do somewhat for you, and that you would none
+of it, but thought scorn of his goodwill. It hath ever been his way to
+get much credit for little goodness. Well, Lucy, child, what art
+thinking of?'
+
+'I was thinking,' stammered I, surprised with her question,--'I was
+thinking that the day is not so far spent but we could get away from
+Milthorpe before night. I wish not to sleep under Mr. Dacre's roof
+again.'
+
+'That might be managed,' said Mrs. Golding; 'I left my horses and my men
+at the little inn in your village, where I had some thought of sleeping
+myself. And yet it's but a little inn; nor should I care to turn Andrew
+out of his lodging even to please thee, pretty Lucy. No, child; put thy
+hand to some work and thy pride in thy pocket, and submit even to spend
+one night in the house of an unkind kinsman. He will not be in it, thou
+knowest; see where he rides out of the gate.'
+
+So I looked and saw Mr. Dacre riding off, a very grand gentleman on his
+tall black horse, with his men, also well mounted, following him.
+
+'He will be in town before nightfall,' quoth Mrs. Golding.
+
+It did not seem so insupportable to stay one more night in our old home,
+now its new master had left it; but I was in haste to be gone for all
+that, and Althea too; so we fell to work with great eagerness, gathering
+all our own possessions together and packing them for removal; while
+Mrs. Golding helped us with her hands and her counsel; and so well we
+worked that the sun had not gone down before we had all in readiness for
+our departure in the early morning; for it was the height of summer, and
+the days therefore long. Then Mrs. Golding would have us take her into
+the garden and show us what used to be our mother's favourite walks and
+alcoves; there was a good prospect of the house from one of them, and
+she stood some time regarding it.
+
+'It's a stately place,' said she,--'a very noble house indeed, and a
+fair garden too. Your mother had a pride in it once, I know; and there
+was a time when it would have grieved her sore to think how her children
+should leave it. But what signifies that to her now?--a happy, glorified
+spirit, who may scorn the transitory riches and joys of this poor world,
+which are far outvalued by one ray shining on us from the Father of
+Lights. At His right hand are pleasures for evermore.'
+
+Althea and I looked on each other surprised, for we had then heard
+little of that kind of talk; and, our aunt espying it,--
+
+'Ah, children,' she said, 'I have learnt a new language since I saw you,
+and I see you know it not; but your mother could speak it before I
+could. I think thou art most like her, Lucy; there is more of your poor
+father about Althea.'
+
+I looked at Althea and thought Mrs. Golding was not much mistaken; for
+if I were to write my sister's description, it would need but the change
+of a word or two to make it pass for a portrait of my father. Like him,
+she is tall and slender and well-shaped; her complexion pale and clear,
+her hair almost black, very thick, softer than the finest silk, and
+curling in loose rings at the ends; her brows and eyelashes black also,
+but her eyes a blue-grey, appearing black when she is much moved or in
+deep thought; and she moves with admirable grace, showing a kind of
+nobleness in all her carriage. Myself am of low stature, and of shape
+nothing like so slender; indeed one hath told me I am dark and round as
+a blackheart cherry; so I could well think that at Mrs. Golding's years
+I should be very like her, though perhaps less comely.
+
+Mrs. Golding was still comparing us with each other and speaking of our
+parents, when I was aware of a tall man coming up to the garden gate;
+and my aunt, turning as she heard the latch clink, cried,--
+
+'Ah, here is Andrew! he will have come to have my orders for the night;
+I think we may welcome him in, nieces.' So she stepped to him, and
+taking him by the hand led him to us. 'This,' quoth she, 'is my
+husband's nephew and mine, but he is something more--he is my steward
+and my heir. I hold him for my son; I were but a lost woman without him.
+He would not hear of my coming to Milthorpe with no company but that of
+my serving-men, but must needs be my conductor himself; so precious a
+jewel as I was sure to be lost in the hedges otherwise;' and she laughed
+cordially. 'And, Andrew, these are two poor fatherless girls, Althea and
+Lucia Dacre by name; fatherless, I say, but not motherless, for I am
+their mother from this day forth, and so they are your sisters; see you
+use them kindly.'
+
+Andrew coloured up to his hair, and bowed to us, with some confused
+words about the honour of being as a brother to such gentle ladies; then
+he turned to her and they talked of our morrow's journey, and how our
+mails should be conveyed; and Mrs. Golding, telling him she would sleep
+at the Manor, bade him be early at the gate with horses for us; 'for we
+have many a mile to go,' she said to us; 'and make what speed we may, we
+shall be a day or two on the road.'
+
+And Althea spoke very prettily to Mr. Golding, praying him to sup with
+us; but he excused himself, still in a confused and disturbed way, and
+went away.
+
+While he stood and talked I was able to take note of his aspect, and I
+thought he looked a very homely youth indeed, after Mr. Dacre, though he
+was taller and of a better shape, and I believe a better face too;
+though burnt with the sun, and ruddy like a country-man, he had
+well-cut features and a full mild eye, with a right pleasant smile. But
+his garb was so ordinary, being of some dark cloth, and cut very
+plainly, and his hat with no feather in it, that though I had little
+cause to love Mr. Dacre, yet I wished our new friend was more like him
+outwardly, and thought I should then have been prouder to ride in his
+company. And Mrs. Golding praising him to us, and saying how good he
+was, and wise beyond his years, I thought it was pity such good people
+as he and she did not go handsomer; so little I knew of what belonged to
+goodness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+HOW WE JOURNEYED UP TO YORKSHIRE; AND HOW WE WERE WELCOMED THERE.
+
+Though I remember so plainly what passed on our last day in Milthorpe
+Manor-house, I am not very clear about our journey up to Yorkshire,
+which was tedious enough. We kept to the king's highway, and yet were
+sometimes put in much fear of thieves, but happily we fell in with none;
+the only notable thing that befell us was in leaving a little market
+town, I cannot call to mind its name, where we had stopped to dine. We
+had ridden but a little way forth of the town when we heard a great din
+of shouting and hooting behind us, which made us women afraid; and
+presently a noisy rabblement of people came running up. They were
+chiefly of the baser sort, both men and women, some very ragged, and
+some red-faced and half tipsy; one or two gentlemen in laced coats rode
+among them. I thought at first they had some spite at us, but it proved
+not so. We drew to the wayside to let them pass, and they went by, very
+disorderly, yelling and swearing, the women not less than the men,
+pushing and hauling some poor creature dragged along in their midst. I
+looked earnestly to see who it might be, and presently discerned the
+person--a tall thin man, in a kind of loose garment girded about him,
+and I think it was made of some hempen stuff, a kind of sacking. This
+man was very pale, with longish dark hair hanging about his face, which,
+as I say, was pale indeed, but not dismayed; I think he even smiled when
+one struck him on the head, and another, pushing him, bade him, with a
+curse, go faster. I saw the blood trickling a little from the blow that
+had alighted on his head, as they hurried him past.
+
+Andrew, who saw all this as well as I did, looked full of horror. He
+caught one of the hindmost of the rabble by the sleeve and asked him
+harshly, 'What has this man done, and whither are you taking him?' At
+which the man, turning towards us his red, jovial face, replies,--
+
+'It's a mad Quaker, that took upon him this noon to stand up in our
+market-place, it being market day and every one mighty busy, and he
+tells us all to our face we were a set of cheating rogues, that he had
+marked our doings and seen how bad they were, and that he had a
+commission from God to bid us repent and amend, or a sudden dreadful
+judgment should fall on us. Didst ever hear of such a fool?'
+
+'And what more did he,' says Andrew, 'to make you handle him so
+roughly?' at which the man stared and said,--
+
+'Nay, what more needed there? Matters are come to a pretty pass if free
+Englishmen, who are pleased to cheat and be cheated according to the
+fashion of this world, mayn't do so neighbourly and kindly without some
+canting rogue starting up to control them. We bade him hold his peace
+for a mad ass, but he would not. So we judged his frenzy to be something
+too hot, and that a cold bath were good to cure it; and Squire, riding
+up and seeing the bustle we were in, offered us his own duck-pond for
+the ducking of our preacher. Stay me no longer! I shall lose the best
+sport;' and Andrew snatching at him again to make him stay, he broke
+from him and ran as hard as he could after the crowd, that was now got
+some way from us.
+
+'You hear and see this, Mrs. Golding?' says Andrew, turning to her, his
+mild countenance grown dark with anger. 'There may be murder done yet,
+let me ride after and see what I can do to hinder it;' and setting spurs
+to his horse he galloped off after the rabble. We saw him pressing in
+among them, riding close up to the chief horseman, talking earnestly to
+him; then we saw no more of them, they going round the turn of the road;
+and Mrs. Golding, half frowning, half smiling, says,--
+
+'It's ever so with Andrew! he cannot see mischief a-foot but he is all
+afire to stop it. I like it in the lad, but I wish yon poor fanatic had
+been content to stay at home and mind his own business, instead of
+crossing us so unluckily here.' She looked anxiously.
+
+Presently Andrew comes back to us, riding pretty quickly, and Mrs.
+Golding called to him,--
+
+'Now, my lad, hast not gone on a fool's errand this time also?' but he
+said smiling,--
+
+'That is as you take it, good mother. Yon Squire has some humanity in
+him, and some wit; for when I began vehemently to urge how sinful were
+the murdering of yon poor man, he smiled and let me know his proffer of
+the duck-pond was but to get the man out of the hands of his
+ill-wishers, for he meant to draw the Quaker within his gates and then
+have them shut as if by mistake on the rabble, who were already growing
+aweary with the length of the way, and so were dropping off by twos and
+threes.'
+
+'So thou hast had thy labour for thy pains?' says Mrs. Golding, smiling
+as one well pleased.
+
+'Not altogether,' said Andrew, 'for the Squire wills us to turn into the
+byway here, and keep from the high road awhile, lest we meet the baser
+rascals coming back, in all their fury and disappointment.'
+
+'Good counsel,' said Mrs. Golding; 'we will take it.' And so we kept to
+that byway for a mile or so; and it was rough uneasy riding, though a
+pretty green lane enough.
+
+Althea said to me half aside, 'We had had none of these discomforts, if
+we had ridden as we were wont with our father, in a good coach like
+gentlewomen, and not a-horseback in the country fashion;' the first
+discontented word she had said, and Mrs. Golding hearing it,--
+
+'Child,' said she, 'I cannot away with these coaches, they are proud
+lazy inventions, and nothing like so wholesome as this our old country
+fashion of travelling;' at which Althea blushed and said nothing more,
+and Mrs. Golding began pleasantly to chide Andrew for his hazarding of
+our safety as he had done, which had put Althea into these discontents;
+and he hung his head, smiling, and had not a word to say for himself. I
+should scarce have remembered this accident, or Andrew's behaviour on
+it, had it not been for things that befell after.
+
+I was heartily weary of journeying by the time we got to West Fazeby;
+the way was long, the manner of travelling new to me, I had not so much
+as slept at an inn before, our former home being no great distance from
+town; and my company was not such as to shorten the way, for Aunt
+Golding was the only frank and cheerful-spoken person in our party,
+Althea behaving, as I told her, like an enchanted princess in a fairy
+tale, so melancholy, proud, and silent, and Andrew being so dashed with
+her stately ways that the poor youth was not less tongue-tied than she.
+So I was glad indeed when we rode out of York one fine morning, and Mrs.
+Golding told us we must reach her house before the day was out; in which
+she said no more than truth.
+
+She having always talked of it as a poor farmhouse, our surprise was not
+little when we saw it at last. It stands a little away from the
+village; it is no great house, but is a right fair one to my thinking,
+built of red brick, with a great deal of wood, handsomely carved, about
+the gables and the porch; it is much grown with ivy, at which our aunt
+would often rail, but I think for all that she loved it, seeing it makes
+the house green and pleasant even in winter. And at the back, looking
+into the gardens and orchards, was a pleasant porch, a very large one,
+grown with roses as well as ivy, wherein Althea and I have spent many a
+happy hour in summer-time, sitting there with our needlework or our
+lutes. I can see it in fancy, and would very fain be in it, looking on
+our lily beds and green walks and arbours, instead of these hot and
+dreary streets. But it's too likely I shall never see West Fazeby or any
+other pleasant place on earth again.
+
+A good comely man and woman, plainly habited like serving folks, came
+forth to greet Mrs. Golding, and she commended us to them much as she
+had done to Andrew, saying to us, 'These are Matthew Standfast and his
+wife Grace; good, kind souls, who look well to my house when I cannot do
+it. And how doth little Patience?' she went on to ask Dame Standfast;
+'and have you seen aught of Mr. Truelocke while I have been gone?' and
+so chatting she led us into the hall, where we found a table ready
+covered, and the little Patience Standfast ready to attend us at it, a
+pretty child, fair-haired and blue-eyed, very civil and modest. We were
+not long in finding that she and her parents, with a serving-man or two,
+made all my aunt's household; and that she did very much work with her
+own hands, and would expect the like of us; a thing which displeased
+Althea not a little, but she said nothing of it, only to me, when we
+were got to our own chamber.
+
+'And it is an odd thing,' she continued, when I did not reply, 'that
+Mrs. Golding should sit and should take her meals in the open hall, when
+there are one or two fair parlours more fitting for her occupation.'
+
+'But the hall is a pleasant place,' I said; and indeed it was so to me,
+I hardly know why, being a very plain apartment, with a checkered
+pavement of blue and white stones, and furnished only with bright oaken
+tables and settles, and a great chair or two; also the great fireplace
+was well garnished with green boughs and flowers, it being summer. I
+looked all about it that evening as we sat in it chatting with our aunt,
+and was thinking I should always like it, plain as it was, when I was
+aware of two persons coming into the porch, one walking feebly like an
+old man, and one stepping firmly and strongly; and Mrs. Golding,
+springing up, ran forward to greet them, saying,--
+
+'Welcome! welcome, good Mr. Truelocke! this is a greater kindness than I
+had hoped for;' so she drew into the light of our candles a reverend old
+gentleman, clad in a black gown; he had white hair hanging about his
+face, and in his hand a stout staff on which he leaned as he walked.
+There came at his side a young, strongly-framed man, in a seaman's
+habit, who, I thought, looked something like him, having the same strong
+features, but a clear, merry blue eye and brown curling hair; he was
+very watchful over the old gentleman, who seemed to move feebly. Our
+aunt greeted him kindly by the name of 'Master Harry,' and said, 'It's
+good of you to bring your father up so soon to welcome me,' whereon the
+young man smiled and said,--
+
+'Nay, it is he that hath brought me; there was no holding him when he
+had heard of your return. I would gladly have kept him within doors,
+fearing the night damps for him;' and our aunt laughed also, and said to
+us,--
+
+'Come, Althea, come, Lucy, and speak to my best friend, who was a good
+friend to your mother also; it is the parson of this parish, Mr.
+Truelocke, and this his son Harry, newly come home from the seas;' so
+we came up and greeted the old gentleman reverently, and his son as
+kindly as we might; and Mrs. Golding put Mr. Truelocke into a great
+armed chair, and sat looking at him with vast contentment. He looked at
+her and smiled a wonderfully sweet smile.
+
+'Had you brought these young maids home a month or two later, Mrs.
+Golding,' says he, 'you could not truly tell them I was the parson of
+this parish or of any other. But we'll let that pass;' and turning to us
+he began to speak to us kindly and fatherly, pitying our afflictions,
+and bidding us praise and thank God, who had raised up so good a friend
+to help us. I was glad to hear his words, though they brought the tears
+into mine eyes; but our aunt sat impatiently, and presently broke in on
+his discourse, saying,--
+
+'What mean you, sir, by telling me in a month or two you will be no
+parson of this parish? is there anything new?'
+
+'Nothing, but the falling of a full-ripe fruit, that began to blossom
+two years agone,' says the old gentleman cheerfully; 'it hath been long
+a-ripening, 'twas time it should fall.'
+
+'Give me none of your parables, good friend; I want plain speech,'
+cries our aunt; and Master Harry said bluntly,--
+
+'Madam, it's all along of the new Act for Uniformity which was printed
+and set forth this last May. You were too full at that time of your
+apprehensions for these young ladies to be curious to read that
+mischievous Act; but, since it touches my father nearly, he mastered its
+meaning with great pains, and has thought of little else for many days;
+and the upshot of all this is, that next Bartholomew-tide he will go
+forth, like Abraham of old, to wander he knows not whither;' at which
+words Mrs. Golding sighed deeply, and sat as one amazed.
+
+'It is even so, my kind friend,' said Mr. Truelocke, smiling.
+
+'Well, I can't tell what you may think here of the matter,' went on
+Master Harry; 'but in my conscience, I think my father's conscience
+something too tender.'
+
+'You speak like a man of this world, Harry,' says Andrew, who had come
+in, and was looking at the young man with frowning brows and angry eyes.
+
+'How else would you have me speak?' says Harry. 'I am but a plain
+sailor, and I pretend not to know any world but this work-a-day world
+that I have to get my bread in. I leave the new worlds in the moon, or
+beyond it, to poets and madmen; and I'll tell you my mind of the matter,
+if you will hear me.
+
+He stopped, and Mrs. Golding said, 'Speak your mind, Master Harry, it's
+ever an honest mind, and full of goodwill.'
+
+'I will venture then,' said he, 'and do you bear with me, Andrew, and
+father too. I take it the Church of this country is a good ship that has
+to sail whither her owners will. A while since they were all for
+steering her straight to the Presbyterian port; now that voyage likes
+them not, and they would have her make for Prelacy. It's pity that the
+good ship has owners of such inconstant minds; but why should not the
+crew obey orders, and sail the ship as they are bid?'
+
+'Wrong, all wrong, all wrong, Harry, my boy,' said the old man, with a
+groan; 'thou hast no spiritual sense of these things. How dare Christ's
+liegemen take their orders from the carnal rulers of this or any other
+country? Have I not seen the government of England change like the moon,
+ay, and more strangely? and shall I follow the changing moon as doth the
+faithless sea, ebbing and flowing in my zeal for truth like the tide?
+Nay verily! what was God's truth in Oliver's days is the truth of God
+still; and I will cleave to it.'
+
+As I gazed at the old man's face, pale and wrinkled and awful, I thought
+that so might have looked the prophet Moses when he brake the tables of
+the Law. Mr. Truelocke's deepset dark eyes flashed fire under his long
+white eyebrows, which themselves seemed to stir and to rise and fall, as
+he spoke with great passion, and he struck his staff against the floor.
+
+Althea was looking from one to another, something puzzled; presently her
+silver voice broke the silence that had fallen upon us; she said, 'All
+that you say is so dark to me, it makes me feel like a fool for my lack
+of comprehension; will you, madam, tell me in a few words what it is
+that troubles you and Mr. Truelocke?'
+
+'It's our new masters, dear heart, who have been making of new laws,'
+said Mrs. Golding; and Andrew added instantly,--
+
+'Our pastors, madam, must consent to renounce the Covenant, and must use
+the Common Prayer-Book as newly set forth by authority of King Charles
+the Second and his Parliament; or they must leave to preach and to pray
+in the churches called of England, and must renounce their livings too;
+and this by the twenty-fourth of August next, which the Papists and
+such-like cattle call St. Bartholomew's Day. That is the story in little
+of the doings which afflict our good mother and our reverend friend.'
+
+'It's a dry short setting forth of the matter, friend Andrew,' said the
+old man.
+
+'But is it a true one?' asked Althea.
+
+'Yea,' said he, 'too true, this is the new law; but I shall, as I think,
+follow after the footsteps of godly Mr. Baxter; he hath already ceased
+preaching, that his weaker brethren, such as I, may be in no manner of
+doubt as to what he thinketh. I shall not change my mind twice, once
+having seen the great error of my early prelatical opinions,--as your
+good aunt knoweth I have seen it.'
+
+'Well,' said Mrs. Golding, sighing heavily, 'we will pray you may have
+illumination from above. I cannot tell how we shall do, bereft of our
+father in Christ. But I dare not urge any man against his conscience.
+And now am I ashamed that you have been so long within my doors and I
+have yet set nothing before you. Lucy, Althea, come help me;' and she
+bustled about, and presently with our help had set a dish of
+strawberries and cream, with nuts and cakes and wine, before our guests.
+Mr. Truelocke ate but little, which grieved my aunt; and he would drink
+nothing but spring water. But Harry was gay enough for two. We could get
+him to touch nothing until he had both of us girls served, he saying we
+were greater strangers than he. And since I chose to eat nuts, he would
+do the same, and would crack all mine for me. He had a clever way of
+doing this with his hands only, which were small, but like iron for
+strength; I made a cup of my hands that he might pour the sweet kernels
+into it, and so doing we scattered some on the floor, and both dropt on
+our knees to pick them up, when I, being nimbler than he, had them all
+snatched up before he could touch one; then we both laughed heartily. I
+was startled to hear myself laughing, and looked at Althea; and she
+seemed to be regarding me with scorn as if she despised me perfectly, so
+I checked my laughing and sat down quite crestfallen.
+
+Then Harry, sitting by me, half whispered, 'Now, sweet madam, if you did
+but know what music a heart-free laugh is to mine ears, you would not
+stop yours in the middle. I have no quarrel with my father's nor your
+aunt's piety, but there's too little laughing in it.'
+
+'It's not piety that checks me now,' I said; 'do not credit me with
+more than I have; but a new-made orphan like me might well feel it
+something heartless to be very mirthful.'
+
+'That's it, is it?' said he, looking comically from me to Althea, and
+then at me again. 'Now tell me, sweet lady, if you know any good reason
+why mirth should be a thing forbid to those who have had a cruel loss?
+If in the middle of a winter voyage, when the stormy winds do blow, we
+mariners should have one fair sunshine day, we don't spend it in
+bemoaning the black days that went before and the black days that will
+come after.'
+
+'And what has that to do with me and my griefs?' asked I.
+
+'Only this,' said he, 'that you should not be less wise than a sailor
+lad; think no shame to be glad when your heart bids you, whatever
+sorrows lie before or behind you. And I'll keep you in countenance,
+whenever I see your fair mournful sister reproving your gaiety with her
+eyes; but you must do the same by me with my father and your aunt. Is it
+a bargain? strike hands on it!'
+
+He held out his hand, and I put mine into it--I could not help it;
+though I stole a look at Althea, but her attention was drawn away by
+Andrew, who was half timidly urging her to eat some more of Mrs.
+Golding's dainties; she would not, however; and presently Mr. Truelocke,
+who had been talking apart with Mrs. Golding, got up and would be going;
+so when he and Harry were withdrawn, we all went shortly to our beds,
+being very weary; and for my part I felt that I was in a new world I
+could not half understand; but there seemed some pleasant things in it.
+
+I liked it better still as the days ran on. Country life at West Fazeby
+was more to my mind than ever it had been at Milthorpe. There we were
+waited on dutifully by kind old servants, and might not soil our fingers
+by any coarse work. Here I was taken into the dairy and the still-room,
+and instructed in their mysteries, and in many another useful household
+art; I might feed the pigeons and the other pretty feathered folk in the
+barnyard, and I got no reproof for my coarse tastes when I was found
+learning from Grace Standfast how to milk a cow, and making acquaintance
+with young foals and calves. There were prettier works too; gathering
+and making conserve of roses, and sharing in the pleasant harvest of the
+strawberry beds and the cherry orchard, or tossing of hay in the
+meadows. I will not deny that all these things were more pleasant to me
+that year than they have ever been since; partly because I was so new
+to them, and partly because Harry Truelocke often took part in them
+also. My merry and kind playfellow, I wonder if you have yet any heart
+for such simple pleasures? or if, in the midst of miseries and perils,
+you can still jest and laugh?
+
+Althea went with me and shared in these occupations, except in the
+haymaking and the milking; but she did so with a grave and serious air,
+seeming to give her whole mind to the work, as if it were a task she had
+to learn, whereas I thought it but a delightful pastime that I loved in
+spite of its being profitable.
+
+Mrs. Golding took no note, as it seemed, of Althea's sad and steadfast
+ways; but Andrew marked them, I could see, though, being daily busy with
+out-door matters and cares of our aunt's estate, he was but little in
+our company. When he was with us, he surrounded Althea with a careful,
+watchful kindness, treating her so reverently as if she were some sacred
+thing, and indeed never venturing to say much to her unless she spoke
+first; all which she never appeared to notice.
+
+Now it is a strange thing that in this pretty peaceful time the
+stormiest day and the fruitfullest of future mischiefs should have been
+a certain Lord's Day, only a week or two after our coming. It was from
+Mr. Truelocke that I learnt to say 'the Lord's Day,' Sunday, said he,
+being a heathenish, idolatrous word, nor would he allow of the fashion
+of calling the day of rest 'the Sabbath.' 'We keep not holy,' said he,
+'the seventh-day Sabbath of the people of Israel, but the first day made
+holy for us by the resurrection of our Lord;' and I saying idly to him,
+out of the poet Shakespeare, whom my father loved,--
+
+  'What's in a name? that which we call a rose
+  By any other name would smell as sweet,'--
+
+he looked sternly, almost angrily on me, and said, 'Madam, what have
+ends of stage-plays, and the idle talk of a lovesick girl about her
+lover's name and the names of flowers,--I say, what have these vanities
+to do with a glorious divine thing like the Christian's Day of Rest? And
+believe me, there is much in names, too much in names. What a spell to
+conjure with is the name of King! and the name of Priest may make wild
+work in our poor England yet.'
+
+I was dumb when he reproved me thus; and thinking of it after, I began
+to have some glimmering why this good man should resolve to give up his
+all, rather than use a Prayer-Book he deemed not according to right
+doctrine, since he was so earnest about the right name for one holy day.
+I found it to be a strong point with him, some of his flock murmuring at
+him about it, and saying how could we appeal to the Fourth Commandment
+if our holy day might not be called the Sabbath? But he cared not for
+their words; no, nor for king, nor for Parliament, compared with what he
+deemed right.
+
+I used to wonder if his heart would have been so stout had he had wife
+and children to care for; but he had been many years widowed, and Harry,
+his only child, had carved his own way in the world, being now part
+owner of the ship he sailed himself.
+
+But by whatever name folks called it, the Lord's Day in West Fazeby was
+then a sweet, religious, holy day, and I loved it. Alas, to think of the
+changes wicked men have made!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+HOW MR. TRUELOCKE PREACHED HIS LAST SERMON IN WEST FAZEBY.
+
+On that Lord's Day of which I spoke, the weather was fair and bright
+when we went to worship in the church where Mr. Truelocke still
+ministered. Week after week more people came to hear him, for the time
+was growing short, and he was much loved; so this day the church was
+thronged, and we had some ado to get to our own places. As I said, the
+day was fair enough when we set forth, a little too hot, indeed; but we
+had not been long at our prayers before there came a gloom and a
+darkness, making the church full of shadows; and I saw the sky through
+the windows of a strange greenish and coppery colour.
+
+We were singing the hymn before the sermon, when I was aware of a tall
+man in a whitish garment standing directly below the pulpit, still as a
+stone; it seemed to me I had seen him once before. When the singing was
+done, and we were all in readiness to hear the sermon, this man suddenly
+stood up on the bench, so that even in the dusky light every one could
+see his tall white figure, and, looking up to Mr. Truelocke in the
+pulpit, he said,--
+
+'May I have liberty to speak a few words to this people?'
+
+'You have liberty,' said Mr. Truelocke; then, folding his arms on the
+desk, he leaned forward and looked very intently on the man, who had
+turned himself to face the people. They were all rustling and stirring
+in their places, very uneasy at the interruption. He stretched out his
+arms in the form of a cross, and began to speak in a full and rich
+voice, very musical, with strange changes in it; and always the sky grew
+darker in the great window behind him while he spoke.
+
+'Friends,' said he, 'I have listened earnestly to your singing; and now
+I am constrained to speak to you and tell you the words you sang were
+very unsuitable to your state. For the words were those of holy, humble
+souls, who are athirst after God; and how many of you be there that
+could truly answer Yea, if one should ask whether you are come here
+because you hunger and thirst after righteousness? Is it not true that
+the best of you only take delight in the preaching of the man who stands
+in yon pulpit, because it is to you as a very lovely song of one that
+can play on a pleasant instrument? but you hear his words, and do them
+not. And there be some of you that only come here to display your gay
+apparel, caring not how foul you are within, if you are but fair
+without; and some of you appear here weekly, because it is a decent and
+seemly thing to be here, and you desire the praise of men, though you
+care not for pleasing God. Your religious worships and ways are vain,
+for they are made up only of speaking and singing other men's words,
+which are not yours, nor do ye mean them truly. You were better to sit
+in humble silence before God, waiting till His Spirit, that enlighteneth
+every man, should speak in secret to your spirit.
+
+'And I have a word to thee, Emanuel Truelocke,' he continued, suddenly
+turning, lifting his long right arm and pointing his long finger towards
+Mr. Truelocke, whose pale countenance, framed in his long white hair,
+could still be seen looking quietly at him. 'I desire to speak to thee
+in love, and show thee the secret of thy ill success in thy ministerings
+to this worldly people, who have not the excellent spirit that I gladly
+acknowledge in thyself. The canker of gold has been on these
+ministerings of thine, for thou hast yearly taken hire for them; and
+therefore it is that so many of these people are cold and sickly in
+divine things. But the Lord hath had mercy on thee, and will take away
+from thee the mammon whereby thou hast been deceived; and for thy sake I
+rejoice in thy coming downfall'--
+
+Here there began a mighty hubbub in the place. Men stood up on benches,
+shaking their sticks and clenched fists against the speaker; women
+cried, 'Shame on him! pull him down! have him away!' and many rushed
+upon him, struck him, dragged him down, and would soon have trampled him
+under their feet, but Mr. Truelocke spoke with a voice that rang like a
+trumpet, and said,--
+
+'Do the man no harm; for shame, my brethren! Did not I tell him he had
+liberty to speak? Make me not a liar by your violence!' and then I saw
+several men, Andrew and Harry being foremost, raising up the stranger,
+for he had been felled to his knees pushing off those who were striking
+him, and leading him forth of the church. Then a mighty flash of
+lightning glared through the building, and a great peal of thunder
+roared and echoed after it, and the rain rushing down like a torrent
+drove and beat against the windows. The stranger, who had been got to
+the door, now turned round, crying,--
+
+'Hearken, O people, to the voice of the Lord bearing witness against
+your madness!' with which words he vanished, friendly hands pulling him
+out of sight against his will.
+
+A great silence seemed at once to fall upon the people, while the storm
+blazed and thundered on; and in the midst of it Mr. Truelocke began his
+discourse.
+
+'My brethren,' said he, 'I did not think to have been so cruelly put to
+shame as I have been by you this day. Long have I toiled to make you
+follow His righteousness, who, when He was reviled, reviled not again;
+long have I trusted that you were indeed partakers of that Spirit whose
+fruits are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness. Alas!
+what longsuffering, what peace, what gentleness have you shown to-day?
+Ye have well-nigh done a man to death in the very house of God, and
+before the eyes of me your pastor. I stand rebuked here, a teacher
+whose teaching is proved useless and fruitless. From this day forth I
+will preach to you no more, but will lay down, a little before the law
+takes it from me, the office I have so ill discharged. Now hearken to me
+once more, and once only; and let not my last sermon prove so idle as
+those I have preached to you before.'
+
+With this preamble, which struck every one into awe, he began to preach
+with an uncommon fervour, as one who was all on fire to have men turn
+from their sins, and to close with the offers of God's mercy while yet
+it was time; and this earnestness of his, and a certain passionate
+tenderness in his looks and tones, something more than ordinary, would
+not let us forget the resolve he had expressed. His text was, 'How shall
+we escape if we neglect so great salvation?' and having enlarged on it
+with such piercing eloquence as I have spoken of, and come to an end of
+his discourse, he made a little pause, and then said,--
+
+'Little as I like to mingle any private matters of mine own with the
+message I stand here to deliver, I had determined, when I should come
+before you for the last time, to say something of the reasons why I
+cannot comply with what our rulers require of us. I will not depart
+from that determination because a strange cause has moved me to lay down
+mine office some few days sooner than law requires.' He stopped a
+moment, looking troubled; then he resumed: 'Not my own humour, nor the
+pride of a vain consistency, holds me back from compliance. I have
+sought in prayer, and in study, and in discourse with my brethren, for
+light on this matter; but in my mind is something still unsatisfied that
+bids me persevere in my fixed opinion, so long adopted; I can do no
+other. Therefore, submitting patiently to leave my church and my flock,
+I pray your pardon for any fault I make in this resolution; of God's
+pardon I am assured.'
+
+Having said thus, he bowed his fatherly head, praying inwardly, and all
+the congregation wept and prayed with him, though many of them
+afterwards showed themselves highly displeased with the way he had taken
+of rebuking their violence; also great efforts were used to make him
+break his resolve of preaching there no more, it wanting more than a
+week or two of the appointed day in August when he must needs desist;
+but he would not yield to do more than pray publicly; and the pulpit was
+for a season supplied by other men.
+
+I am wandering away, however, from that day and its doings, of which I
+have not finished the account. While Mr. Truelocke was preaching, the
+storm drew off and died away in distant mutterings, so that it was in a
+very great stillness that he spoke his last words. However, the rain was
+still falling, though without violence, when we came out of the church;
+so we waited awhile in the porch till the clouds had rolled away, many
+others who did not love a wetting doing the same as we, and there was
+much talking.
+
+None of our party said aught, till Mrs. Bonithorne, one of the
+wealthiest farmers' wives in the parish, turned herself to Aunt Golding,
+saying,--
+
+'Heard you ever anything so strange, neighbour, as yon awful
+thunder-clap coming close on the malicious words of the brawling Quaker?
+He ought to have quaked and trembled indeed at the voice of Heaven
+rebuking his madness.'
+
+'But that he did not, mistress,' said I, something too pertly, I fear;
+'for he bade the people hearken to the voice of God bearing witness
+against _them_.'
+
+'Did he so?' cried she; 'the more was his impudence to wrest the
+heavenly sign in his favour. But what make you then of the passing away
+of the storm when Mr. Truelocke began to preach, and of the sweet calm
+that had fallen on all things when he ended? was that a witness in
+favour of Quaker madness?'
+
+'Nay, I make nothing of it,' said I; and Aunt Golding added,--
+
+'You would not interpret it as a sign of approval granted to Mr.
+Truelocke for his hasty resolve never to preach to us again? For my
+part, I hope he will be persuaded otherwise.'
+
+'Truly I hope so,' said Dame Bonithorne, her ruddy colour deepening;
+'for it's too cruel an affront he puts on us poor people;' and I know
+not how much more she might have said, but for Harry Truelocke, who now
+came up to the porch, and, beckoning Aunt Golding forth, whispered to
+her how Andrew had carried the Quaker to the Grange, and now desired her
+presence; at which we all set forth together, the rain having ceased;
+and on the road Harry tells us, what sore disquieted Aunt Golding, that
+the man had only come to West Fazeby on Andrew's account.
+
+'It seems,' said he, 'you met him on your road hither, when he was in
+the hands of some base fellows that had a mind to maul him--do you
+remember such a matter?' and Aunt Golding saying how she remembered it
+very well, Harry went on to say that the man, having noted Andrew's
+willingness to serve him, had ever since 'had a concern on his mind for
+the good youth,'--that was his phrase,--and had been led to our village,
+and to the very church, being assured he would see Andrew there. 'It's a
+strange, mad story,' quoth Harry.
+
+Althea had given earnest heed to this tale, and now she asked, 'And what
+says Master Andrew to such wild talk? I suppose he will use the poor
+deluded wretch gently and kindly, that's his nature; but sure he will
+scorn his ravings?'
+
+'I cannot tell what Andrew may think in his heart,' says Harry moodily;
+'but he uses the man as if he thought him a saint or a martyr, or both.
+I wish harm may not come of this day's doings;' and he fell into a
+gloomy silence.
+
+I had never seen him look so nearly angry before. We were now got to the
+Parsonage, and Harry arousing himself to take leave of us, our aunt says
+to him,--
+
+'I shall ask you to do me a great good turn, by bringing your father to
+sup with us at the Grange. I would have him reason peaceably with yon
+poor distraught man, and convince him of his folly; so he may do a
+service to my Andrew also, if he has indeed a leaning to such
+delusions.'
+
+'Well, madam, I will do it for you,' said Harry; 'but there is only one
+other person in the world to please whom I would bring my father into
+such odd company as yon man's;' and he went in, looking but half
+pleased; and as we took our way to the Grange I was musing who that
+other person might be Harry was so fain to please.
+
+When we got into the hall we saw Andrew sitting there and talking with
+the stranger, who was now clothed like any other man. His face had been
+bruised and his hair torn by the violence of the people; but, for all
+these disfigurements, I, looking earnestly at him, could see he was the
+very one the sight of whose ill-usage had so moved Andrew on our
+journey; there was the same composed look, and the same strange inward
+light in his eye.
+
+He rose when he saw Aunt Golding come in, saluting her with the words,
+'Peace be to thee!' on which she, gravely smiling, said,--
+
+'You did not bring peace with you to our place of worship, sir; but I
+trust no one will break your peace in my house, where you are welcome to
+rest and refresh you this day.'
+
+'No man can break my peace,' said he, 'my soul being ever at rest in
+the Holy City, the New Jerusalem.'
+
+'That's a good resting-place indeed,' said our aunt. 'Will you tell me
+by what name I am to call you while you stay here? I think no one in our
+village knows who you are.'
+
+'Not every one can know my name, but they that have the Light,' said the
+man; 'and the world can never know it.'
+
+'But sure, man, you have a name of your own by which the world does know
+you,' said our aunt a little impatiently.
+
+'I wish not to deny it,' he replied; 'therefore fret not thyself, good
+friend,--my worldly name is James Westrop. And I will tell thee what
+thou askest not, that my errand hither is to this young man, Andrew
+Golding. I have now told him my message, so I am free to depart; and if
+thou likest not of my talk or my ways, I refuse not to leave thy house
+and protection this hour.'
+
+'But I will not have you go,' said she, 'till you are refreshed and
+rested. And, in good time, here comes the Vicar, whom I have desired to
+sup with us and to reason with you. You will not refuse his company? He
+scorns not yours.'
+
+'I will not refuse it,' said Westrop gravely; and Mr. Truelocke coming
+in at that moment with Harry, we all went presently to table.
+
+I marvelled greatly during the meal at Mr. Truelocke's courtesy, so
+kindly did he speak to the Quaker; and he strove to excuse to him the
+mad behaviour of the people, ascribing it to their regard for their
+ancient pastor, now about to leave them. 'I pray you,' he said, 'to
+pardon them for my sake.'
+
+'Friend,' said James Westrop, 'I had pardoned them before they offended.
+But thou art deceived if thou thinkest it was love to thee which moved
+them. They could not endure my word, because their own spirits were
+foul. My word was to them as the shining of a candle into a dark, dirty
+place, and the sight of their foulness made them mad against me. But in
+thee I perceive purity of intention; and I will gladly reason with thee
+of the things of the Spirit, according to this good woman's desire.'
+
+So after supper Aunt Golding showed the Quaker and Mr. Truelocke into a
+parlour, and herself with Andrew went in to hear their reasonings; but
+Althea whispered me, and said, 'Let us go and walk in the garden; I
+cannot stay and hear the man's insolent talk.' So we stepped out, and
+began to pace up and down one of the walks, the moon being just risen,
+and the evening very sweet and calm--a pleasant change it was after the
+heats and storms of that afternoon's work. Presently Harry joined us,
+and said at once, 'Well, sweet ladies, so you have no mind to turn
+Quakers?'
+
+'As soon shall this rose turn nettle,' said Althea, plucking a white
+rose off a bush and giving it to him. 'Keep it, I pray you; and when you
+find it will sting you to touch it, then conclude Althea Dacre has
+turned Quaker.'
+
+'Give me your rose too, Mistress Lucia,' said Harry.
+
+So I gathered one, and put it in his hand; but I felt obliged to say,--
+
+'I cannot speak so confidently as my sister; I know nothing of these
+people and their doctrines.'
+
+'You see their doings,' said Althea indignantly; 'that should be enough.
+Mr. Truelocke, Lucia and I were bred up true Churchwomen, and so I will
+continue to my dying day. I love not all these sects that spring up like
+weeds in the ruined places of the Church; I am for those who are
+building up her walls again, and making them stronger.'
+
+'And is this your mind too, Mistress Lucia?' says Harry. 'I fear me, if
+it is, you will not approve my good father either;' at which Althea went
+red and went pale, for she had not thought how her words might hit Mr.
+Truelocke; but since she did not speak, I said,--
+
+'Being so ignorant about these things, I don't like to say much, except
+that I hate these new harsh laws,--axes, I think them, lopping off from
+our Church her true, faithful members as if they were diseased limbs. I
+fear me the poor trunk that is left will be like a headless, handless
+corpse without them.'
+
+'Well, God mend all!' said Harry, drawing a long breath. 'For my part,
+all I know is, that I would these great folks who rule us now had let my
+father end his days in peace, without pestering him about surplices and
+Prayer-Books and the sign of the cross, all which he holds for rank
+Papistry, I suppose; and I cannot wish him to lie, even about such
+foolish trifles as these things appear to me. But what profits wishing?'
+
+'Very little,' said Althea, sighing softly. 'I might wish too, all in
+vain, that I had not spoken with such needless warmth even now;' and she
+began entreating him to believe she had meant no disrespect to his
+father; but he cut her short, assuring her he knew it already.
+
+'My father is not in all your thoughts,' said he; 'but he is seldom out
+of mine. I am ever longing to see him settled in some peaceful shelter
+before I go to sea;' and he looked more downcast than I had ever seen
+him.
+
+We were got into the orchard now, winding in and out among the trees,
+and Althea went musing by herself; but I could not help lingering beside
+Harry, to say some comfortable words about how all folks loved Mr.
+Truelocke, my aunt especially, and I knew it was in her mind to have the
+old gentleman make his home at the Grange with her, if he only would.
+
+'Ay,' says Harry; 'that's a larger "if" than you wot of, sweet Lucy. But
+would it please you, as well as Mrs. Golding, to have the old man living
+under this roof?' and I answered hastily,--
+
+'Nothing could like me better than to have so kind and fatherly a man
+dwelling with us, not to say that his holiness and piety would bring
+down Heaven's blessing on any house that sheltered him; and I promise
+you,' I went on, 'that I, for my part, would show him all a daughter's
+love and duty,'--'and so will Althea,'--I would fain have added, had not
+Harry cut my speech short, saying,--
+
+'That's a charming word on your lips when you speak of my father--the
+word of daughter. I hope you consider what it may mean to me.'
+
+'Sure,' I said, 'I am very willing to take you for my brother, if that
+is what you aim at.'
+
+'No, no, Lucy,' said he; 'I wish not to be your brother. I refuse
+altogether to let you think of me as such; but I have nothing to say
+against Mistress Althea as a sister. Think well of my words, will you?'
+and, taking my hand, he put it to his lips. And it was not the first
+time, in truth, that such a courtesy had been shown me; but with a fine
+gentleman it seems such a matter of course. It was not so with the frank
+and blunt sailor, who had had a kind of Puritan bringing-up too; so I
+suppose that was the reason it made me tremble so strangely, or perhaps
+the look on his face was the cause. I was therefore not sorry to see
+Althea coming up to us again.
+
+'We had better keep nearer the house; their conference may be over, and
+Mrs. Golding will not know where to find us,' she said; so we turned
+back, and all three paced up and down the terrace under the windows for
+a while, then we went into the hall, and sat there awaiting the end of
+the disputation.
+
+At last we saw Mr. Truelocke, Mrs. Golding. James Westrop, and Andrew,
+all issuing forth together, and all but one seeming mightily disturbed.
+Mr. Truelocke looked stern and sad, and Mrs. Golding had been weeping;
+Andrew gazed on the Quaker with much anxiety, but with such reverence as
+if he saw in him an angel of God. As for James Westrop, there was no
+change in him, only his usual composure seemed a little exalted, if I
+may so phrase it. He walked straight to the hall door, Andrew keeping by
+him. There he made a stand, and, raising his hands as if in blessing,--
+
+'Peace be to this house!' he said; 'I have been well entreated in it,
+though it approves me not. Friend Andrew, thou and I will meet again;
+but now follow me not. I may not sleep under this roof, having many
+miles to go before the sun rises;' and with that he turned and walked
+out of the door, which he shut after him; and Andrew, who had stopped at
+his word, came slowly back to us. Althea now rose from her place and
+went towards him; her eyes were very bright, and there was unusual
+colour in her cheeks; indeed she seemed carried quite out of herself,
+yet she kept her queenly look and gait withal.
+
+'Mr. Golding, said she, putting her hands on his arm, 'what means that
+man by his farewell to you? Sure you are not befooled and led away by
+his deceiving words to believe such madness as he speaks?'
+
+Andrew started at her touch, like a man waking from a dream. He then
+looked seriously at her, and said,--
+
+'Madam, I cannot say yet how much I believe of yon good man's doctrine;
+but I will not rest till I know more of it. If I find it to be as
+heavenly true as it hath seemed to me this day, not all the joys and
+glories of the world should hold me back from embracing it; at which
+Althea, letting her hands fall from his arm, stood as if she were turned
+into stone, her eyes remaining fixed on him sorrowfully. I suppose he
+could not endure that look; for he turned away sharply and went out of
+the hall.
+
+'I feared this,' said Mr. Truelocke. He looked quite weary and spent.
+'These men have a strange eloquence; and I cannot wonder that such
+youths as our Andrew should think their words are indeed set off by some
+superior Power,--the more, since none can deny that they preach what
+they practise. I would I could have imbued all my hearers with a like
+burning sincerity.'
+
+This was nearly all I heard about that long conference of theirs; for
+after some more lamentations over its ill result, which, Harry whispered
+me, they might have expected, Mr. Truelocke departed with his son, and
+Aunt Golding remained so troubled that I did not like to question her
+about what had passed. But all the more was I curious to know what the
+man's doctrine was; and on the first fair occasion I found, I began to
+ask Andrew to describe it to me. Poor youth! he was mightily pleased
+with my inquiry, thinking, doubtless, that it sprang from a real thirst
+for truth like his own; and to the best of his power he complied with my
+wish. I found he had not been altogether ignorant of this new teaching
+for some months back.
+
+'We English Christians,' said he, 'have fallen into many hurtful snares
+by our lack of faith in God's great gift of the Holy Spirit, the mighty
+boon which the risen Saviour promised to His followers, and which truly
+came according to His word. I have often wondered,' said he, 'that we
+all profess and say, as often as we repeat the Creed, "I believe in the
+Holy Ghost," yet we act and think as if we believed not in Him.' And
+from this point he went on to tell me how George Fox, first of all, and
+many others after him, had been going about the country endeavouring to
+make people alive to the high privilege they had so long slighted, to
+their own exceeding hurt; 'also,' said he, 'these men, in obedience to
+the inward Voice that instructs them, strive to bring people off from
+their formal man-made religions to the primitive purity of Christ's
+religion, which consists not in rites and ceremonies, repeating of forms
+of prayer, singing of hymns, and ringing of bells, but in a holy and
+harmless life;' and he quoted many things out of the Sermon on the
+Mount, 'which,' said he, 'the common run of Christians never dream of
+obeying; but the poor Friends practise them most strictly.'
+
+All this was most alluring to Andrew, for, as I have often noticed, he
+detested nothing so much as false professions, and a show of goodness
+where none was. I asked him curiously why the Friends behaved themselves
+in such strange fashion in public places and churches; when he answered
+me by referring to the bold speeches of ancient prophets in rebuke of
+sin, and asked me if I could think that a man might now-a-days refuse to
+carry God's message to sinners because it might bring him into bodily
+peril? 'It were far worse,' said he, 'to disobey the Divine Voice, that
+still small Voice that is heard by the restful soul, than to endure a
+little pain at men's hands, or even the death of the body.' Well, I
+could not wonder that he was charmed with such teachings, for while I
+listened to him my own heart was moved strangely; but it evermore ended
+with my resolving to keep to the opinions of my aunt and Mr. Truelocke;
+I thought they were both too good to be far mistaken. But Andrew now
+began to be often away from home, and he made no secret that he went to
+meet with Westrop and other Friends, from whom he often had letters
+also. He was never at West Fazeby on the Lord's Day; and Aunt Golding
+and Althea also showed themselves mightily afflicted thereat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+HOW HARRY TRUELOCKE LEFT US FOR THE SEA.
+
+And now came fast upon us that black day, the twenty-fourth of August,
+1662, when such numbers of faithful ministers were stript of their
+offices and livings because they would not go against their consciences;
+and our own Mr. Truelocke among them. I think he was more stiffly set
+than ever in his opinion of the unlawfulness of conformity, since he had
+that talk with James Westrop; at least Aunt Golding thought so. But on
+other points he showed himself mild and persuadable, so that there was
+nothing like the difficulty Harry and all of us had looked for in
+winning him to come and dwell at the Grange, for a season at least; and
+he agreed to make the change before the fatal day should come.
+
+So we had all a busy time of it that last week, in getting his many
+books and his simple household stuff removed from the Parsonage house,
+and in bestowing them suitably at the Grange, where Aunt Golding had
+prepared two fair rooms for his particular use. And however bad the
+occasion for our doing this work, some of us found pleasure in it.
+
+I must own I myself always loved a busy, bustling time, when there
+seemed a little more to be done in each day than we could crowd into it;
+which was our case now, wheat harvest having begun. And I was gladder
+than common of the stir and the bustle, for it helped to stupefy and
+dull a pain there was at my heart whenever the thought crossed me how
+soon Harry would be gone. He was to depart on a long voyage to the East
+Indies, and would indeed have sailed already but for his loving care
+about his father, which made him resolute to tarry until he saw the old
+gentleman in a manner provided for.
+
+Some perverse whimsy of mine had made me careful never to be left alone
+in Harry's company since that talk with him by moonlight in the orchard.
+It's no wonder that I so perfectly recollect all the sayings and doings
+of that day, for it was a fateful day indeed to some of our little
+company. But the things that dwelt most constantly in my memory, to the
+shutting out of weightier matters, were Harry's looks and words on my
+saying I would be as a daughter to Mr. Truelocke. There was small need
+to bid me think well of them; I thought of them whether I would or no,
+all the while telling myself that I was a poor fool for brooding over
+such airy trifles; that I had not known aught of Harry, nor he of me,
+six months before; and that I deserved whipping for fancying he could
+mean anything serious. And so, between a kind of fear and a good deal of
+pride, I tried, as I have said, to avoid any private talk with him; and
+I succeeded pretty well. But Harry's blunt, plain-spoken ways
+overmatched me after all.
+
+The first evening after Mr. Truelocke had come to the Grange--I cannot
+say, after we had him settled there, for he was mightily unsettled--he
+was not able to rest in the room we had fitted for his study, and so
+came to sit among us in the hall, seeming to please himself with
+watching our occupations, as he sat in his great chair. Andrew was
+writing somewhat at his desk; Althea had some sewing; and I was having a
+lesson from Aunt Golding in the right use of the little flax-wheel; for
+I had taken an extraordinary fancy for spinning, and our aunt encouraged
+me in it, and took pains to teach me, saying I was an apt scholar. Thus
+we were busied when Harry came in and sat down among us.
+
+'You all look peaceful and content, methinks,' quoth he. 'I wish I were
+a skilful painter, then might I make a picture of this pretty scene to
+carry with me and cheer my heart in distant seas. But since I cannot do
+that, I must try for some other comfort to take away with me.'
+
+Here he stopt, and Aunt Golding said kindly, 'What is in my power to do
+for you, Master Harry, I will do as freely as your father could.'
+
+'Thanks, madam,' said Harry; 'there's much you and my father can do for
+me; I know only one other person who can do more. Father, I looked for
+you in your study even now; but I am not sorry to find you here instead,
+hardly any one here but has some interest in my business with you. I
+want your consent and Mrs. Golding's to my seeking Mistress Lucy here
+for my wife.'
+
+I heard the words plainly, and I suppose their sense reached me; but if
+they had been so many blows of an axe upon my head they could not have
+left me more stupid. So I sat helpless, hearing Aunt Golding cry out,--
+
+'Here is hasty work, indeed! do you speak seriously, Master Harry?'
+
+'Never more seriously,' said he; 'if they were the last words I should
+speak I could not mean them more truly and heartily. And I hope you have
+a good answer for me.'
+
+'I don't say no,' she replied; 'but there are others to be consulted
+beside me.'
+
+So Harry, looking at Mr. Truelocke, said, 'Father, call your thoughts
+off from your unkind Mother Church, and bestow some of them on your
+dutiful son. Will you give me your sanction and your blessing, if I can
+win this lady to say she will be mine?'
+
+'I can never refuse thee my blessing, Harry, and that thou knowest,'
+said the old man. 'But it's fitting that I should think of the lady too,
+and bid her consider what she does.'
+
+He turned to me, which troubled me greatly, and, looking sadly and
+kindly at me, said,--
+
+'If you take this boy of mine, madam,' said he, 'you take the son of a
+poor, despised, aged man, who can give you and him nothing but a
+father's blessing, coupled with his burdensome infirmity to care for
+and tend, till death remove it;' words which loosed my tongue
+straightway to say I should deem such an office a pride and honour.
+
+'That is not all,' said Mr. Truelocke. 'Harry hath chosen to embrace a
+dangerous wandering way of life, neither very glorious nor very
+profitable. And his bride will have to spend many a sad lonely hour,
+while her husband is tossing on the seas, and she sitting trembling at
+home, deprived of his protection and doubtful of his fate.'
+
+'That's a very odd way of recommending my suit, father,' said Harry, a
+little uneasily.
+
+'Nay, I have not done my recommendation,' replied Mr. Truelocke; 'let me
+say all. You should further consider, Mistress Lucy, that this son of
+mine is so light of spirit and careless of speech, that some will say he
+has no constancy of disposition. I will not so far slander him, for I
+know him better; but this I must say, for it is truth, that he has not
+yet that confirmed and settled piety I should desire in the husband of
+mine own daughter, if I had one. Now I have laid before you all the
+disadvantages of the match, it is for you to say if you will have it.'
+
+I wonder if ever a love-suit was so urged before? It made me heartily
+angry to hear poor Harry so disparaged to his face, and to see him sit
+so downcast, a cloud of angry colour mounting to his very forehead. I
+suppose pity for him killed all my bashfulness, for I stood up, and said
+passionately, I thought no worse of a man for having the bold
+adventurous nature which loved seafaring; that was a noble trade, I
+said, and our mariners the very flower of England; and as for light
+spirit and merry speech, they were but flowers covering a rock, for
+steadfast as a rock was the heart under that gay show.
+
+'And if you speak of piety,' I wound up, 'I am sure Harry hath as much
+of it as I have, at least; he has some faith, some love, and so I hope
+have I; but we will help each other up to better things; and here is my
+hand on it if he will take it.' With that I held out my hand to him, and
+he sprang up and grasped it in both his, looking exultingly at his
+father; it was a pleasure to see how his face had changed all in a
+moment. Mr. Truelocke smiled, but he shook his head too, saying,--
+
+'Well, children, I blame you not. The Lord will surely teach you and
+lead you, it may be in ways you will not like; for it is on my mind that
+you both have much to learn and much to suffer before your marriage day
+shall dawn.'
+
+And now Aunt Golding, who loved Harry, and never could endure to have
+him crossed, began to laugh outright.
+
+'I will own,' she said, 'I thought you very unmerciful to your good son,
+Mr. Truelocke, while you continued to run him down so shamefully; but
+now I see you took the right way to advance his cause. It's wonderful
+what a spice of contradiction will do with a woman! Lucy, you would
+never have made this bold, open confession without some such
+provocation'--words which abashed me much, for they were true.
+
+And now, no one present having a word more to say against it, Harry and
+I exchanged rings; and Mr. Truelocke in a few pathetic words besought
+Heaven's blessing on our contract. I do believe Harry would not have
+been sorry could he have called me wife before he went away; but, every
+one frowning on this fancy of his when he distantly hinted it, he did
+not urge it; and truly the time was too short.
+
+I was a little afraid of Althea, lest she should think I had every way
+demeaned myself; but she never has owned that she thought so.
+
+'These things go by destiny, little Lucy,' she said once. 'I am not
+strong enough to control fate, and certainly you are not; so why should
+I blame you? Were not all our follies written in the stars when we were
+born?' I could not tell then what to make of her mocking words, knowing
+how she despised what people call astrology.
+
+As for Andrew, he could talk cheerfully of nothing at this time; and the
+hopefullest word he could find for Harry and me was that though in these
+evil days there could be no love-thoughts or marriage-thoughts for such
+as him, he would not say they were forbidden to others; and he wished us
+all the happiness we could get; poor cold words; but Harry said 'twas
+wonderful Andrew could say as much on any worldly matter.
+
+This was the manner of our betrothing; and, were it not for Harry's ring
+still shining on my finger, and also for the odd unusual fashion of the
+whole thing, which is what I never could have dreamt, I should be sadly
+apt to think of it as a dream too pleasant to be true.
+
+For within a day or two Harry had left us and gone to Hull, from which
+port he sailed. I have never seen him since; also it is now a full
+twelve-month since any letter from him reached us. Yet I cannot believe
+he is dead; and if he is living, I know he is true; and living or dead,
+I have a strong persuasion that my little ruby ring, which was my
+mother's once, is on his finger still.
+
+But many a time have I thought on Mr. Truelocke's words, how we both
+should have much to learn and much to suffer before our marriage day. I
+think the words be true.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+HOW ANDREW MADE ONE ENEMY, AND WAS LIKE TO HAVE ANOTHER.
+
+And now my happy time was over; its story is all told so far; and I must
+write of darker days that came after.
+
+The living of West Fazeby, left vacant because of Mr. Truelocke's
+sturdiness in his opinion, did not wait long for an incumbent, but was
+quickly bestowed on a Mr. Lambert; a man not troubled with awkward
+scruples, for he had been a strong Presbyterian under the Commonwealth,
+and now was become as strong a Churchman; but an honest man as the world
+goes now, and not hard-hearted. He had another better living where he
+resided; so our parish was served by his curate, a Mr. Poole, a young
+man of shallow capacity and but little learning. Mr. Truelocke,
+however, went to hear him preach;--a strange sight it was to see so
+reverend, saintly, and able a minister sitting humbly as a listener,
+while that weak-headed lad spoke from the pulpit;--and he said the youth
+preached true doctrine; so he continued going to hear him, and
+encouraged our household to do the like, which they all did, except
+Andrew. That Mr. Truelocke himself did not join in the new formal
+prayers was not noticed, his presence at sermon-time seeming to give
+mighty satisfaction to Mr. Poole, who would often walk up to the Grange
+of a Lord's Day evening, to ask Mr. Truelocke's opinion of his handling
+of a text, and would even beg to hear his exposition of the same; when
+several of our neighbours would also come in and listen thankfully to
+their old pastor's words; neither we nor they dreaming that such
+practices could be deemed unlawful, as they soon were, being stigmatized
+as conventicles, and heavily punished. But this did not happen in Mr.
+Poole's time.
+
+There were other things much less agreeable to us under the new order of
+things. A monstrous new Maypole was set up on the village green, by
+command of a gentleman very powerful in the parish, whom I shall soon
+have to name, and we were told the old heathen May-games would be
+observed at the right season,--as indeed they were when the time came;
+meantime the one or two taverns in West Fazeby began to stand open on a
+Sunday, and were much more frequented than they used to be, men who had
+formerly been very careful to shun them now going to them boldly in open
+day; which plainly discovered their former decent carriage to have been
+a hollow show. Althea and I chanced one day to be passing the Royal Oak,
+as the chief inn of the village had been new christened, just as there
+reeled out of it a young gentleman whom every one had deemed a most
+hopeful pious youth, Mr. Truelocke in particular having a great opinion
+of him, though I never liked his demure looks for my part, nor his stiff
+way of dressing himself. He was called Ralph Lacy, and was son and heir
+to old Mr. Lacy of Lacy Manor, a worthy old gentleman, though somewhat
+austere, who was lately dead; which I suppose partly accounted for the
+mighty change in his son, who was now clad in silk and velvet, scarlet
+and gold; and, as I have said, could not walk too straight at that
+moment.
+
+He stood still, leering foolishly on us, just in our way; I could not
+bear to look at him, and would have slipt on one side; but Althea
+looked sternly at him, and said bitterly,--
+
+'Shame on you, Ralph Lacy! You mourn for your father in a very vile
+manner; a swine could do no worse.'
+
+'Ah, sweet Mistress Dacre,' said he, 'do you think then the grim,
+sour-visaged saints are reigning still? Nay, their day is over! we have
+a right good fellow for a king now, and this shall be Merry England
+again, I can tell thee.' (He was growing more familiar at every word.)
+'I will soon show thee what the ways are at Whitehall now;' and he was
+coming much nearer to her than was pleasant, when Andrew, who came up
+with us at that moment, flung him out of our path with such goodwill
+that Master Lacy measured his length on the ground; and there we left
+him lying. Althea thanked Andrew warmly and cordially; but Andrew, who
+had been all glowing with just wrath at first, seemed to shrink into
+himself at her praise.
+
+'It was a temptation,' he said, 'and I have fallen. I could have taken
+you out of yon fool's way without laying a finger on him.'
+
+'It's something of a disgrace indeed to have touched the beast--an oaken
+staff had been fitter than your hand,' she replied. 'Merry England,
+quotha! drunken England, I suppose he meant.'
+
+'There is too much indeed of the unclean spirit of riot abroad now,'
+answered Andrew; 'but it is not with violent hands that we can cast it
+out. I sinfully forgot our Lord's word, "Resist not evil;"' and nothing
+could brighten him, though Althea did her best all the way home.
+
+There came the day when I rued Andrew's angry action as much as he did,
+though not for the same reason. Ralph Lacy was not too drunk to be
+unaware who had flung him aside into the dust; he never forgave it; and
+his hand was plainly seen afterwards in the troubles that came upon us.
+Another man also contributed something to them, though more innocently.
+
+Mr. Poole now came very much about us, and would often talk about the
+good family he belonged to and his hopes of speedy preferment; and
+another favourite topic of his was the gay suits he had worn in his
+secular days; he would dwell very fondly on the cut and trimmings of
+these clothes. I think nothing misliked him in his profession but the
+gravity of dress required from a clerical person; and I was often
+tempted to ask, had his father been a tailor? He made the most of his
+sober apparel, and loved to show a white, smooth, fat hand, with a fine
+diamond on one finger; but he was unhappy in an insignificant person and
+a foolish face, both of them something fatter than is graceful.
+
+I do not know what first made me guess that all his boastings and
+paradings were intended to advance him in Althea's good graces; but she
+refused to believe me when I said so.
+
+'Poor harmless wretch!' said she; 'he is but practising with me; he
+would fain perfect himself in the airs and graces of a thriving wooer,
+before laying siege in earnest to some fair lady, with the heavy purse,
+that I lack, at her girdle.'
+
+'That's a far-fetched fancy indeed,' said I. 'Why should he single you
+out alone for such practisings?'
+
+'Well,' quoth Althea idly, 'he may deem me the fittest person to
+rehearse with, seeing I have at least the breeding of a gentlewoman, and
+am contracted to no one else. He will think that if his ways and words
+please me, they may answer with richer women of my sort as well.'
+
+'But sure they do not please you!' I cried; 'nor should you let him
+think they do; 'tis not fair usage.'
+
+'Nay, he diverts me hugely,' said she; 'and I need diversion, for my
+heart is heavy as lead, Lucy;'--all at once there were tears in her
+eyes;--'if I can forget my griefs while I watch a mannikin bowing and
+grimacing before me, don't grudge me the poor pastime. I assure thee,
+child, there's nothing more in it;' and with that she left me hastily.
+
+I was used to think Althea much wiser than myself, but the evening of
+the very day when we had this talk proved that in this matter her
+judgment was more at fault than mine. For about sunset Mr. Poole came up
+to the Grange, which was a rare thing for him to do, seeing he did not
+love to be abroad when it was dark. He seemed mightily puffed up about
+something; and, not being one of those who can keep their own counsel
+long, he soon imparted to Althea and me, whom he found sitting by the
+parlour fire, how his promotion now seemed very near. There was a living
+of which he had long had hopes to get the reversion; and the actual
+incumbent was fallen sick of a strange fever, with little prospect of
+recovery.
+
+'And you are troubled because of the poor man's grievous case,' says
+Althea demurely. 'I guessed something was disturbing you. It's
+melancholy news indeed, Mr. Poole, for one would guess by it that the
+place must be unhealthy, so it may be your luck to sicken in like manner
+when it is your turn to live there.'
+
+I thought Althea cruel thus to tease the poor man, imputing to him a
+tender concern for the sufferer of which he had never dreamed; besides,
+he was chicken-hearted about contagious disorders, and that she knew. I
+pitied him then, but found it hard to forbear laughing, his aspect was
+so comical; therefore I feigned an errand out of the room, and, having
+stayed away long enough to compose my countenance, I returned to the
+parlour, where I found poor Mr. Poole on his knees to Althea, urging his
+suit for her hand with a great deal more passion than one could have
+expected in him. 'Twas in vain she spoke of her orphanhood and poverty,
+and told him he should look higher; and at last she had to speak
+sharply, and say, however she might esteem the honour he would do her,
+wife of his she would never be; 'so quit that unbecoming posture at my
+feet,' she added; on which he rose indeed, but said half-frantically,--
+
+'Give me at least, madam; the comfort of hearing you say you are
+heart-free, that you love none other better than you do me;' on which
+first her eyes flashed angry fire, and then changed and softened, her
+whole face and even her neck going rosy-red, and she said almost
+kindly,--
+
+'I will give you no such assurance, sir, to hold you in vain hopes; but
+I wish you a happier fate than marriage with me might prove.' With that
+she was gone from the room, like a shadow; and Mr. Poole and I were left
+foolishly staring at each other. Presently he said hoarsely,--
+
+'Who is it that your sister loves, madam? for whom does she disdain me?
+Sure,' he went on, with growing heat, 'it cannot be your cousin--he that
+is infected with the Quaker heresy! say it is not he, madam.'
+
+Well, I was tempted to lie, and say it was not our cousin; for Andrew
+was nothing akin to us; but I resisted the tempter, and said I could say
+nothing, but that I was heartily sorry,--'and I am sure, so is my
+sister,' I said, 'that you should have fixed your affections so
+unluckily.' Then I told him Andrew had no thoughts of marriage with
+Althea or any one; and I reminded him of the many rich and fair women
+who would be sure to look kindly on him; at which he smiled again, and
+presently went away in no unfriendly mood. So I acquit him of meaning
+the harm which he afterwards did us, poor youth, with his prattling
+tongue. He did not wait long for his promotion, the poor man whom he
+hoped to succeed dying indeed of the fever that had seized him; so we
+lost our curate. But it seems he prated to his patron about the fair
+young lady he had hoped should share his preferment, lamenting her
+silliness in preferring a moonstruck Quaker youth; also he complained of
+Mrs. Golding for not discouraging such follies, and he even deplored Mr.
+Truelocke's obstinate heresies as to church discipline.
+
+I think even he had held his peace, if he had known into how greedy an
+ear he poured these tales. This patron of his, one Sir Edward Fane, had
+much land and not a little power in our parish, though he resided in
+another neighbourhood; he was a bitter hater of all Nonconformists, and
+in especial of the Quakers; men said this was because of some encounter
+he had had with Fox himself, by whose sharp tongue and ready wit our
+gentleman was put to open shame, where he had hoped to make himself
+sport out of Quaker enthusiasm. However that might be, it was commonly
+said this Sir Edward loved Quaker-baiting, as it was called, beyond all
+other of the cruel, inhuman sports, the bull-baitings and bear-baitings,
+in which too many men of condition now take pleasure; and it was not
+long before we found a powerful enemy was raised up against our harmless
+friends.
+
+'Twas a wonder to me that any would lift a hand against them; Mr.
+Truelocke being so venerable and so peaceable a man, and Andrew of life
+so irreproachable. Also, since the youth had cast in his lot with the
+Friends, he had shown a singular zeal in good works. He sought out those
+who were in distress or necessity, and laboured to make their hard lot
+easy, not merely giving them alms, but comforting them as a loving
+brother might do; and such as had fallen into want through folly or sin
+he toiled hard to lift up again, and to put them into an honest way of
+living. By this means some few were led to embrace his way of religion,
+it is true; and what wonder? My wonder was that so many were vilely
+ungrateful to him, at which _he_ never showed any vexation. 'We are
+bidden,' he said, 'to do good to the unthankful and the evil,' which
+seemed enough for him.
+
+But it being contrary to his conscience to attend the church, I suppose
+all his other graces did but lay him more open to injury, and we were
+soon warned of mischief hatching against us and him, and that by one
+from whom we never expected it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+HOW MR. TRUELOCKE AND MRS. GOLDING LEFT US.
+
+Mr. Poole being gone, there came in his place as curate an oldish man,
+grey-haired and meagre; a great adorer of Archbishop Laud and of King
+Charles the First, 'the Royal Martyr,' as he would say; but for all his
+half Popish notions, he was blameless, nay, austere in his life; and he
+had thriven so ill in the gay new world of London, that he deemed it
+great good luck to have the curate's place at West Fazeby.
+
+We had half feared that this poor Mr. Stokes would feel bound in
+conscience to torment and harass Mr. Truelocke into conformity; so when
+he came to the Grange one day, very earnest to see Aunt Golding and the
+former Vicar, and that in private, we were on thorns while he stayed;
+and when we heard the door shut after him, we hurried to our aunt,
+asking what his errand had been.
+
+She answered us not directly, but, gazing after Mr. Stokes, whom Mr.
+Truelocke was conducting out through the garden, 'Well, my girls,' said
+she, 'if the tree may be known by its fruits, yon is a right honest man
+and a true Christian;' and she went on to say how he had only come to
+warn her and hers of evil that was designed against them. 'I fear,' she
+said, smiling, 'the good man's conscience pulled him two ways; yet his
+heart has proved wiser than his head. I am right glad now that Andrew is
+away, though I was vexed before; yet I knew his was a charitable
+journey.'
+
+Then she told us of new crueller devices intended against the Friends,
+and, indeed, against all Nonconforming folks. 'And there be some,' she
+said, 'who have spoken very evil things of us here at the Grange. I
+warrant you it will not be long that we shall be suffered to have family
+worship if our labouring men share in it as they are used to do; nor can
+Mr. Truelocke so much as expound a Psalm to us and them, but it shall
+straight be said we hold a conventicle here.'
+
+'Surely,' says Althea, very pale, 'the gentlemen who now rule the
+country are too proud-spirited, too noble, to intermeddle with such
+matters; what is it to them how we say our prayers in our own houses?
+Abroad, there may be need of a decent face of uniformity, and some open
+outrageous follies may require to be put down strongly'--She stopped,
+and Aunt Golding said,--
+
+'Ah, child, thou little knowest. I have not yet heard of any outrageous
+follies that our poor Andrew has run into; yet I am told, and I fear
+it's true, that if he were to show his face openly in West Fazeby
+to-morrow, his next lodging might be in York Castle, where he should lie
+in the foulest den they could find for him, and have the worst company
+to boot. Nor will it be very safe here for our good Mr. Truelocke, who
+now talks of taking his journey to certain worthy kinsfolk of his that
+are farmers in the Dale country, there he may live in a peaceful
+obscurity; but his chief aim is to avoid bringing troubles on our
+house.'
+
+It struck me cruelly to think of Harry's father leaving us, but I had no
+time to dwell on the thought, for now Althea sank down at my feet,
+helpless and senseless like one who was dead indeed; and much ado we
+had to bring her out of her swoon, which was very long, and she very
+feeble when she was recovered from it. We got her to her room, and
+persuaded her to lie down and sleep; and when we came away, Aunt Golding
+turns to me with a puzzled look, saying,--
+
+'What means this, Lucy? I never thought your sister one of those fine
+ladies who swoon for every trifle;--what is it, think you?'
+
+'Andrew,' says I, 'and the image of his danger; you made a frightful
+picture of it, dear madam, do you know?'
+
+'Ah, set a thief to catch a thief!' says Aunt Golding, and I felt glad
+to hear her laugh once more; 'my love-passages are of too ancient a date
+to serve me, it seems, but yours are fresh and new, my Lucy. But what of
+Andrew? is Althea dear to him?'
+
+'More dear than he knows, or she guesses,' quoth I; at which our good
+aunt laughed again, but then said,--
+
+'It's a thing that would have pleased me well, had I been told that it
+would happen a year ago, but now I see nothing but trouble in it. There
+would be no equal yoke there, my Lucy. Whatever extravagances Andrew
+hath fallen into, the love of Christ runs through all he does and
+thinks. And canst thou say the like of thy sister?'
+
+'Not yet,' I murmured, but Aunt Golding heard me, and said,--
+
+'Ay, well spoken, Lucy; we will remember that when we pray.'
+
+After this, Aunt Golding had a long conference with Matthew Standfast,
+whom she despatched in pursuit of Andrew, that he might furnish him with
+money and warn him to keep away from the Grange for a season. And after
+much trouble, Matthew found him, somewhere on the road to York; when it
+cost him still more pains to lead his young master into compliance with
+the prudent courses enjoined on him.
+
+'He talked much,' said Matthew, 'of the honour of suffering for the
+truth, and how he must not be the vile coward to refuse it. And I had
+never been able to beat him away from that, but for the excellent
+counsel of one that was riding with him; I think he was a Quaker also,
+for he could talk with Master Andrew in his own dialect.'
+
+'What manner of man was he?' said our aunt.
+
+'I can hardly tell,' said Matthew; 'he had a piercing eye, I wot, and a
+voice as clear as a bell; very neat and seemly he was in his attire, and
+yet he might have been a ruffling cavalier if one judged by his hair,
+which he wore long and curled.'
+
+'That is much how George Fox himself has been described to me,' said
+Aunt Golding.
+
+'Nay, I cannot think it was any such man,' said Matthew, 'for he talked
+very reasonably, plain sense and plain words, such as a simple man like
+me could not choose but understand; and one told me how George Fox
+should be in Lancashire about this time.'
+
+'Well, what said he to persuade my poor lad?' asked aunt.
+
+'Why, he bade him remember certain works of mercy he had already in
+hand, which should not be neglected to gratify a mad fancy of thrusting
+his head in the lion's mouth whenever it was opened against him. So
+Master Andrew was ashamed of his rashness, and was persuaded to take
+himself away for a time; and we parted very lovingly. He says it shall
+not be long ere you hear from him, mistress.'
+
+I believe, in spite of Matthew's contrary opinion, that Andrew's
+counsellor was no other than the famous man whom our aunt had named. But
+I have no proof of this, only mine own strong persuasion.
+
+Not many days hereafter, we had proof that Mr. Stokes had been very
+honest in his warning to us. There came constables to the Grange, who
+showed a warrant to seize the body of Andrew Golding, charged with many
+strange misdemeanours, but especially with refusing the Oaths of
+Supremacy and Allegiance. I do not believe the poor youth ever had
+refused them; but this was the common trap set for the Friends, who were
+known to decline all oath-taking, because of that saying of our Lord's,
+'Swear not at all,'--a harmless scruple at the worst, which never ought
+to be used, as I think, against honest and peaceable subjects.
+
+We were now heartily glad that Andrew was absent, and that we could
+truly say, we knew not where he was; nor were the constables much
+grieved at it. One of them found an occasion of whispering to Aunt
+Golding, 'If you can get word to the young man, let him know this air is
+unwholesome for him just now;' after which they went hastily away.
+
+And now we began to be haunted with spies, our steps seeming to be
+dogged even in our own garden, where we were aware of people moving
+about behind trees and bushes, as if hearkening after our talk; or we
+caught sight of faces peering in at the windows when we were at evening
+prayer. Also our friends and neighbours began to shun us as if we had
+the plague, and no one more than Mrs. Bonithorne, who had been a great
+worshipper of Mr. Truelocke, but now, as we heard, blamed him openly for
+his lack of true obedience to the powers that be, 'which are ordained of
+God,' she would often add. It was her husband who told us this as a good
+jest; but it hurt Mr. Truelocke, and he became more set on his design of
+leaving the Grange, and betaking himself to his kinsfolk in Cumberland,
+where among the waste and lonely mountains he might linger out his days
+without offence to any. I could not hear him talk of this plan without
+tears, which he perceiving tried to stop.
+
+'Seest thou, dear child,' he would say, 'all these discomforts come upon
+this house because of my abode in it; for as for poor Andrew, he is
+known to be elsewhere, and however peaceably I may behave myself, you
+will be allowed no peace till I am either gone out of sight like him, or
+lodged in gaol for some fancied offence. Which were best, thinkest thou,
+Lucy?' and when I had no answer but weeping, he would leave that point
+and begin to talk of Harry's ship, the _Good Hope_, of which we had got
+some news, and would speak hopefully of the joyful meeting we should
+have when that ship came home.
+
+Alas, I fear he was no prophet! But he was not to be turned from his
+intention; and presently he was gone indeed, in the company of Mr.
+Bonithorne, who had business in the north country, and who undertook
+with a great deal of satisfaction to let no one, and especially not his
+wife, into the mystery of his having this reverend travelling companion.
+
+And now the Grange seemed a sad lonely house indeed; for every day and
+all day long we missed that noble white head, that kindly presence, that
+voice still musical and tender in spite of seventy years of service.
+Those spyings and watchings of us, which had helped to drive away our
+fatherly friend, were a little intermitted when he was gone; but the
+poor benefit was counterpoised with a heavy trouble, for now our Aunt
+Golding began to decline, falling into a strange lingering kind of
+fever, which the doctors could not understand. I think it was nothing
+but trouble of heart which caused it, for she was mightily disquieted
+about Andrew. There was reason to think it would be as unsafe as ever
+for him to return home, and letters from him were very rare; he could
+not often find a messenger whom he would trust, and this difficulty was
+increased by his wandering about the country as he did, which yet was
+deemed the best way for him to live.
+
+So being often a prey to anxious thoughts, the poor lady pined and faded
+away, and presently catching a cold, she began to be troubled with
+difficulty in breathing, and her sleep went from her. It was now that we
+learned the worth of Grace Standfast, who fairly took us poor silly
+girls in hand as her pupils, setting us tasks to do both in the house
+and the sick chamber, and keeping us in heart with cheerful words and
+looks. But for all her skill and her cheerfulness, our patient visibly
+grew worse and worse, and as the year wore into winter, we saw that we
+should lose her.
+
+And now there befell a strange thing, which I will tell just as it
+happened, and I think there can be no superstition in dwelling on it so
+far.
+
+Aunt Golding's sickness had now become so sore, that it was needful for
+one of us always to watch with her; and on the night I speak of it was
+my turn to do so. She was very uneasy the first part of my watch, but
+about midnight she fell into a deep sleep, and continued so for an hour,
+when, hearing no sound, I went to look on her, and saw such heavenly
+peace on her sleeping countenance, that I could have thought a light
+shone from it like the glory about a saint's head in a picture. I do not
+know how long I had stood gazing on her, when all at once she woke, and,
+smiling at me,--
+
+'Is it thou, Lucy?' said she; 'that is well. I have good news for thee;'
+at which I began to fear she was light-headed, for how should she have
+news that I knew not? But presently she went on, with many pauses
+because of her difficult breathing.
+
+'Thou hast grieved much, Lucy, thinking thy sailor would never come home
+to thee again; be at peace, he shall come home, a better man,--and find
+thee a holier woman for all the troubles thou shalt have seen.'
+
+'How do you know? how can you tell?' I cried.
+
+'I cannot tell thee now,' she said, 'but I do know. And thou hast seen,
+dear heart, how I have grieved over my Andrew--my heart's child, the
+comfort of my old age; I have thought he was clean gone out of the right
+way, for all his sincerity. It has been shown me in my sleep, that I had
+no need thus to grieve. His rashness may bring him sharp trials, but
+even through those shall he enter in. The light that leads him is the
+true Light. And though he and his fellows are but erring men,--like all
+others,--yet even their trivial errors shall have their use; in days to
+come men shall say that these despised and persecuted believers have
+done nobly--for their country and for the world.'
+
+'Then, do you think,' I said, in some trouble, 'that we are all wrong,
+and only Andrew and those like-minded in the right?'
+
+'Nay, dear heart,' said she, 'I think not so. The paths are many--but
+the Guide is one. Let us only follow His voice,--and He will bring us
+to His Father's house in safety. I have comfort about thy sister too,'
+she added presently, 'though I fear it is not such as she can value yet.
+Do not forget, dear child, to have Mr. Stokes sent for to-morrow; I wish
+to receive the most comfortable Sacrament of the Lord's Supper once
+more--with you all, before I go hence.' As she said the last words, her
+voice sank away, and I saw that she was sleeping once more.
+
+The next day we did as she had bidden, in sending for Mr. Stokes, who
+accordingly came, and gave the Communion to all our household, as well
+as to our poor aunt. I never liked him better than on that day.
+
+But a sad day it proved to us, for we all saw plainly how our second
+mother was now a dying woman. I think she hardly said twenty words to
+one of us thereafter, but quietly slept and dreamed her life away, and
+on the third day she was gone. This was last winter, the winter of 1664;
+and I remember how all that melancholy time the people were greatly
+disturbed about the comet that was to be seen, wondering what mischiefs
+it should betoken; I saw it myself, but so full was my mind of my
+private griefs, I cared not much about ill omens to the State. Indeed,
+one thing that soon happened was very distressing to us, and I shall
+shortly relate what it was.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+HOW ANDREW CAME TO THE GRANGE BY NIGHT.
+
+It was about a ten days after Mrs. Golding's death, and we were
+beginning to feel as if our desolation was a thing that had always been
+and always would be, for so I think it often seems when a grief is new.
+However desolate we were, we were not destitute; she who was gone had
+cared for that, and we found a modest dower secured to each of us,
+without injury to Andrew's rightful inheritance of the Grange and the
+lands belonging thereto; also we were to continue dwelling in the Grange
+till its new master should come home and make such dispositions as
+pleased him. But for all this we were greatly perplexed; we had been
+long without news of Andrew, and could not tell how to get word to him
+of Mrs. Golding's death.
+
+On the day I speak of, we had been teased by a visit from Mrs.
+Bonithorne, who, professing great sorrow for our loss, and her own loss
+of one whom she called her oldest friend, soon fell to talking of
+Andrew, and how his unlucky doings were all owing to our good aunt's
+foolishness in entertaining so pestilent a heretic as James Westrop
+under her roof.
+
+'I warned her of it,' quoth she; 'I said to her, "You will rue it yet,
+Margaret; with such an one you should have no dealings, no, not so much
+as to eat," and now see what has come of her perverseness!' and
+such-like stuff she said, which moved Grace Standfast to say
+disdainfully, when our visitor was gone, 'Yon woman surely owes us a
+little grudge, that 'twas our house and not hers which entertained so
+rare a monster as a wandering Quaker; she asked me twenty questions
+about him the day after, I remember it well; but we hardly had heart to
+laugh, though we were sure enough she had given no such warnings as she
+spake of. Althea only sighed and said, ''twas an evil day for her when
+she first saw that man;' and as she told me, his two appearances to us
+haunted her as she went to rest, and mingled themselves with her dreams.
+She woke at last sharply and suddenly, thinking she heard the hail
+rattling against the windows as it did when Mr. Truelocke preached his
+last sermon in our church; but it was not hail that rattled, it was some
+one throwing sand and pebbles up at her window to wake her, and then a
+voice calling on her name. She sprang up, and, hurrying on some clothes,
+she ran down-stairs; for, as she told me, she had no more doubt of its
+being Andrew who called, than if it had been broad daylight, and she
+could see him standing below the window; and, being too impatient to
+unlock any door, she undid the hasp of the nearest casement and climbed
+out; and at the same moment hearing a voice again calling softly,
+'Althea,' she ran in the direction of the sound, and came upon a man
+whom in the starlight she saw to be Andrew indeed; she spoke his name,
+holding out both her hands, and he turning at once grasped them in both
+his, and so they stood gazing at each other awhile. Then she said, half
+sobbing,--
+
+'You come strangely, Andrew--but you come to your own house, and I am
+glad that it falls to me to welcome you to it; it lacks a master sadly;'
+and she tried to draw him towards the door, telling him she would set
+it open if he would tarry a few minutes while she herself climbed in to
+do it.
+
+'Alas!' he said, resisting her efforts; 'what do you mean by calling
+this my house? is our aunt indeed gone? I had hoped that part of the
+message might be a delusion.'
+
+'What message? I sent none, for I knew not where to send, nor did any of
+us,' she replied; 'but it is too true that Mrs. Golding is dead these
+ten days; and all things are at a stand for lack of your presence. Come
+in; do not keep me here in the darkness and the cold.'
+
+'I will not keep thee long,' he said sadly; 'fear it not, Althea. But I
+may not come under this roof which thou sayest is mine. I saw the dim
+light in your window,' he went on, like one talking in a dream, 'and I
+could not bear to pass by and make no sign, as I ought to have done. For
+I love thee too well, Althea Dacre, as thou knowest.'
+
+'How can it be too well,' she answered boldly, 'if you do not love me
+better than I do you? and therefore come in to your own home, or I will
+not believe there is any love in you at all.'
+
+'That's a foolish jest,' said he half angrily. 'I may not cross the
+doorstone of this house to-day, Althea; I am forbidden; so hear me say
+what I came to say. There is a heavy burden laid on me. For seven nights
+together I saw in vision a dark terrible angel, having his wings
+outspread and holding in his hand a half-drawn glittering sword; he was
+hovering over this land of England; and it was shown me that he was a
+messenger of wrath bidden to smite the land with a pestilence. Now there
+be those far holier than I who have seen the like vision; but to me came
+the word that I must go up to London, where this year the plague shall
+be very sore, and as I go I must warn all men, that they may repent and
+amend, before this judgment fall on them.'
+
+There was that in his voice and words that made Althea tremble like a
+leaf; she did not disbelieve in his visions while she heard him; but she
+strove against the impression, and cried out, when she could find her
+voice, that this was indeed madness.
+
+'You have no right,' she said, 'to desert your natural and lawful
+duties, and your poor kinswomen too, who are desolate; you will break
+our hearts, you will ruin yourself, and all for a delusion.'
+
+'It is no delusion,' said he; 'your own words, Althea, have confirmed
+to me the truth of my mission. For it was said to me, "This shall be a
+sign to thee, that Margaret, the widow of thy father's brother, lies
+sick even to death; and thou shalt see her face no more, nor come under
+her roof." And is it not so? for her face is buried out of our
+sight,'--his voice shook,--'so dost not see, Althea, I may not come in
+as thou wouldst have me? Furthermore, I believe my earthly pilgrimage
+shall come to its end in London; I cannot be sure; but, I think, I
+return no more alive. That is why I hungered so for one last look at
+thee, Althea; also I wished as a dying man to entreat thee not to
+despise the Lord's poor people any more. Now I must go; farewell, dear
+heart, for ever;' and with these words he assayed to go; but, as she
+told me afterwards, she clutched at his coat, passionately protesting he
+should never go; and when he unlocked her hands, and besought her not to
+hinder him, she dropt on the ground at his feet, clasped him round the
+knees, and called on me with all her might.
+
+'Help, Lucia! help, sister!' were the words that woke me, and sent me
+flying with breathless speed to the place whence the call came. I
+climbed through the window which I found open, and ran to the spot where
+I could discern that a struggle was going on; but as I came up Andrew
+had got himself loosed; and, saying low and thickly to me,--
+
+'Look to your sister, take her in instantly,' he turned and fled as a
+man might flee for his life, while Althea threw herself on the cold
+ground, moaning and sobbing like a creature mortally hurt. I took her in
+my arms and raised her up, asking her, all amazed, was that indeed
+Andrew? but she did nothing but wring her hands and implore me to follow
+him and fetch him back; and I had much trouble to persuade her that was
+useless and hopeless for us at that hour of the night. At last she was
+won to rise and return to the house; and we both found it a difficult
+matter to get in where we had got out easily enough; which Mr.
+Truelocke, I doubt not, would have moralized in his pleasant way into a
+sort of holy parable. But I have not that gift, and I suppose 'twas the
+hope in Althea's breast and the fear in mine which had raised our powers
+for a moment and made a hard thing easy.
+
+[Illustration: 'Look to your sister, take her in instantly.']
+
+When we had recovered a little, and had got safely to my room, Althea
+recollected herself and told me every word that had passed; and we both
+agreed that Andrew was running himself into new and strange dangers in
+pursuance of what he held as a Divine call. I noted it as a new thing
+in Althea, that she could no longer scoff at this belief of his in the
+inward heavenly voice that must be obeyed; but this matter was very
+terrible to us; and we talked of it till daylight, without coming to any
+conclusion as to what we were best to do about it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+HOW A STRANGE MESSENGER BROUGHT US NEWS OF ANDREW.
+
+And now we had a time of unceasing disquiet. It was soon noised abroad
+that the heir to the Grange was missing, and his house and lands left
+masterless; and there presently appeared first one and then another of
+the Goldings, far-off kinsmen of Andrew; these persons came to the house
+to examine it, and talked much with the Standfasts; also they tried to
+find out what my sister and I knew of Andrew's doings; some of them went
+to York to talk with Aunt Golding's lawyer; and it was not hard to see
+that they would have been glad to get certain news of Andrew's death.
+This made their coming hateful to us; but the house not being our own,
+we could not shut them out. We did what we could to get news of Andrew;
+but there was small comfort in the scanty intelligence we could glean,
+since it all pointed to his having indeed gone up to London, and having
+preached woe and judgment on his way thither.
+
+And had it not been that we sometimes got comfortable letters from Mr.
+Truelocke, telling of his quiet untroubled life in the Dale country, I
+had now been unhappy enough; for we were ever hearing tales of the evil
+handling of all kinds of Dissenters; even young maidens and little
+children being pelted, whipped, and chained for the crime of being of
+Quaker parentage and belief, while hundreds of Nonconformists of that
+sort and other sorts were thrown into prison and left there. I suppose
+it was the mad doings of the Fifth Monarchy men, as folks called them,
+which stirred up such a persecuting spirit; so at least said the people
+of our village, who now began to come about us again, with some show of
+former kindness; but they proved very Job's comforters to us, by reason
+of the frightful stories they loved to retail.
+
+There was one good soul whom I loved well to see, who yet gave me many a
+heart-quake; it was a Mrs. Ashford, wife to a small farmer near us; a
+lad of hers had sailed with my Harry, and thus she would often come to
+talk over the hopes and fears we had in common, and to exchange with me
+whatever scraps of sea-news we could pick up. So one day, as we sat
+talking,--
+
+'It may be,' says she, 'we shall see things as terrible here in England,
+as any that can befall our darlings at sea;' and I asking what she
+meant, she told me she had learnt from certain poor seamen that the
+Plague was assuredly on its way to us, having been creeping nearer and
+nearer for a year and a half.
+
+'A Dutch ship from Argier in Africa,' says she, 'brought it first to
+Amsterdam, where it grows more and more; and 'tis certain, in another
+Dutch ship, a great one, all hands died of the Plague, the ship driving
+ashore and being found full of dead corpses, to the great horror and
+destruction of the people there; which makes our people tremble, because
+of our nearness to Holland and our traffic with it.'
+
+'I heard something of this,' I said, 'last summer, but it seemed an idle
+tale only, that died away of itself.'
+
+'It is no idle tale,' answered she; 'see you not, sweet lady, the
+infection itself died away somewhat in the cold winter; but now that
+spring comes on so fast, the sickness and people's fears of it revive
+together. You will see.'
+
+Well, this news was frightful to me for Harry's sake. I began to tremble
+lest perchance the _Good Hope_ should be visited like that Dutch ship;
+but I did not breathe such a fear to Mrs. Ashford. And as the spring
+drew on, and war with the Dutch was in every mouth, we had a new terror;
+for now if our sailors came safe home, they could scarce escape being
+impressed for the king's service; so we knew not what to wish for.
+
+The spring being more than ordinarily hot, doubled the apprehensions of
+the Plague; and some time in April, as I think, news came down that it
+had broken out indeed in London. 'Twas said it came in a bale of silk,
+brought from some infected city, and the fear of it increased mightily;
+and we, remembering Andrew's strange vision, were not less in terror
+than our neighbours.
+
+About that time I was busy one morning in the front garden, when a
+gentleman in black came in at the gate, and was making up to the hall
+door, when, espying me, he stopped, beckoning with his hand, and seeming
+to want speech with me. He was muffled in a cloak, and his hat pulled
+over his brows, so I could not tell who he was; yet I went to meet him,
+and when I was near enough,--
+
+'I think, madam,' says he, in an odd husky voice, 'you have a kinsman
+who took his way up to town some weeks ago? I bring news of him;' on
+which I begged he would come in and tell it to my sister also; but he
+said,--
+
+'There is much sickness in town; I am newly come from it; it were more
+prudent for me to speak with you here;' on which I ran and fetched
+Althea out; and the man said, 'I do not pretend, madam, that my news is
+good news. Your kinsman demeaned himself strangely on his coming up,
+denouncing wrath and woe against the poor citizens, speaking much evil
+of both Court and City; I am told his civillest name for one was Sodom,
+and for the other Gomorrah.'
+
+Here Althea said scornfully, if all tales were true, those names were
+fit enough; and the stranger replied, that might be, but civil speech
+was best.
+
+'People took your kinsman's preachings very unkindly,' he continued;
+'the more so when the Plague he prophesied of began to show itself; then
+he was called a sorcerer; and to make a long story short, he was taken
+up for a pestilent mad Quaker, and clapt into gaol. I looked on him
+there; and in gaol he lies still, and may lie for me.'
+
+With that he plucked his cloak away from his face, and, lifting his hat,
+made us a deep, mocking bow, and we saw it was Ralph Lacy; but such a
+ghastly change I never saw on any man. His face was livid, his eyes,
+deep sunk in his head, glared like coals of fire; and when he began to
+laugh, his look was altogether devilish.
+
+'You did not know me, pretty one,' he said to Althea, 'did you? When I
+had seen Golding laid in gaol, I swore none but I should bring you the
+joyful news; and I can tell you he is worse lodged than even his great
+prophet, Fox himself, at whose lodging in Lancaster Castle I looked this
+year with great pleasure--very smoky, and wet, and foul it is.'
+
+'Wretch!' said Althea; 'do you exult over the sufferings of harmless,
+peaceable men?'
+
+'Harmless and peaceable, quotha?' said he; 'it was one of these
+peaceable creatures flung me into the dust like a worm; but the worm
+turns, you know. I took much pains to requite that kindness, and now I
+cry quits with Master Andrew.'
+
+'Your wickedness shall return on your own head! I pray God it may!'
+cries Althea, trembling with indignation.
+
+'Past praying for, madam,' said the reckless wretch, 'for I have the
+Plague upon me. I stayed too long up in town, out of love to your friend
+and mine. I shall be a dead corpse to-morrow; and why should not you
+have the sickness as well as I?'
+
+With that he came towards her, as if to embrace her, when we both
+shrieked aloud, and turned to fly; and Matthew Standfast, coming
+suddenly between us with a spade uplifted in his hand, bade the
+miserable man keep his distance, and asked what he wanted. On which Lacy
+said wildly,--
+
+'A grave, man--I want nothing but a grave, and any ditch will furnish me
+that,' with which he went away.
+
+Matthew, good man, was troubled when we told him Lacy's words.
+
+'If the wretched fellow have the sickness indeed,' he said, 'he might
+die in a ditch for all his own people care;' and that same night he went
+to Lacy Manor, inquiring after its master.
+
+It proved that, on leaving the Grange, the man went straight home, and
+up-stairs to bed, saying he was weary, and must not be disturbed for an
+hour or two; and there he now lay dead. None of the servants had
+guessed what ailed him, and they were taken with such a fear they would
+not stay to see him buried, but fled, and laid that charge on poor, good
+Mr. Stokes, who discharged it with true Christian courage; after which
+the Manor was shut up for many a day, till the next heir's covetousness
+got the better of his fears. This matter caused great terror; but the
+Plague spread no further in our parish, and so the people forgot it
+somewhat after a time.
+
+But Althea could not forget Lacy's words about Andrew, nor could I
+persuade her they were false tales spoken in pure despite; she brooded
+over them, remembering all the tales we had heard of good men's
+sufferings in poisonous infected dungeons; and at last she said to me,--
+
+'I wish Lacy had but said in what prison he saw our Andrew; however, it
+was in London, Lucy? sure he said London?'
+
+'Ay,' said I, 'that's what he said, if you can pin any faith on the
+raving talk of a plague-stricken man.'
+
+'He spoke truth,' said she; 'I am too sure of it. Now there will not be
+so many gaols in London town, Lucy, but I can find out where Andrew
+lies; and if I cannot have him out, I can supply his wants at least.'
+
+'Althea, Althea, you do not dream of going up?' I cried; 'it were sinful
+madness! By all accounts the sickness increases there from day to day;
+the poor people die like flies.'
+
+'I care not,' says she; and I found her immoveably set on taking this
+journey speedily. She was getting together all the money she could, and
+her jewels too, intending to turn them into money if needful; and she
+was packing some clothes in very small compass, so as to carry them
+herself as she journeyed.
+
+'It is not likely,' she said, 'that I shall find companions on such a
+journey. I must learn to be my own servant.'
+
+But I had soon resolved that one companion she should have, and that
+should be myself; so, after a few more vain efforts to shake her
+resolution, I acquainted her with mine; and with incredible trouble I
+got her to agree to it, for I said at last that the roads were as free
+to me as to her; if she so disliked my company as she said, she might
+take the right side of the way and I would take the left. 'But where
+thou goest,' said I, 'there will I go, Althea.'
+
+'Take heed,' she replied instantly, 'that it be not "Where thou diest I
+will die, and there will I be buried."'
+
+'So let it be,' I said, 'if it is Heaven's will; but you go not up
+alone;' upon which she yielded, saying she had not thought I had so much
+sturdiness.
+
+I cannot deny I thought it a mad expedition, though I dreamed not of the
+straits into which we have since been driven. But I had prayed again and
+again for guidance, and always it grew clearer to me that I must cleave
+to my sister. So I made haste to get ready for our wild journey; and
+after Althea's example, I sewed certain moneys and jewels into the
+clothes I wore, and put a competent sum in my purse. Then came the
+telling the Standfasts of our intent. They opposed it at first with all
+their might, and no wonder; then, their anxiety about Andrew making them
+yield a little, Matthew took his stand on this, that we must have some
+protector.
+
+'A man-servant you have at least, or you do not stir,' quoth he.
+
+'But you cannot be spared from this place,' we urged; 'and who else is
+there faithful and bold enough for such a service?'
+
+'Leave me alone for that,' said he.
+
+And the evening before our departure he brought to us a strange
+attendant indeed, but one who proved most trusty. It was a poor fellow
+of the village, who had once been in service at Lacy Manor; but the
+young Squire hated him, and got him turned away in disgrace, after which
+no man would employ him, and he fell into great wretchedness. But Andrew
+came across him, and not only relieved his distress, for he was almost
+dead for hunger, but put him in a way of living on his own land. So,
+partly for love of Andrew, and partly from true conviction, poor Will
+Simpson, so he was called, turned to the Quaker way of thinking. I do
+not know if he was acknowledged as a proved Friend, he had some odd
+notions of his own. But he showed himself a peaceable, industrious
+fellow, and he loved Andrew as a dog might love a kind master that had
+saved it from drowning. Indeed there was something very dog-like about
+honest Will. Without having any piercing wit, he had a strange sagacity
+at the service of those he loved; and his dull heavy face sometimes
+showed a great warmth of affection, making it seem almost noble. When
+Matthew told him wherefore he was wanted, he was all on fire to go. He
+left his hut, and work, and woodman's garb, Matthew having got him a
+plain serving-man's suit, in which he looked still a little uncouth; and
+thus he came eagerly to us and begged to be taken with us. Then with no
+escort but this poor fellow, who, however, knew the road well, and was
+strong and sturdy, we set forth on our way up to London, bidding adieu
+to none in West Fazeby, as the Standfasts had advised. I believe it was
+supposed in the village that we were gone to Mr. Truelocke.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+HOW WE WENT UP TO LONDON, AND FOUND NO FRIENDS THERE.
+
+I hoped little from the first plan on which Althea relied for obtaining
+Andrew's release. Her trust was in Mr. Dacre, since he was a great
+courtier, and she thought his influence might avail to get one poor
+Quaker set free.
+
+'I shall not get his help for nothing,' said she; 'that were an idle
+hope. But I know his expenses to be very great, out of proportion to his
+means; so if I bring a heavy purse in my hand to interpret between him
+and me, I am sure of a kind and favourable hearing.' She was almost gay
+while she dwelt on this plan, and it furnished the most of our talk on
+the first day or two of our journey.
+
+It was very hot summer weather, a little sultry; yet travelling would
+have been pleasant enough had our minds been easy, which they could not
+be. It was hard to go fast enough for Althea, Will having to make her
+understand it was small wisdom to hurry our horses beyond their
+strength; then she went sighing out,--
+
+'Oh for a horse with wings! or could one only ride on the speed of fire!
+It will be a week, I dare swear, before we see St. Paul's,' and she
+grudged herself time to eat and sleep.
+
+There was nothing very noticeable on the way, but the vast amazement
+expressed by all who found that we were going up to London. And as we
+got nearer our journey's end, we began to find that the inn-keepers
+distrusted us not a little, suspecting us of escaping out of the town,
+and making only a false pretence of journeying up to it. Will, however,
+was so plainly a blunt, simple fellow, that his word was taken where
+ours was doubted.
+
+Now and then we heard news of the war: first there was talk of a great
+victory at sea over the Dutch, won the third day of June, at which the
+Court and City were rejoicing mightily, half forgetting their home
+perils; then came contrary news, how this victory was no victory, but
+rather a disgrace to us, and that our ships were shamefully commanded,
+which I believe was the truer tale; so my thoughts flew at once to my
+Harry and his father. I had writ to Mr. Truelocke about our journey, but
+there had been no time for an answer; and I fell to musing what those
+two would think of our wild adventure, and wondering if Harry had been
+seized for the king's service, like many others; but all was vain
+conjecture, and I had to resign them and myself up to God's guidance;
+the safest and most blessed way, as I was fast learning; for since Aunt
+Golding's death I think a change had come over me; I had learned a true
+hate of mine own sins, and had found One in whose sufficiency I could
+trust to save me from them, and to guide me in all things. I will not
+enlarge on this now, however.
+
+So with hopes and fears, despairing and trusting, the days of travel
+wore away; and late in a sultry summer evening we came into London. We
+put up for the night at a decent inn, kept by some people named Bell,
+which our father had sometimes used when we were with him; the people
+remembered him, and were civil to us. My poor sister could scarce sleep
+all that night; and the landlady coming herself to wait on us at
+breakfast, Althea took occasion to ask her, did she know Mr. John Dacre?
+and finding she did, she got from her particular information about his
+house, and the way to it, and the hours when he was to be found there;
+all which the good woman imparted cheerfully, but could not help pitying
+our rashness in coming up to town.
+
+'I live a dying life,' she said, 'for terror of the contagion; I would
+never have run into it;' which words we passed over at that time, but
+had to call them to mind after.
+
+According to her information, Mr. Dacre rarely stirred from home before
+noon; so we set off betimes to find him. Will, walking behind us, looked
+about in amaze at the half empty streets, the many closed shops, and
+houses uninhabited, and at last, fetching a great sigh, he said,--
+
+'Methinks, mistresses, this whole town looks like a gaol, and the folk
+go about like condemned prisoners.'
+
+'Ay,' says Althea; 'but there are worse gaols within this gaol, Will.
+Here, the sun shines and the wind blows on us; not so where your master
+lies;' and she hastened her steps, which were swift before.
+
+Mr. Dacre's house proved to be a very stately and fair one, towards the
+west end of the town; it stood in a broad, very quiet street; too quiet,
+I thought. Althea bade Will knock boldly at the door; 'We will not be
+too humble,' says she; and he knocked loudly enough, once, twice,
+thrice; but no one came to open to us, and our knocking seemed to echo
+and re-echo strangely through the house.
+
+'Sure,' says Althea, 'all the folks cannot be asleep; 'tis past ten
+o'clock,' and she knocked once more.
+
+There was a gentleman come out of a neighbouring house, who had looked
+curiously at us; he now drew near, and, standing a little way off,
+called out, 'It is little use to knock at that door, ladies--the master
+is dead a week since, and the house stands empty;' at which Althea
+turned a deadly pale face to him, saying,--
+
+'Do not mock us--sure, it cannot be so.'
+
+The man, looking compassionately at her, now came up to us and said,
+'Nay, my words are too true, madam. Have you any interest in this Mr.
+Dacre?'
+
+'I am his cousin,' said Althea, 'and I am come up from the North on
+great occasion, to see my kinsman and claim his help.'
+
+'Alas!' said the gentleman; 'he is past rendering help to any. It was
+mightily suspected,' said he whisperingly, 'that he died of the Plague;
+but your great rich folks can smother these matters up. This is certain,
+that he had secret and hasty burial, and all his family are fled and
+gone, without so much as locking the door behind them, as it is said;
+but I think none have been so bold as to try that; men love their lives
+too well to venture within; nor would I advise you to do it.'
+
+'No, no,' said Althea a little wildly; 'I will not take the Plague and
+die--not yet; I have work to do;' at which the man smiled pityingly, and
+added,--
+
+'You would not find Mr. Dacre here now, were he in life--he designed to
+follow the Court, which is removed to Salisbury for safety; but he
+lingered about some money matters, which have cost him very dear, as I
+think;' and bowing to us he walked hastily away.
+
+Well, we knew not what to do now, and so returned to our inn, where we
+sat the rest of the day in the room we had hired, talking over our few
+acquaintance in town, but unable to hit on one who would have will and
+power to help us much. Our good hostess served us again at supper, and
+asked how we sped in our search for Mr. Dacre; so unthinkingly we told
+her the whole tale; at which her colour changed and she left the room
+without saying a word in answer. That night we slept heavily for very
+trouble; so we were not aware of a great stir there was in the night;
+for Mrs. Bell, the poor landlady, was taken very ill about midnight, the
+maids were called up, and a physician sent for; they had some trouble to
+find one; but when he came he told them plainly that her disorder, which
+they and she too had feared was the Plague, was nothing but pure terror;
+our careless words about Mr. Dacre's death having struck such a fear in
+her as to throw her into a kind of fever.
+
+Will told us this news in the morning, and we were grieved at our
+foolishness, and wondered at hers; but we had little time for lamenting,
+as we were setting forth to visit a distant kinswoman of our father's,
+who, being rich and well reputed, we thought might be able to help us.
+But here we fared no better,--not that the lady was dead; but she had
+gone out of town on the first alarm of the sickness, leaving her house
+locked up and empty, as the neighbours told us. So we went back to our
+inn yet more cast down; but there we stayed not long, for we were scarce
+got to our room when the landlord came to us, very angry, and said, had
+he known we had been visiting an infected house, we had never come into
+his; and he bade us to pack up and be gone within the hour, that he
+might have every place purified where we had come. Our horses, he said,
+might stand in his stable; but we saying we would remove them, he spoke
+more plainly, and said he should keep them as security for what we owed.
+'I will take no money from you,' he said; 'you may have the Plague in
+your purses for all I know;' and he left us, saying if we went not
+quickly we should be put out by force.
+
+This brutal usage dismayed me; but Althea said, 'Poor wretch! he is half
+crazed with fear; that makes mean men cruel; care not for him;' and when
+we were ready, giving our packages to Will, she led the way out with a
+determined aspect, having, as I soon found, embraced a strange--nay, a
+desperate resolution. For Will asking her, 'Which way will ye turn now,
+mistress? In _this_ street no inn will open to us, for sure;' she
+replied,--
+
+'We will not seek any inn; we will betake ourselves to our cousin's
+empty house.'
+
+'You mean not Mr. Dacre's?' I cried.
+
+'But I do,' said she. 'We have a right to shelter there; and the door
+is open.'
+
+I exclaimed against this as a tempting of Providence, persuading her
+first to try some other house of entertainment; and at last she agreed.
+Now, whether our great distraction of mind gave us a haggard and sickly
+aspect, or whether 'twas merely the suspicion and hardness of heart bred
+in all people by terror, I cannot tell; but no one would take us in,
+some saying flatly they would receive no lodgers they did not know, and
+know to be sound. The day wearing fast away in these vain applications,
+Althea says to me,--
+
+'You see we must try my plan at last. I bid you think scorn, my Lucy, of
+yielding to such base fears as make folk turn us from their doors.'
+
+'It is not that I fear infection as they do,' said I; 'but I shrink from
+dwelling in a house not our own, and lying open to any thief.'
+
+'Baby fears, Lucy,' she said, smiling. 'We will do our cousins a better
+turn than they merit; we will keep their doors fast against thieves, and
+their household stuff from moth and mould and rust. For the infection,
+we run as little risk in that house as out of it.' So she bore me down
+with her will, the more easily since we had no choice but either to
+lodge in that house or in the open street.
+
+But Will said sturdily, 'Mistresses, you may do as you will; I will
+neither eat nor sleep in that evil house. There is a scent of death and
+sin breathing from it; I perceived it as we stood at the door.'
+
+'And will you desert us then, Will?' said Althea. 'Have you come so far,
+to forsake us now?'
+
+'Who spoke of forsaking?' growled Will. 'I can find some balk, some
+cobbler's stall, without the house, to sleep on, if you will lodge
+within. The watch-dog lies not in the house, I trow? But if you must
+lodge there, enter not openly, nor let it be known you are within; you
+may be suspected for thieves or worse.'
+
+'Yours is no fool's advice,' said Althea shortly.
+
+So we lingered out the time till nightfall in buying some needful
+things,--bread and meat and candles,--having to walk far before we found
+shops open; then, as night thickened, we stole into the desolate house,
+and groped our way to a room at the back, where we lit our candles and
+looked about us. 'Twas a richly furnished withdrawing-room, with windows
+open on a garden.
+
+'There will I sleep,' said Will. 'I had rather have the free sky over
+me than this roof; so give me but a hunch of bread to sup on, and let me
+go.'
+
+There was little use in crossing him, so we gave him some meat and
+bread; but we prayed his help first to make all the doors fast, which he
+willingly did; then he showed us how to secure the window after him, and
+so slipt out into the night.
+
+Now we looked at one another, and felt desolate and dismayed for a
+moment. Then I said, 'Let us commend our cause to God, sister; He will
+hear us;' and we knelt down together and implored the Divine protection;
+after which we felt at peace, and so took courage to sup on the food we
+had brought. Then we made fast our door on the inside, and lay down to
+sleep on the floor, with our mantles for coverlets and our bundles for
+pillows. I never slept in such rude fashion, nor ever more sweetly and
+soundly.
+
+Early in the morning there came a tapping at the window that wakened me;
+so I rose and drew back the curtain, and saw that Will was moving about
+in the garden. We let him in shortly, and gave him some food, which he
+carried with him out of doors; then, coming back, he excused his
+incivility of the night before. 'But I cannot eat nor sleep here,' said
+he. 'In all other matters I am your servant.'
+
+He had lodged for the night in an empty dog-kennel, which he showed us,
+close against a side-door that led out to the street.
+
+'There,' said he, 'I can do you better watchman's service than if I lay
+within; and by that door you may come and go unespied of any gossips.'
+
+Althea smiled, and commended his thoughtfulness. Then she said,--
+
+'You will come with us now, Will? We must examine this house;' so he
+stepped in, shuddering, and looking round almost with horror.
+
+However rich the room, it was in great disorder; and when we went
+up-stairs we found matters no better--beds half stript, chests and
+cabinets left open, floors strewed with things pulled forth in haste and
+left there. We pitched on one sleeping-room to the back, to use
+ourselves; and, having satisfied ourselves that no evil-disposed person
+lay hid in any room, we shut them all up (the keys being left in the
+locks) except that sleeping-room, the parlour we had first entered, the
+kitchen, and one great room looking to the front, agreeing to use no
+other apartments; and to this rule we kept, except when, as I have told,
+I went a-hunting for means to write this history.
+
+That work of examining the house was terrible to me, especially when we
+looked into Mr. Dacre's own chamber. There we found a mighty rich bed,
+with hangings of silk and silver, and all the toilet furniture in silver
+also; with couches and cushions richly wrought, and certain splendid
+garments, with a jewelled sword, left flung upon them, as if the owner
+had just put them off; but all was disordered wildly, as if by the dying
+struggles of a madman, and the gorgeousness seemed to add to the horror
+of it. I trembled as I looked at the glimmering mirror and thought of
+what it might have reflected; our cousin's image seemed to rise up in
+all his pride and bravery as I last saw him, but with the ghastly face
+of death; so I hurried out and flung the door to behind us, and Althea
+turned the key in the lock. After which we avoided passing that way; for
+the place was not less dreadful to her than to me; she acknowledged it
+made her remember what we had heard of the great burying-pit in Aldgate,
+and the dishonoured corpses that were flung into it, heaps upon heaps.
+
+'He may have gone to that grave from this splendid chamber--it's a
+hideous mockery,' she said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+HOW WE DWELT IN A HOUSE THAT WAS NOT OUR OWN.
+
+And now Althea began her search after Andrew, with none to help her but
+poor me and honest Will. Our chief care being not to be seen going out
+or coming in, she chose to steal forth of the back door early in the
+mornings; sometimes I with her, sometimes Will, but one of us always
+staying in the house to watch it, and to open at nightfall to the
+others. Althea went to such shops as she could find open and bought
+things, sometimes mere trifles, sometimes food and other necessaries,
+but always spending much time over it, and both listening to the talk of
+other folk, and drawing the shop-people into talk herself; when she
+contrived to work round to the prisons, and the poor souls in them, and
+how they fared in these bad times. Once or twice she took a boat and
+went up the river, and then was wondrous affable to the watermen,
+setting them talking also on the same matters; and thus she did with
+every one whom she could draw to speak with her, not disdaining even
+beggars, nor fearing the watchmen who guarded houses supposed to be
+infected, and therefore shut up. I confess that these last were people I
+would gladly have shunned, there being something so awful to me in the
+locked doors (marked with a great red cross, and 'Lord, have mercy on
+us' writ large upon them) by which the poor fellows sat. But Althea
+seemed to have said a long good-bye to fear. And with questioning and
+listening, and piecing things together by little and little, she assured
+herself that Andrew must be in Newgate, if he lay in any London prison.
+She had tried to find out by artful inquiries if any man had shown
+himself in London, announcing a coming judgment, and warning people to
+avoid it, as Andrew had proposed to do; on which people informed her of
+several such persons, but their descriptions answered not to our poor
+friend.
+
+One man had cried up and down the streets, 'Yet forty days, and London
+shall be destroyed,' after the fashion of the prophet Jonah; and another
+had run about by day and by night, naked to the waist, and crying, 'Oh!
+the great and dreadful God!' and no other words; which struck a great
+terror into all who saw and heard him; and yet a third, who was said to
+be a Quaker, acted more strangely; but he was known by name to those who
+told about him. Also in all these tales there was something frantic and
+unreasonable, not like Andrew, nor like the way he had designed to act.
+
+I think I myself saw one of these strange creatures. It was my turn to
+be housekeeper, Althea wanting Will's help to carry her purchases home
+that day. Such a solitary day was very dismal and heart-sinking to me;
+and had it not been for my plan of writing this history, I know not how
+I could have borne it. When it grew dusk I ventured to look out at a
+front window to see if my friends were coming; but what I saw was the
+light of torches coming up the street, which was the sign of a funeral,
+it being ordered that people should only bury at night; and presently
+came by a coffin borne of four, and a great many people following; for
+it was wonderful how people crowded to funerals at this time, as if
+desperate of their lives. They stopt suddenly, to my terror, right in
+front of my window; but it was because of another crowd meeting them,
+and in its midst a tall man, moving very swiftly, and going straight
+before him. He was stript to the waist; and I thought at first that the
+hair of his head was all in a flame of fire, but it was a chafing-dish
+of burning brimstone that he had set upon his head, and which glared
+through the darkness. As he met the coffin he made a stand, and looked
+upon it.
+
+[Illustration: 'I think I myself saw one of these strange creatures.']
+
+'Yet one more,' he said, in a deep hoarse voice,--'one more has fallen
+in his sins! but ye do not repent. Woe, woe, woe to this unfaithful
+city!' and he went on again directly, but continued to cry 'Woe, woe!'
+as long as I could hear him; the people running after and around him
+could scarce keep up with his swift pace. Those who were bearing and
+following the coffin had seemed struck with horror; but now they got
+into order again; and I heard one near the window bidding them
+sneeringly never to heed a mad Quaker, while another said aloud, 'I
+marvel such an evil-boding fool is left at large, when far quieter folks
+of his sort lie rotting in prison;' words which made me fain to hear
+more; but the men all moved off, and I had scarce seen their torches go
+twinkling away into darkness, when I heard the signal at the back door,
+and hurried joyfully to let in my friends, who had been delayed by
+meeting the funeral; but they had missed the other strange spectacle.
+
+As I remember, this was the second Saturday we spent in town; and here I
+may say that almost every Lord's Day which found us in our dismal abode,
+we two made our way to some church at a good distance, and there joined
+in worship.
+
+I never saw churches more crowded, worshippers more devout, ministers
+more fervent. We understood by what we heard that not a few clergymen
+were dead of the Plague, and others fled for terror; because of which
+certain of the silenced ministers were called on to fill those vacant
+pulpits; and they did so while the Plague lasted, with great zeal and
+boldness, no man saying them nay. But neither the courage of these men,
+nor the fervency with which they preached and visited among the sick and
+dying, could so far recommend them to Will that he would set foot in
+what he called the steeple-houses; so on the Lord's Day we had to
+dispense with his attendance, and this troubled me; but on the other
+hand there was comfort in seeing how my poor sister rejoiced in the
+ministerings of these faithful men. A great change showed itself in
+her; she was full of a new tenderness to me, and was most mild and
+patient with poor Will and his odd ways; and as for him, I believe he
+would have died for her, or done anything that she desired, except
+lodging in Mr. Dacre's house, or worshipping in a church.
+
+Now when Althea had assured herself she must look for Andrew in Newgate
+and in no other prison, she set herself to get admission there. 'No lock
+so hard,' she said to me, 'but will go with a golden key.'
+
+So she put money enough in her purse. She took Will with her, clad in a
+suit fit for a plain country gentleman, for she wished it to be thought
+he was one who had power to protect her; and, having found out the
+keeper of Newgate, she bought from him at a great price leave to visit
+his gloomy wicked kingdom, and to relieve poor creatures lying in it for
+conscience sake.
+
+Now, had she relieved all who professed that they were such as she
+sought, she might have spent the wealth of both Indies; for it was
+shocking how many utter reprobates pressed up to her and to Will,
+claiming that they were imprisoned for matters of religion; but their
+brazen countenances, that bore the deep impress of their wickedness,
+witnessed against them. With great trouble she found out at last a few
+of the sort she wanted, and then began to ask for Andrew by name; but no
+one seemed to know aught of him; the keeper too professed ignorance of
+any such person. But her belief was strong that he lay within those
+walls, and she went again and again on the same errand.
+
+Now I could never get her leave to go with her to Newgate. She said at
+first that Will, being a man, was more useful to her than I could be;
+but afterwards she owned that the prison was so vile and hideous a place
+she could not endure I should see it.
+
+'There is no need,' she said, 'for more than one of us to behold such
+monstrous evil. 'Tis a society of fiends, Lucy, a training-school for
+all vice, and the keeper is worthy of it. I think it is not less than
+acted blasphemy to throw good men into it; as well send them alive into
+hell. The Lord look upon it, and require it.'
+
+'Are there any of the Friends shut up there?' I asked.
+
+'There have been hundreds, I am told,' she said; 'even now there are too
+many, but they die daily of fever and misery;' and she stopped short,
+presently saying, 'If I find him not, I will not repent of my search. I
+have fed some starving saints already.' So she continued her visits and
+her inquiries.
+
+But I began to find it an almost unbearable penance to stay within doors
+alone in her absence; I prayed and struggled for composure, but could
+not attain it, and at last I said I must go out sometimes to breathe the
+air. She warned me of perils awaiting me if I walked abroad by myself,
+but I got some poor coarse black clothes that I put on, and a hood to
+hide my face; and I sometimes added to these a cloth tied about my neck,
+such as I had seen on poor creatures who had sores. It was an artifice,
+but I hope not a sinful one; for in this disguise, and contriving to
+behave like a sick languishing person, I was more terrible to disorderly
+people than they to me, and they kept at a good distance from me. Thus I
+took many a walk about the streets; but my chief comfort was only to see
+a variety of dismal objects. The street where we dwelt was quite
+grass-grown and empty; I do not think there were above two inhabited
+houses in it, nor would you see above half a dozen people go through it,
+in all the length of the summer's day. Of the passengers that I met
+elsewhere, I think two out of every three were poor sickly objects with
+sores and plasters upon them; and sometimes it was my luck to meet
+coffins of those dead of the sickness; for now there could be no strict
+observing of the rule to bury them by night, the number of such funerals
+increasing at a frightful rate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+HOW THERE CAME NEW GUESTS INTO THE HOUSE.
+
+The last day that I ventured out in this foolhardy manner I had a
+terrible fright which even now it is distasteful to remember. I was
+hurrying to get home, being warned by the darkening light that it was
+drawing near Althea's time to return, and, chancing to look behind me as
+I turned a corner, I was aware that not many paces from me was a man,
+tall and sturdy, who seemed to be following me, his eyes being fixed on
+me; and when I turned it seemed to give him a kind of start, for he
+looked away, and made as if he would cross to the other side. This
+alarmed me, and I quickened my pace from a walk almost into a run,
+resolving meanwhile not to look round again; yet I could not resist the
+fancy that I heard steps coming after me; and glancing over my shoulder
+I was aware of some one at no great distance off; on which I dared look
+no more; and, being now very near home, I darted round to the back
+entrance; and having got in and made the door fast, I sat down
+trembling, to get my breath.
+
+I was still much disquieted, when I heard the joyful sound of Althea's
+signal at the back door; I flew to open to her, my hands trembling so I
+could hardly withdraw the bolts. But when I got the door open, it was
+not Althea who stood without, but that very man whom I had tried to
+escape; he stood with his back to the sky, which was red and glowing,
+for it was just past sunset; and I saw him to be tall and powerful and
+roughly clad, so sunburnt that he might have been a Moor; and a long
+scar that ran from his eyebrow half across his cheek gave a strange
+fierceness to his look. This was all I could see, his back being to the
+light, such as it was. I gave a smothered shriek, and would have shut
+the door on him; but he said,--
+
+'Not so hasty, mistress--look at me again, and you will not turn me
+away, I think.'
+
+But I still held the door in my hand, and said hastily, 'I can admit no
+stranger--you should know this house is infected--what do you seek?' at
+which the man's eyes, which I saw to be blue and bright, began to
+twinkle, and he said,--
+
+'You will think it odd, madam, but I am come seeking my true love--Lucia
+Dacre is her name; do you know aught of her?' with which words he
+smiled, and all his face changed in that smile into the face of my own
+Harry.
+
+My heart sprang up in sudden rapture; I think, as the play says, it
+'leaped to be gone into his bosom,' for there I found myself the next
+moment, clasped tight in his arms, and holding him tight enough too,
+while I laughed and sobbed, crying out, 'Are you indeed my Harry? am I
+so blest beyond all other women? have you come back to me, alive from
+the dead?'
+
+'You may say indeed, sweetheart, that I am alive from the dead,' he said
+seriously; 'in a double sense I was dead and am alive again. But my tale
+must wait for a better time. I am sent before, dear love, to tell you
+your sister is coming, and not coming alone.'
+
+'Who is coming with her? any one beside Will? have you come to say she
+hath found Andrew? has she indeed?' I cried.
+
+'Ay,' said Harry, 'he is found; but I fear we may lose him again. Have
+you here a place, Lucy, here a dying man may lie softly and easily, the
+little time he has left? If not, make one ready quickly--but no stairs
+for him, remember. I would help you, dear heart,' he said tenderly,
+'were it not that I must keep watch here for their coming.'
+
+I turned my lips to his hand, as I unclasped my arms from him; then I
+flew to do as he had bidden. I dragged the coverings off our own bed and
+hastily spread a couch in that room where we commonly sat; I set lights,
+food, cordials in readiness on the table; then I ran back to the door,
+half afraid my Harry would have vanished like a dream; but there he was,
+watching yet; so I took my place beside him, and loaded him with
+questions about the finding of Andrew. I learned he had a large share in
+it.
+
+'A poor seaman who loved me,' he said, 'met me this morning when I
+landed at Woolwich; and he testified such extravagant joy on seeing me
+that I own I half thought him mad.'
+
+'Then what can you think of me?' I put in; at which Harry said,--
+
+'Nay, Lucy, you were ice compared to this poor fellow. He is one that
+hath tasted Andrew's bounty, and that not long since; for his wife
+sickened of the Plague, and our Andrew at his own cost provided a
+physician for her, and many other comforts; and 'tis owing to that, the
+man thinks, that she is now sound and well.'
+
+'Where was this?' I said, wondering.
+
+'Here, in London,' said Harry. 'Now close on this woman's recovery came
+the seizing of Andrew, and 'tis but lately that the poor grateful sailor
+discovered how his benefactor had been lying long in Newgate, where he
+was thrown by one Ralph Lacy's procurement.'
+
+'Ah!' I said, 'that wretch! but he has paid for it, Harry. But why could
+Althea never find Andrew before?'
+
+'I cannot tell by what devilish prompting it was,' he said, 'that Lacy
+bore Andrew and every one else down, that his true name was not Golding,
+but Dewsbury--William Dewsbury, as I think; and that he had shifted his
+name to avoid prosecution, having been once imprisoned already; and
+what our poor friend said to the contrary being slighted as a lie, his
+true name has never been given him. So inquiry after him has been
+crippled; and not by this means only.'
+
+'But if this sailor be so grateful, why did he not come to our poor
+friend's help?' I said indignantly; but Harry said, sighing,--
+
+'A destitute seaman! why, there be throngs of them and their wives
+starving in the streets, and cursing the navy officers because they
+cannot get their own hard wages. And this was why my poor fellow showed
+such frantic joy on seeing me--'twas for love of Andrew; he hurried his
+tidings on me, and bade me hasten to the gaol and relieve my friend;
+himself going there with me, else I had not sped so well.'
+
+Now how Harry sped at the prison I learnt afterwards; for at this point
+his tale was cut short; but I will put the story here, where it seems
+fittest.
+
+By great good fortune Althea encountered with Harry and the seaman Ned
+Giles at the very gate of the prison, and she soon bought leave to visit
+the prisoner called William Dewsbury, who lay under lock and key in a
+very filthy cell, and had latterly been denied even bread and water,
+because his money being spent he could not satisfy his gaoler's demands.
+They found him lying on a heap of mouldy straw; he was miserably wasted,
+and to all seeming lifeless; yet they knew him at once for Andrew; and
+Harry perceived there was life yet in him. Althea, however, seeing him
+lie as if dead, rose into fiery indignation; she turned to the gaoler,
+saying, in a terrible voice,--
+
+'See there, murderer! that is your work--the blood of this man shall lie
+on your soul for ever--it shall drown you in perdition!' at which he
+cowered and shrank ('and well he might,' said Harry), stammering out
+'twas an oversight, a pure accident; and she going on to threaten him
+with law and vengeance, he asked hurriedly, would not the lady like to
+remove the poor man, and give him honourable burial? at which Harry
+whispered her, 'Take his offer quickly; say not a word more of revenge;'
+and Althea, guessing his meaning, softened her tone a little, and
+consented to the man's proposal. 'Get me only a coach,' said she, 'and I
+will have this poor lifeless body to mine own home; and I will not
+charge you with the murder.'
+
+So they fetched a coach; but the driver, seeing as he thought a dead man
+brought out and laid in it, flung down the reins and refused to drive
+them.
+
+'I am well used to drive sick folks,' he said (indeed that was now the
+chief use of hackney coaches), 'but a corpse I never drove and never
+will.'
+
+Althea, however, stepped in herself, and bade Will get on the box and
+take the reins; then whispering to Harry, she told him where to find me,
+and begged he would prepare me for her coming. 'I shall soon master this
+knave's scruples,' she said; 'he is but bringing them to market, and I
+am ready to buy them;' and as I suppose, she paid a heavy price for the
+use of that coach for an hour, saying her man should drive it to her
+house and then return it empty to the coachman.
+
+For while Harry and I stood talking at the door, his tale was broken by
+the rumbling of wheels; and the coach coming lumbering up, we perceived
+Will to be the driver.
+
+'That is well,' said Harry; 'it will not be known where you dwell.' As
+he spoke the coach stopped, and Althea put aside the close-drawn
+curtains. She called Harry to her, and said softly,--
+
+'Now help me to lift him, good friend--but be very gentle; he lives, he
+speaks, but he is deadly weak;' and with infinite care she and Harry
+lifted out a poor shrunken figure that seemed light as an infant in
+their arms; and I leading the way they brought it in and laid it on the
+couch I had got ready; there Althea, sitting down, drew Andrew's head on
+to her bosom, supporting him with her arms, and murmuring tender words
+in his ear. Harry stayed to speak a word to Will before he drove off,
+and then returning he stood by me a moment and gazed with me at those
+two; 'twas a sight to chain one's eyes fast, to see Althea's face, still
+heavenly fair in spite of her anguish, bending over Andrew's, which was
+livid in colour, all but fleshless, and the eyes deep sunk in their
+sockets; yet he smiled, a smile full of a strange radiance; and he moved
+his colourless lips, saying something which Althea bent her head very
+low to hear; then looking up wildly and seeing Harry,--
+
+'Have you brought a physician?' she cried; 'there is no time to
+lose--he is dying for lack of help.'
+
+'That he shall not,' said Harry, who was now knelt beside Andrew, and
+offering a cordial to his lips; 'here is no disease but hunger, dear
+lady--I have learnt by sharp experience how to minister to that;' and in
+two hasty words he bade me go and warm some broth, of which luckily I
+had told him; so I went quickly.
+
+Now when I came back I saw there was more company in the room; for Will
+had come in, and with him a man and woman; but I did not note them much,
+for it seemed to me that Andrew was swooning, his eyes being closed. But
+Harry took the broth from me and began to feed Andrew with it; and at
+the warm scent of the food he revived a little. It charmed me to see the
+tender skill which my Harry showed in his ministerings. As I stood
+looking on, the woman came up to me, and with a sort of simple grace let
+me know who she was; 'twas Mary, the wife of Ned Giles, the seaman, and
+the man with her was Giles himself.
+
+'You will forgive us, madam,' she said, 'for thrusting our company on
+you unbidden; it's for love of this your kinsman we come, Mr. Truelocke
+having sent us word we could be useful about him.'
+
+'Kay,' I said, 'never ask forgiveness for such goodness; do you know
+this house is reputed to be infected?' but she said, smiling,--
+
+'Madam, I who was all but dead of the Plague not long since have little
+fear of it left.'
+
+While she spoke I saw that Harry was urging something on Althea, who was
+still sitting at Andrew's head; she answered at last, 'As you will. I
+may not gainsay you;' and yielded up her place to that good woman, who
+came eagerly to take it when Harry called her.
+
+'Now go and rest awhile till we call you--you have need,' Harry said to
+us; but Althea, as if she heard him not, stood looking down on Andrew
+and his nurse.
+
+'Does God forget His own?' she muttered; 'is this the reward of His
+servants? chains, cruelty, starvation?'
+
+Andrew must have caught her words, for he half raised his head, and his
+languid eye brightened.
+
+'Dear heart,' he said feebly, 'thou knowest little yet. Thou hast seen
+my prison, thou didst not see the Heavenly Guest who made it a heaven
+to me; thou hast seen me lacking bread, thou knowest nought of the
+angels' food with which He fed me.'
+
+As he said this he sank down again, but Mary Giles caught him in her
+arms; and Harry said imperiously to Althea and me,--
+
+'Leave him to us; it is best he should not speak; get you to your own
+rest, you need to renew your strength; so we went meekly enough, Althea
+saying when we were in our sleeping-room,--
+
+'Harry hath got the trick of command very perfect, that's certain; and I
+may say, Lucy, I am weary at last of ruling over you and Will; it's not
+amiss there is one here who has a mind to rule me instead.'
+
+Then we knelt down together and gave thanks for the great mercy of the
+day; and we implored passionately that the life of Andrew should be
+given back to us. Althea at the end of our prayer still remained
+kneeling; then beginning to weep she sobbed out, 'I think, I hope, I can
+say, "His will be done," but oh, 'tis hard, Lucy!' And she was so torn
+and shaken with her passion that I thought she would take no rest that
+night. But in five minutes after our heads touched the pillow we were
+both sleeping soundly: and we woke not till there came a knocking at our
+door, very early in the morning, and Will's voice praying us to descend
+and take some food.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+HOW WE SAILED FOR FRANCE IN THE 'MARIE-ROYALE.'
+
+We found our friends where we had left them; the grey dawn glimmering in
+at the window showed us Andrew lying in a quiet slumber; and he looked
+nothing so death-like as the night before. But the others appeared
+haggard and weary, as well they might; for none of them had slept a wink
+the night through. Yet joy spoke from the poor wan faces of Mary Giles
+and her husband. They had helped in the tending of Andrew with wonderful
+skill and care, and now they were rejoicing in a good hope that he would
+yet recover.
+
+There was a meal spread, of which they had already partaken; and we were
+now bidden to sit and eat also, as quickly as we might. It was Harry who
+gave us these orders, with a stern anxious look, which daunted me a
+little. When we had eaten,--
+
+'Now leave us with our friend, ladies,' he said, 'and gather all
+together in readiness to depart; this house shall not hold us another
+hour;' and Althea hesitating, and saying Andrew was hardly in case to
+depart, 'That knave gaoler,' he said, 'who had hid Andrew from you so
+long, had strong reasons for doing it; is there no fear, think you, that
+he may suspect there was life in the dead man whom we removed? Would you
+have our practice detected and the prisoner seized again?'
+
+It did not need more to set wings to Althea's feet; so we made haste and
+gathered up all our belongings, and came down again with our bundles
+packed and our travelling suits donned, long ere the hour was passed.
+
+Yet for all our haste, we found they had made better speed than we.
+There stood a coach waiting, into which they had already lifted Andrew;
+he was muffled in a long cloak that I had flung off the night before.
+The two Gileses had him in their care, and Will was again acting as
+driver (I believe 'twas the very coach of the previous night); he was
+taking Harry's orders as to driving at a very soft pace to the nearest
+stairs, 'where,' said Harry, 'we will meet you; these ladies will walk
+with me.'
+
+We saw them drive off; then I made fast the outer door, and Harry took
+the key from me, and flung it over the wall into the garden.
+
+'Let any find it who list,' said he. 'I thank God we are quit of the
+hideous place. How you have endured to dwell there day and night passes
+my comprehension.'
+
+'Why,' said I, 'is it not a glorious rich house?'
+
+'A house of sin and pride and death,' said he, 'I grant you.'
+
+'You are of Will's mind,' says Althea; 'he never would eat or sleep in
+it.'
+
+'If that be Will's mind,' said he, 'I approve his wisdom. And now, hey
+for Father Thames and his silver streams, and the sweet salt air of the
+sea! Here, take my arm, fair lady,' he said to Althea as we went along;
+'I have my doubts of your obedience--Lucy I can trust to come with me of
+free will.' So she took his arm, and said, smiling faintly,--
+
+'At least indulge me so far as to tell us whither we are bound?'
+
+'You heard me say,' he answered, stepping on briskly, 'to the nearest
+stairs; I have a boat ready there, and we will slip down the river to a
+ship I wot of that lies near Woolwich. I own,' he went on, 'it's a
+mighty risk to run, with Andrew in such a feeble case; yet I see no
+better way.' And in hasty words he told us how poor was our chance of
+getting clear away from the plague-stricken city by land.
+
+'London is something of a mouse-trap now,' said he, 'or a lion's den, if
+you like a statelier image; the way in is easy enough, but the way out
+is more difficult than the steep and thorny path to heaven. Every town
+and village we should come to would rise against us with hue and cry,
+and drive us back to the city, to perish there; so cruel are men become
+through fear of the contagion.'
+
+Althea's pale cheek grew paler as she listened; and she said, 'Alas, my
+Lucy! into what a snare have I brought you! and all through pride and
+self-will.'
+
+'Nay, sweet sister,' said I, 'do not miscall your compassion, and the
+daring of your spirit, which led you here.'
+
+'There was pride and wilfulness in it too,' said she; 'and look what a
+rebuke Heaven gives me! it is not I that rescue Andrew; it is Harry and
+poor Giles.'
+
+'Tut, tut!' said Harry; 'do not abuse yourself overmuch. You had found
+Andrew long since, but for the evil mind of Ralph Lacy, who had bought
+yon keeper with a mighty bribe, and commanded that Andrew should be kept
+out of sight, if ever you made inquiry after him.'
+
+This piece of intelligence struck us silent till we got to the stairs,
+going down which we found a roomy boat awaiting us, in which were
+already the rest of our little company, except Will; and he appearing
+before we were well settled in our places, sprang in after us, and said
+joyfully, as he took an oar,--
+
+'That coachman had fain learnt from me who it was I had carried down to
+the river; but I can be deaf upon occasion;' from which I gathered that
+he had been commissioned to restore the coach to its owner.
+
+The sun came up as we began to glide down the stream, and a million
+little sparkling waves flashed back his reflection as we rowed on; which
+was the only cheerful part of the scene, I thought; for all our company
+were grave and silent, and Andrew, though the calmest of us, looked so
+like death that I could find no pleasure in his peaceful aspect.
+
+And the river itself, which I had formerly seen so gay with all kinds of
+craft, watermen plying up and down constantly, and great sea-going ships
+coming and going, and lesser vessels crowding the noble stream, now
+seemed as desolate as the town that lay on its banks; only as we went on
+we came to many ships lying at anchor, by two and two; sometimes two or
+three lines of these ships lay in the breadth of the river, and as we
+threaded our way between them, men, women, and children came and looked
+over the sides at us.
+
+I was glad to break the silence that had settled on us, and I asked what
+was the reason of these long rows of ships being thus moored idly near
+the shores? on which the good Mary Giles, who had again the office of
+supporting Andrew, speaking softly, told me how they were the refuge of
+many hundreds of families, fled out of London, who hoped in this way to
+escape the contagion.
+
+'I do not know,' she said however, 'that they do always escape as they
+hope. Many a device did I practise myself to keep myself whole and
+sound, and some mighty foolish ones; but it pleased the Lord to drive me
+from all those refuges of lies, and to show me that He only can kill and
+make alive. To my thinking, a fearless, believing heart is the best
+charm against the Plague.'
+
+'Ay,' says Harry; 'that is the best charm doubtless. But we shall find
+it not amiss to keep our dwellings cleaner and sweeter here in England;
+with faith and courage and cleanliness, we might defy the foul fiend
+Pestilence. You shall not find that it makes so great ravages, even
+among the Dutch.' With that he bit his lip, as though a secret had
+escaped him; however no one but myself noted him; and the others now
+began to talk more freely; and Mrs. Giles from time to time bestirred
+herself about nourishment for Andrew, which Harry had been careful to
+provide; he said a man so nigh dead of hunger must have food often, but
+in small quantities. So our party grew cheerfuller, ever as the stream
+grew broader, and we began to breathe the salt breeze that blew inland.
+
+We ventured to question Harry about the ship that would receive us; and
+he said she was a French merchant-ship, and the captain a great friend
+of his, a good Protestant, who was willing to take on board any company
+he should bring.
+
+'I hoped,' said I, 'it might have been the _Good Hope_.'
+
+'Alas for my poor _Good Hope_!' said he; 'she went to pieces in a mighty
+storm, on the hard-hearted coasts of Africa; and such of my brave
+fellows as were not drowned were seized for slaves by the barbarous
+people of Algiers.'
+
+'And you, Harry, what was your lot?' I cried.
+
+'The lot of a slave for many a day,' said he briefly. 'It is thanks to
+my good friend Captain Maret, who will soon receive us, that I have ever
+seen my country again.'
+
+I would gladly have asked more, but I saw he was little inclined to
+talk; and after he had said, 'The ship we are going to board is called
+the _Marie-Royale_,' he fell again into a silence; but the rest of us
+continued to keep up some sort of talk, till we got down by Woolwich;
+and this seemed to help our courage a little,--I mean Althea's and mine,
+especially when Andrew would say a few words, as he began to do, in a
+way that showed reviving strength.
+
+Now I had never gone by sea anywhere, and all my sailing had been in
+wherries on the Thames; so I was not free from some childish fear when
+we came beside the _Marie-Royale_, and saw her black sides rising high
+and steep above us; but joy sat on every other face in our little
+company; and Harry's voice was gay once more as he shouted an answer to
+Captain Maret, who came and hailed us from above. 'Twas a matter of some
+difficulty to get Andrew safely hoisted on deck; yet they did it without
+giving too rude a shock to his enfeebled frame. I confess, when it came
+to my turn to mount, I shut my eyes for fear, and never opened them till
+I found Harry's arm about me, and a firm footing under me; and I heard
+his voice merrily mocking me for a poor little fool, who was ready to
+swoon at fancied perils, and was reckless of real ones. So then I looked
+abroad again, and seeing myself encircled with all our company, who
+were smiling at my terrors, while the dark, kindly face of the captain
+beamed a welcome on me,--I laughed first, and then wept; and then
+clasping my hands began to thank and praise God for our good
+deliverance, as if I were in an ecstasy; but now no one laughed at me,
+but heads were uncovered, and eyes cast down in thankful prayer also,
+all around me; the French sailors who had helped us to come aboard
+showing themselves not less reverent than our handful of English, and
+indeed appearing to be much moved. Then Andrew, who stood supported by
+the arms of Ned and Mary Giles, looked smiling at me, and said, in his
+feeble voice,--
+
+'Thou shamest me much, my sister Lucy; I who was deepest in peril ought
+to have been foremost in praise;' and Harry replied bluntly,--
+
+'Till you know something of the dangers these ladies have run, you need
+not be more grateful than they; but your further thanks must be rendered
+in your cabin, where I long to have you lodged before we get under
+weigh.'
+
+'That shall be soon,' said the captain. 'We have but stayed for your
+coming; and see! the wind has shifted since we sighted you, and blows
+fair for our departing.'
+
+He moved away as he spoke and began giving his orders; while Harry
+marshalled us down to our cabins, saying gaily, 'Ay, the merry wind
+blows from the land now; 'twas against us as we rowed, and I had my
+fears; but all's well that ends well--the Lord be praised therefor!'
+
+'Tell us whither this kind wind is to blow us?' I asked, and he saying,
+'So it is not enough for you to be with me where I go?' I answered
+boldly, 'By no means;' on which, laughing, he said, 'I will talk with
+you soon, sweetheart, on that point and many others; but now let us look
+to Andrew.' So I and my curiosity had to wait awhile; for when Andrew
+and his faithful nurses were settled below, Harry went on deck; and I
+sat by Althea, something sick at heart for all my joy, while, with many
+strange noises of rattling and creaking and trampling overhead, our ship
+shook out her great wings and spread them for flight. But at last the
+water slipping past our cabin windows showed we were standing out to
+sea; and then came Harry and sat down beside us. Andrew had fallen
+asleep, and Giles and his wife sat watching him a little way off; so
+there was nothing to break in on Harry's story.
+
+'Now first of all, my Lucy,' said he, 'you must know whither we are
+bound; 'tis to Calais, for there is Captain Maret due, and over-due,
+having come to Woolwich only for my sake, and yours, as it hath proved.
+Then at Calais I have intelligence that we shall find a ship bound for
+Hull, by which we may go thither, and so home to our father in the
+Dales.'
+
+'Do you know,' I said, 'I suspected your design to be for Holland?'
+
+'Well,' said he, 'I had such a thought for Andrew. There be friends in
+that country, with whom he might be sheltered till England should be
+safe for him once more. But it dislikes me to have dealings with any
+country at war with mine own--mad and wicked though the war be on our
+part.'
+
+'All England is gone mad and wicked, I think,' said Althea; 'for my
+share I care not much if I never see it more.'
+
+'You will change that thought, I hope,' said he. 'But now, my Lucy, I
+have a request and a petition to you. Captain Maret will bring us at
+Calais to a clergyman of the English Church whom he knows there; will
+you consent for the good man to join our hands? 'tis long since our
+hearts were knit, I trow.'
+
+'What are you asking of her?' said Althea; 'should not such a marriage
+be celebrated on English ground?'
+
+'So it shall,' said he; 'for we will be wedded on board the ship that
+shall take us to Hull; and her planks, being those of an English vessel,
+are reckoned English ground. Now, what says my dear heart?' and as I
+blushed and stammered, 'I warrant you,' said he, 'Lucy is struck dumb at
+my presumption in talking of wedlock, my good ship being gone to wreck,
+and I myself newly loosed from slavery.'
+
+'Harry!' I cried, 'how dare you think so meanly of me? I who have been
+delighting in the thought of pouring all my little wealth at your feet,
+and bidding you freight a new ship with it; but perhaps you are too
+proud--you will refuse it?'
+
+'Nay, I refuse neither it nor thee, my Lucy,' he said, 'the less because
+I can counterpoise my darling's little purse with something weightier.'
+And he told us briefly how in his captivity he had risen very high in
+his Moorish master's favour, having had the good fortune to save the
+man's life at the risk of his own.
+
+'There were two rascals set on my master to murder him, for certain
+precious jewels that he wore,' said he; 'and I had the luck to lay them
+both low, though I got this little remembrance first from the fiercest
+of them,' touching as he spoke the scar upon his cheek. 'And with that
+stroke,' he went on, 'I purchased my freedom, and something more; for
+the Moor conferred on me freely those gems that the thieves had coveted;
+they are worth a little fortune. After this my only care was to find a
+ship to bring me home; of which I was almost in despair, when the good
+Maret came to my rescue, which he effected with great skill and
+boldness. Nor do I know how I could have got you clear of London, but
+for his readiness to help me once again.'
+
+This was Harry's history, which he made very dry and short; for he hates
+to dwell on his own doings or sufferings. I have got from him since many
+particulars of the story, and I think it were more worthy of pen and
+ink than this poor tale of our homely joys and sorrows, but he thinks
+not so; and it is at his bidding I have written all this last part,
+telling how he brought us safely out of London.
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+HOW LUCIA DWELLS IN ENGLAND, AND ALTHEA OTHERWHERE.
+
+There is little more to write now. I did not care to cross Harry's wish
+in the matter of our wedding, to which both the good Mary Giles and
+Althea herself urged me to consent; only I had always hoped that my
+father Truelocke himself should join our hands; and when I whispered
+this to Harry, he said, 'If you cannot be content without it,
+sweetheart, my father shall marry us over again when we get to
+Dent-dale. But I will not go back to England till I can call you wife.'
+
+So my last defence fell; and wedded we were on board the _Diamond_, a
+good English ship that we found lying at Calais, according to Harry's
+intelligence. I did not forget that promise of his, and in due time I
+held him to it; but before I wind up mine own story I will relate that
+of my sister; for our lives, that have run so long in one channel, are
+divided now, since Althea sailed not with us to England; and I will show
+the reason presently.
+
+That imagination which Harry had once entertained of Andrew's passing
+into Holland and being safe there as an exile proved to be no impossible
+device, in spite of the war between the English and the Dutch. For while
+we still lay at Calais in the _Marie-Royale_ (I must ever admire her
+captain's courage in taking us poor fugitives on board, even though
+Harry was warrant for our soundness), there came letters from certain
+Friends called Derricks, of the Dutch nation. They had heard of Andrew's
+strange escape from prison, I wot not by what means; for the Friends
+have their own ways of learning news of one another. These good people
+willed him to go make his home under their roof in Amsterdam; and he was
+very fain to seek that shelter, being exceedingly weary in spirit, as
+one half spent with toil and grief; only two things held him back. The
+one was his love for our dear and cruel country England, which made him
+shrink from dwelling in a land at enmity with her; and the other was my
+sister. Now the first scruple Harry overcame thus.
+
+'You needs must dwell in some foreign land,' he said, 'for England is
+altogether unsafe for you. Should you choose France, as Captain Maret
+would have you, you choose a land chiefly Papist, and now full of
+oppression; and my life on it, there will be war between France and
+England this very winter,' a saying which proved too true. 'So the
+balance must dip in favour of Holland, a Protestant country, where you
+shall live under just laws and among faithful friends who believe as you
+do. Is not this worth weighing, brother?' and Andrew said, 'It is,' but
+yet he hesitated; and I needed not the sight of his questioning look at
+Althea, nor of her dropt eyelids and whitening cheek, to guess the
+reason of his hesitation.
+
+The next morning after we had this talk, Harry, Althea, and I were sat
+idly on deck, basking in the sunshine, and drinking the sweet air, while
+we watched the sailors at work; when we saw Andrew come feebly towards
+us, at which we sprang up surprised, for he had not heretofore risen so
+early, because of his great weakness. Althea would have had him rest on
+the cushions from which we had risen, but saying, 'I would rather stand
+awhile,' he leaned on Harry's shoulder for support; and indeed he looked
+deathly when his white and wasted face was seen beside Harry's
+countenance, all bronzed with sun and wind, and glowing with health and
+life.
+
+'Althea Dacre,' he said, looking steadily at her, 'I have sought all
+night long for a light on the path I must now take; and a word is ever
+in my ears, "Speak to the maiden thou lovest, her word shall lead thee!"
+Thou knowest I were loth to part from thee, who hast sought me and spent
+thyself for me--and more loth to think that we are parted in spirit. Yet
+if thy heart be not as my heart towards God, we must be parted now and
+ever. I implore thee, speak the perfect truth to me, and do not colour
+or change it.'
+
+'And I will speak truth,' she said proudly, 'as if I stood before an
+angel of God; and it shall not grieve you. Andrew Golding, thy people
+shall be my people, and thy God my God. The Church that I dreamed of,
+the Church I would have died for, was not a Church stained with innocent
+blood. I will cast in my lot, now and for ever, with the only Christian
+people that have never persecuted another--the only one, I verily
+believe, that follow whithersoever the Master leads.'
+
+At this Andrew's pallid face glowed as if a clear flame shone through
+it; he stretched out his hands to Althea, and she gave him both hers,
+continuing to say,--
+
+'And what is my native land to me? it is filled with violence and
+madness; I fear 'tis accursed of God; I am willing to find my fatherland
+wherever you find a home.'
+
+She turned with a defying look towards us; at which Harry began to
+laugh, and said, 'How about the rose I had one night from Mistress
+Althea Dacre? it is a rose yet--dry and faded truly; but it has not
+turned into a nettle.'
+
+'Be generous,' she said, blushing; 'do not remind me of that; I spoke of
+it in the days of my folly. I have been taught the plague of my own
+heart since, by many a sharp lesson.'
+
+'Well,' said Harry, 'I may truly say the same of myself. It hath pleased
+God,' he said reverently, 'to bring me to Himself through suffering. I
+trusted overmuch to my own heart; and not till I was stript of all, a
+beggar and a slave, did I learn mine own vileness and weakness, and
+Christ's all-sufficiency. I thank Him for the teaching. And I think my
+Lucy hath gone through the same school; is it not so, sweetheart?' and
+I murmured an assent.
+
+'Not one of you,' said Andrew, 'has been so poor a pupil at that
+learning as I; but I think my many stripes have surely beaten it into my
+hard heart at last, and that I have mastered my task once and for ever.'
+
+'Then,' quoth Harry, 'we are all on one footing so far, and we may thank
+Heaven for it. But I cannot fall in with you in your condemning of other
+Churches, and the Church of England chiefly. She is not disowned of God,
+not quite gone astray from Him; there is in her, I must think, a seed of
+life and holiness.'
+
+'Your father went out from her notwithstanding,' says Althea; 'and in my
+mind he did well, though I was fool enough to condemn him at the time.'
+
+'With your leave,' says Harry, 'I think he was driven out, because of
+those nice and subtle points of doctrine, that our rulers cruelly
+enforced, and he could not honestly assent to. But I have heard him say,
+'tis his firm persuasion that out of this misgoverned English Church
+there shall yet rise great good, and marvellous blessings, to the land
+and the world. And in that hope I shall cleave to it with all its
+faults; and so I trust will my wife;' to which I had nothing to say but
+blushing. Andrew, however, was troubled.
+
+'I fear thou art in perilous error, kind and good Harry,' said he. 'But
+let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind.'
+
+'That am I,' said Althea promptly, on which he smiled again; and the two
+falling into talk about their own concerns, we charitably left them to
+it; for now it was well understood among us that they would wed at the
+earliest opportunity.
+
+It was a pretty sight to see the new humility they practised towards
+each other. Andrew, being now fully acquainted with my sister's efforts
+on his behalf, seemed to look on her as a protecting angel; but she,
+regarding him as a saint and a martyr, knew not how to show enough
+reverence to him. Also her high courage failed her sometimes, and she
+would cling to the good Mary Giles like a timid child to its mother;
+Mary on her part showing the same tenderness for her that her husband
+displayed to Andrew. These good people, with Will, kept them company
+when they departed for Amsterdam, which thing was a marvellous comfort
+to Harry and me; and shortly we had news how the lovers were married,
+after the Quaker fashion, and were in a happy way to be settled in that
+city. They dwell there still. The good honest Standfasts have power from
+Andrew to manage his lands for him, which they do faithfully; and the
+moneys due to him therefrom being privily conveyed to him, maintain him
+and his wife in comfort, nor them alone, but many poor and pious souls
+who are their pensioners.
+
+And now, our companions being gone, it might have been thought that I
+should feel a great lack of them, especially when the _Diamond_ loosed
+from port and bore us away with her. But I could feel nothing save joy
+and gratitude, more especially when I thought of the heavy and dreadful
+summer that lay behind me; and I was possessed with a great longing to
+see my father Truelocke once more. Harry had got word conveyed to him of
+his safety, and of our approaching journey; and sure I am his thoughts
+flew to meet our thoughts on the way, as we drew nearer and nearer. But
+I want words to express the tenderness of our meeting together, when at
+last my Harry and I beheld that venerable face again. There are some
+joys that cannot be told.
+
+We have made our home with him in Dent-dale; for there Harry hath bought
+a little farm, with a pretty odd farmhouse belonging thereto; and our
+father lives with us, well content, and in great peace. For no
+squabblings about ecclesiastical matters ever trouble the quiet of our
+sweet mountain solitude. There is a little lonely church in the Dale,
+where a good simple-hearted pastor ministers; and there can we worship
+in a homely and hearty fashion; nor does the pastor take it ill that Mr.
+Truelocke keeps aloof from the prayers, but respects his scruples, and
+reveres his character. For proof thereof, I did not cease urging on
+Harry his careless promise, that our union should have our father's
+blessing on it; and the good pastor falling in with my whim, prevailed
+on Mr. Truelocke to remarry us very privately in the little church I
+spoke of, he himself assisting. 'Twas a foolish fancy, I wot, but I was
+not easy till I had it gratified. And it is now my constant hope that
+Harry will never put to sea again, but will be content to plough the
+kindly earth and gather in her fruits, instead of furrowing the barren
+cruel waves; sure he has had enough of strange adventures. Yet I fear
+him sometimes, when little work is stirring; then he is so restless that
+even in his dreams he will talk of seafaring; I think, however, he will
+wander no more, so long as our father lives.
+
+We get letters from Althea and her husband, at rare intervals indeed;
+but then they are long and ample. And it is a marvel how stiffly Althea
+now stands for all the points of the Quaker doctrine, which formerly she
+so abhorred and contemned.
+
+Not many days since there reached me a long letter from her, in which
+she told me indeed a great deal of news, and also expressed a wonderful
+sisterly affection; but the burden of it was her disquietude because of
+my religious errors. She was very earnest with me upon the sin and
+danger of conforming to the world, in dress, and speech, and deportment.
+
+There were things in this letter which really troubled me, so I carried
+it to Mr. Truelocke; and when he had read it, I asked his opinion,
+whether Christian folk were bound to observe such strictness as Althea
+now advocates and practises? at which, softly smiling, he said,--
+
+'"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To
+visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself
+unspotted from the world." I think thou art not far from exemplifying
+that pure religion in thine own life, daughter; so I trust does thy
+sister; but I think her not more free from world-spots than thee,
+because she perchance goes clad in grey, and thou in scarlet;' for I had
+a new red cloak and hood upon me. 'This,' he said, touching the cloak
+lightly, 'is no stain of scarlet sin, 'tis honest dye-stuff, Lucy.'
+
+'It might make me vain and proud to go gaily, might it not?' I said.
+
+'When it has that effect, child, renounce it as a snare,' he replied. 'I
+think thou art not over gay as yet, for a young wife, with a true-love
+husband to please.'
+
+'But besides these things,' I said, 'there are others more serious. See
+how my sister cries out against all set forms of worship, even to the
+singing of hymns; and how she accounts even the outward visible forms of
+the two great sacraments as having something of the nature of an idol
+that we sinfully adore. All should be spiritual and inward, according to
+her, and to other Friends; and I do not myself understand how that can
+be.'
+
+''Tis a great truth that they uphold,' said he musingly, 'yet I cannot
+see that it includes all truth. For my own share, I still hold fast to
+my opinions; they commend themselves to my reason as strongly as ever. I
+should lie, did I deny them. And yet from my very heart I agree with
+the Friends in prizing the spirit above the letter. And I hope, my
+daughter,' he went on, while a smile trembled on his lips, 'that a day
+will yet dawn when all Christian men shall agree so heartily as touching
+the deep and vital truths of their faith, that they may be content to
+differ as to the visible ceremonial garment that their faith may wear.
+But that will not be in my day, Lucy, nor, I fear much, in thine. Let us
+hope and pray for its coming; and let us rejoice meanwhile and give
+thanks for our safety here from the strife of tongues, for the peace and
+rest we are allowed to share in this corner of the earth; so far are we
+happy above many.'
+
+And I am only too glad to obey his word, and to fare like a bird of the
+air that is fed by God's daily bounty, without care for the morrow. Nor
+will I trouble myself any more about this nice point of doctrine and
+that, laying on myself a burden that God never gave me. Has He not given
+me His own peace; and with it more of earthly bliss than ever my heart
+dared hope for? And were I even less happy in my lot, I ought all my
+life to praise Him for His hand over us for good, while we dwelt in that
+City of the Plague. I have heard with infinite satisfaction, how, since
+this cold winter weather came on, the sickness is mightily abated, and
+men hope it is passing away. But it hath swept off, say they, not less
+than a hundred thousand souls in one fatal year; and what were we, that
+we should escape? It is all of the Lord's goodness, and His pity to our
+rashness.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Andrew Golding, by Annie E. Keeling
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