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diff --git a/23187.txt b/23187.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..877fdff --- /dev/null +++ b/23187.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4377 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mistress Margery, by Emily Sarah Holt + +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: Mistress Margery + +Author: Emily Sarah Holt + +Release Date: October 25, 2007 [EBook #23187] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISTRESS MARGERY *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +Mistress Margery, A Tale of the Lollards, by Emily Sarah Holt. +________________________________________________________________________ + +This is a short book, but it was quite hard to transcribe on account of +so much of it being in mediaeval English, with its inconsistent and +uncouth spelling. + +Margery is a young woman of high birth, who goes one day to hear a +sermon preached by one of the new Lollards, who advise people to read +the Bible as recently translated by Wycliffe, and to believe only what +they find therein. This was directly contrary to the view of the +official church, which had made up all sorts of doctrines that could be +seen to be not at all supported by the words of the Gospel. Margery can +only get hold of a copy of the Gospel according to Saint John. + +Margery is very much struck with the words of the Gospel, despite the +hostility of all around her. Everyone was far too afraid of the extreme +punishment meted out by "Holy Church" to those who questioned its +teachings. And Margery ends up by being burnt at the stake for her +belief in the Gospel, as opposed to what was taught by the Church. + +But you will learn a lot about upper-class life in the early years of +the fifteenth century, and if you can put up with the forms of speech, +you will gain thereby. Not recommended for audiobook, since a great +deal of editing, such as removal of footnotes, conversion of mediaeval +speech to modern, and so forth. + +________________________________________________________________________ +MISTRESS MARGERY, A TALE OF THE LOLLARDS, BY EMILY SARAH HOLT. + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +A REGULAR OF OXENFORDE. + + "Give me the book, and let me read; + My soul is strangely stirred-- + They are such words of love and truth + As ne'er before I heard!" + + Mary Howitt. + +The sun was shining brightly on the battlements and casements of Lovell +Tower. The season was spring, and the year 1395. Within the house, +though it was barely seven o'clock in the morning, all was bustle and +confusion, for Dame Lovell was superintending her handmaidens in the +preparation of dinner. A buxom woman was Dame Lovell, neither tall nor +short, but decidedly stout, with a round, good-natured face, which just +then glowed and burned under the influence of the fire roaring on the +large grateless hearth. She wore a black dress, heavily trimmed at the +bottom with fur, and she carried on her head one of those remarkable +elevations generally known as the Syrian or conical head-dress, made of +black stiffened gauze, and spangled with golden stars. Her assistants, +mostly girls of from sixteen to twenty-five years of age, were occupied +in various parts of the kitchen; while Mistress Katherine, a +staid-looking woman of middle age, who filled a post somewhat similar to +the modern one of housekeeper, was employed at a side table in mixing +some particularly elaborate compound. Among this busy throng moved Dame +Lovell, now giving a stir to a pot, and now peeping into a pan, boxing +the ears of any maiden who appeared remiss in her duty, and generally +keeping up a strict and active supervision. + +"Nan, thy leeks be not hewn small enough. Cicely, look to the pottage, +that it boil not over. Al'ce, thou idle jade!"--with a sound box on the +ear,--"thou hast left out the onions in thy blanch-porre! Margery! +Madge! Why, Madge, I say! Where is Mistress Margery, maidens? Joan, +lass, hie thee up, and see whether Mistress Margery be not in the +chamber." + +Joan, a diminutive girl of sixteen, quitted the parsley she was +chopping, and ran lithely out of the room, to which she soon returned, +and, dropping a courtesy, announced that "Mistress Margery was in her +chamber, and was coming presently,"--which latter word, in the year +1395, meant not "by and by," as it now does, but "at present." Mistress +Margery verified the assertion of Joan by following her into the kitchen +almost immediately. And since Mistress Margery is to play the important +part of heroine, it may be well to devote a few words to her person and +costume. She is the only child of Sir Geoffrey Lovell, Knight, and Dame +Agnes Lovell, and is now seventeen years of age; rather under the middle +height, slenderly formed, with an appearance of great fragility and +delicacy; her complexion is very fair, of that extreme fairness which +often betokens disease, and her face almost colourless. Her features +are regular, and classical in their contour; her eyes are a clear grey-- +honest, truthful eyes, that look straight at you; and her hair, which is +almost long enough, when let down, to touch her feet, is of that pale +golden colour so much celebrated in the Middle Ages, and so very rarely +to be seen now. Mistress Margery's attire comprises a black dress, so +stiff, partly from its own richness of material, and partly with +whalebone, that it is quite capable of standing upright without any +assistance from Mistress Margery's person. Its trimming consists of a +border of gris, or marten's fur; and over this black petticoat the young +lady wears a cote-hardie, or close-fitting jacket, also edged with gris. +Her head is not encumbered by the steeplecap which disfigures her +mother; instead of it she wears the beautiful "dove-cote," a net of +golden tissue, ornamented with pearls, within which her hair is +confined. + +It may also be as well to notice here, that Mistress Margery is highly +accomplished. Of course she can play the lute, and sing, and work +elaborate and delicate embroidery, and compound savoury dishes; and +equally of course does she know any nobleman or gentleman by a glance at +his shield, and can tell you in a moment to whom belong the three lions +rampant sable, and who owns the bend engrailed argent on a field gules. +These are but the ordinary acquirements of a gentlewoman; but our +heroine knows more than this. Mistress Margery can read; and the +handmaidens furthermore whisper to each other, with profound admiration +of their young mistress's extraordinary knowledge, that Mistress Margery +can _write_. Dame Lovell cannot do either; but Sir Geoffrey, who is a +literary man, and possesses a library, has determined that his daughter +shall receive a first-rate education. Sir Geoffrey's library is a very +large one, for it consists of no less than forty-two volumes, five of +which are costly illuminated manuscripts, and consist of the Quest of +the Sangraal [see Note 1], the Travels of Sir John Maundeville, the +Chronicle of Matthew Paris, Saint Augustine's City of God, and a +Breviary. Dame Lovell has no Breviary, and as she could not read it if +she had, does not require one; but Margery, having obtained her father's +permission to do so, has employed her powers of writing and illuminating +in making an elaborate copy of his Breviary for her own use; and from an +illumination in this book, not quite finished, representing Judas +Iscariot in parti-coloured stockings, and Saint Peter shooting at +Malchus with a cross-bow, is Margery now summoned away to the kitchen. + +Margery entered the kitchen with a noiseless step, and making a low +courtesy to her mother, said, in a remarkably clear, silvery voice, "It +pleased you to send for me, good mother." + +"Yea, lass; give a hand to the blanch-porre, for Al'ce knows no more +than my shoe; and then see to the grewall, whilst I scrape these almonds +for the almond butter." + +Margery quietly performed her task, and spoke to the mortified Al'ce in +a much gentler tone than Dame Lovell had done. She was occupied in the +preparation of "eels in grewall," a kind of eel-stew, when a slender +youth, a little older than herself, and attired in the usual costume of +a page, entered the kitchen. + +"Why, Richard Pynson," cried Dame Lovell, "thou art a speedy messenger, +in good sooth. I looked not for thee until evensong." + +"I finished mine errand, good mistress," replied the youth, "earlier by +much than I looked for to do." + +"Hast heard any news, Richard?" + +"None, mistress mine, unless it be news that a homily will be preached +in Bostock Church on Sunday next ensuing, by a regular of Oxenforde, one +Master Sastre." + +The grewall was standing still, and Margery was listening intently to +the words of Richard Pynson, as he carelessly leaned against the wall. + +"Will you go, Mistress Margery?" + +Margery looked timidly at her mother. "I would like well to go," said +she, "an' it might stand with your good pleasure." + +"Ay, lass, go," replied Dame Lovell, good-naturedly. "It is seldom we +have a homily in Bostock Church. Parson Leggatt is not much given to +preaching, meseemeth." + +"I will go with you, Master Pynson," said Margery, resuming the +concoction of the dainty dish before her, "with a very good will, for I +should like greatly to hear the Reverend Father. I never yet heard +preach a scholar of Oxenforde." + +Dame Lovell moved away to take the pottage off the fire, and Pynson, +approaching Margery, whispered to her, "They say that this Master Sastre +preacheth strange things, like as did Master John Wycliffe a while +agone; howbeit, since Holy Church interfereth not, I trow we may well go +to hear him." + +Margery's colour rose, and she said in a low voice, "It will do us no +harm, trow?" + +"I trust not so," answered Richard; and, taking up his hunting-bag, he +quitted the room. + +"Why, Cicely!" exclaimed Dame Lovell, turning round from the pottage, +"had I wist thou hadst put no saffron herein, thou shouldst have had +mine hand about thine ears, lass! Bring the saffron presently! No +saffron, quotha!" + +Before we accompany Margery and Richard to hear the homily of Master +Sastre, it might perhaps be as well to prevent any misunderstanding on +the part of the reader with respect to Richard Pynson. He is the page +of Sir Geoffrey Lovell, and the son of Sir John Pynson of Pynsonlee; for +in the year 1395, wherein our story opens, it is the custom for young +gentlemen, even the sons of peers, to be educated as page or squire to +some neighbouring knight of wealth and respectability. Richard Pynson, +therefore, though he may seem to occupy a subordinate position, is in +every respect the equal of Margery. + +The morning on which Master Sastre was to deliver his homily was one of +those delicious spring days which seem the immediate harbingers of +summer. Margery, in her black dress, and with a warm hood over her +cote-hardie, was assisted by her father to mount her pillion, Richard +Pynson being already seated before her on the grey palfrey; for in the +days of pillions, if the gentleman assisted the lady on her pillion +_before_ he mounted himself, he ran imminent risk of knocking her off +when he should attempt to mount. They rode leisurely to church, the +distance being about two miles, and a little foot-page ran beside them +charged with the care of the palfrey, while they attended the service. +Mass was performed by the parish priest, but the scholar from Oxford, +who sat in the sedilia, where Margery could scarcely see him, took no +part in the service beyond reading the Gospel. + +The sermons of that day, as a rule, may be spoken of in two classes. +Either the preacher would read a passage of Scripture in Latin, and +throw in here and there a few remarks by way of commentary, or else the +sermon was a long and dry disquisition upon some of the (frequently very +absurd) dogmas of the schoolmen; such as, whether angels were synonymous +with spirits, which of the seven principal angels was the chief, how +long it took Gabriel to fly from heaven to earth at the Annunciation, at +what time of day he appeared, how he was dressed, etcetera, Sastre's +discourse could not be comprised in either of these classes. He read +his text first, as usual, in Latin, but then he said: + +"And now, brethren and sistren, to declare in the vulgar tongue unto you +that have not the tongues, this passage of God's Word as sueth." [Sueth +means follows]. + +"_The Lombe that was slayn is worthi to take vertue and Godhed and +wisdom and strengthe and onour and glorie and blessyng_!" + +Note: it will readily be seen that all the quotations from Scripture in +this story are necessarily taken from Wycliffe's translation. + +What followed was no scholastic disquisition, no common-place remarks on +the passage chosen. "The Lamb that was slain" was the beginning and the +end of Sastre's discourse. He divided his sermon into the following +subjects. "Who is the Lamb?--how and why was He slain?--why is He +worthy?--and, who are the speakers in the text who thus proclaim His +worthiness?" He showed them, by a reference to the Mosaic sacrifices, +why Christ was called a Lamb; he told them most fully that He died, the +Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God; he placed completely +before his audience the full and free and finished nature of His perfect +work: he told them that God's love to sinners was such that He gave out +of His bosom His own dear Son, the Son of His love, that their sins +might be counted His, and that His righteousness might be accounted +theirs. And under his last head, he spoke of that holy, happy city +whereinto no sin, nor harm, nor death could ever enter; whose +foundations were gems, and whose gates pearls; the dwelling-place of the +blessed ones, who having washed their robes, and made them white in the +blood of the Lamb, would never rest day nor night in singing the praises +of His worthiness. + +Sastre also drew the attention of his hearers to the fact that the +ascription of praise in the text was made by the angels. "In all this +Book," remarked he, "I find nowhere such like laud as this given unto +any but God only. The blessed angels do worship unto the Lamb, but I +see not any offer for to do worship unto the angels, save only Saint +John himself, who doth twice fall down to worship afore the feet of the +angel which did show these things unto him. But I find not the angel in +any wise gladded with the same. Nay, the blessed John doth receive a +sharp rebuking of his folly: `See thou that thou do not,' saith the +angel; `worschipe thou God.' Wherefore, good friends, ye may see hence +how foolish are they who do worship unto the blessed angels: and how +grievous would be the same unto those good spirits of God if they did +knowledge it. Whether or no they be witting of such matters, I wis not, +for this Book saith nought thereupon; but ye see, friends, that if they +wit it, it doth anger them; and if they wit it not, what are ye the +better for praying unto them? Moreover, meseemeth for the same reason, +that the blessed Virgin Saint Mary, who is now in heaven with her Son +and Lord, Christ, would not be in any wise over well pleased if she wist +how men do worship unto her on the earth. And the like, I trow, may be +said of all God's saints." + +At the conclusion of his sermon, Sastre leaned forward over the pulpit +and spoke in a low, earnest, loving tone. "Who is here, good friends," +asked he, "that loveth this blessed Lord Jesu, the Lamb that was slain? +Who is here who will give up this vile and wretched world for His sake? +Who that will sue [follow] this blessed Lamb whithersoever He goeth, +even though He lead along the sharp way called tribulation, or the weary +way called prison, or the bitter way called poverty, or even verily +through the low and dark door called death? Who is here? Is there none +I beseech you, good friends, hath Christ no souls in this place? When +the blessed angels count up the number of the purchased ones, will ye +have them leave Bostock out of their reckoning? Shall it be worse than +Sodom and Gomorrah, wherein there was _one_ soul that was saved? Is +there not _one_ here? Nay, brethren, I trust it is not so. I trust ye +will come, yea in numbers, yea in throngs, yea in multitudes, and crowd +on Christ to touch the hem of His blessed garment, that is the power of +His great mercy. Christ loveth to have folk crowd on Him to cry Him +mercy. I read not that ever He complained of the crowding of the +multitude. I read not that ever He turned away so much as one poor +caitiff [sinner] who came unto Him. I read not that His lips plained +ever of aught but that they came not--that they lacked faith. I am an +old man, friends, and in all likelihood shall I never come here again; +but I say unto you that I shall scan well the multitude in the white +apparel for the faces which be upturned unto me this day. I pray you +that I miss them not. I pray God that ye--yea, that every man and woman +of you, may be clothed in yon glistering and shene [bright] raiment, and +may lift up your voices to cry, `The Lamb is worthy' in the city of +God!" + +That sermon was a strange thing to Margery Lovell. Never, from the day +of her birth to that day, had she heard as she now heard of the Lamb +that was slain. For above a mile of their way home Richard and Margery +kept perfect silence, which the latter was the first to break just +before they came in sight of Lovell Tower. + +"Master Pynson, we have heard strange things to-day." + +"We have, of a truth, Mistress Margery. I wonder whether Master Sastre +be right." + +"I wish greatly," replied Margery, "that I could get the book wherein I +have heard that Master Wycliffe rendered God's Word into the vulgar +tongue. I could see then whether Master Sastre were right. I would I +knew of any man who had that book!" + +"Master Carew of Marston told me some time agone," said Richard, rather +hesitatingly, "that he had the Gospel according to John the Apostle, +copied out by a feat [clever] scribe from Master Wycliffe's rendering +thereof." + +"O Master Pynson!" said Margery, entreatingly, "I pray you that you ask +good Master Carew to lend me that book! Tell him that Mistress Margery +Lovell will lay her best jewels to pledge that she returneth the book +safe. I must see that book Master Pynson!" + +"Softly, I pray you, good Mistress Margery," answered Richard, smiling; +"it were well to go warily to work; for wot you not that Master +Wycliffe--ay, and Master Sastre too--be accounted heretics by some? You +would not, trow, fall under the ban of Holy Church?" + +"I would with a good will do aught, or bear aught," replied Margery, +earnestly, "so I might wit of a surety that I should be one of those who +wear the white apparel, and cry, `The Lamb is worthy' in the city of +God!" + +"Well, Mistress Margery," said Richard, soothingly, "I will do my best +for to get you the book, but it may be some time ere I see Master +Carew." + +Dame Lovell herself was standing on the steps of Lovell Tower, +apparently looking out for the riders, for as soon as they came within +hearing distance she raised her voice to say, "Richard Pynson! Sir +Geoffrey would speak with you. Come in quickly, I pray you, and leave +the handmaidens to help Mistress Margery from her pillion." + +"I need no help, good mother," said Margery, as she sprang lightly from +her seat, while Richard hurried into the house to find Sir Geoffrey. + +"Sir Geoffrey would send Richard Pynson to Marston," said Dame Lovell, +as she preceded Margery into the hall. "And how liked you Master +Sastre, Madge?" + +"Very greatly, good mother; never heard I before a homily so brave." + +"That is well," said Dame Lovell, and disappeared into the kitchen, as +Margery ran up-stairs to her own room, and brought down in her hand a +valuable necklace. Richard came into the banqueting-hall from one door, +as Margery made her appearance from the opposite one. + +"I have a letter from Sir Geoffrey to bear to Sir Ralph Marston," said +he. "Have you any commands for Marston, Mistress Margery?" he +mischievously added. + +"Master Pynson," said Margery, earnestly, in a low tone, "I pray you to +take this jewel to Master Carew, and to leave it in pledge with him, in +case he will lend me the book. If he value it at more than this, I can +send other jewels; but, Master Pynson, bring me the book!" + +Richard placed the necklace for safety in the bosom of his doublet, and +answered, "Fear not, good mistress; if I bring you not the book, it +shall not be for lack of entreaty. Only hope not too much, for I may +chance to fail." + +"Pray God he lend you the book!" was her only answer. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note. The Sangraal was the vessel in which the wine was contained which +Christ gave to His disciples, saying, "Drink ye all of this;" this +vessel was supposed to have been brought into England by Joseph of +Arimathea; and the "quest" or search for this important relic formed one +of the chief adventures of the Knights of the Round Table. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +A LATE DINNER. + + "And there is something in this book + That makes all care be gone, + And yet I weep--I know not why-- + As I go reading on!" + + Mary Howitt. + +Margery went into the kitchen, and helped to prepare supper, under the +directions of Dame Lovell, and then she returned to her own room, and +tried to finish her illumination of Peter and Malchus; but she could not +command her thoughts sufficiently to paint well, so much was her heart +set on "the book." Therefore she sat with her hands folded in her lap, +and tried to recall Sastre's sermon. Then came supper-time, and Margery +went down to the banqueting-hall; and after supper, having begged her +parents' blessing before retiring to rest, she came back to her chamber. +But she did not attempt to undress. When the sun set, a red glory +above the tree-tops, she was watching at her casement for Richard +Pynson; and when the silver moon and the little golden stars had taken +the sun's place in the heavens, she was watching still. At last she +heard the sound of a horse's feet, and stole softly down the private +staircase which led from her room to the hall. As Richard entered the +hall, Margery softly murmured his name. + +"What, Mistress Margery!" he cried, in astonishment. "You here! You +have watched well for the book, and--there it is." + +And Richard drew from the bag slung over his shoulder a small quarto +volume. + +"Oh, thanks, good Master Pynson, a thousand thanks!" cried Margery, in +delight. "And how long season may I keep the book?" + +"Master Carew said," returned Pynson, "that he asked not jewels for the +safe-keeping of the book, for the word of a Lovell was enough," and +Richard drew the necklace from his bosom and handed it to Margery. "He +will lend the book for one month's time. He said, furthermore, that he +lent it, not because he loved it not, but because he prayed that you, +Mistress Margery, might know and love it too." + +"Amen!" was Margery's answer, as she folded the book to her bosom, and +crept softly back to her chamber--but not to bed. The first thing she +did was to take off her petticoat and cote-hardie, and to put on a loose +dressing-gown of grey serge. Then she divested herself of her +head-dress, and allowed her fair hair to flow down over her shoulders +without restraint. Having thus rendered herself comfortable, she seated +herself in a carved chair, furnished with an ample cushion, and +proceeded to examine the book. + +The book was bound in leather, dark brown in colour, and simple in +workmanship. It was clasped with two small clasps of common metal, +washed over with silver; the leaves were of vellum, and on the first +page was a badly-drawn and violently-coloured illumination of Christ and +the Samaritan woman. Stops (as a rule) it had not, except a full stop +here and there; and capitals there were none, with the occasional +exception of a letter in red ink. Notwithstanding this, the manuscript, +being written in a clear small hand, was very legible to eyes accustomed +to read only black letter. At first Margery felt as if she were doing +wrong in reading the book, but her curiosity drew her on, as well as her +earnest desire to know more of those "strange things" of which Sastre +had spoken in his sermon. Margery had taken the precaution of fastening +the door before she commenced the study of the book. After the first +glance which had made her acquainted with the particulars above noticed, +she opened the book at random near the middle, and her eye fell on the +following words:-- + +"_Be not your herte afrayed, ne drede it; ye bileuen in God, and bileeue +ye in me. In the hous of my Fadir ben manye dwellingis; if ony thinge +lasse, I hadde seid to you; for I go to make readi to you a place. And +if I go to make redy to you a place, eftsoone I come, and I schal take +you to my silf, that where I am, ye be_." John xiv. 1-3. + +Never before had Margery read words like these. "Be not your herte +afrayed!" Why, the one feeling which she was taught was more acceptable +to God than any other, was fear. "In the hous of my Fadir ben manye +dwellingis." Margery clasped her hands above her head, and laid head +and hands upon the open volume; and in the agony of her earnestness she +cried aloud, "O Lamb that was slain, hast thou not made ready a dwelling +for Margery Lovell!" + +Margery read on, and the more she read the more she wondered. The +Church did not teach as this book did, and _both_ could not be right. +Which, then, was wrong? How could the Church be wrong, which was the +depository of God's truth? And yet, how could the holy apostle be wrong +in reporting the words of Christ? + +Many times over during that night did Margery's thoughts arrange +themselves in this manner. At one time she thought that nothing could +possibly supersede the infallibility of the Church; at another she saw +the complete impossibility of anything being able to stand for a moment +against the infallibility of God. The only conclusion at which she +could arrive was a determination to read the volume, and judge for +herself. She read on. "_I am weye, treuthe, and lyf; no man cometh to +the Fadir but by me_." [John xiv. 6.] Were these words the words of +Christ? And what way had Margery been taught? Obedience to the Church, +humility, penances, alms-giving--works always, Christ never. Could +these be the right way? She went on, till the tears ran down her cheeks +like rain--till her heart throbbed and her soul glowed with feelings she +had never felt before--till the world, and life, and death, and things +present, all seemed to be nothing, and Christ alone seemed to be +everything. She read on, utterly oblivious of the flight of time, and +regardless that darkness had given place to light, until the fall of +something in the room below, and the voice of Dame Lovell calling for +Cicely, suddenly warned her that the house was astir. Margery sprang +up, her heart beating now for a different reason. She hurriedly closed +the book, and secreted it in a private cupboard, of which she alone had +the key, and where she generally kept her jewels, and any little +trinkets on which she set a special value. Margery's next act, I fear, +was indefensible; for it was to throw the cover and pillows of her bed +into confusion, that the maids might suppose it had been occupied as +usual. She then noiselessly unfastened the door, and proceeded with her +dressing, so that when, a few minutes after, Dame Lovell came panting up +the stairs, and lifted the latch, the only thing she noticed was Margery +standing before the mirror, and fastening up her hair with what she +called a pin, and what we should, I suspect, designate a metallic +skewer. + +"What, Madge, not donned yet?" was Dame Lovell's greeting. "How thou +hast overslept thyself, girl! Dost know it is already five of the +clock, and thy father and I have been stirring above an hour?" + +"Is it so late, of a truth?" asked Margery, in dismay. "I cry you +mercy, good mother!" + +And Margery was thinking what excuse she could use by way of apology, +when Dame Lovell's next words set her at rest, as they showed that the +mind of that good lady was full of other thoughts than her daughter's +late rising. + +"Grand doings, lass!" said she, as she sat down in the carved arm-chair. +"Grand doings, of a truth, Madge!" + +"Where, good mistress mine?" + +"Where?" said Dame Lovell, lifting her eyebrows. "Why, here, in Lovell +Tower. Where should they be else? Richard Pynson was so late of +returning from Marston that he saw not thy father until this morrow." + +"I heard him come." + +"Wert awake?" + +"Yea. I was awake a long season!" + +"Poor lass!" said her mother. "No marvel thou art late. But harken to +what I was about to tell thee. Sir Ralph Marston and his kinsman the +Lord Marnell, dine with us to-day." + +"To-day?" + +"Yea, to-day. Dear, dear, dear, dear! What folk must they be that live +in London town! Marry, Sir Ralph sent word by Richard Pynson, praying +us not to dine until one of the clock, for that the Lord Marnell is not +used to it at an earlier hour. I marvel when they sup! I trow it is +not until all Christian folk be a-bed!" + +"Dwells the Lord Marnell in London?" inquired Margery, with surprise; +for Margery was more astonished and interested to hear of a nobleman +from London dining with her parents than a modern young lady would be if +told that a Chinese mandarin was expected. + +"Yea, truly, in London dwells he, and is of the bedchamber to our Lord +the King, and a great man, Madge! Hie thee down when thou art dressed, +child, and make up thy choicest dishes. But, good Saint Christopher! +how shall I do from seven to one of the clock without eating? I will +bid Cicely serve a void at ten." + +And so saying, Dame Lovell bustled downstairs as quickly as her +corpulence would allow her, and Margery followed, a few minutes later. +While the former was busy in the hall, ordering fresh rushes to be +spread, and the tables set, Margery repaired to the ample kitchen, +where, summoning the maids to assist her, and tying a large coarse apron +round her, she proceeded to concoct various dishes, reckoned at that +time particularly choice. There are few books more curious than a +cookery-book five hundred years old. + +Our forefathers appear to have used joints of meat much less frequently +than the smaller creatures, whether flesh or fowl, hares, rabbits, +chickens, capons, etcetera. Of fish, eels excepted, they ate little or +none out of Lent. Potatoes, of course, they had none; and rice was so +rare that it figured as a "spice;" but to make up for this, they ate, +apparently, almost every green thing that grew in their gardens, +rose-leaves not excepted. Of salt they had an unutterable abhorrence. +Sugar existed, but it was very expensive, and honey was often used +instead. Pepper and cloves were employed in immense quantities. The +article which appears to have held with them the corresponding place to +that of salt with us, and which was never omitted in any dish, no matter +what its other component parts, was saffron. In corroboration of these +remarks, I append one very curious receipt,--a dish which formed one of +the principal covers on Sir Geoffrey Lovell's table:-- + +"Farsure of Hare. + +"Take hares and flee [flay] hom, and washe hom in broth of fleshe with +the blode; then boyle the brothe and scome [skim] hit wel and do hit in +a pot, and more brothe thereto. And take onyons and mynce horn and put +hom in the pot, and set hit on the fyre and let hit sethe [boil], and +take bred and stepe hit in wyn and vynegur, and drawe hit up and do hit +in the potte, and pouder of pepur and clowes, and maces hole [whole], +and pynes, and raysynges of corance [currants], then take and parboyle +wel the hare, and choppe hym on gobettes [small pieces] and put him into +a faire [clean] urthen pot; and do thereto clene grese, and set hit on +the fyre, and stere hit wele tyl hit be wel fryed; then caste hit in the +pot to the broth, an do therto pouder of canell [cinnamon] and sugur; +and let hit boyle togedur, and colour hit wyth saffron, and serve hit +forthe." + +It will be noticed from this that our ancestors had none of our vulgar +prejudices with respect to onions, neither had they any regard to the +Scriptural prohibition of blood. The utter absence of all prescription +of quantities in these receipts is delightfully indefinite. + +There were many other dishes to this important dinner beside the +"farsure of hare;" and on this occasion most of the rabbits and chickens +were entire, and not "chopped on gobbettes;" for the feast was "for a +lord," and lords were permitted to eat whole birds and beasts, while the +less privileged commonalty had to content themselves with "gobbettes." + +When Margery had concluded her preparations for dinner, she went into +the garden to gather rosemary and flowers, which she disposed in various +parts of the hall, laying large bunches of rosemary in all available +places. All was now ready, and Margery washed her hands, took off her +apron, and ran up into her own room, to pin on her shoulder a +"quintise," in other words, a long streamer of cherry-coloured ribbon. + +The guests arrived on horseback about half-past twelve, and Richard +Pynson ushered them into the hall, and ran into the kitchen to inform +Dame Lovell and Margery, adding that "he pitied Lord Marnell's horse," a +remark the signification of which became apparent when the ladies +presented themselves in the banqueting-hall. Sir Geoffrey was already +there, conversing with his guests. Margery expected to find Lord +Marnell similar to his cousin, Sir Ralph Marston, whom she already knew, +and who was a pleasant, gentlemanly man of about forty years of age, +always joking with everybody, and full of fun. But she did not expect +what she now saw. + +The great man from London, who sat in a large oak-chair in the hall, was +a great man in all corporeal senses. He was very tall, and stout in +proportion; an older man than his cousin Sir Ralph, perhaps ten or +fifteen years older; and there was something in his face which made +Margery drop her eyes in an instant. It was a very curious face. The +upper part--the eyes and forehead--was finely-formed, and showed at +least an average amount of intellect; but from the nose downward the +form and expression of the features were suggestive only of the +animal,--a brutal, sensual, repelling look. Margery, who had looked for +the great man from London with girlish curiosity, suddenly felt an +unconquerable and causeless dislike to him swell up in her heart, a +something which she could neither define nor account for, that made her +wish to avoid sitting near him, and turn her eyes away whenever his were +directed towards her. + +Sir Geoffrey presented his wife and daughter to Lord Marnell, and Sir +Ralph came forward with a cordial greeting; after which they took their +seats at table, for Richard Pynson was already bringing in the "farsure +of hare," and Mistress Katherine following with the pottage. The +occupants of the high table, on the dais, consisted of Sir Geoffrey and +Dame Lovell, Lord Marnell, Sir Ralph Marston, Margery, Richard Pynson, +Mistress Katherine, and Friar Andrew Rous, Sir Geoffrey's chaplain. The +maids sat at the second table, and the farm-servants at a third, lower +down the hall. Sir Ralph, as usual, was full of fun, and spared nobody, +keeping the whole table in a roar of laughter, excepting Lord Marnell, +who neither laughed at his cousin's jokes, nor offered any observations +of his own, being wholly occupied with the discussion of the various +dishes as they were presented to him, and consuming, according to the +joint testimony of Dame Lovell and Friar Andrew after the feast, "enough +to last seven men for a week." When dinner was over, and "the tables +lifted," the company gathered round the fire, and proceeded to make +themselves comfortable. Sir Ralph sang songs, and told funny anecdotes, +and cracked jokes with the young people; while Lord Marnell, in +conversation with Sir Geoffrey, showed that the promise of neither half +of his face was entirely unfulfilled, by proving himself a shrewd +observer, and not a bad talker. In the midst of this conversation, Sir +Ralph, turning round to Sir Geoffrey, inquired if he had heard anything +of a certain sermon that had been preached the day before at Bostock +Church. + +"I heard of it," answered he, "but I heard it not. Some of mine, +methinks, heard the same. Madge, wentest not thou thereto?" + +"Ay, good father, I went with Master Pynson." + +"Ah!" said Sir Ralph. "I went not, for the which I now grieve, the more +as my good cousin telleth me that Master Sastre is accounted a great one +by some--but these seem not of the best." + +"Misconceive me not, fair cousin," said Lord Marnell. "It is only the +Lollards that think well of the man, and thou wottest that Holy Church +looketh not kindly on their evil doings. That ill priest, John +Wycliffe, who is accounted their leader, hath done more hurt to the +faith than any heretic these many years." + +"Thou art but ill affected unto them, I trow," said Sir Ralph, jokingly. + +"Ill affected!" exclaimed Lord Marnell, bringing down his hand violently +upon the arm of his chair, with a blow which made Margery start. "I cry +you mercy, fair mistress--but if I knew of any among my kin or meynie +[Household retinue] that leaned that way--ay, were it mine own sister, +the Prioress of Kennington--I tell thee, Ralph, I would have her up +before the King's Grace's council, and well whipped!" + +Margery shuddered slightly. Sir Ralph leaned back in his chair, and +laughed heartily. + +"Well said, fair cousin mine! But I pray thee, tell me what doctrines +hold these men, that thou wouldst have them all up afore the King's +Grace's council, and well whipped?" + +"All manner of evil!" answered Lord Marnell, wrathfully. "They hold, as +I hear, that the blessed Sacrament of the Altar is in no wise the true +body of Christ, but only a piece of bread blessed by the priest, and to +be eaten in memory of His death; for the which reason also they would +allow the lay folk to drink Christ's blood. Moreover, they say that the +blessed angels and God's saints be not to be worshipped, but only to be +held in reverence and kindly memory. Also, they give to the common +people the Scriptures of God's Word for to read, which we wot well is +only fit for priests. And in all things which they do, I find not that +these evil wretches do hold any true thing as taught by Holy Church, but +one, which is masses for souls departed. I wis not much concerning +them, for they move mine anger." + +"I pray your good Lordship," asked Sir Geoffrey, "can you tell me +whether these men be in great force in London or thereabouts at this +time? Find they any favour in the Court?" + +"They be ever increasing," said Lord Marnell "so much so that the King's +council have seen good to prepare some orders against them--forbidding +of their assemblages, and such like--for to present unto the Parliament. +These orders provide, as my good friend holy Abbot Bilson did tell me, +that all convicted to be Lollards shall suffer close prison, for longer +or shorter time, as pleaseth the King's Grace. I trow they find not +favour at Court with many, but the few that look well on them be unhaply +of the highest. I have heard say that some in the Duke of Lancaster's +palace show them favour, and it is no news that the Queen--whose soul +God pardon!--did lean that way. In all open hours she was reading of +Scripture in the vulgar tongue. Master Sastre, the priest, who my fair +cousin telleth me was a-preaching in Bostock Church yestermorn, is, I +take it, one of their chief men, and did learn of Master Wycliffe +himself. I trow he will find it go hard with him if ever he cometh near +London again. He goeth a-preaching of his doctrines up and down the +realm, and perverting from the faith evilly-disposed men and sely +[simple, unlearned] damsels who lack something to set their tongues +running." + +Sir Ralph here made a remark which turned the conversation; for this +Margery was sorry, as it had interested her extremely. Lord Marnell's +remarks taught her more about the Lollards than she had ever known +before. So the Queen read the Bible in English! thought she. Why +should not I do the same? She sat wrapped in her own thoughts for a +long time, and when she roused herself from them, she noticed that Dame +Lovell had quitted the room, and that Sir Ralph and Sir Geoffrey were +talking politics, wherein they were occupied in proving, to the +unqualified satisfaction of each, that there was "something rotten in +the State," and that England could not last very long, her only business +being to demolish France. And Margery, finding the conversation now +extremely dull--though had she for an instant suspected the turn it +would take in her absence, she certainly would never have gone--slipped +out, and joined the more noisy party in the kitchen, where she found +Dame Lovell seated in the chimney-corner and inveighing fervently +against late hours. + +"An it be not three of the clock already," said that angry lady, "I am a +heathen Jew, and no Christian! Time to prepare supper for Christian +folk--but when that great hulk of a man, that can do nothing in this +world but eat, thinks to sup, I wis not! Marry, I trow that nought more +will go down his throat until evensong! I marvel if our grandsons will +be as great fools as we be!" + +"More, Dame," answered Mistress Katherine, sententiously. She was a +woman who very seldom spoke, and when she did, compressed all her ideas +into as few words as would serve the purpose. + +"Nay, Saint Christopher! I hope not," said Dame Lovell. "And what am I +for to do now? Madge, lass, open the door and bid hither Richard +Pynson." + +Margery softly opened the door into the hall; and as softly called the +person who answered to that name. He rose, and came to her, and Sir +Geoffrey and Lord Marnell, who were in low-toned, earnest conversation, +suddenly stopped as she appeared. + +"Richard," said Dame Lovell, in what she doubtlessly intended for a +whisper, "I pray thee, good youth, to go in softly, and privily demand +of Sir Ralph what time he list to sup." + +Richard executed the order, and, returning, closed the door behind him. + +"Sir Ralph saith, good mistress mine, that the Lord Marnell when at home +suppeth not afore six of the clock; but he prayeth you for to sup when +you will, to the which he will without doubt accommodate himself." + +"Six of the clock!" cried Dame Lovell, in amazement. "Richard, art sure +thou heardest aright?" + +"Certes, good mistress." + +Dame Lovell sat in silent horror. + +"Well!" said she at length, "if ever in all my days did I hear of a like +thing! Cicely, serve a void in my privy chamber at four of the clock. +This poor country of ours may well go to wrack, if its rulers sup not +afore six of the clock! Dear, dear, dear! I marvel if the blessed +Virgin Saint Mary supped not until six of the clock! May all the saints +forgive us that we be such fools!" + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +COMING EVENTS CAST THEIR SHADOWS BEFORE. + + "Ay, sooth we feel too strong in weal to need Thee on that road. + But woe being come, the soul is dumb that crieth not on God." + + Elizabeth Barrett Browning. + +The guests departed about seven o'clock, and Dame Lovell got to bed a +little before nine--an hour which was in her eyes most untimely. +Margery, though she had not slept on the previous night, was unable to +close her eyes for some time. The unwonted excitement kept her awake, +and another idea, too, mingled with her thoughts. The book! How should +she copy it? It must be at stolen hours--probably in the night. And +what material should she use? Not vellum, for Sir Geoffrey might ask +what she was doing if she requested more of that precious article than +was necessary for her Breviary. He had allowed her some paper for the +rough draft of her illuminations, and she had a little of this left. +She determined to make use of this paper so far as it would go, and to +trust to circumstances for the remainder. + +Thinking and contriving, Margery sank to sleep, and dreamed that Sir +Geoffrey was reading the book to Lord Marnell, who, by that curious +mixture which often takes place in dreams, was also Richard Pynson. +From this dream, about ten minutes after she fell asleep, as it appeared +to her, Margery suddenly sprang up to the conviction that broad daylight +was streaming in at the window. She rose and dressed herself hurriedly, +and, running down into the kitchen, was surprised to find nobody there +but Joan, the drudge of the household, who moreover was rubbing her +eyes, and apparently only half awake. + +"Why, Mistress Margery!" said the girl, in astonishment, "your good +mistress-ship is early, considering our late hours. The Dame is not yet +risen." + +"In good sooth?" inquired Margery, looking at the clock, when she found +to her surprise that it was barely five o'clock; and receiving from Joan +the information that Dame Lovell had told Cicely overnight that she did +not intend to appear until six, she returned to her own room, and, +drawing the book from its hiding-place, commenced her task of copying. +Margery worked quickly, and had copied nearly a page in the hour. So +absorbed was she in her task, that she never heard the door open, and +started like a guilty thing when the well-known voice of her mother +sounded close by her. + +"Eh, Madge! Up and at work? Thou wilt work thy fingers to the bone, +child! Is that thy mass-book? Nay, it is paper, I see, and that, I +wis, is on vellum. What art doing, damsel?" + +Pale and red, red and pale, went Margery by turns at this string of +questions. + +"Why, lass, what hast?" asked Dame Lovell, in surprise. + +"I cry you mercy, good mother!" said Margery, descending to +equivocation, and blushing more than ever; "I heard you not open my +door, and your voice started me." + +"Poor Madge! did I fright thee?" said Dame Lovell, kindly. "But what is +this, child? Another Breviary? Dost want two?" + +"Poor Madge" she was indeed at this moment. Terrified beyond measure +lest Dame Lovell should inform Sir Geoffrey, whose learned eyes would +perceive in a moment what the book was--and seeing more danger in his +discovering its real character than in letting him suppose it to be +another Breviary, Margery, generally so truth-telling, was frightened +into a lie. + +"Ay, good mother," she stammered out, "'tis a Breviary." + +All that day Margery sat upon thorns; but Dame Lovell made no mention of +the incident, and she accordingly hoped it was forgotten. + +Day after day passed on, and Margery worked harder than ever at copying +the book. She finished her task just one day before the month was up, +and gave back the original to Richard Pynson, entreating him to make an +errand to Marston as soon as possible, and restore the book, with her +hearty thanks, into the hands of Master Carew. + +On the evening of that day, Dame Lovell sat at work in the wide +chimney-corner of the hall. Near her was Mistress Katherine, scraping +almonds into a bowl; while Margery, occupied with her distaff, sat at a +little distance. On a wide oaken settle on the opposite side of the +fire lay Friar Andrew, taking a nap, as was his afternoon custom; while +on another settle drawn up before the fire, Sir Geoffrey and Richard +Pynson sat conversing with the ladies. + +"Madge, lass, hast finished thy Breviary?" asked Sir Geoffrey. "An thou +hast, I would see it." + +Margery's heart leaped into her mouth, for now was the time for the +discovery of her falsehood to be made. Simply replying, however, "I +will seek it, father," she rose and laid her distaff down. + +"Ay, Madge is a feat scribe, truly!" remarked Dame Lovell, to Margery's +unspeakable distress. "She hath written two Breviaries, I wis." + +"Two!" said Sir Geoffrey, laughing. "One for Sundays and feasts, and +the other for week-days? Madge, bring us both of them." + +Margery left the room, and returned in a few minutes, with both the +books in her hand. Sir Geoffrey took them, and opened the illuminated +one--the genuine Breviary--first. Margery reseated herself, and took up +her distaff, but the thread was very uneven, and she broke it twice, +while her father turned over the leaves of the book, and praised her +writing and illuminations. His praise was sweet enough, but some time +he must come to the end, and _then_--! + +How fervently Margery wished that Dame Lovell would ask an irrelevant +question, which might lead to conversation--that Friar Andrew would +awake--that Cicely would rush in with news of the cows having broken +into the garden--or that _anything_ would occur which would put a stop +to the examination of those volumes before Sir Geoffrey arrived at the +last leaf! But everything, as it always is under such circumstances, +was unusually quiet; and Sir Geoffrey fastened the silver clasps of the +Breviary, and opened the book without anything to hinder his doing so. +Margery stole furtive looks at her father over her distaff, and soon +observed an ominous look of displeasure creeping over his face. He +passed over several leaves--turned to the beginning, and then to the +end,--then, closing the volume, he looked up and said, in a stern +voice-- + +"Andrew!" + +Friar Andrew snored placidly on. + +"Andrew!" said Sir Geoffrey, in a louder tone. + +Friar Andrew gave an indistinct sound between a snore and a grunt. Sir +Geoffrey rose from his seat, and striding over to where his confessor +slept, laid hold of his shoulders, and gave him such a shake as nearly +brought him to the stone floor. + +"Awake, thou sluggard!" said he, angrily. "Is it a time for the +shepherd to sleep when the wolf is already in the fold, and the lambs be +in danger?" + +"Eh? Oh! ay!" said Friar Andrew, half awake. "Time to sup, eh?" + +"Look here, Andrew!" roared his offended patron, "and see thee what this +sinful maid hath been doing. What penance deemest thou fit for such +fault as this?" He handed the book to the friar. The friar sat up, +rubbed his eyes, opened the book, and turned over two or three leaves. + +"I cry your good worship mercy," said he. "I knew not you were assaying +to arouse me. I was dreaming of a kettle of furmety of Madge's making." + +"I trow here is a pretty kettle of furmety of Madge's making!" was the +irate response. + +"I conceive you not, good master," said the friar. "The book is a good +book enough, trow." + +"Thou art an ass!" was the civil answer. "Seest thou not that it is the +translation of Scripture whereof the Lord Marnell spake, by Master John +Wycliffe, the Lollard priest? Mindest thou not that which he said about +Lollards?" + +"An what if it be?" said the confessor, yawning. "I pin not my faith on +my Lord Marnell's sleeve, though it _were_ made of slashed velvet. And +I trow Madge hath been too well bred up to draw evil from the book. So +let the damsel alone, good master, and give her book back. I trow it +will never harm her." Margery was exceedingly surprised at the turn +which affairs were taking. The truth was, that Friar Andrew was very +fond of her; he had been Sir Geoffrey's chaplain before she was born, +she had grown up under his eye, and she made, moreover, such a kettle of +furmety as he declared no one else could make. Beside this, Andrew was +a marvellous poor scholar; he could never read a book at sight, and +required to spell it over two or three times before he could make out +the meaning. He could read his mass-book, because he had done so for +the last forty years, and could have gone through the service as easily +without book as with it; though, had a different copy been given him, in +which the pages did not commence with the same line, it would probably +have perplexed him extremely. Thus, under these circumstances, his love +for Margery, his love for furmety, and his utter ignorance, combined to +dispose him to let her off easily. + +Sir Geoffrey took the book from his chaplain with a sort of growl, and +threw it into Margery's lap. + +"There! take it, damsel!" said he. "I account it Andrew's business to +take care of thy soul, and he saith it will not hurt thee. I mind it +the less, as thou wilt shortly go to dwell with one who will see to thee +in these matters, and will not let thee read Lollard books." + +The thread fell from Margery's hand, and so did the distaff, which +rolled over the floor with a clatter. She never heeded it. A terrible, +indefinite dread had taken hold of her. + +"Father! what mean you?" she stammered forth at last. + +"What mean I?" said Sir Geoffrey, in the same half-affectionate, +half-sarcastic tone. "Why, that I have promised thee to the Lord +Marnell, Lord of the Bedchamber to the King's Grace, and Knight of the +Garter--and thou wilt be a lady and dwell in London town, and hold up +thine head with the highest! What sayest to _that_, child?" he added, +proudly. + +She sat a moment with her white lips parted,--cold, silent, stunned. +Then the bitter cry of "Father, father!" awoke the echoes of the old +hall. + +Sir Geoffrey was evidently troubled. He had sought only his daughter's +grandeur, and had never so much as dreamed that he might be making her +miserable. + +"Why, child! dost not like it?" said he, in surprise. + +She rose from her seat, and went to him, and kneeling down by him, laid +her head, bowed on her clasped hands, upon his knee. "O father, +father!" was all she said again. + +"Truly, lass, I grieve much to see thee thus," said her father, in a +perplexed tone. "But thou wilt soon get over this, and be right glad, +too, to be so grand a lady. What shall I say to comfort thee?" + +Long, terrible, hysterical sobs were coming from the bowed frame--but no +tears. At length, still without lifting up her head, she whispered-- + +"Is there no way to shun it, father? I love him not. O father, I love +him not--I cannot love him!" + +"Truly, my poor lass, I trow we cannot shun it," said he. "I never +thought to see thee grieve so sore. The Lord Marnell is a noble +gentleman, and will find thee in silken tissues and golden cauls." + +Sir Geoffrey did not rightly understand his daughter's sorrow. His +"silken tissues and golden cauls" did not raise the bowed head one inch. + +"Father!" she whispered, "have you promised him?" + +"I have, my child," he answered, softly. + +She rose suddenly, and quickly turned to go up the stairs leading to her +own room. At this moment Richard Pynson rose also, and quietly taking +up the book, which had fallen from Margery's lap on the floor, he handed +it to her. She took it with one hand, and gave him the other, but did +not let him see her face. Then she passed into her chamber, and they +heard her fasten the door. + +When she had done so, she flung herself down on the rushes [note 1], and +bent her head forward on her knees. The longer she thought over her +prospects, the more dreary and doleful they appeared. Her state of mind +was one that has been touchingly described by a writer who lived three +hundred years later--"Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother"--who, of all +who have attempted and failed in the impossible task of rendering the +Psalms into verse, perhaps approached as near success as any one. + + "Troublous seas doe mee surrownde; + Saue, O Lord, my sinking soule, + Sinking wheare it feeles no grownde, + In this gulf, this whirling hole; + Wayghting ayde with earnest eying, + Calling God with bootles crying; + Dymme and drye in mee are fownde + Eyes to see, and throat to sounde." + +Suddenly, as she sat thus bowed down, too sorrowful for tears, like the +dew to a parched flower came the words of the book--nay, the words of +the Lord--into her soul. + +"_Be not your herte afrayed, ne drede it_." + +"_And therfore ghe han now sorowe, but eftsoone I schal se ghou, and +ghoure herte schal haue ioie, and no man schal take fro ghou ghoure +ioie. Treuly, treuly, I seie to ghou, if ghe axen the Fadir ony thing +in my name he schal ghyue to ghou_." John xvi. 22, 23. + +Now, Margery had neither teacher nor commentary to interpret to her the +words of Scripture; and the result was, that she never dreamed of +modifying any of them, but took the words simply and literally. It +never entered her head to interpret them with any qualification--to +argue that "anything" must mean only some things. Ah! how much better +would it be for us, if we would accept those blessed words as plainly, +as unconditionally, as conclusively, as this poor untaught girl! + +But when Margery considered the question more minutely, poor child! she +knew not what to ask. The constant reference of everything by the Lord +Jesus to "the will of the Father" had struck her forcibly; and now she +dared not ask for entire freedom from the crashing blow which had fallen +on her, lest it should not be the will of the Father. So she contented +herself with a supplication which, under the circumstances, was the best +she could have offered. She did not even try to form her petitions into +words--the depths in which her soul lay were too deep for that; it was a +wordless cry which went up to God. But its substance was an entreaty +that the Father would do His will, and would bend her will to it; that +whatever He saw fit to give her, He would always give His presence and +His love; that whatever He was pleased to take away, He would not take +from her the word unto His handmaid wherein He had caused her to hope. +And when she rose from her knees, the prominent idea in her mind might +have been expressed in the words of the old proverb, "He loseth nothing +that keepeth God for his friend." + +An hour afterwards, Dame Lovell, who could not rest for the remembrance +of her child's grief, came softly into Margery's chamber to see if she +could comfort her. She was surprised to find her sleeping as quietly as +a little child, with the book, even in sleep, held fast to her bosom, as +if she would permit nothing to separate her from that Word of God which +had given rest to her soul. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. Carpets were very rare at this time, and only used on state +occasions and for invalids. Their place was supplied by fresh green +rushes, strewn on the floor. It appears rather doubtful, however, +whether carpets were not sometimes used in the winter. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +LIFE IN LONDON. + + "Whan we cam' in by Glasgow toun, + We were a comely sicht to see,-- + My luve was clad in velvet black + And I mysel' in cramoisie." + + Old Ballad. + +A fortnight after the events recorded in the last chapter, Lovell Tower +was in the confusion of great preparations for the approaching wedding. +Friar Andrew was despatched to York fair to purchase twenty yards of +scarlet cloth, fourteen yards of tawny satin, eight of purple satin, and +the same number of blue cloth of silver, with jewels and rich furs. All +was cutting-out and fitting-on, with discussions about trimmings, +quintises, and head-dresses. Richard Pynson was sent hither and thither +on errands. Sir Geoffrey himself superintended the purchase of a new +pillion, and ordered it to be covered with green velvet. Lord Marnell, +who did not often come to Lovell Tower himself, sent over a trusty +messenger every day to inquire if Mistress Margery had rested well and +was merry. From the latter condition she was very far. At length the +preparations were completed; and on a splendid summer day, when the +birds were singing their most joyous melodies, Margery Lovell was +married, in Bostock Church, to Sir Ralph Marnell, Baron Marnell of +Lymington, Knight of the Garter. The bride was attired in blue cloth of +silver, trimmed with miniver; and her hair, as was then the custom at +weddings, was not confined by any head-dress, but flowed down her back, +long and straight. The bridegroom was dressed in cramoisie--crimson +velvet--richly trimmed with bullion, and wore three long waving plumes +in his cap, as well as a streamer of gold lace. If any one who may read +these pages should inquire why Margery chose blue for her wedding-dress, +I may answer that Margery would have been greatly astonished if any one +had recommended white. White at this period was not only a mourning +colour, but mourning of the very deepest character. + +No pains were spared to make this a merry wedding, and yet it certainly +could not be called a joyous one. All the inhabitants of Lovell Tower +knew well that the bride was very far from happy; Sir Geoffrey and Dame +Lovell were naturally sorry to lose their only child; Friar Andrew +mourned over his favourite and his kettle of furmety; while Richard +Pynson had his own private sorrow, to which I need not allude further in +this place. + +The bridal feast was held at Lovell Tower, and all the neighbours were +invited to it. The festivities were prolonged to a late hour; and at +five o'clock next morning everybody was busy helping the bride to pack +up. Everybody thought of everything so well, that there was very little +left for her to think of; but she did think of one thing. When Margery +set out for her new home in London, the book went too. + +The journey to London from the North was in those days a long and +wearisome one. There were no vehicles but litters and waggons. Margery +travelled part of the way in a litter, and part on a pillion behind her +bridegroom, who rode on horseback the whole way. He had with him a +regular army of retainers, besides sundry maidens for the Lady Marnell, +at the head of whom was Alice Jordan, the unlucky girl who, at our first +visit to Lovell Tower, was reprimanded for leaving out the onions in the +blanch-porre. Margery had persuaded her mother to resign to her for a +personal attendant this often clumsy and forgetful but really +well-meaning girl. It was a Friday evening when they arrived in London; +and Margery was much too tired to think of doing anything but rest her +wearied head in sleep. + +As early as four o'clock the next morning, she was roused by London +cries from a happy dream of Lovell Tower. "Quinces! sweet quinces! ripe +quinces!" + +"Any kitchen-stuff, have you, maids?" + +"Cakes and ale! cakes and ale!" + +"Cherry ripe! cherry ripe!" + +"Come buy, pretty maids, come buy! come buy!" with an undercurrent of +the long rhymed cry of the hawker of haberdashery, of which Shakespeare +has given us a specimen as regards the English version-- + + "Lawn, as white as driven snow; + Cyprus, black as e'er was crow," + etcetera. + +Margery lay still, and listened in silence to all these new sounds. At +length she rose and dressed herself, with the assistance of Alice, who +was seriously dissatisfied with the narrow streets and queer smells of +the town, and spared no comment on these points while assisting her +young mistress at her toilette. Having dressed, Margery passed into an +antechamber, close to her bedroom, where breakfast was served. This +repast consisted of a pitcher of new milk, another pitcher of wine, a +dish of poached eggs, a tremendous bunch of water-cress, a large loaf of +bread, and marchpanes--a sweet cake, not unlike the modern macaroon. +Breakfast over, Margery put on her hood, and taking Alice with her, she +sallied forth on an expedition to examine the neighbourhood of her new +home. One of Lord Marnell's men-servants followed at a short distance, +wearing a rapier, to defend his mistress in case of any assault being +made upon her. + +Lord Marnell's house was very near the country, and in a quiet and +secluded position, being pleasantly situated in Fleet Street. Green +fields lay between the two cities of London and Westminster. There was +only one bridge across the river, that silver Thames, which ran, so +clear and limpid, through the undulating meadows; and the bridge was +entirely built over, a covered way passing under the houses for wheeled +vehicles. Far to the right rose the magnificent Palace of Westminster, +a relic of the Saxon kings; and behind it the grand old Abbey, and the +strong, frowning Sanctuary; while to the left glittered the walls and +turrets of the White Tower, the town residence of royalty. Margery, +however, could not see the whole of this as she stepped out of her +house. What first met her eyes were the more detailed and less pleasant +features of the scene. There were no causeways; the streets, as a rule, +would just allow of the progress of one vehicle, though a few of the +principal ones would permit the passage of two; and the pavements +consisted of huge stones, not remarkable either for evenness or +smoothness. A channel ran down the middle of the street, into which +every housewife emptied her slops from the window, and along which dirty +water, sewerage, straw, drowned rats, and mud, floated in profuse and +odoriferous mezee. Margery found it desirable to make considerable use +of her pomander, a ball of various mixed drugs inclosed in a gold +network, and emitting a pleasant fragrance when carried in the warm +hand. As she proceeded along the streets which were lined with shops, +the incessant cry of the shopkeepers standing at their doors, "What do +you lack? what do you lack?" greeted her on every side. The vehicles +were of two classes, as I have before observed--waggons and litters, the +litters being the carriages of the fourteenth century; but the waggons +were by far the most numerous. Occasionally a lady of rank would ride +past in her litter, drawn by horses whose trappings swept the ground; or +a knight, followed by a crowd of retainers, would prance by on his +high-mettled charger. Margery spent the happiest day which she had +passed since her marriage, in wandering about London, and satisfying her +girlish curiosity concerning every place of which she had ever heard. +Lord Marnell frowned when Margery confessed, on her return, that she had +been out to see London. It was not fit, he said, that she should go out +on foot: ladies of rank were not expected to walk: she ought to have +ordered out her litter, with a due attendance of retainers. + +"But, my lord," said Margery, very naturally, "an't please you, I could +not see so well in a litter." + +Lord Marnell's displeased lips relaxed into a laugh, for he was amused +at her simplicity; but he repeated that he begged she would remember, +now that she _had_ seen, that she was no longer plain Mistress Margery +Lovell, but Baroness Marnell of Lymington, and would behave herself +accordingly. Margery sighed at this curtailment of her liberty, and +withdrew to see where Alice was putting her dresses. + +As it was approaching evening, Lord Marnell's voice called her +downstairs. + +"If thou wilt see a sight, Madge," he said, good-naturedly, as she +entered, "come quickly, and one will gladden thine eyes which never +sawest thou before. The King rideth presently from the Savoy to the +Tower." + +Margery ran to the window, and saw a number of horses, decked, as well +as their riders, in all the colours of the rainbow, coming up the street +from the stately Savoy Palace, which stood, surrounded by green fields, +in what is now the Strand. + +"Which is the King's Grace, I pray you?" asked she, eagerly. + +"He weareth a plain black hood and a red gown," answered her husband. +"He rideth a white horse, and hath a scarlet footcloth, all powdered +over with ostrich feathers in gold." + +"What!" said Margery, in surprise, "that little, fair, goodly man, with +the golden frontlet to his horse?" + +"The very same," said Lord Marnell. "The tall, comely man who rideth +behind him, on yon brown horse, and who hath eyes like to an eagle, is +the Duke of Lancaster. `John of Gaunt,' the folk call him, by reason +that he was born at Ghent, in Flanders." + +"And who be the rest, if I weary you not with asking?" said Margery, +rather timidly. + +"In no wise," answered he. "Mostly lords and noble gentlemen, of whom +thou mayest perchance have heard. The Earl of Surrey is he in the green +coat, with a red plume. The Earl of Northumberland hath a blue coat, +broidered with gold, and a footcloth of the same. Yon dark, +proud-looking man in scarlet, on the roan horse, is the Duke of Exeter +[Sir John Holland], brother to the King's Grace by my Lady Princess his +mother, who was wed afore she wedded the Prince, whose soul God rest! +Ah! and here cometh my Lord of Hereford, Harry of Bolingbroke +[afterwards Henry IV], the Duke of Lancaster's only son and heir--and a +son and heir who were worse than none, if report tell truth," added Lord +Marnell, in a lower tone. "Seest thou, Madge, yon passing tall man, +with black hair, arrayed in pink cloth of silver?" [See note 1]. + +"I see him well, I thank your good Lordship," was Margery's answer; but +she suddenly shivered as she spoke. + +"Art thou cold, Madge, by the casement? Shall I close the lattice?" + +"I am not cold, good my Lord, I thank you," said Margery, in a different +tone; "but I like not to look upon that man." + +"Why so?" asked Lord Marnell, looking down from his altitude upon the +slight frail figure at his side. "Is he not a noble man and a goodly?" + +"I know not," answered Margery, still in a troubled voice. "There is a +thing in his face for which I find not words, but it troubleth me." + +"Look not on him, then," said he, drawing her away. She thanked him for +his kindness in showing and explaining the glittering scene to her, and +returned to her supervision of Alice. + +A few days after this, the Prioress of Kennington, Lord Marnell's +sister, came in her litter to see her young sister-in-law. Margery was +surprised to find in her a lady so little resembling her country-formed +idea of a nun. She wore, indeed, the costume of her order; but her +dress, instead of being common serge or camlet, was black velvet; her +frontlet and barb [see Note 2] were elaborately embroidered; her long +gloves [see Note 3] were of white Spanish leather, delicately perfumed, +and adorned with needlework in coloured silks; she wore nearly as many +rings as would have stocked a small jeweller's shop, and from her +girdle, set with the finest gems, were suspended a pomander richly +worked in gold and enamel, a large silver seal, and a rosary, made of +amethyst beads, holding a crucifix, the materials of which were +alabaster and gold. + +In those palmy days of Romanism in England, nuns were by no means so +strictly secluded as now. They were present at all manner of +festivities; the higher class travelled about the country very much as +they chose, and all of them, while retaining the peculiar shape and +colour of the prescribed monastic costume, contrived to spend a fortune +on the accessories and details of their dress. The Prioress of +Kennington, as I have just described her, is a specimen of nearly all +the prioresses and other conventual authorities of her day. + +This handsomely-dressed lady was stiff and stately in her manner, and +uttered, with the proudest mien, words expressive only of the most +abject humility. "If her fair sister would come and see her at her poor +house at Kennington, she would be right glad of so great honour." +Margery replied courteously, but she had no desire to see much of the +Prioress. + +Lord Marnell took his wife to Court, and presented her to the King--the +Queen was dead--and the Duchess of Gloucester [Eleanor Bohu], his aunt. +The King spoke to Margery very kindly, and won her good opinion by so +doing. The Duchess honoured her with a haughty stare, and then +"supposed she came from the North?" in a tone which indicated that she +considered her a variety of savage. The ladies in waiting examined and +questioned her with more curiosity than civility; and Margery's visit to +Court left upon her mind, with the single exception of King Richard's +kindness, a most unpleasant impression. + +In the winter of 1396, King Richard brought home a new queen, the +Princess Isabelle of France, who had attained the mature age of eight +years. Margery watched the little Queen make her entrance into London. +She was decked out with jewels, of which she brought a great quantity +over with her, and fresh ones were presented to her at every place where +she halted. Alice, with round eyes, declared that "the Queen's Grace's +jewels must be worth a King's ransom--and would not your good Ladyship +wish to have the like?" + +Margery shook her head. + +"The only jewels that be worth having, good Alice," said she, "be gems +of the heart, such like as meekness, obedience, and charity. And in +truth, if I were the chooser, there be many things that I would have +afore jewels. But much good do they the Queen's Grace, poor child! and +I pray God she rest not content with gauds of this earth." + +Before that winter was over, one thing, worth more than the Queen's +jewels in her eyes, was bestowed upon Margery. Something to take care +of--something to love and live for. A little golden-haired baby, which +became, so far as anything in this world could become so, the light and +joy of her heart and soul. + +Margery soon learned to value at its true worth the show and tinsel of +London life. She never appeared again at Court but once, to pay her +respects to the new Queen, who received her very cordially, seated on a +throne by her husband. The small Queen of eight "hoped she was quite +well, and thought that England was a very fine country." The king spoke +to her as kindly as before, offered her ipocras [see Note 4] and spices, +and on the close of the interview, took up his little Queen in his arms, +and carried her out of the room. Margery had, indeed, no opportunity to +visit the Court again; for the young Queen was educated at Windsor, and +very rarely visited London. And Lady Marnell, tired of the hollow +glitter of high life, and finding few or none in her own sphere with +whom she could complacently associate, went back with fresh zest to her +baby and the book. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. These descriptions are taken from the invaluable illuminations +in Creton's _Histoire du Roy Richart Deux_, Harl. Ms. 1319. Creton was +a contemporary and personal friend of King Richard. + +Note 2. The frontlet and barb were pieces of white linen, the former +worn over the forehead, the latter over the chin. + +Note 3. Gloves were just becoming fashionable in the fourteenth century +for common wear. Before that, they were rarely used except when the +wearer carried a falcon on the wrist. + +Note 4. A sweet wine or liqueur, generally served at the "void." + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +THE BEGINNING OF THE END. + + "All quick and troubled was his speech, + And his face was pale with dread, + And he said, `The king had made a law, + That the book must not be read,-- + For it was such fearful heresy, + The holy abbot said.'" + + Mary Howitt. + +Three years had passed since the events narrated in the last chapter, +and Margery was now twenty-one years of age. She appeared older than +she was, and her face wore an unnaturally pensive expression, which had +been gradually settling itself there since the day of her marriage. She +never laughed, and very rarely smiled, except when her eyes rested upon +her little golden-haired Geoffrey, whom she had sought and obtained +permission to name after her father. He was a bright, merry little +fellow, perpetually in motion, and extremely fond of his mother, though +he always shrank from and seemed to fear his father. + +On a summer day in the year 1399, Margery sat in her bower, or boudoir, +perusing the book. Lord Marnell was, as usual, at Court; and little +Geoffrey was running about his mother's apartments on what he doubtless +considered important business. Suddenly, in the midst of her reading, a +cry of pain from the child startled Margery. She sprang up, and ran to +him; and she found that in running about, he had contrived to fall down +a step which intervened between the landing and the antechamber, whereby +he had very slightly bruised his infantine arm, and very greatly +perturbed his infantine spirit. Geoffrey was weeping and whining +piteously, and his mother lifted him up, and carried him into her +bedroom, where she examined the injured arm, and discovered that the +injury consisted only of an almost imperceptible bruise. The child, +however, still bewailed his misfortune; and Lady Marnell, having applied +some ointment to the sore place, sat down, and taking Geoffrey in her +lap, she soothed and rocked him until he fell asleep, and forgot all +about his bruised arm. The boy had been asleep about a quarter of an +hour, when the recollection suddenly flashed upon Margery's mind that +she had left the book open to all comers and goers, instead of putting +it carefully away, as was her wont. She set down the child softly on +the trussing-bed, (the curious name given by our forefathers to a piece +of furniture which formed a sofa or travelling-bed at pleasure), and +quietly opening the door into her bower, she saw--her husband standing +on the hearth, with the book in his hand, and a very decided frown +gathering on his countenance. The rustle of Margery's dress made Lord +Marnell look up. + +"What meaneth this, I pray you, mistress?" asked he, angrily. + +There was no need, had Margery felt any disposition, to attempt further +concealment. The worst that could come, had come. + +"It is a book of mine," she quietly answered, "which I left here a short +season agone, when the boy's cry started me." + +"Hast read it?" asked Lord Marnell, no less harshly. + +"I have read it many times, good my Lord." + +"And I pray you for to tell me whence you had it, good my Lady?" said +he, rather ironically. + +Margery was silent. She was determined to bear the blame alone, and not +to compromise either Pynson or Carew. + +"Had you this book since you came hither?" said Lord Marnell, varying +the form of his question, when he saw she did not answer. + +"No, my Lord. I brought it with me from home." + +And the word "home" almost brought the tears into her eyes. + +"Your father--Sir Geoffrey--knew he thereof?" + +"He did," said Margery, "and rebuked me sharply therefor." + +"He did well. Why took he not the book from you?" + +"Because he showed it to Friar Andrew Rous, his and my confessor, who +thought there was no harm in the book, and that I might safely retain +the same." + +"Then Friar Andrew Rous is the longest-eared ass I have lightly seen. +Whence got you this book?" + +"It is mine own writing. I copied it." + +"Whence had you it?" + +No answer. + +"I say, whence had you this book?" roared Lord Marnell. + +"My Lord," said Margery, gently, but decidedly, "I think not that it +needeth to say whence I had the same. The book was lent unto me, whence +I copied that one; but I say not of whom it was lent unto me." + +"You shall say it, and soon too!" was the reply. "This matter must not +be let drop--it passeth into the hands of holy Abbot Bilson. I will +seek him presently." + +And so saying, Lord Marnell strode out of the room, leaving Margery in a +condition of intense terror. + +That afternoon, as Margery sat in her bower, she was informed that the +Prioress of Kennington was in the oaken chamber. Margery went down to +her, holding Geoffrey by the hand, and found her seated on a settle, +apparently preferring this more ancient form of seat to a chair; and +wearing her veil low over her face. The Prioress rose when Lady Marnell +entered, and threw back her heavy black veil, as she advanced to greet +her. Margery returned her salutation courteously, and then tried to +induce Geoffrey to go to his aunt--but Geoffrey hung back and would not +go. Margery did not attempt to force the child, but sat down, and he +attached himself to that particular plait of her dress which was +furthest from the Prioress. The Prioress tried to propitiate him, by +drawing from her pocket a piece of linen, which, being unfolded, +revealed a placenta--a delicacy which the nuns of several convents were +specially famed for making, and the nature of which will be better known +to an ordinary reader by the explanatory term cheese-cake. Geoffrey +graciously accepted the placenta, but utterly declined all further +intimacy. The expression of the Prioress's countenance suggested to +Margery the idea that she had seen her brother, and had heard of the +discovery of the book; so that Margery was quite prepared for her +remarking gravely, after her unsuccessful attempt to attract her little +nephew-- + +"I heard this morn, fair sister, of a thing which did much trouble me." + +"You mean," said Margery, simply, "of the discovering of a book in my +chamber by my Lord my husband, the which did anger him?" + +"I rejoice that you take my meaning," answered the Prioress, in an even +voice. "I meant that verily. I grieve much, fair sister, to hear from +my fair brother that you have allied yourself unto those evil men which +be known by the name of Lollards." + +"I cry you mercy, holy mother," answered Margery, quietly, "I have +allied myself unto no man. I know not a Lollard in the realm. Only I +read that book--and that book, as you must needs wit, holy mother, +containeth the words of the Lord Jesu. Is there hurt therein?" + +The Prioress did not directly answer this question. She said, "If your +elders [parents], fair sister, had shown the wisdom for to have put you +in the cloister, you would have been free from such like temptations." + +"Is it a temptation?" replied Margery. "Meseemeth, holy mother, that +there be temptations as many in the cloister as in the world, only they +be to divers sins: and I misdoubt that I should have temptation in the +cloister, to the full as much as here." + +"I cry you mercy, fair sister!" said the Prioress, with an air of +superiority. "We have no temptations in our blessed retreat. Our rule +saveth us, and our seclusion from the vanity of the world--and I pray +you, what other evil can assail a veiled nun?" + +Margery glanced at the heavy gold chain round the Prioress's neck, the +multifarious rings on her fingers, and the costly jewels in her girdle, +and rather doubted her testimony as to the utter absence of vanity in a +veiled nun; but she contented herself with saying, "I trow, holy mother, +that ye carry with you evil hearts into your cloister, as have all men +without; and an evil heart within, and the devil without, need not +outward matters whereon to form temptation. At least, I speak by mine +own." + +The Prioress looked rather shocked. "The evil heart," answered she, "is +governed and kept down in us by our mortifications, our almsgivings, our +penances, our prayers, and divers other holy exercises." + +"Ah, holy mother," said Margery, looking up, "can ye keep down by such +means your evil hearts! I trow mine needeth more than that!" + +"What mean you, fair sister?" inquired the Prioress. + +"Nought less," replied Margery, "than the blood of the Lamb slain, and +the grace of Christ risen, have I yet found, that would avail to keep +down an evil heart!" + +"Of force, fair sister, of force!" said the Prioress, coldly, "that is +as well as said." + +"Then I pray you, why said you it not?" + +The Prioress rose. "I trust, fair sister," said she, without giving any +reply to Margery's home question, "that you may see your error ere it be +full late so to do." + +"I trust," said Margery, as she followed her sister-in-law to the door, +"that God will keep me in the true faith, whatsoever that be." + +"Amen!" said the Prioress, her long black robe sweeping the steps as she +mounted her litter. + +"Is she gone?" lisped little Geoffrey, when his mother returned. +"Deff'y so glad! Deff'y don't like her!" + +That evening Margery received a message from her husband, bidding her +meet him and Abbot Bilson in the oaken chamber, and bring the book with +her. She took the book from the table on which Lord Marnell had thrown +it--no need to hide it any longer now--kissed little Geoffrey's sleeping +forehead, as he lay in his cradle, and went down to the oaken chamber. + +Lord Marnell, who, when angry, looked taller than ever, stood on the +hearth with his arms folded. Abbot Bilson was seated in an arm-chair, +with his cowl thrown back. He was a man of about sixty, with a +finely-formed head, more bald than the tonsure would account for, and a +remarkably soft, persuasive voice and manner. Had the Order of Jesuits +existed at that time, Abbot Bilson might fitly have been the head of it. +"His words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords." + +"The Lady Marnell," said her husband to the Abbot as she entered, and +the latter, without rising, saluted her with the benediction, "Peace be +with thee, daughter." + +"Where is the book?" asked Lord Marnell, sternly, but not quite so +angrily as he had spoken in the morning. + +Margery passed it to him. + +"See there, reverend father," said he, as he handed it to the Abbot. +"What callest thou that?" + +The Abbot turned over the leaves, but the suavity of his manner suffered +no change. + +"A fine, clear scribe hath written this," remarked he, politely. "The +Gospel according unto the blessed John, I ween, from the traduction of +Master John Wycliffe, the parson of Lutterworth, who deceased a few +years back. And our good brother Andrew Rous thought no harm of your +keeping the book, my daughter?" + +"So he said," answered Margery, shortly. + +"Ah! But your father--?" + +"Did not like thereof at the first; but after that Father Rous had so +said, he made no further matter." + +"Ah! of force. I conceive it fully. Your mother, good daughter?" + +"My mother spake not of the matter. She witteth not to read, and +therefore knew not the book." + +"Certes," said the abbot, with the most exquisite gentleness. Lord +Marnell, who kept fidgeting up and down the room, seemed almost annoyed +at the Abbot's extreme suavity. + +"You had this book from a friend, methinks?" resumed the Abbot. + +"I cannot tell you, father, whence I had it," was Margery's firm reply. + +The Abbot looked surprised. + +"Did our brother Rous lend it you?" he asked, his manner losing a small +portion of its extraordinary softness. + +"Nay." + +"Some friend, then, belike? Sir Ralph Marston, your good cousin? or +Master Pynson, the squire of my worthy knight your father?" + +Margery felt instantaneously that she was in the power of a very +dangerous man. How he was endeavouring to ferret out admissions and +denials which would afterwards stand him in good stead! How came he, +too, to know so much about her friends? Had he been questioning Lord +Marnell? Margery's breath came short and fast, and she trembled +exceedingly. She was annoyed with herself beyond measure, because, when +the Abbot named Richard Pynson, she could not help a conscious blush in +hearing him mention, not indeed the person who had actually lent her the +book, but one who was concerned in the transaction. The Abbot saw the +blush, though just then it did not suit his purpose to take notice of +it. + +"Well, well," said he, courteously, "we will not go further into that +question at present. But you must wit, dear daughter, that this book +containeth fearful heresy! Hath not our brother Rous taught you the +same? Error of all kinds is therein, and weak women like unto you be +not able, my child, for to separate in all cases this error from the +truth wherewith, in these pernicious volumes, it is mingled. You are +very young, daughter, and wit not yet all that the fathers of the Church +can tell you, an' you be meek and humble in receiving of their +teaching." + +He ceased, evidently thinking that he had made an impression. He was +quite prepared for a little pouting, and for earnest entreaties, and +even passionate words; but the one thing for which he was not prepared +he got in Margery's answer. + +"I wis well, reverend father," she said, very quietly, "to the full as +well as it list you to tell me, how young, and weak, and all unwitting I +be. But I trow that Christ deceiveth not His children because they be +weak; and that if I can any words at all conceive, I can His. Saith He +not, `_If ony man wole do His wille_, _he schall knowe of the +techinge_'? [John vii. 17.] Saith He not again, `_Seke ye Scripturis_'? +[John v. 39.] I pray you now, father, to whom said He that? Unto +fathers of the Church? Nay, soothly, but unto Jews unbelieving--very +heathens, and no Christians. Moreover, saith He not again, `_He that +dispisith me, and takith not my wordis, hath him that schal juge him; +thilk word that I have spoken schal deme him in the laste day_'? [John +xii. 48.] I pray you, good father, how shall I know the word that shall +judge me if I read it not? Truly meseemeth that the despising of His +Word lieth more in the neglect thereof. Also say you that this book +containeth heresy and evil teaching. Good father, shall Christ the Son +of God teach evil? Doth God evil? Will God deceive them that ask Him +truth? Knoweth He not as much as fathers of the Church? Nay truly, +good father, I trust that you wot not fully what you have said. He is +`_weye, treuthe, and lyf; no man cometh to the Fadir but by Him_.'" +[John xiv. 6.] + +Abbot Bilson, for once in his life, was completely dumb-foundered. He +looked silently at Lord Marnell. + +"I pray you see now, reverend father," said Lord Marnell, angrily, "how +the teaching of this book hath leavened yon girl's talk! Is it a small +evil, Madge, to turn upon thy teacher when he teacheth thee of wisdom, +with sayings picked up from a book? Art not ashamed?" + +"No, my Lord, I am no wise shamed," answered she; "for the reverend +father teacheth me the words of men, and the words of my book be the +words of Christ; and when Christ and men come to warring, I trow there +is small doubt as to who shall be the winner." + +The Abbot sat mutely gazing at Margery. Her face, usually so calm and +pale, was lighted up, as she spoke, with a light not of this world; and +he could not comprehend it. Had she asked pardon, he could have soothed +her; had she lamented and bewailed, he might have promised her many +things to comfort her; had she spoken bitterly or passionately, he might +have commanded her silence. But this conduct of hers, so quiet, yet so +decided--so gentle, but so uncompromising--puzzled him extremely. He +only saw the exterior, and he could not discover that wherein her great +strength lay. + +"My Lord Marnell," he said, in a perplexed tone, "I would speak with +you. Good lady, will you give us leave?" + +Margery rose, and, courtesying, quitted the room at once; but she took +the book with her, and nobody prevented her from doing so. + +"My Lord," said the Abbot, when she was gone, "I am bewildered utterly. +I know not what to do with this girl. Never the like of her saw I +before, and my experience is baffled. But meseemeth that the best thing +is to treat her gently at the first; and if she relent not, _then_--" + +The sentence was left unfinished, but Lord Marnell understood it. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +NEWS FROM HOME. + + "There are briars besetting every path, + That call for patient care; + There is a cross in every lot, + And an earnest need for prayer; + But a lowly heart that leans on Thee + Is happy anywhere." + + Miss Waring. + +It was a lovely, clear, moonlight night, and the streets of London were +hushed and still. By the light of the moon might be discerned a man in +traveller's dress, walking slowly along Fleet Street, and looking up at +the houses, as if uncertain which of them would prove the one he sought. +The traveller, though he looks much older, and his face wears a weary, +worn expression, we recognise as our old friend Richard Pynson. +Suddenly, in the midst of his search, Richard stopped and looked up. +From an oriel window, directly above his head, a faint sound of singing +reached him--an air which he instantly recognised as "The Palmer's +hymn," sung by the pilgrims to Jerusalem on their journey to the Holy +Land. The voice of the singer, though low, was so clear, that the words +of the hymn were floated distinctly to his ear. + + "Holy City, happy City, + Built on Christ, and sure as He, + From my weary journeying, + From the wastes, I cry to thee; + Longing, sighing, hasting, crying, + Till within thy walls I be. + Ah! what happy, happy greeting + For the guests thy gates who see! + Ah! what blessed, blessed meeting + Have thy citizens in thee! + Ah! those glittering walls how fair, + Jasper shene and ruby blee. + Never harm, nor sin, nor danger, + Thee can tarnish, crystal sea; + Never woe, nor pain, nor sorrow, + Thee can enter, City free!" + +The voice ceased, and Richard Pynson, without any further doubt or +trouble, applied at once for admittance at the gate of the house whence +the music had issued. He could never mistake the voice of Margery +Lovell. The old porter, half asleep, came to the gate, and, +sentinel-like, inquired, "Who goes there?" + +"A friend, a messenger from Dame Lovell, who would fain have speech, if +he may, of the Lady Marnell." + +As soon as the porter heard the name of Dame Lovell, he threw open the +gate. "Enter, friend." The ponderous gate swung to again, and the old +man slowly preceded Richard through the archway to the door of the +house, and up the wide staircase. He ushered him into a room panelled +with oak, where he stirred up the decaying embers of the fire, requested +him to be seated, and left the room. At the door of the adjoining +chamber, Richard heard him softly whisper, "Mistress Alice! Mistress +Alice!" + +A gentle movement in the room followed, and then Richard heard the +familiar voice of Alice Jordan. + +"Hush! good Christopher," said she, in a low tone; "the boy sleepeth at +last--wake him not. What wouldst?" + +"There is here a messenger from Lovell Tower, who would have speech of +my Lady." + +On hearing this, Alice came forward at once into the oaken chamber where +Richard sat. + +"Ah! Master Pynson!" she said, "is it you! My Lady will be right fain +to see you--but you come at an evil hour." + +"How so?" asked Richard, quickly. + +"My Lady is watching this livelong night by the cradle of the young +master, who is sore sick--we fear nigh unto death. The child is in +grievous disease [restlessness, uneasiness], and cannot sleep; and her +good Ladyship hath been singing unto him, I ween, for to soothe him to +rest. Her voice hushed as you came, wherefore I count that the boy +sleepeth." + +"What aileth the poor child?" inquired Richard. + +"My Lady counteth that he got him an ill rheum when we departed hence +for my Lord his house of plesance [country house], for to sweeten [See +Note 2]. Howsoever that be, he is now grievous sick." + +"The Lady Marnell herself is well?" + +"Alas!" replied Alice, "I ween she is little better than the child. She +hath been in sore trouble of late, wherefore it is no marvel. There be +rumours of accusations for heresy out against her, and my Lord is ill +angered towards her. Well, God witteth, and God keep her! You will see +how evil [ill] she looketh an' she come to speak with you, and I trow +that she will when I give her to wit who is here." + +So saying, Alice returned to the room she had quitted, and for some +minutes Richard heard nothing more. Then the door re-opened, and a lady +entered the chamber. + +Was _that_ Margery Lovell? Never, surely, were hers that feeble step, +that worn, wan, white face, that dark ring round the eyes, telling of +weary vigils, and of bitter weeping! But the smile of welcome was +Margery Lovell's own, and the gesture, as she came forward quickly, +holding out both hands, was hers also; though the smile died away in an +instant, and the worn, wearied look came back instead. + +"Dear, good friend!" she said, "how it gladdeth me to see you! You come +straightway from Lovell Tower? My father and mother be well? And +Mistress Katherine, and Cicely, and all the maidens? And Lyard, and old +Beaudesert? (naming her palfrey and the watchdog). And all mine old +friends--Sir Ralph Marston, and Master Carew?" + +Richard smiled a grave, almost mournful smile. + +"You ask too many questions, good my Lady, to be answered in a breath. +But Dame Lovell is in health, and greets you well by me, bidding you be +assured ever of her love and blessing." + +"And my father? O Master Pynson, my father! my father!" + +She sat down, and buried her face in her hands, and wept; for though +Richard had made no answer in words, his face told his tidings too +unmistakably. Sir Geoffrey Lovell was dead. After a time Margery +looked up whiter and more wan than ever, and begged to know the +particulars of her father's death. Richard informed her that Sir +Geoffrey had been taken ill three days only before he died; they had +immediately summoned Master Carew, who was a physician, and who had +pronounced that since he could not live many days, it would be useless +to send for his daughter, who could not possibly reach Lovell Tower in +time to see him alive. Dame Lovell was well in health, but had quite +lost her old cheerfulness, and appeared to feel her husband's death very +acutely. It had been arranged that Friar Andrew should remain with Dame +Lovell as her confessor. As to himself, Richard said that he should of +course return to his father for a time, until he could by some act of +bravery or special favour receive the honour of knighthood; but he did +not like to say anything to Dame Lovell about leaving her, so long as he +saw that he was of any use to her, as he knew that she regarded him in +the light of an adopted son, and had especially seemed to cling to him +since Margery's departure. + +Margery replied that she would have requested for him the favour of +knighthood in a moment at the hands of Lord Marnell, but she did not +like to ask him for anything so long as he was displeased with her. + +Richard inquired after Lord Marnell. Margery said he was well, and was +with the King at Havering-atte-Bower: but talking about him seemed to +increase her look of weariness and woe. She turned the subject by +inquiring again about her old friends. Cicely and the maids, Richard +told her, were well; but old Beaudesert always howled whenever he was +asked for Madge; and Lyard would stand switching his tail in the meadow, +and looking wistfully at the house for the young mistress whom he must +never see again. + +"You miss me, then, all?" said Margery, mournfully. + +"You will never know how sore," was Richard's answer. + +Another pause ensued--there seemed some strange constraint between +them--and then Richard asked-- + +"And what tidings take I home, good my Lady? Dame Lovell bade me have a +care to ask how you fared, and the child. I grieve to hear from Alice +Jordan that _he_ fareth but evil, and for _you_--" + +He smiled the same grave smile. + +"Well--_well_, Master Pynson," said Margery, quickly. "I fare well. I +cannot go where is not Christ, and where He is, howsoever I fare, I must +needs fare well. And for the child--come and see him." + +She led the way noiselessly to the adjoining room. Little Geoffrey lay +in Alice's arms in a heavy sleep. His breathing was very quick and +short, and his face flushed and fevered. Richard stood looking silently +at him for a few minutes, and then returned with Margery to the oaken +chamber. She offered him refreshments, but he declined them. He had +supped, he said, already; and ere breakfast-time, he looked to be on his +way back to the North. Margery wrote a short letter to Dame Lovell, and +intrusted it to him; and then she sat by the table, wearily resting her +head upon her hand. + +"I pray you, good my Lady," said Richard, suddenly, breaking the spell +that seemed to bind them, "what meaneth this bruit [noise, rumour] of +heresy that I hear of you?" + +Margery looked up with a strange light in her eyes. + +"You remember, I trow, asking Master Carew for to lend me yon book?--and +wending with me to hear Master Sastre's homily?" + +"I mind it well." + +"_That_ meaneth it. That because I read Christ's words, and love them, +and do them, so far as in my poor power lieth, the charge of heresy is +laid at my door. And I ween they will carry it on to the end." + +"_The end_?" said Richard, tremblingly,--for he guessed what that meant, +and the idea of Margery being subjected to a long and comfortless +imprisonment, was almost more than he could bear. His own utter +powerlessness to save her was a bitter draught to drink. + +"Ay, the end!" she said, with the light spreading all over her face. +"Mind you not how Master Sastre asked us if we could sue the Lamb along +the weary and bitter road? Is it an evil thing to sue the Lamb, though +He lead over a few rugged stones which be lying in the path? Nay, +friend, I am ready for the suing, how rough soever the way be." + +Richard sat looking at her in silence. He had always thought her half +an angel, and now he thought her so more than ever. + +"I trow you know these things, good friend?" said Margery, with her sad, +faint smile. "You know, is it not, how good is Christ?" + +"I am assaying for to know," answered Richard, huskily. "I have been +a-reading of Master Carew's book, since I found you counted it so great +a thing. Oft-times have Master Carew and I sat reading of that book +whenever I could make an errand unto his neighbourhood; and he hath +taught me many things. But I cannot say yet that I be where you be, +Mistress Margery," he added, calling her by the old familiar title, "or +that I know Christ as friendly as you seem to know Him." + +"Then," said Margery, earnestly, "let not go your grasp till you have +fast hold of Him. Ah! what matter how soon or how sore cometh the end, +if `_whanne He hath loued Hise that ben in the world, into the ende He +loueth them_.' [John xiii. 1.] O dear friend, count not anything lost +if thou keepest Christ His love! If He shall come unto thee and say of +aught by which thou settest store, as He did say unto Peter, `_Louest_ +_thou me more than these_?' let thine answer be his, `_Che, Lord, Thou +woost that I loue Thee_!' [John xxi. 15.] Oh count not aught too rare +or too brave for to give Christ! `_He that loueth his lyf schal leese +it; and he that hatith his lyf in this world, kepith it unto +everlastinge lyf_.' [John xii. 25.] No man loseth by that chepe +[exchange, bargain] of life worldly for life everlasting. Never shall +the devils have leave to say, `Behold here a man who hath lost by +Christ!'" + +"Must we needs give Christ _all_?" said Richard, in an unsteady tone. + +"Is there a thing that thou wouldst keep from Him?--a thing that thou +lovest more than thou lovest Him? Then it will be no marvel that thou +shouldst lose the same. Trust me, if His heart be set on thee, He will +either have thy heart away from it by thy good will, or will have it +away from thy heart by bitter rending and sorrow. And alas for that man +who hath no portion in Christ His heart!" + +Richard answered almost in a whisper, and bent forward to take Margery's +hand as he did so. The spell was fully broken now. + +"There was only one thing, and He hath taken it. Margery, I loved +_you_. I had given readily all else but you. And I trow you will count +it but a sorry [poor, unworthy] giving, wherein the heart goeth not with +the hands." + +She turned her head hastily away, and made no answer; but he felt her +hand grow deathly cold in his own. He dropped it, and rose--and so did +she. She went with him to the door; and there, as she offered her hand +for a farewell greeting, she spoke-- + +"Richard, God hath parted thee and me, and whatsoever God doth He doth +wed. If it were as thou sayest, there was need thereof. When children +come home to their father's house from afar, I trow they fall not +a-bewailing that they had not leave to come in company. And if only we +may clasp hands at the gate of the _Urbs Beata_, I trow well that we +shall count it no great matter, good friend, that we saw but little the +one of the other on the journey!" + +Richard kissed her hand, and then she drew it from him, and softly +passed into her darkened nursery. For a moment he stood looking after +her. "Please God, we will, Margery!" he said to himself, at length. +Then he ran lightly down the stairs, and old Christopher rose at the +sound of his step to open the door for him. + +And so Richard Pynson and Margery Marnell parted, never more to speak to +each other on this side of the Happy City. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. Any reader acquainted with mediaeval hymns will recognise in +this-- + +"Urbs coelestis! urbs beata! Super petram collocata." + +I have translated a few lines of the hymn for the benefit of the English +reader; but my heroine must be supposed to sing it in the original +Latin. + +Note 2. "Sweetening" was a process to which our forefathers were +compelled by their want of drains, and consisted in leaving a house +entirely empty for a time, to have the windows opened, the rushes +renewed, and to adroit of a general purification. Families who had the +means generally "went to sweeten" at least every summer. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +BEREAVEMENT, BUT NOT DEATH. + + "Take from me anything Thou wilt, + But go not _Thou_ away!" + +Little Geoffrey slowly recovered from the illness which had brought him +to death's door, and though able to run about the house, he was still +far from perfect health, when Margery received orders to prepare for +another interview with Abbot Bilson. She rightly divined that this +would be more stormy than the last. Abbot Bilson came now fully +prepared, and not alone. He was accompanied by Archbishop Arundel, a +man of violent passions, and a bitter persecutor of all whom he +conceived to lean to the opinions of Wycliffe. When Margery entered the +room, and saw the Archbishop, she trembled, as well she might. She +meekly knelt and asked their blessing--the manner in which priests were +commonly greeted. The Abbot gave his, saying, "May God bless thee, and +lead thee unto the truth!" + +"Amen!" responded Margery. Arundel, however, refused his benediction +until he had inquired into the matter. + +"Be seated, my daughter!" said the Abbot. Margery obeyed. + +"Holy Church, daughter, hath been sore aggrieved by thine evil doing. +She demandeth of thee an instant yielding of yon heretical and +pernicious book, the which hath led thee astray; and a renunciation of +thy heresy; the which done, thou shalt receive apostolic absolution and +benediction." + +"I know not, reverend father, what ye clepe [call] heresy. Wherein have +I sinned?" + +"In the reading of yon book, and in thy seldom confession. Moreover, I +trow thou holdest with the way of John Wycliffe, yon evil reprobate!" +replied the Archbishop. + +"I cry you mercy, reverend fathers. I take my belief from no man. I +crede [believe] the words of Christ as I find the same written, and +concern not myself with Master Wycliffe or any other. I know not any +Lollards, neither have I allied myself unto them." + +The Archbishop and the Abbot both looked at Lord Marnell--a mute inquiry +as to whether Margery spoke the truth. + +"I ween it is so, reverend fathers," said he. "I wis nought of my wife +her manner of living ere I wedded her, but soothly sithence [since] she +came hither, I know of a surety that she hath never companied with any +such evil persons as be these Lollards." + +"Hold you _not_ with the way of Wycliffe, daughter?" inquired the Abbot. + +"I wis not, reverend father," answered she, "for of a truth I know not +wherein it lieth. I hold that which I find in the book; and I trow an' +I keep close by the words of Christ, I cannot stray far from truth." + +"The words in yon book be no words of Christ!" said Arundel. "That evil +one Wycliffe, being taught of the devil, hath rendered the holy words of +the Latin into pernicious heresy in English." + +"I pray you then, father, will you give me the book in Latin, for I wis +a little the Latin tongue, and moreover I can learn of one that hath the +tongues to wit better the same." + +This was not by any means what Arundel intended, and it raised his +anger. + +"I will not give thee the Latin!" exclaimed he. "I forbid thee to read +or learn the same, for I well know thou wouldst wrest it to thine evil +purposes." + +"How can you put a right meaning to the words, my daughter?" mildly +suggested the Abbot. + +"I know well that I could in no wise do the same," replied Margery, +humbly, "had I not read the promise of Christ Jesu that He would send +unto His own `_thilk Spyryt of treuthe_,' who should `_teche them al +treuthe_,' [John xvi. 13] wherefore by His good help I trust I shall +read aright." + +"That promise was given, daughter, unto the holy apostles." + +"It was given, reverend father, unto weak men and evil, else Peter had +never denied his Master, ne [neither] had all of them left Him and taken +to flight, when the servants of the bishops [see Note 1] laid hold on +Him. I wis that I have an evil heart like as they had, but meseemeth +that mine is not worser than were theirs, wherefore I count that promise +made unto myself also." + +"Thou art lacking in meekness, Madge," said Lord Marnell. + +"I trust not so, good my Lord; but an' if I be, I pray God to give it to +me." + +"Give up the book, Madge!" said her husband, apparently desirous to +allay the storm which he had raised, "and thou shalt then receive +absolution, and all will go well." + +"I will give up the book, my Lord, in obedience to you," replied +Margery, "for I wis well that wives be bounden to obey their husbands; +and soothly it is no great matter, for I know every word therein. But +under your good leave, my Lord, the truth which this book hath taught +me, neither you nor any other man shall have power to take from me, for +it is of God, and not of men!" + +She drew the book from her pocket--ladies wore much larger pockets in +those days than they now do--kissed it, and handed it to her husband. + +"Thou hast well done, Madge!" said Lord Marnell, more kindly than +before, as he passed the book to the Archbishop. Arundel, with a +muttered curse upon all evil teaching, took the book from Lord Marnell +with his hand folded in the corner of his gown, as if he thought its +very touch would communicate pollution, and flung it into the fire. The +fire was a large one, and in a minute the volume was consumed. Margery +watched the destruction of her treasure with swimming eyes. + +"Burn, poor book!" she said, falteringly, "and as thy smoke goeth up to +God, leave it tell Him that the reading and the loving of His Word is +accounted a sin by those who ought to be His pastors." + +"Woman, wilt not hear the truth?" cried Arundel. + +"Truly, father, I have heard it, and it shall rest with me unto my dying +day. But I trow that if your teaching were truth, ye had never burned +with fire the Word of Christ, who hath power, if ye repent not, to +consume you also with the like!" + +"Told I not thee that the evil book which I gave to the fire was not +Christ His Word, but the work of the devil?" + +"Yea, truly; and the like said the heathen Jews, `_Wher we seyen not wel +that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a deuel_?' But I find not that +their saying the same made it ever the truer. What saith Christ in +answer? `_I haue not a deuel; but I honoure my Fadir, and ye han +unhonourid me_.'" [John viii. 48, 49.] + +"My daughter," said the Abbot, with even more than his usual gentleness, +"I misdoubt greatly that you be obstinate in your error. And if this be +so, we shall have necessity of deeds the which we should sore lament. +You wit, doubtless, that in case you continue thus obstinate, you will +be had up afore the King's Grace's Council?" + +"I am ready," answered Margery. + +"You wit also," pursued the Abbot, no less gently, "that you may be +sentenced unto close prison for such time as pleaseth the King's Grace?" + +"I am ready," said Margery again. + +Her examiners looked surprised. + +"Moreover," continued the Abbot, in a softer tone than ever, "wit you +that we can allow you no longer to have the charge and teaching of your +son, who must needs be instructed in the true faith?" + +The end of the reverend fathers was at length reached. The quiet words +of the Abbot produced an effect which the furious abuse of the +Archbishop had been unable to accomplish. A cry of mingled terror, +anguish, and despair, broke from poor Margery's lips. + +"Ye could not--ye could not be so cruel!" she sobbed. "Take from me all +I have in this world--comfort, freedom, yea, life--only leave me my +child!" + +"Thou seest what thou hast brought on thyself!" said Arundel. "How can +we, being the ministers of God His truth, suffer the mind of yon +innocent child to be poisoned with like evil doctrine?" + +"Doth God part the child from the mother?" faltered Margery. "This is +none of His doing. My darling! my darling!" + +Lord Marnell pitied his wife. Her agony touched all that was soft and +gentle in his not too soft heart. + +"Well, well, Madge!" he said, kindly; "I will see that thy child is not +taken from thee, if thou wilt obey these reverend fathers in confessing +of thine error, and wilt humbly beg absolution at their hands." + +Margery looked up at her husband with an expression of unutterable +gratitude beaming in her eyes--but the moment she heard his if, her face +fell instantly. + +"I conceive you, good my Lord," she said, mournfully, "howsoever I thank +you. You will give me back my darling, if I will deny that I hold +Christ His truth. I cannot. I dare not!" + +"`Christ His truth,' persist you in calling your heresy!" cried Arundel, +in a fury. "Choose, then, quickly, for the last time, betwixt `Christ +His truth' and your child!" + +She shivered from head to foot as if an ague-fit were on her, and her +sobs almost mounted to a scream. No heart that had any pretension to +humanity could have helped pitying her. Her husband did pity her; but +Arundel was carried away by passion, and Bilson had no heart. Through +all this tempest, however agonised, firm and unwavering came the +answer-- + +"Christ!" + +Arundel, rising, ordered her to kneel. Margery knelt down on the +hearth, her hands clasped on her breast, and her eyes looking up to +heaven. Solemnly, and with all that terrific majesty which the Church +of Rome so well knows how to put into her threats and denunciations, the +Archbishop cited her to appear before the council on the 17th day of the +following September. In the meantime she was to be confined in one of +the State dungeons. Arundel graciously added that he would give her the +remainder of that day to make her preparations. Lord Marnell here +interposed, and begged the Archbishop to reconsider his decision. He +had anticipated Margery's examination by the council, and possibly her +being sentenced to a term of imprisonment, but he had not bargained for +this previous incarceration. Arundel bluntly refused to alter his +sentence. + +Margery raised her tearful eyes to Lord Marnell. "My Lord," she said, +"and you, reverend fathers, I have one small thing to ask of you. I +pray you deny me not." + +"What is it, Madge?" asked Lord Marnell. + +"My good Lord," she said, pleadingly, "suffer me to take one last kiss +of my child, ere ye take me where I shall see him no more!" + +The Abbot seemed disposed to grant Margery's petition, though the +Archbishop demurred; but Lord Marnell settled the matter by +authoritatively commanding that the mother should be permitted to take +leave of her child. Arundel, with rather a bad grace, gave way on this +secondary point. Margery was then dismissed. + +She went up-stairs as if she were walking in a dream, and found Alice +hiding behind the door for the amusement of little Geoffrey, who was in +high glee. Margery stood a moment on the threshold, looking at them, +and mournfully thinking that it was the last time she would ever look on +that sunny little face, or hear that silvery laugh. As she stood there, +Alice caught sight of her mistress, and her share of the mirth ceased +instantly. + +"My Lady! my Lady! what have you, I pray you tell me? You look as if +sentence of death had been passed on you!" + +Margery passed her hand dreamily across her brow. + +"Sentence, good Alice, of the evil which is in death!" she said, softly, +"and henceforth death must needs be a glad thing. But that is to come +yet." + +She sat down, and took the child on her knee, and he nestled his little +golden head into her bosom. For a few minutes she rocked herself and +him to and fro in silence, but at length her voice came, and though it +trembled a little, it was almost as quiet and silvery as usual. + +"Geoffrey, dost love me?" + +"Yes, mother, very much." + +"Poor child! how wilt do without me!" + +"Go you hence, mother?" + +"Yes, my child, I go hence. Geoffrey, wilt mind ever what I now say +unto thee? Wilt never, never forget it, but ever keep it fresh and +shene, and think thereof whenever thou dost think of me?" + +"Yes, mother, I shan't forget." + +"Alice, thou wilt help him to remember, good lass, if thou be not taken +from him." + +"That will I, good my Lady," said Alice, sobbing, and only comprehending +that something painful had happened. + +"Geoffrey, darling, thou wilt be a good child to thy father?" + +"I'll try, mother, but--he frighteth me." + +Margery sighed heavily. + +"List me now, my heart. Dost remember what I told thee about Jesus +Christ?" + +Geoffrey answered that he did. + +"Right, my heart. And lovest Jesus Christ, who died for thee?" + +"Yes, mother, I love Him and you." + +The child's innocent answer nearly upset Margery's half-assumed +calmness. She rocked him a minute longer in silence. "Remember, mine +own sweet heart, ever that nothing but Jesus can save thee. Thou canst +not save thyself. Beg of Him with all thine heart that He will save +thee, and love Him all thy life long, even unto _the end_." + +She ceased an instant. + +"Now, sweet heart, kiss me. Give me a brave kiss, mine own--it is the +last. Never shall we kiss again till we kiss in the Happy City! +Fare-thee-well, dearly beloved! God have thee in His holy keeping! God +teach thee what I cannot--what I by reason of mine ignorance know not, +or what thou by reason of thy tender years canst not yet conceive. God +forgive thee thy sins, and help thee in all trouble and woe, and bring +thee to that blessed home where I shall see thee again, and where they +sin not, nor grieve, neither part any more!" + +Margery gently detached herself from the child's embrace, and set him +down. She desired Alice to take him away, and then to return and assist +her in matters respecting which she would tell her particulars when she +should have removed the child. She stood looking after the boy as Alice +led him away, and he turned his head to say, "God be wi' ye!" [See Note +2]. + +"Never again! never again!" said Margery to herself in a half-whisper. +"The worst part of death is over! I have nothing left now but Christ." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. Wycliffe always renders "Bisschopis" the word translated "chief +priests" in the authorised version. + +Note 2. The farewell phrase which has in modern times been shortened +into "good-bye." + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +A LODGING ON THE COLD GROUND. + + "Christ is at hand to scorn or bless-- + Christ suffers in our strife." + + Christian Year. + +In the evening, as previously ordered, Margery quitted Marnell Place in +her litter for her prison in the Tower. The jailer stared at her, as +Abbot Bilson, who accompanied her, gave her into his charge, and +whisperingly asked the reason for which she was to be incarcerated. + +"Heresy, good friend." + +"Heresy!" said the jailer, staring more than ever. "What pity for one +so marvellous young! Poor lady! it sorroweth me!" + +When Margery was at length locked in, she had time to look round her +prison. It was a small, square, whitewashed cell, completely +unfurnished; all the furniture had to be brought from Marnell Place. +Not much was allowed. A mattress and blanket by way of bed, a stool, +and a crucifix, were the only articles permitted. The barred window was +very small, and very high up. Here Margery was to remain until +September. The days rolled wearily on. Lord Marnell occasionally +visited her; but not often, and he was her sole visitor. The jailer, +for a jailer, was rather kind to his prisoner, whom he evidently pitied; +and one day he told her, as he brought her the prison allowance for +supper, that "strange things" were taking place in the political world. +There was a rumour in London that "my Lord of Hereford" had returned to +England before his period of banishment was over, and had possessed +himself of the person of King Richard at Flint Castle. + +"What will he do?" asked Margery. "Soothly I wis not," answered the +jailer. "I trow he will make himself king. Any way, I trust it may hap +for your Ladyship's good, for it is the wont to release prisoners at the +beginning of a new reign." + +Shortly after that, Henry of Bolingbroke fulfilled the jailer's +prediction, so far as regarded his kingship. He led Richard in triumph +through London, with every dishonour and indignity which his own evil +nature could devise; then consigned him to Pontefract to die and sat +down on his throne. _How_ Richard died, Henry best knew. Thus closed +the life and reign of that most ill-treated and loving-hearted man, at +the early age of thirty-three. The little Queen, a widow at eleven, was +sent back to France--her matchless collection of jewels being retained +by Henry. Few men have had more reason to describe themselves as Henry +IV does in his will--"I, Henry, _sinful wretch_." [See Note 1.] + +The change of monarchs, however, brought no change for Lady Marnell. If +anything, it was the worse for her; for Abbot Bilson was a personal +friend of the new King, who was far more violently opposed to the +Lollards than his predecessor had been. + +On the 16th of September, 1400, Lord Marnell was just quitting Margery's +cell, when the jailer admitted Abbot Bilson, who courteously greeted +Lord Marnell, and replied rather more coldly to the salutation of his +prisoner. + +"Good morrow, my Lord. Have you induced this wretched girl to see the +error of her ways?" + +"I assayed it not," said Lord Marnell, somewhat sulkily. "Farewell, +Madge,--I will see thee again ere long." + +"Farewell, good my Lord," said Margery, and for the first time in her +life she was sorry to see her husband go. The truth was, that Lord +Marnell felt so much vexed with his spiritual advisers, that he was +seriously afraid, if he remained, of saying something which might cause +his own imprisonment. The jailer locked the door after him, and the +Abbot and Margery were left together. + +"You have had time, daughter, to think over your sin, in penitence and +prayer. Are you yet conscious that you have committed a grievous sin?" + +"No, father." + +"No are? [i.e., Are you not?] I grieve to hear it. Fear you not the +ban of Holy Church?" + +"I fear it not, so Christ confirm it not; He did warn me afore of the +same. `_Thei schulen make ghou withouten the synagogis; but the our +cometh, that ech man that sleeth ghou deme that he doith seruyse to +God_.'" [John xvi. 2.] + +"Cease thy endless quotations from Scripture!" cried the Abbot, waxing +wroth, and forgetting his civilities. + +But Margery only replied by another--"`_He that is of God herith the +wordis of God; therefore ye heren not for ye be not of God_.'" [John +viii. 47.] + +"Take the curse of the Church, miserable reprobate!" cried Bilson, +losing all command of himself, and smiting her in the face. + +"Take you heed," was the answer, "that you bring not on yourself the +curse of Christ, who is the Head and Lord of the Church, for He +suffereth not lightly that His sheep be ill handled." + +"Aroint thee, sorceress!" said the abbot. "I am no sorceress," replied +Margery, quietly, "neither do I use evil arts; I speak unto you in the +words of Christ--bear you the sin if you will not hear. But lo! it is +even that which is written, `_He hath blyndid her yghen_ [their eyes], +_and he hath maad hard the herte of hem; that thei see not with yghen, +and undirstonde with herte, and that thei be conuertid, and I heele +hem_.'" [John xii. 40.] + +The abbot could bear no more. He struck her furiously--a blow which +stretched her senseless on the stone floor of the cell. Having by this +primitive means silenced Margery's "endless quotations," he let himself +out with a private key. + +When Lord Marnell returned to the prison that evening, he found Margery +in what he supposed to be a swoon. He summoned the jailer, and through +him sent for a physician, who applied restoratives, but told Lord +Marnell at once that Margery had fallen, and had received a heavy blow +on the head. By the united care of the physician and her husband, she +slowly returned to consciousness: not, however, fully so at first, for +she murmured, "Mother!" When Lord Marnell bent over her and spoke to +her, she suddenly recognised him as if awaking from a dream. Yes, she +replied to their inquiries, she had certainly fallen, and she thought +she had hurt her head; but she would not tell them that the cause of the +fall was a passionate blow from the Abbot's hand. The physician asked +when her examination was to take place; and on Lord Marnell replying, +"To-morrow," he shook his head, and said she would not be able to +appear. + +"Oh ay, ay, let me go!" said Margery, "I would not have delay therein. +I shall be better by morn, and--" + +But as she spoke she fainted away, and the doctor, turning to Lord +Marnell, said-- + +"She is no wise fit for it, poor lady! The inquiry must needs be +delayed, and the blame thereof be mine own." + +"Then I pray you," replied Lord Marnell, "to say the same unto the +council; for they heed not me." + +He answered that he would go to them as soon as he thought that his +patient required no further professional assistance. Margery seemed +better shortly, and Master Simon, for such was the doctor's name, +repaired at once to the council charged with the examination of +prisoners accused of heresy, and told them that their State prisoner, +the Lady Marnell, was very ill in her dungeon, and would not be able to +appear before them for at least some weeks to come. Arundel, who +presided, only laughed. The doctor insisted. + +"Why," said be, "the poor lady is sickening for a fever; let her alone: +how can a woman light-headed answer questions upon doctrine and heresy?" + +The council, governed by Arundel, still seemed unwilling to grant the +prayer; when, to the surprise of every one present, Abbot Bilson, the +principal witness for the Crown, rose and supported the petition. The +puzzled council accordingly granted it. Arundel was very much under +Bilson's influence, and Bilson had a private reason for his conduct, +which will presently appear. + +So the examination was adjourned until February, and Margery, released +for the moment from the struggle with her enemies, was left to combat +the fever which had seized her. Lord Marnell and Master Simon begged +for an order of the council to remove poor Margery home, the latter +asserting that she would never recover in the Tower. The council +refused this application. They then requested that one of her +waiting-women should be allowed to attend her, and that bedding and +linen, with such other necessaries as Master Simon might deem fit, might +be supplied to the prisoner from her own house. The council, after a +private consultation among its members, thought fit to grant this +reasonable prayer. + +Alice Jordan was made very happy by an order from Lord Marnell to attend +her sick mistress. Everything that Marnell Place could furnish, which +Master Simon did not absolutely forbid,--and Master Simon was easy of +persuasion--was lavished on the whitewashed cell in the Tower. Alice, +however, was carefully searched every time she passed in and out of the +Tower, to see that she supplied no books nor writing-materials to the +prisoner, nor took any letters from her. Poor Margery! the care was +needless, for she was just then as incapable of writing as if she had +never been taught. + +Margery's illness lasted even longer than Master Simon had anticipated. +On a dark, cold winter night, when snow was falling thickly outside the +prison, and a low rushlight burned on the table, dimly lighting up the +narrow cell, Margery unexpectedly whispered, "Who is there?" + +"I, dear mistress--Alice Jordan." + +"Alice Jordan! Where then am I? Or was it all a terrible dream? Is +this Lovell Tower?" Alice's voice trembled as she said, "No." + +"What then? Oh! I know now. It is the Tower of London, and the end +cometh nigh." + +"Nay, dearest mistress, you fare marvellous better now." + +"I mean not the fever-death, good friend, but _the end_--the end of my +weary pilgrimage, the gate of the Happy City. Welcome be the end of the +way, for the way hath been a rough one and a sore! However sharp be the +end, I can bear it now. My soul hath been loosed from earth. I see +nothing now, I want nothing but Christ, and to be with Him in the glory. +Alice, how fareth the child? I dared not to ask afore, since I came +into this place, but I can now." + +"I trow he fareth well, good mistress, but of a long season I have not +seen him. My Lord hath sent him unto the care of Dame Lovell." + +Margery's eyes, rather than her voice, expressed her pleasure at this +news. + +"Hath my Lord my husband been here sithence I took sick?" + +"Every day, my Lady; and I trow he sent away the boy for that reason, +lest his coming hither should give him the sickness." + +"Knoweth my mother of my sickness?" + +"I wis not, my Lady, but I trow that my Lord would tell her, when he +sent the child down with Master Pynson." + +"Master Pynson! Hath he been hither?" + +"Yea, good my Lady, he came up, I ween, on Saint Luke's Day [October +18], and took back the young master with him." + +"What said he when ye told him of my prison, Alice?" + +"He covered his face, and wept sore." + +Margery turned her face to the wall. "A fiery trial!" she murmured, as +if to herself--"a fiery trial for him as well as me! Is this the way +wherein the Father will draw him? If so, Richard, I can bear it." + +The 16th of February came. On the morning of that day, as Lord Marnell +stepped out of his own house into the open air, with the intention of +paying his usual visit to Margery, Abbot Bilson came up, radiant and +smiling, and carrying under his arm a large parchment roll. + +"Ah, my very good Lord, well met! Whither away?" + +"I purpose to see Madge." + +"Ah!" exclaimed the Abbot, who was occupied with an amusement which +comes naturally to men of his disposition, and has been wittily denned +as "washing one's hands with invisible soap, in imperceptible water." + +"What hast under thine arm, reverend father?" asked Lord Marnell. + +"Ah! this is the indictment of the Lady Marnell. Your Lordship witteth +that she will be examined to-morrow afore the council, and by them +sentenced." + +"You will endeavour yourself, reverend father, that the sentence be made +as light as may be." + +"My Lord, we have but one sentence for heretics," said Abbot Bilson, +with a smile which showed all his teeth, like a wild beast. "The Act +regarding them was yestermorn sceptred by the King's Grace." + +"One!" remarked Lord Marnell, in some surprise. "The sentence now, +then, is--?" + +"_Death_." + +Lord Marnell hastily laid his hand on a buttress, to steady himself, +when he heard this awful news. + +"You have deceived me, father! You have deceived me!" he cried. "You +told me, some months gone, when first I called you into this matter, +that the sentence on heretics was prison." + +"My good Lord, I pray you remember that I told you but a moment back, +that the new Act is just passed. Ere that the sentence truly was close +prison; but now--" + +On finding himself thus inveigled by the cunning of Abbot Bilson, Lord +Marnell was beside himself with passion. He burst into a torrent of the +most fearful language. Abbot Bilson stood calmly by, as if quite +accustomed to such scenes. + +"My good Lord, I pray you blaspheme not, or I must needs appoint you a +sore penance," was all that he mildly observed. + +Lord Marnell recovered himself by a strong effort, and asked, as +politely as he could, what description of death was commanded by the new +Act. + +"Burning or beheading, at the pleasure of the King's Grace," replied the +Abbot, as unconcernedly as though the choice in question lay between a +couple of straws. + +"My wife, being a peeress, will of force be beheaded?" + +"Likely, I trow," replied the Abbot, drawing his cowl closer over his +head, as a cold blast of wind came up the street. + +"Father, you must use all effort that the sentence be so pronounced, if +the King's Grace remit it not." + +"The King's Grace remitteth never sentence on heretics," said Bilson, +with another of his disagreeable smiles. "He is much too true and +faithful son of Holy Church therefor. And as to my poor efforts, my +Lord--" + +"You _can_, and you _shall_," wrathfully answered Lord Marnell, and, not +to prolong the contest, walked rapidly away. + +Abbot Bilson stood looking after him, with an expression on his face not +unlike that which a triumphant demon might be supposed to exhibit. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. Henry had previously conspired against the King three times, +and had even plotted the death of his own father. His father sentenced +him to death, and if Richard had not interposed, Henry would not have +lived to depose his benefactor. "How true is the saying," cried poor +Richard in his agony, "that we have no greater enemy than the man whom +we save from the gallows!"--See Creton's MS. Bibl. Imp. 8448-2 +_Ambassades_. + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +AN OBDURATE HERETIC. + + "Great your strength, if great your need." + + Henry Kirke White. + +In the evening of the same day, the council sent a physician to report +on the prisoner's health. Not gentle Master Simon, but a stern, +iron-handed, iron-hearted man, from whom Margery and Alice shrank +instinctively. The physician reported that the Lady Marnell had +undoubtedly been very ill, but was now better, and ailed nothing but +weakness; he accordingly recommended that the examination should take +place, but that the prisoner, in consideration of her extreme debility, +should be indulged with a seat. Master Simon tried hard to obtain a +little further postponement; but this time the powerful Abbot was +against him, and he gained nothing by his motion. So, on the morning of +the 17th, Margery rose from her sick-bed to appear before the council. +Lord Marnell, who had lately shown her extraordinary kindness, as though +with the view of undoing, so far as lay in his power, the evil which his +rash, though well-meant conduct had originally created, assisted his +wife into her litter, and rode beside it during the short journey. On +arriving at the door, where they found a steep flight of steps to mount, +Lord Marnell would not allow Margery to try her strength, but carried +her up in his arms. He knew, and so did she, that she would need all +the strength she could muster for the trial which was to come. The +council-chamber was hung with red cloth, and the benches appropriated to +spectators were filled to overflowing. For one moment Margery shrank +back at the sight of so many strange faces; and a faint tinge of colour +mounted to her pale cheek as Lord Marnell led her forward to her chair. +In the president's seat was the Archbishop of Canterbury, and on his +left hand Abbot Bilson. Several abbots, priors, and other legal and +ecclesiastical dignitaries, made up the remainder of the council. + +For eight weary hours, with very short intervals for refreshment, they +kept that fragile prisoner before them, and all the time she never +quailed, nor evaded any of their questions. Twice Master Simon +interfered, and begged that wine might be given her, or he would not +answer for her further recovery; and once she herself asked for a glass +of water, and for a few minutes seemed about to faint. + +Abbot Bilson came out in his true colours at this examination. He was +no longer the mild, persuasive teacher; he now showed himself the +unforgiving revenger. The Archbishop pressed the prisoner hard with +questions, many of them irrevelant to the indictment; and most of the +other members of the Council put queries to her. + +They inquired, amongst other things, if she believed that in the +Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the bread and wine became the very body +and blood of Christ. + +"Nay, certes," was Margery's answer. "For if Christ, being in life, +could hold His own body, and give the same unto His disciples, then were +it no true human body, for a natural and true body cannot be in two +several places at the self-same moment of time. Moreover, if the bread +of the host be verily the body of Christ, then did He eat His own body, +and that is contrary to very reason." + +"The mysteries of the faith be above reason," said Arundel. + +"Of a truth, and farther above it, maybe, than we wit; but in no wise +contrary thereunto." + +"Believe you in Purgatory?" + +"The Church teacheth the same, and I say not that it may not be true; +but I find it not in the book." + +"Pray you unto the blessed Virgin Saint Mary, the holy angels, and the +saints?" + +"Soothly, no: it is not in the book. `_Whateuer thing ye axen the Fadir +in my name, I schal do that thing_,' saith Christ: but I hear not a word +of `whatever thing ye shall ask Saint Michael, or Saint Anne.'" + +"Account you confession unto priests to be right or evil?" + +"It may be right--I wis not; but I saw it not in the book. I pray you, +reverend fathers, if any other part of God His book do name these +things, and give leave for the same, that you show it unto me, and +thereupon I will believe them, but no else." + +The above is, of course, a mere sample of the innumerable questions +which were put to the prisoner. Towards the close of the day, the +Archbishop and abbots consulted together for a few minutes; and then +Arundel turned to the accused. + +"Margery Marnell, Baroness Marnell of Lymington, the Court demands of +you whether you will put your name to this paper, and hold to all things +therein contained?" + +"Let me read the paper, my Lord Archbishop, and then I will give you an +answer." + +The Archbishop did not wish her to read the paper; but Margery steadily +declined to sign anything in the dark. At length the council permitted +it to be read to her. It contained a promise to abjure all Lollard +doctrines, and to perform a severe penance, such as the council should +lay on her, for the scandal which she had caused to the Church. Margery +at once refused to sign anything of the kind. The Archbishop warned her +that in that case she must be prepared to submit to the capital +sentence. + +"Ye may sentence me," she said, in her clear voice, always distinct, +however feeble, "to what ye will. I fear you not. I wis ye have power +to kill my body, but my soul never shall ye have power to touch. That +is Christ's, who witteth full well how to keep it; and to His blessed +hands, not yours, I commit myself, body and soul." + +The Archbishop then passed sentence. The Court found Margery, Baroness +Marnell of Lymington, guilty of all crimes whereof she stood indicted, +and sentenced her to death by burning, in the open place called Tower +Hill, on the 6th day of March next ensuing. + +The prisoner bowed her head when the sentence had been pronounced, and +then said as she rose, and stretched out her hand to Lord Marnell, who +came forward and supported her, "I greatly fear, reverend fathers, that +your day is yet to come, when you shall receive sentence from a Court +whence there is no appeal, and shall be doomed to a dreader fire!" + +When Lord Marnell had assisted his wife back into her dungeon, and laid +her gently on the bed, he turned and shook his fist at the wall. + +"If I, Ralph Marnell of Lymington, had thee here, Abbot Thomas Bilson--" + +"Thou wouldst forgive him, my good Lord," faintly said Margery. + +"Who? I? Forgive _him_? What a woman art thou, Madge! Nay--by the +bones of Saint Matthew, I would break every bone in his body! Forsooth, +Madge, those knaves the Archbishop and the Abbot have played me a scurvy +trick, and gone many times further than I looked for, when I called them +into this business. But it is so always, as I have heard,--thy +chirurgeon and thy confessor, if they once bear the hand in thy matters, +will never let thee go till they have choked thee. I fear I shall have +hard labour to get thee out of this scrape. I will do all I can, be +thou sure, but thou wist that I am not in favour with the new King as I +was with King Richard, whose soul God rest! Madge, wilt forgive me, +wife?" + +"With a very good will, my Lord," said Margery. "I wis well that thou +wottedst not all that thou didst." + +"Not I, by Saint James of Compostella!" exclaimed Lord Marnell. "Were +the good King Richard alive and reigning, I would soon let both the +Archbishop and the Abbot feel the place too hot for to hold them. But I +can do nothing with Harry of Bolingbroke, looking, too, that he hateth +the Lollards as he hateth the devil--and a deal more, I trow, for I +count that that prince and he be old friends," added Lord Marnell, with +an air of great disgust. + +Margery smiled gravely. She felt sorry for her husband, who she saw was +very miserable himself at the unexpected result of his conduct; but she +did not allow herself for an instant to hope that he could save her. + +"Mine own good Lord," she said, "I pray you torment not yourself in +assaying my relief, neither in thinking that you be the cause of my +trouble; for I forgive you as freely as Christ hath forgiven me, and I +count that is free enough." + +Lord Marnell stood leaning against the wall, and looking at Margery, who +lay outside the bed. + +"Of a truth, wife, I conceive thee not. Thou art here in the Tower +dungeon, and thou lookest for no good outcoming, and lo! thou art calm +and peaceful as if thou wert on King Henry's throne! What means it, +Madge?" + +"I trow I am much happier here than I should be on King Henry's throne!" +answered Margery, with a smile. "Christ is with me, good husband, and +where Christ is, is peace. `_Pees I leeue to ghou, my pees I ghyue to +ghou; not as the world ghyueth I ghyue to ghou_' [John xiv. 27]. +`_These thingis I haue spoken to ghou, that ghe haue pees in me. In the +world ghe schulen haue disese; but triste ghe, I haue ouercome the +world_?'" [John xvi. 33.] + +When Lord Marnell quitted Margery that evening, he hastened to Court, +and attempted to gain the ear of the King. Since the deposition of his +friend and master, King Richard, he had never appeared there. He was +consequently a stranger to the pages and porters, who tried to get rid +of him as politely as they could. At length Lord Marnell caught sight +of the Earl of Surrey, who with some hesitation consented to introduce +him into the privy chamber. Henry listened to Lord Marnell only until +he comprehended the nature of his plea; then met him with a frown and an +angry-- + +"Pardon a Lollard? Never!" + +"Please it, your Grace, your noble predecessor, King Richard, though no +Lollard, would have granted me at once, in consideration of my long and +faithful service unto him." + +"I am not Richard of Bordeaux, but Henry of Bolingbroke!" was the +haughty answer, as the King turned round abruptly, and quitted Lord +Marnell. + +"By our Lady of Walsingham, I wis full well _that_" replied the latter, +_sotto voce_. + +As Lord Marnell quitted the palace, he met in the corridor with the +Prince of Wales, [Afterwards Henry V] who stopped and saluted him, and +Lord Marnell at once begged for his intercession with his father. The +Prince readily promised it, but on learning particulars, the son's brow +darkened as the father's had done. He was very sorry, but he really +could not ask the King's pardon for a Lollard. Lord Marnell would have +given his whole fortune to undo his own work of the last eighteen +months. He had never dreamed that Abbot Bilson would have summoned the +archbishop to his aid, nor that Margery would have stood half as firmly +as she had done. He only knew her as a fragile, gentle, submissive +girl, and never expected to find in her material for the heroine or the +martyr. Lord Marnell tried to procure the mediation of everybody about +the Court; but all, while expressing great sympathy with him, declined +to risk their own necks. Even the King's sons said they dared not +comply with his request. Prince Thomas [afterwards Henry V] was +extremely kind--very much grieved that he could not help him; but Prince +Humphrey [Duke of Gloucester] turned scornfully from him, and Prince +John [the great Duke of Bedford] coldly bade him take heed to his own +safety. The Earl of Somerset, the King's half-brother, shook his head, +and said he was already suspected by the King to be a Lollard himself, +and such an application from him would probably seal his own doom. Lord +Marnell applied to the Queen [Jeanne of Navarre, the second wife of +Henry IV]; but she seemed most afraid of all to whom he had spoken, lest +she should incur the King's anger, and possibly endanger herself. + +The interval between the day of the examination and that appointed for +the execution passed drearily to all parties. Lord Marnell, +notwithstanding all these repulses, exerted himself unremittingly to +procure a commutation of the sentence, at least to beheading; but in +vain. The King was inexorable. If the Lady Marnell had chosen to ally +herself with Lollards, she well knew what she was doing, and must abide +the consequences. Vainly did Lord Marnell represent how young and +inexperienced she was; in vain did he urge that the Act which made the +Lollards amenable to capital punishment had been passed since her +indictment, and only a few weeks before. Henry was not naturally +disposed to hear his pleasure called in question; and Abbot Bilson had +had possession of the royal ear already. + +When Alice returned from Marnell Place on the evening of the 26th of +February, Margery saw, by the expression of her face, that she had heard +something which shocked her. She asked what it was. + +"You mind, good my Lady, the day that you went with Master Pynson to +hear a sermon in Bostock Church?" + +"I trow I shall not lightly forget it," was Margery's answer. + +"Master Sastre was a-preaching, was he not?" + +"Ay. Wherefore?" + +"My Lady, he suffered death this forenoon by burning." + +"Master Sastre! Who told thee?" + +"Christopher it was that told me,--and yon evil man--for sure, though he +be a holy priest, yet is he an evil man, or would he never else have so +dealt with your Ladyship--yon evil man, Abbot Bilson was there, and did +sore press Master Sastre for to have confessed his error; but Master +Sastre did maintain the same to the end." + +Margery turned away her head. The venerable image of Sastre rose up +before her, as he learned forward over the pulpit to say those last +earnest words. + +"Ah, dear old teacher!" she whispered to herself. "Thou wilt not have +long to look among the multitude in the white apparel, for _one_ face +which was upturned to thee that day!" + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +GLORIFYING THE LORD IN THE FIRES. + + "Ah, little is all loss, + And brief the space 'twixt shore and shore, + If Thou, Lord Jesus, on us lay, + Through the dark waters of our way, + The burden which Christopheros bore-- + To carry Thee across." + + Miss Muloch. + +As Lord Marnell sat with Margery in her cell in the evening of the 1st +of March, she begged him to grant her a favour. Her contrite husband +bade her ask what she would. Margery replied that she greatly wished to +write a last letter to her mother. Writing-materials were carefully +kept from her. Could Lord Marnell supply her with the means of doing +so? He said he would attempt it. + +When Alice returned on the following day from Marnell Place, whither she +had been to procure a change of linen for her mistress, she brought with +her also a loaf of bread. The jailer demurred at this, but Alice urged +that Lady Marnell did not like the bread made by the prison baker, and +surely the jailer would not grudge her a loaf from home, for the few +days she had to live. The jailer shook his head, but let it pass. When +Alice was safe in the cell, she broke the loaf, and produced from it, +cunningly imbedded in the soft crumb, several sheets of paper folded +surprisingly small, a pen, and a little inkhorn. Margery's eyes +glistened when she saw these, and she wrote her letter secretly during +the night. But how to get it out of the prison with safety? Alice was +able to provide for this also. The letter was sewn in one of the +pillows, which would be carried back to Marnell Place after the +execution. + +The last day of Lady Marnell's life sped away as other less eventful +days do, and the evening of the 5th of March arrived. Alice, having +just returned from her usual journey to the house, was disposing of the +articles which she had brought with her, when the jailer's key grated in +the lock, and the door was opened. Lady Marnell looked up, expecting to +see her husband, though it was rather before his usual time for visiting +her; but on looking up, she saw Abbot Bilson. + +This feline ecclesiastic came forward with bent head and joined hands, +vouchsafing no reply to Margery's salutation of "Good even, father," nor +to Alice's humble request for his blessing. He sat down on a chair, and +for some minutes stared at Margery in silence--conduct so strange that +at length she said, "Wherefore come you, father?" + +"To look at thee, child of the devil!" was the civil answer. + +Alice, who had just requested the blessing of the _priest_, was more +angry than she could bear with the _man_. She was just on the point of +saying something sharp, when Lord Marnell's voice behind the Abbot +interposed with-- + +"If thou wouldst see a child of the devil, I trow thou hast little need +to look further than thy mirror!" + +The Abbot rose calmly, and let Lord Marnell enter. + +"It becometh not poor and humble monks, servitors of God, to lend +themselves unto the vanity of mirrors," said he, pulling out a large +rosary, and beginning to tell his beads devoutly. + +"`Servitors of God!'" cried Lord Marnell, too angry to be prudent. +"Dost call thyself a servitor of God? If God hath no better servitors +than thou, I ween He is evil served!" + +The Abbot cast a glance from the corner of his eye at Lord Marnell, but +made no answer, save to tell his beads more devoutly than ever. + +"Hast no other place to tell thy beads in?" asked that nobleman. + +The Abbot rose without a word, and, pausing at the door, stretched his +hand over the assembled trio, and muttered some words to himself. + +"Away with thee, Lucifer, and thy maledictions!" exclaimed Lord Marnell. +"There be here who are nearer to the angels than ever thou shalt be!" + +Suddenly the Abbot was gone. Nobody had seen or heard him depart--he +seemed to melt into the night, in some strange, mysterious way. + +"He is gone, and Satan his master go with him!" said Lord Marnell. "Ho, +jailer! lock the door, I pray, and leave us three alone together." + +The jailer obeyed; and Lord Marnell sat down by the side of Margery's +bed, and bade Alice lie down on her own pallet, and sleep if she could. +He gave the same counsel to Margery; but the latter smiled, and said she +would never sleep again in this world. + +"Now, Madge!" said her husband, "hast aught on thy mind, good wife, that +thou wouldst say ere morn? Aught that I can do for thee? Trust me, I +will do the same right gladly." + +Margery thanked him fervently; there was a heartiness in his tone which +was not often audible. + +"There be a few matters, mine own good Lord, which under thy good +pleasure I would willingly have done. I would that all my servants +might have a year's pay; and for Alice, poor lass! who hath tended me so +well and truly, I pray that a small matter of money may be given her by +the year: moreover, I would like, if she will--for I would not lay her +under bond--that she should keep with Geoffrey while she liveth, or at +least until he be a man. And, good husband, I would that thou wouldst +teach my poor child to remember me, his mother, but above all, to +remember the Lord for whom I die, and who, having loved me in the world, +loveth me unto the end. [John xiii. 1] Tell him to count nought too +good for Christ. I trust Christ hath set His heart upon him--I have +prayed for him too much else--and He promised me that whatever thing I +should ask the Father in His name He would do that thing." [John xvi. +16]. + +"Hast thou prayed ever for me, good wife?" asked Lord Marnell. + +"Many times, my good Lord, and I will do so till I die." + +"The Church teacheth that dying stoppeth not praying," said he. + +"I wis well that the Church so teacheth; but I saw it not in the book; +however, if I find it to be so, I will pray God for thee there also." + +"Thou sayest well, Madge; but I trow thou art more angel presently than +shall I be ever. I tell thee, Madge--for mayhap it will comfort thee to +know it--thy dealings and sayings of late have caused me to think more +on these things than ever did I afore. It seemeth but a small matter to +thee, to go through the fire to the glory. I marvel an' it could be so +unto me." + +"Say not `to the glory,' good husband, but to Christ. I would not have +the glory and lack Christ. And for thee, I do rejoice and bless God +heartily, if He will make my poor doings of any good service unto the +welfare of thy soul. And believe me, that if thou art called unto my +fiery ordeal, Christ will give thee grace and strength equal unto thy +need. It is not much for them who love Christ, if they see Him stand +beyond a little fire, to pluck up heart and go through the fire to Him. +O good husband, take these as my dying words, and teach them to the +child for the same, `Christ without everything is an hundredfold better +than everything without Christ!'" Those last words were ringing in Lord +Marnell's ears when, about eight o'clock in the morning, he stood on the +steps of Marnell Place, looking towards the Tower, and fancying the +mournful preparations which were going on there. Margery had thought it +best that she should be alone for her fiery trial. As Lord Marnell +stood there, lost in thought, he suddenly heard his own name spoken. He +turned round, and saw two men before him, in travellers' attire. One of +them was an old man, with venerable white head and beard; the other was +much younger, and Lord Marnell recognised him at once. + +"Master Pynson! I pray you what brings you here? Is the boy well?" + +"He is well," answered Richard, in a low tone, "and Dame Lovell +likewise. We came hither on matters pertaining to my friend who here +standeth, and a terrible bruit hath reached us that the Lady Marnell +will suffer this morrow." + +"It is true," said Lord Marnell, sorrowfully. + +"Can no help be found?" cried Richard, in an agony. "I would put my +life for hers--yea, an hundred times twice told!" + +"And I likewise," said her husband. "No--there is no help. The King +will hear of no remittance." + +"When is it?" + +"At nine o' the clock. You will come into the house and eat?" + +Richard declined. He had already secured a chamber at the "Blue Boar," +and would not trouble his Lordship. + +"Come, Master Carew," said he to his companion, "let us be on our way." + +"Go ye for to see her?" inquired Lord Marnell. + +"I will not lose sight of her," answered Richard, "until she be in the +Paradise of God!" + +Long before nine o'clock on the morning of that 6th of March, a large +crowd was already gathered on Tower Hill. Some came there from a +feeling of revenge--glad to see a Lollard burned. Among these was +Archbishop Arundel. Some, from a feeling of deep pity for the poor +young girl who was to be almost the proto-martyr of the new faith. +Among these were Pynson and Carew. The chief part of the concourse, +however, shared neither of these feelings to any great degree, but came +simply to see a sight, just as they would have gone to see a royal +procession, or any other pageant. + +As nine o'clock struck on the great bell of the Tower, the martyr +appeared, led forth between the sheriff and Abbot Bilson. She was +clothed in one long white garment, falling from her throat to her feet; +and, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, her head, arms, and +feet were bare. No fastening confined her golden hair, which streamed +freely over her shoulders and fell around her. She walked slowly, but +quite calmly. Arrived at the place of execution, the sheriff urged her +to confess. + +"I will confess," said Margery, "to Him who can alone absolve me." And +lifting up her eyes, she said, "O Lord God, who art above all things, +and hast given Thy Son to die for us sely and sinful men, I confess to +Thee that I am a vile sinner, utterly unworthy of Thy grace and mercy. +That day by day, for twenty-three years, have I done what I ought not, +and said what I ought not, and thought what I ought not. That all my +life also have I left undone things the which I ought for to have done. +Wherefore, O Father, let it please Thee of Thy goodness to forgive me, +and to look not on me, but on Thy Son Christ, in whose rightwise-ness I +am rightwise, and who hath loved me as Thou hast loved also Him. O Lord +God, turn not away the face of Thy servant, whose heart Thou hast moved +to pray thus unto Thee!" + +The Abbot and the sheriff were extremely annoyed, but they did not dare +to silence her, for the multitude hung breathlessly on her words. + +"There's none so much harm in _that_, any way!" said a woman who stood +near Richard Pynson. + +"Wilt thou confess, sinful heretic?" asked the Abbot. + +"To God I will and have done," answered Margery; "to man I will not." + +There was a short pause, while the sheriff's men, under his direction, +heaped the wood in the position most favourable for burning quickly. +Then the sheriff read the indictment in a loud voice. It was a long +document, and took upwards of twenty minutes to read. After this, they +passed a chain round Margery's body, and fastened her to the stake. The +sheriff then, with a lighted torch, advanced to set the wood on fire. + +"Will ye allow me that I may speak unto the people?" asked Margery of +the Abbot. + +"No, miserable reprobate!" said he, "thou hast spoken too much already!" + +"I pray Christ forgive you all that you have done unto me!" was the +martyr's answer. + +The sheriff now applied the torch. Meanwhile Margery stood on the pile +of wood, with her hands clasped on her bosom, and her eyes lifted up to +heaven. What means it? Does she feel no pain? How is it that, as the +flames spring up and roar around her, there is no tremor of the clasped +hands, no change in the rapturous expression of the white upturned face? +And from the very midst of those flames comes a voice, the silver voice +of Margery Lovell, as clear and melodious as if she stood quietly in the +hall at Lovell Tower-- + +"_Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to take virtue, and Godhead, and +wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory_--" + +But the voice fails there, and the "blessing" is spoken to the angels of +God. + +And from the outskirts of the crowd comes another voice which is very +like the voice of Richard Pynson-- + +"_I am agen risyng and lyf; he that beleeueth in me, yhe though he be +deed, he schal lyue; and ech that lyueth and bileueth into me, schal not +dye withouten eende_." [John xi. 25]. + +"The noble army of martyrs praise Thee," softly adds old Carew. + +Thus did Margery Marnell glorify the Lord in the fires. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +MARGERY'S LETTER. + + "So that day there was dole in Astolat." + + Tennyson. + +The winter had just given place to spring, and a bright, fresh morning +rose on Lovell Tower. Dame Lovell was busy in the kitchen, as she was +when we first saw her, and so were Mistress Katherine and the +handmaidens; but Dame Lovell now wore the white weeds of widowhood, and +her face was thinner and much graver. Richard Pynson on his return from +London, had brought her the terrible news of Margery's death; and Dame +Lovell, in the midst of her sorrow, which was very deep, had solemnly +affirmed that no power on earth should ever induce her to pardon her +son-in-law for the part which he had taken in the matter. + +Richard Pynson, long before this, had mooted the question of his return +to his father, but Dame Lovell would not hear of it. He reminded her +smilingly that _she_ needed no squire; but she came and put both her +hands on his shoulders, and made him look her in the face. + +"Thou sayest sooth, Richard, that I need no squire, but I trow I need a +son. I am an old lone woman, and shall not keep thee long; and I have +loved thee as if I had been thine own mother. Promise me, mine own dear +lad, that thou wilt not go hence while I live." + +Richard looked up with the tears in his eyes, and told her, as he kissed +her hand, that it was no wish of his to depart, and that he would not do +so without her full consent. + +"That shalt thou have never!" was the answer. So Richard remained at +Lovell Tower. On the morning of which I speak, little Geoffrey, who was +very fond of Richard, and was petted by him perhaps rather more than was +good for him, had suddenly espied him at the farther end of the garden, +and instantly rushed after him as fast as his little legs would carry +him. A few minutes afterwards, Cicely came into the kitchen from the +hall, and announced to her mistress that a strange gentleman wished to +see her. Dame Lovell took off her apron, and rinsed her hands in water. + +"See thou to the marchpane, Kat," remarked she to Mistress Katherine, as +she went to receive her guest. + +It was no wonder that Cicely had not known him, for some seconds elapsed +before Dame Lovell herself could recognise Lord Marnell. Six years had +passed since they met at his marriage to Margery, but he looked at least +twenty years older. His figure was still upright, though much thinner, +but the very form of his features seemed changed, and his rich auburn +hair was now white as drifted snow. His manner, which had been blunt +and almost boisterous, was remarkably quiet. When he saw that Dame +Lovell did not recognise him, he said, with a smile-- + +"You know me not, fair mother?" + +Dame Lovell's astonishment overcame her enmity for the moment. + +"Troth, I knew thee not, good son! is it truly thou? Nay, how changed +art thou!" + +"I wis that well," he answered. "Where is Geoffrey?" + +"I trow he be in the garden with Richard," replied Dame Lovell. "I will +bid him hither." + +Little Geoffrey, holding Richard's hand, as if he would not part with +him for a moment, returned to the house at his grandmother's bidding; +but like her, he could not recognise his father, whom he had not seen +for some months, until Lord Marnell's well-known voice assured him of +his identity. He rather shrank from him, as usual; but when Lord +Marnell contrary to his custom, lifted him up and kissed him, he seemed +a little reassured, and sat on his father's knee, staring at him +intently. Lord Marnell gave a cordial greeting to Richard, and then, +observing how earnestly his little son's eyes were fixed upon him, asked +him at what he was looking. + +"What have you done with your hair?" was Master Geoffrey's puzzled +answer. + +Lord Marnell laughed, and told the child that everybody's hair turned +white as they grew old. + +"But your Lordship's hath done so quickly," remarked Richard. + +"That were no great marvel," he answered, gravely. + +Dame Lovell found it rather difficult to keep up her revengeful +determination. She was naturally a very easy-tempered woman, and the +evident change, moral as well as physical, in Lord Marnell, touched her, +and melted her enmity considerably. + +"I pray you, fair mother," he said, looking up, "to leave me tell you +wherefore I came hither. Firstly, it was to give you a letter from +Madge, which she wrote in the Tower unto you." And Lord Marnell, +passing his hand into his breast, pulled out a small square packet, tied +with blue silk, and sealed with yellow wax. It was directed-- + +"_To the hands of my singular good lady and most dear mother, Dame Agnes +Lovell, at Lovell Tower, be these delivered with speed_." + +Dame Lovell kissed the letter, and placed it in her own bosom. She +could not read a word of it, but it was enough that it came from +Margery. + +"Secondarily," pursued Lord Marnell, "I would fain ask you, fair mother, +for to keep Geoffrey here a while longer, for I wis not yet what I shall +do." + +"That will I, right heartily," said Dame Lovell, in a tone as cordial as +her words. + +"Moreover, an' it stand with your pleasure, I would pray you for to take +back Alice Jordan, as you will find in yon letter that Madge did desire +her for to be about Geoffrey, if she would, and she seemeth right fain." + +"I will have her with a very good will," answered Dame Lovell, "and she +shall be next in mine house unto Mistress Katherine, and shall eat at +the high table." + +Lord Marnell thanked her sincerely for her readiness to comply with his +wishes. He said that Alice should come down to Lovell Tower as soon as +she could conveniently set out, and old Christopher, as the most trusty +of his household, should escort her. There was silence for a short +time, and then, with a kind of shadow of a smile, Lord Marnell said +suddenly-- + +"Do you hate me, fair mother?" + +"I did afore I saw thee this morrow," replied Dame Lovell, candidly. + +"And wherefore not after?" + +"Meseemeth thou hast repented thyself of thy deed." + +"Repented!" said Lord Marnell, mournfully. "Mother, will you crede me +if I tell you that no sorrow worser than this can ever befall me, and +that had I known what would come of my seeking of Abbot Bilson, I had +sooner cut off my right hand?" + +"I do," said she. + +"Madge knew it, poor damsel! and she said she forgave me in such manner +as Christ did forgive herself. Will you do the like, mother?" + +"With all mine heart and soul, good son!" cried Dame Lovell, every shred +of her animosity vanished, and the tears fairly running down her cheeks. + +"Don't cry, g'ammer!" exclaimed little Geoffrey, jumping off his +father's knee and running to Dame Lovell. "What are you crying for? +Somebody hurt you? If they have, I'll kill 'em!" + +Dame Lovell laughed through her tears at Master Geoffrey's threat. She +was a good deal surprised when Lord Marnell spoke of going away; but he +said he had promised his cousin Sir Ralph that he would stay with him +next time he came into the neighbourhood; and he must return to London +in a day or two. So he only remained to dinner, and departed +immediately afterwards, evoking from Geoffrey the significant remark +that "he liked him a great deal better this time." + +That evening, Dame Lovell and Friar Andrew sat down by the fire to +listen to that last letter. Her widow's dress, somewhat resembling that +of a nun, but pure white, left only her eyes, nose, and mouth visible. +Richard Pynson, in a rather more ambitious costume than the page's suit +wherein we made his acquaintance, seated himself in the opposite corner. +How like Margery's voice the letter sounded, in that old hall at Lovell +Tower!--so much so, that it seemed scarcely a stretch of fancy to expect +her to glide down the stair which led from her chamber, where her child +now lay sleeping. How well Richard could recall the scene when, six +years before, she came softly down to receive from his hand the +cherished and fatal volume! + +Richard broke the seal, while Friar Andrew threw back his cowl, and Dame +Lovell smoothed her apron, and bent forward to listen. + +"Mine Own Dear Mother,--In as humble and lowly manner as I may, I +commend myself unto you, praying you of your daily blessing. + +"Whereas I hear that Richard Pynson hath been here in London on Saint +Luke's Day last, and hath borne back Geoffrey with him, at the which +news I am truly glad, I trow that you have heard of my close prison in +the Tower, whence I now write. I pray you therefore, good mother, not +to lay this overmuch to heart, neither to grieve for me; for I certify +unto you that never was I so happy and blessed as now I am, when over +the dark water, which is death, I can see a glimpse of the Happy City. +Neither, good mother, be downcast, I beseech you, when you shall hear +that on Sunday, the eve of Saint Anselm, I am to die. I pray you, dear +mother, if you knew that on Sunday I should be advanced to some high +place in the Court, would you sorrow? Yea, would you not rejoice +greatly therefor? Wherefore I entreat you, sorrow not now, but rejoice +rather, for I am to be taken up into an high place, yea, passing high-- +even the Court of Christ Himself, whence also none of those changes and +evils can cast me down again, which are ever coming upon them who live +in this world. + +"Moreover, good mother, I do you to wit that this is Christ's truth for +the which I suffer, and that Christ Himself is with me. Yea, I think on +Christ as He that is standing on the other side of the fire; and shall I +not then make haste through the same that I may come at Him? + +"Likewise I do beseech you, mine own dear mother, grieve not when you +think that I have had but little joy or gladness in this my short life. +If divers children be playing in a garden, and the serving-man do come +and fetch away some afore others, that they may see their elders, and +may have brave gifts the which be ready for them at home, fall they +a-weeping, think you, because they must lose an hour of play? Nay, +truly not, if their hearts be set on the brave gifts afore them. So, +good mother, though you have passed in this weary and evil life nigh +sixty years, and I only twenty-three, count it, I beseech you, but an +hour more or less of child's playing, which will surely be made up to us +when we go home, and receive the brave gifts which our Father hath for +us in His storehouse. And if I have not known joy as much as some, I +have the less for to leave behind me in the case wherein I now am. For +you know, good mother, that at the first I was wedded against mine own +will and liking; and though I may and must say unto you for my Lord my +husband, that in this evil case he hath been more gentler unto me than +ever afore, and hath drawn mine heart much closer unto him, yet nathless +I may say also that an' I had been with mine own will wedded, I trow +that I had had far more for to leave for Christ, and had found far more +hardship in the doing of it. For God doeth all His work well; and He +wist surely what He did when my dear father--whose soul God rest!--was +let wed me thus. + +"Behold now, most dear mother, how I have taken from you all cause of +your lamentation, and have left you nothing but to rejoice for me! +Wherefore rejoice for me, for at this time a sennight hence, I shall be +singing with the angels of God. I trow that one look at Christ Jesu +will pay me all mine account in the small matter I have suffered for +Him. I trow that if He but smile, and say, `Thou art welcome, dear +child, for I have loved thee,' I shall count the fires of this world but +light gear then. Will you sorrow that I am in good case? Will you +grieve because I am blessed? Will you count you have lost your child, +when she is singing in the great glory? Nay, good mother, I wis I have +well said in praying you to rejoice rather. + +"And, dear mother, I beseech you that you bring up mine own dear child +in the same. I would have him, if I may, as dear unto Christ as I am, +and as ready to leave all for Christ His sake, as I, his mother, have +done. I say not this, God witteth, to magnify my poor deeds, the which +I know well be vile enough and want as much and great washing in Christ +His blood, as the worst sin that ever I did,--but, good mother, teach my +boy of Christ! Count it not anything that he leaveth for Him. Yea, +forsooth, rather would I a thousandfold that he should live on a dry +crust for Christ, than that he should have many brave dishes and rich +fare without Him. To this end I beseech you, most dear mother, that you +will have the child learned for to read, and will get that he may read +God's Word, which hath shown me how dear and gracious is Christ Jesus. +I pray you spare no pains ne goods for to do this. + +"Dear mother, I have prayed my Lord my husband that, if she will, Alice +Jordan shall have the care of Geoffrey. She hath been a good and true +serving-woman unto me, and she witteth how I would have him ordered. I +pray you, therefore, if she come unto you, that you would put her about +him. Likewise commend me, I beseech you, unto mine ancient friends and +fellows, and all the meynie, and bid them learn for to love Christ Jesu, +and we shall then meet shortly again. Specially I would desire mine +humble service unto dear Father Andrew, and I do beg him for my sake to +read for himself the blessed book which hath been my comfort. + +"And to end,--for I will weary you no longer, dear friend Richard +Pynson, with reading of mine evil hand, and I give you God's blessing +and mine for the kindness you have done unto me, and pray you not to +forget the last words which I said unto you with my voice, but to keep +fast hold of Christ, till you know and love Him better than any friend +in this evil world,--so to end, dear mother, I beseech you that you +would forgive me all wherein I have been an ill daughter unto you, and +all things wherein at any time I have troubled you. Good mother, I am +happy. I am looking out of the night to see the day-dawn breaking. +Come Sunday, I shall be in heaven. Come Sunday, by God's mercy--not by +mine own good, which God witteth is but evil--I shall stand with the +angels before Christ His throne. Haste, haste, dear good day that shall +deliver me! And God give you to know Christ, and send us a happy +meeting in that His blessed habitation, unto the great gladding of your +most loving and dutiful daughter, Margery Marnell. + +"Written this second of March, from the gate of the _Urbs Beata_." + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +EASTWARD HO! + + "Whether he go to East or West, + With Christ he always is at home." + + Newton. + +For a few minutes after Richard finished reading the letter, there was +silence, unbroken save by the sound of weeping, in the old hall. Friar +Andrew cried like a child. Dame Lovell, too, wept profusely, especially +at the passage in which Margery begged her forgiveness, and sobbed forth +that she had nothing to forgive her. Richard had hard work to read. He +heard her voice in every line, and when he came to the one sentence +addressed to himself, he very nearly broke down altogether. After that +long pause, Richard, who had been sitting with his head buried in his +hands, looked up and spoke. + +"Mistress, you mind that I did promise you not to go hence save with +your good will?" + +"Well, Richard?" + +"May I have the same, good mistress, for a season?" + +"Where wouldst go, lad? Dost want to see thy father? I meant not to +let thee from going home at times, so thou leave me not wholly." [Let +means hinder. The modern signification of this word is exactly the +opposite of its original meaning.] + +"You do misconceive me, mistress. I trust soothly, to go but for a +season, though mayhap a long one; but not home. An' you will give me +leave, and I have my father's goodwill to it, I shall go abroad." + +"Go _where_, Richard?" asked Dame Lovell, in some alarm and no little +astonishment. + +"Anywhere," he answered, listlessly, "that is far enough away. I shall +wend unto the East Country." + +"Eh, Richard! thou wilt be slain of robbers!" cried Friar Andrew. "All +yon country is full filled of Saracens and heathens, who think no more +of shedding Christian blood than of cooking a capon." + +"I shall be slain, good father, I trow, if I stay here. There is no +peace heraway in England for them who read God's Word, and I have read +it. I should quickly be indicted, I ween; for a Lollard, an' I stayed. +Master Carew told me yestre'en, that there were spies hereabouts, and he +did trow he was suspected. And if they take him, they will come next to +me." + +"Richard! Richard!" cried Dame Lovell. "Thou frightest me, lad! But +wilt thou go, soothly? I wis not how to leave thee do so." + +"Dear mistress," said Richard, in a low tone, "I pray God and you to +pardon me, but I fear I am only a poor caitiff coward. I could not bear +the fiery ordeal which Margery has borne. I will confess to you, good +lady, that night and day I do pray God to spare me the same. I had +better go, ere I am tired, and perchance fail and deny my Master. I +will give you to wit of my welfare, in case I should meet any Palmers on +their way home, and may be I can come back, an' there should rise a king +who shall give us leave to live." + +"Well, my lad! I trow I must not let thee!" said Dame Lovell, in a +grieved tone. "I wis not how to do without thee, Richard; but I ween I +should sorrow more to keep thee and bring thee to grief, than in leaving +thee go away from me." + +The following day brought a servant in Lord Marnell's livery, with a +letter to Richard. + +"_To the hands of Master Richard Pynson, at Lovell Tower, give these_. + +"Good Master Pynson,--I pray you for to look warily unto your ways; for +I hear by messengers from London that you be suspected for a Lollard, +and Abbot Bilson hath your name on his list of evil affected unto the +Church. If you can wend for a time unto some other country, I trow you +would find your safety in so doing. I beseech you burn this letter, or +it may do me a mischief. + +"It hath come into my mind that Madge did name unto me your desire of +knighthood. If such be still your wish, I pray you make use of me in +this matter. Let me wit by the bearer of these your pleasure herein, +and if you desire to watch this even, I will meet you in Bostock Church +early on the morrow. + +"I set out on my way to London to-morrow. + +"Commend me in all lowly fashion to my good mother; and with God's +blessing and mine to the child, I rest, your loving friend, R. Marnell." + +Richard read Lord Marnell's letter to Dame Lovell, and then at once put +it in the fire. He determined to accept the kind offer thus made to +him; and accordingly he sent word by the messenger that he would be +ready to meet Lord Marnell in Bostock Church, at any early hour on the +following morning. + +Knighthood was then conferred in two ways. A knight-banneret was one +created on the field of battle. An ordinary knight was required to be +of good family and of a suitable age, and the accolade was given him +after a night's fasting and watching in some church. Other, but less +important ceremonies were also observed. This latter course was +necessarily the one chosen by Richard. At five o'clock on the following +morning, Lord Marnell met him in Bostock Church, and gave him the stroke +on the shoulder with the flat of his sword, which was required to make +its recipient a knight. [See Note 1.] Richard thanked Lord Marnell +fervently for his warning, and also for his kindness in offering him +knighthood; and told him that he had already resolved to go abroad, +before receiving his letter. + +"I think you will do well," said he; "but I pray you, Sir Richard, to +lose no time, for spies be about in Marston even now." + +Late that night, after an affectionate farewell to Dame Lovell and Friar +Andrew, and a warm kiss to little Geoffrey, who was fast asleep, Sir +Richard Pynson set out on his long and perilous journey. Dame Lovell +sent with him one of her own servants, a man who she knew would imperil +his own life sooner than that of Richard; and he returned to her in a +few days with the welcome tidings that he had seen Richard safely +embarked on a vessel for La Rochelle, with Master Carew's son, a youth +of about eighteen, as his squire. The servant had, however, more, and +less agreeable news than this to tell; for as he passed through Marston, +he had been told that Master Carew was arrested, and on his journey to +London under a strong guard. + +So set in the bitter persecution, which was to last for many weary +years. + +A full twelvemonth had passed since Richard's departure. Of Lord +Marnell, Dame Lovell had neither seen nor heard anything more. Alice +Jordan had arrived, to little Geoffrey's great delight; but she had only +been able to report the return of her master to London, as she had left +that place the day after his arrival. Dame Lovell fulfilled her promise +of promotion for Margery's humble but faithful friend, who was +henceforth generally addressed in the house as "Mistress" Alice. Little +Geoffrey, though somewhat consoled by Alice's appearance, missed Richard +sorely; and demanded of his grandmother at least once a day, "when he +would come back!" + +The family and household were seated at supper, on a summer afternoon in +the year 1402, when the sound of a horn outside the moat sent one of the +farm-servants hurriedly to the gate. He returned saying, "A holy +Palmer, good mistress, seeketh entrance." + +"A Palmer! bring him in speedily, good Hodge!" exclaimed Dame Lovell. +"Blessed is the house whereinto entereth a Palmer,--and mayhap he may +give us to wit of Richard." + +The Palmer was attired in a long coat of coarse brown frieze, with a +large flapped hat, not unlike that of a coal-heaver. He was conducted +to the high table, where Friar Andrew served him with meat, and put all +manner of questions to him. He had come, he said, from Damascus, where +he had met with a friend of theirs, one Sir Richard Pynson, and he +brought a packet from him; which he thereupon took from his wallet, and +delivered into Dame Lovell's hands. It was a large packet, and +evidently contained something more than merely a letter. Dame Lovell +was highly delighted, particularly when, on opening the parcel, she drew +out a magnificent piece of baudekyn, one of the richest dress-stuffs +then made, and only to be procured from Constantinople. Beside this the +packet only contained a letter, which Dame Lovell was sorely puzzled how +to read. There was nobody at Lovell Tower who could read except Friar +Andrew, and he, as has been previously stated, was not by any means a +first-class scholar. However, Dame Lovell passed him the letter, and +after spending some time in the examination of it, he announced that he +thought he could read it, "for the lad had written the letters great, +like a good lad, as he always was." Richard had, indeed, purposely done +so, because he anticipated that Friar Andrew would have to read it. The +Palmer interposed, saying that he could read well, and offered to read +the letter; but this Dame Lovell civilly declined, because she thought +there might be secrets in the letter, and she did not know whether the +Palmer were to be trusted. Friar Andrew was mechanically retiring into +one of the deep windows, but Dame Lovell stopped him, and requested him +to follow her to her own room. She gathered up her baudekyn, and left +the servants to entertain the Palmer, who she gave orders should be +feasted with the best in the house. + +"Now, father," said Dame Lovell, when she had Friar Andrew and the +letter safe in her own apartment, "Now read, I pray thee; but we will +have no eavesdroppers, and though Palmers be holy men, yet may they +carry tales." + +Friar Andrew sat down, cleared his throat, and began to read rather +grandiloquently. He read syllable by syllable, like a child, and every +now and then stumbled over a hard word. As to the names of places, he +declared himself unable to read those at all. I therefore purpose to +give the letter, not as Andrew read it, but as Richard wrote it. + +"_To the hands of the very worthy Dame, my good lady and mistress, Dame +Agnes Lovell, of Lovell Tower, be these delivered with all convenient +speed_. + +"Dear Mistress and my worthy Dame,--In as humble and lowly wise as may +be, I commend myself to your kindly favour, hoping that these may find +you in health, as they leave me presently. I do you to wit, good +mistress, that I have arrived safely, by the grace of our Lord, at +Damascus, which is a very fair and rich city, and full of all manner of +merchandise; and I have been by Byzantium, and have seen all the holy +relics there kept; to wit, the cross of our Lord, and His coat, and the +sponge and reed wherewith the heathen Jews [`Cursed be they!' interposed +Friar Andrew] did give Him to drink, and more blessed relics else than I +have the time to write of, the which nathless be named, as I think, in +the Travels of Sir John Maundeville. This city of Damascus is very +great, and there be about the same so fair gardens as I never did see at +any other place; moreover, Saint Paul here dwelt, and was a leech. [See +Note 2.] Also I give you to wit, good lady, that I look by our Lord's +help, to go on to the holy city of Jerusalem, the which is from here +five days' journey. And I send you herein a fine piece of baudekyn, the +bravest I could see, the which I bought in the market at Byzantium, to +make you a rare gown for feast-days. Moreover, I beseech you to say +unto good Father Andrew, (I count he will read this letter, and +therefore do say unto himself), I would fain have sent you somewhat +likewise, good father, but as yet I found not to my hand aught that +would like you; but I look, when I shall be in Jerusalem, if it be the +Lord's pleasure that I come therein, for to get you some relics, by the +which I wis you will set great store." ["Thou art a good lad," said the +friar]. + +"Edmund Carew is in health, and is a faithful squire, and a passing +honest fellow [see note 3]; but he doth long for to hear news of his +father, and my heart also is oft-times sore to wit what is become of +mine old friend. If you shall hear of any one who wendeth unto the Land +of Promise, I beseech you send us news herein. Likewise would I fain +know somewhat of the Lord Marnell, who I guess [see note 4] hath now +returned to London. Is Geoffrey yet with you? I pray you ask him if he +remembereth me, for an' he doth, I will bring him a brave thing when I +shall come: and God's blessing and mine be with the sweet heart, and +keep him ever from all evil. + +"I beseech you commend me humbly unto the Lord Marnell, if you see him +or send to him, and also unto Sir Ralph Marston, when you shall have +speech of him; and greet well all the maidens and servants from me. +Pray salute also Mistress Katherine on my part, and specially Mistress +Alice Jordan. Moreover, I beseech you to make my most humble duty and +service unto my good knight my father, and my good lady my mother, and +salute from me lovingly my sistren, who I trust be all in health. I met +this holy Palmer at a church called Our Lady of Sardenak, the which is +five miles from this city; and he hath promised me for to deliver my +letters with safety, and in all convenient haste. I have written also +unto my father by him; wherefore, if he come unto you first, as I count +he will do, I pray you for my sake to put him in the way to Pynsonlee. + +"I give you to wit also, good mistress, that in this country be some men +who call themselves Jacobites,--to wit, disciples of Saint James,--and +they be right Lollards, holding that a man should make confession to God +and no wise unto the priest; and also read they God's Word in their own +tongue, and not in Latin, the which giveth me much marvel how they came +in this place, for they do wit nothing of us and of our country. +Nathless, I trow that God learneth [teaches] His own alike in all lands +and at divers times. + +"I pray you specially, good mistress, that you give me to wit how I may +come home. Doth King Henry still reign? and is he yet evil affected +toward the Lollards? for so long as things be in this case, I dare in no +wise take my way unto you. + +"And now, dear mistress, I pray God to have you in His holy keeping, to +the which I commit you all. + +"From your very humble serving-man and loving friend, Richard Pynson. + +"Edmund Carew prayeth me for to make his lowly commendations unto you. + +"Written at Damascus, this xxvii day of November." + +This was the first and last letter which Dame Lovell received from +Richard Pynson. Probably he wrote many others, but they never came to +hand. + +Friar Andrew, with the greatest difficulty, managed to write back a few +lines. His letter took him a whole week to compose and transfer to +paper. It was written in short sentences, like a child's epistle; and +nearly every sentence commenced with Richard's name. Friar Andrew +informed his correspondent that all parties named in his letter were +well; that Geoffrey was still with them, sent his loving commendations, +and said he remembered him, and would never forget him as long as he +lived; that of Lord Marnell they had only heard a rumour which they +could not believe, of his having joined an insurrection in the West; +that Master Carew was had up to London and strictly examined by the +council, but that his answers were so ingeniously evasive that they +could lay hold of nothing, and nothing had been found in his house which +could criminate him; he had accordingly been dismissed with a caution. +Sir Ralph Marston had privately declared that "the old fox must have +hidden his Lollard books in some uncommonly safe place, for I wis he had +some." Friar Andrew concluded his letter with a malediction upon "evil +companions," by which he meant the anti-Lollard party; for though Andrew +cared not a straw about the matter of opinion, he could never forgive +them for his favourite's death. He also besought Richard to "look well +to his ways, and have nought to do with heathen Jews and Saracens, who +all worshipped mawmetis," [see note 5] and to come home as soon as he +could--which, however, must not be just now. + +Friar Andrew then folded his elaborate and arduous piece of composition, +and directed it in remarkable characters and singular spelling, as +follows:-- + +"_To ye hondes of ye veraye gode Knyghte, Syr Rechurt Pynsone of +Pinnsonrue, beyng yn ye Halie Londe at Dommosscsc_ (this word gave him +immense trouble), _or elsewhar, dilyuher thes_." + +"There!" said the friar, with a deep sigh of relief in conclusion, as he +exhibited the fruit of his prowess in triumph to Dame Lovell. +"Methinketh that Richard himself could not better those letters!" + +Dame Lovell looked with unfeigned admiration at the cabalistic +characters, for such they were in her eyes, and declared them "right +brave," opining moreover that "learning was soothly a passing rare +thing!" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. Knighthood is now conferred only by the Sovereign, who is "the +fountain of honour," or by a viceroy, as representing the Sovereign. In +ancient times, however, "a knight could make a knight." When the Duke +of Suffolk was taken prisoner in battle by a simple squire, he asked, +before surrendering his sword, "Are you a knight?" "No," was the +answer. "Kneel, then," replied Suffolk, "that I may make you one; for I +will never give up my sword to a squire." The squire knelt, and Suffolk +knighted his captor, and then delivered his sword to one who, by the +laws of chivalry, had now become his equal. + +Note 2. The reader does not need to search through the Acts of the +Apostles for any mention of Saint Paul's having been a doctor for it is +one of the endless legends of the Middle Ages, of which Maundeville's +Travels are full. + +Note 3. A very pleasant companion. "Fellow" and "companion" have now +exchanged meanings, though we still speak of a bed_fellow_ and the +_fellow_ to a glove. + +Note 4. This "Americanism" is really an old English phrase, as many +more so-called Americanisms also are. + +Note 5. Idols. Our forefathers had a rooted idea that Jews and +Mohammedans were idolaters. Their very word for idols, "Mawmetis," was +a corruption of the name of Mahomet. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +THE DAY AFTER AGINCOURT. + + "Urbs Coelestis! Urbs Beata! + Super petram collocata, + Urbs in portu satis tuto, + De lonquinquo te saluto; + Te saluto, te suspiro, + Te affecto, te requiro." + +Fourteen years had passed away since the burning of the Lady Marnell. A +new king had risen up, who was not a whit less harshly inclined towards +the Lollards than his predecessor had been. This monarch, Henry the +Fifth, of chivalrous memory, was riding over the field of Agincourt, the +day after the battle, surrounded by about twenty of his nobles. Behind +the nobles rode their squires, and all around them on the field lay the +dead and dying. + +"Saw you yonder knight, Master Wentworth," inquired one of the squires +of his next neighbour, "that we marked a-riding down by the woody knoll +to the left, shortly afore the fight? I marvel if he meant to fight." + +"He had it, if he meant it not," answered the other; "the knight, you +would say, who bore three silver arrows?" + +"Ay, the same. What befell him?" + +"A party of French skirmishers came down upon him and his squire, and +they were both forced to draw sword. The knight defended himself like a +gallant knight, but--our Lady aid us!--they were twelve to two, or +thereabouts: it was small marvel that he fell." + +"He did fall? And the squire?" + +"The squire fought so bravely, that he earned well his gilded spurs. +[Gilded spurs were the mark of a knight.] He stood over his master where +he fell, and I trow the French got not his body so long as the squire +was alive; but I saw not the end of it, for my master bade me thence." + +"I pray you," interposed a third squire, "wit you who is yon youth that +rideth by the King's left hand?" + +"The tall, pale, fair-haired youth on the white horse." + +"He." + +"That is the Lord Marnell--a new favourite." + +"The Lord Marnell! Is he a kinsman of the Lady Marnell, who--" + +"Hush! Yes, her son." + +"His father is dead, also, then?" + +"His father was beheaded about twelve years gone, on account of having +taken part in a rebellion, got up by the friends of King Richard; but it +was said at the time privily, that an' he had not been suspected of +Lollardism, his part in the rebellion might have been forgiven." + +"Where, then, dwelt this youth, his son?" + +"In the North, I ween, somewhere, with his grandmother, who hath died +not long since. Then the young Lord came down to seek his fortune in +London and the King's Grace saw him, and fancied him." + +The squires' conversation, and themselves as well, came to a sudden +stop, for the King and his suite had halted in front of them. + +Almost in their way, on the ground lay a wounded man. His visor was +raised, and his face visible; but his surcoat was slashed and covered +with mire and blood, so that the eye could no longer discern the device +embroidered on it. A scallop-shell fastened to his helmet, intimated +that he had at some past time been a pilgrim to the shrine of Saint +James of Compostella; while the red cross upon his shoulder was an +indisputable indication that he "came from the East Countrie." His age +would have been difficult to guess. It did not seem to be years which +had blanched the hair and beard, and had given to the face a wearied, +travel-worn look--a look which so changed the countenance from what it +might otherwise have been, that even + + "--The mother that him bare, + If she had been in presence there, + She had not known her child." Marmion. + +Close to the dying man lay, apparently, his squire--dead; and beside him +was a shield, turned with its face to the ground. + +"The very same knight whom we saw a-riding down the knoll!" said one of +the squires, with an oath. A man was thought very pious in the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries if he did not swear pretty freely. +"At least I ween it be the same--I should wit well the shield an' I +could see it." + +King Henry and his nobles were attentively contemplating the wounded +knight. + +"Light down, my Lord Marnell," said the King, "and see what is the +device upon yon shield. We would know which of our faithful servants we +have unhappily lost." + +As the King spoke, the eyes of the dying man suddenly turned to Geoffrey +Marnell, who sprang lightly from his horse to fulfil the royal order. +He knelt down by the shield, and lifted it up to examine the arms; and +as he turned it, the well-known cognisance of Pynson of Pynsonlee--the +three silver arrows--met his eye. An exclamation of mingled sorrow and +surprise burst from Geoffrey's lips. + +"Who is he?" said Henry, eagerly. + +"Sir Richard Pynson of Pynsonlee, an't please your Grace." + +"Ha! the Lollard knight!" cried the King. "Better he than another! I +had bruit of him, and, truly, I looked to have him to the stake when he +should return from his Eastern travel. It is well." + +The King and his suite rode on; but Geoffrey was not one of them. He +had thrown down the shield, and had turned to the dear friend of his +youth, who lay dying before him. + +"Richard! dear, dear Richard!" he said, in trembling accents. "How came +you here? Have you only come home to die? O Richard, die not just now! +But perchance it were better so," he added, in a low tone, recalling +the cruel words of the King. "Is it thus that thy God hath granted thee +that which thou requestedst, and hath not let thee pass through the +fiery trial?" + +As Geoffrey thus bemoaned the fate of his old friend, he fancied that he +saw Richard's lips move, and he bent his head low to catch his last +words. Faintly, but audibly, those two last words, so full of meaning, +reached his ear. And the first of the two was "Margery!" and the last +"Jesus!" + +The tears fell from Geoffrey's eyes, as he softly kissed the pale brow +of the dead; and then, remounting his horse, he galloped after the King. +There was no need of his remaining longer; for he could do nothing more +for Richard Pynson, when he had clasped hands with Margery Lovell at the +gates of the _Urbs Beata_. + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mistress Margery, by Emily Sarah Holt + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISTRESS MARGERY *** + +***** This file should be named 23187.txt or 23187.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/1/8/23187/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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