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-Project Gutenberg's The Broken Font, Vol. 1 (of 2), by Moyle Sherer
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-Title: The Broken Font, Vol. 1 (of 2)
-       A Story of the Civil War
-
-Author: Moyle Sherer
-
-Release Date: July 20, 2013 [EBook #43261]
-
-Language: English
-
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   THE BROKEN FONT.
 
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+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43261 ***
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-Project Gutenberg's The Broken Font, Vol. 1 (of 2), by Moyle Sherer
-
-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: The Broken Font, Vol. 1 (of 2)
-       A Story of the Civil War
-
-Author: Moyle Sherer
-
-Release Date: July 20, 2013 [EBook #43261]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROKEN FONT, VOL. 1 (OF 2) ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by sp1nd, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-  THE BROKEN FONT.
-
-  A STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR.
-
-  BY THE AUTHOR OF "TALES OF THE WARS OF OUR TIMES,"
-  "RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PENINSULA," &c. &c. &c.
-
-
-  IN TWO VOLUMES.
-
-  VOL. I.
-
-  LONDON:
-
-  PRINTED FOR
-  LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMAN,
-  PATERNOSTER-ROW.
-
-  1836.
-
-
-  LONDON:
-  Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODE,
-  New-Street-Square.
-
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-It is impossible to read or meditate concerning that period of history
-in which the scene and action of my tale are laid without partaking of
-the feelings of both parties in that great quarrel, and "being (in an
-innocent sense) on both sides."
-
-
-In such a spirit has my story been conceived and written. Until the
-sword was drawn, the more generous and constitutional Royalists were
-separated by but a faint line from the best and most patriotic men of
-the Parliament party.
-
-
-I have, however, confined myself more particularly to the
-contemplation of those miseries and violent acts of persecution which
-the appeal to arms brought upon many private families, and especially
-upon those of the clergy.
-
-
-In the contrivance of such a fiction, it became necessary to introduce
-pictures of fanaticism and hypocrisy, and to describe scenes of
-cruelty and of low interested persecution; but such parts of the story
-must not be considered separately from the rest. The general tenor of
-my volumes will, I trust, be found in strict consistency with that
-charity that "thinketh no evil," but "hopeth all things."
-
-
-
-
-THE BROKEN FONT.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-    Thus till man end, his vanities goe round,
-    In credit here, and there discredited;
-    Striving to binde, and never to be bound;
-    To governe God, and not bee governed:
-      Which is the cause his life is thus confused,
-      In his corruption, by these arts abused.
-                                   LORD BROOKE.
-
-
-It was the early afternoon of a fine open day in the last week of
-April, in the year 1640. The sun shone warm; not a breath of wind was
-stirring the tender foliage of the tall trees, or the delicate flower
-of the lowly harebell beneath the hedge-rows. All was still, save that
-at intervals the voice of the cuckoo was heard--loud, but yet
-mellow--from the bosom of a neighbouring wood. The swains in the
-field lay stretched in the shade, as though summer were already come:
-in gardens and court-yards not a sound of labour or a clatter of life
-disturbed the silence of the hour.
-
-In a shady alcove, which looked out on the bowling alley of Milverton
-House, sate the worthy old master of the mansion, with one leg crossed
-over the other, a book upon his knee, and a kindly smile playing
-across his manly features. Not far distant, upon the steps which led
-up to the near end of a stately terrace, was seated a fair little
-girl, about six years of age. A thick laurel protected her with its
-shadow; and it might be seen by the paper in her hand, by the motion
-of her lips, and by the sway of her little head and neck, that she was
-committing some task to memory, with that pleasure that makes a
-pastime even out of a lesson. Out on the smooth green an old
-flap-mouthed hound, whose hunting days were long past, lay basking in
-the sun, among the dispersed bowls, which the last players had idly
-neglected to put away; and with them a boy's bow and arrow had been
-left, or forgotten, on the ground. The child's murmur was lower than
-the soft coo from the dove-cote, or the gentle music of the fountain;
-and there was a hush of quiet about all these whispers of created life
-that was in harmony with the general silence.
-
-The shadow of the dial had crept on nearly half an hour before this
-repose was broken. It was so at last, by a hot boy of fourteen, with
-vest unbuttoned, and without a hat, who came to seek his bow and
-arrow. The glad cry of "I have found them!" dispelled the silence: the
-little girl thrust her paper into her bosom, and jumped up at the
-sound of the welcome voice; and the old man looked up, and, putting
-his book down on the seat beside him, scolded the noble boy for having
-left the bowls out to be scorched and injured by the sun.
-
-With no abatement of good humour, the cheerful boy, eagerly helped by
-the little girl, gathered them up, and carried them into the
-bowl-house. The old hound was too much accustomed to the thing even to
-stir for it, though one of the bowls almost touched his nose.
-
-This duty done, the boy, upon whose mind one thing lay uppermost, with
-that abruptness which belongs to nature and to boyhood, propounded to
-his great-uncle, Sir Oliver Heywood, the following most startling
-question:--
-
-"Was it not, sir, a very wicked thing to cut off Mr. Prynne's ears?"
-
-Had it suddenly thundered the old knight could not have been more
-surprised; and, if a wasp had stung him in a tender place, he could
-not have been less pleased.
-
-"Master Prynne! what do you know about Master Prynne, you foolish
-boy?"
-
-"O, I know--I know very well! they cut off his ears because he didn't
-like plays; and that was very cruel! What a shame it would be to cut
-off the ears of old Josh. Cross, that takes care of your hawks,
-because he didn't like to hear Stephen play upon the fiddle!"
-
-"Why, Arthur, what has come to you, boy? who has been teaching you
-this nonsense? If Master Prynne had lost his head, instead of his
-ears, it would be no more than he deserved, and I hope he may live to
-own it."
-
-At this rebuke the boy coloured, and hung his head; but added, as if
-pleading for his fault,--
-
-"It was Master Noble said so; and you know, sir, you have told us all
-to mind what he says, for he is always in the right."
-
-Sir Oliver bade him hastily go play; and the boy, taking his little
-niece by the hand, they ran out of the bowling-green at one angle,
-while the good old knight, not a little discomposed by the incident,
-ascended slowly to the terrace. Here he found old Philip, the keeper
-of the buttery, seated at the far end, in the shade, in the calm
-enjoyment of a pipe. Instead of the wonted word of pleasant greeting,
-Sir Oliver told him, in a rough tone, to go and seek instantly for
-Master Noble, and send him thither.
-
-While the kind old serving man went away with his message in no
-comfortable mood--for the young tutor was as great a favourite in
-kitchen as in hall--the old gentleman paced the terrace with a
-leisurely and thoughtful step; and made frequent stops and soliloquies
-on the strange and unexpected words and sentiments which he had just
-heard from the lips of his open and artless boy. While thus engaged,
-we will leave him for a few moments to place before our reader the
-state of the family at the time of which we write.
-
-At the village of Milverton, in Warwickshire, upon a sweet spot above
-the valley of the Avon, Sir Oliver Heywood, the descendant of a
-successful and honoured merchant, occupied a fair and pleasant mansion
-erected in the reign of Elizabeth by his wealthy father.
-
-The family at Milverton House consisted of the worthy knight, a maiden
-sister, his daughter--an only child--and a boy who was the son of a
-favourite nephew slain in the German wars, in which he had been led to
-engage as a diversion of his grief on the loss of a beloved wife.
-
-In addition to these regular members of the family there was a little
-orphan girl, whom his benevolent sister had adopted. This sister,
-Mistress Alice, was two years the junior of Sir Oliver, and had
-attained the age of sixty-one. She had taken up her abode with him at
-the death of Lady Heywood, about four years before the period of
-which we now speak.
-
-Katharine, his daughter, was in her twentieth year, and his nephew's
-son was about fourteen years of age.
-
-Master Noble, of whom mention has been made, was tutor to the boy
-Arthur, and resided with the family.
-
-This young scholar was the son of an old school-fellow and friend of
-Sir Oliver's, who held the benefice of Cheddar, in Somersetshire.
-Cuthbert Noble, like his father before him, had been educated at
-William of Wykeham's school of Winchester; but not succeeding so far
-as to obtain a fellowship at New College, Oxford, which is the usual
-aim and reward of the scholars upon the Winchester foundation, he had
-proceeded to Cambridge, and there graduated with good report. He had
-been now six months at Milverton.
-
-Sir Oliver's birthday was ever a high festival at the manor-house.
-This year it was the pleasure of his daughter to celebrate it by a
-masque; and all the arrangements for this masque were referred by
-Mistress Katharine to Cuthbert Noble. He cheerfully undertook them;
-and having gained some experience in these matters at college, and
-having some skill in painting, set himself to prepare scenes--then a
-very recent invention. As, with a painting brush in his hand, he was
-standing before a scene, nearly finished, and dashing in the white and
-foamy water upon canvass, that was fast changing into a torrent,
-falling from rocks, and rushing through a lonely glen,--and as he
-stood back surveying the effect, and humming the fragment of a song,
-Philip came slowly up the gallery, and said gravely,--
-
-"Master Cuthbert, Sir Oliver wants to speak with you directly."
-
-"Where is he?"
-
-"In the garden, on the lower terrace; and I wish he was looking more
-pleasant:--it's my thought, Master, there's something wrong; for it is
-not a small matter that can vex him."
-
-Cuthbert put down his brush and palette, and proceeded slowly towards
-the terrace. As he was descending the wide steps which led to it, he
-could not but observe that the good knight was serious, if not angry.
-
-"Master Cuthbert," said Sir Oliver with an air of gravity and
-displeasure, "I have sent for you to hear from your own lips some
-little explanation or defence of a matter that hath come to my
-knowledge by the accident of a child's artless utterance. It may be
-that it was only a word lightly dropped by you--a passing levity--a
-lapsus of the tongue, not of the judgment--such an indiscretion as I
-may pass over in one of your unripe age and little experience, without
-further correction than a faithful reproof, and a timely warning of
-the danger of such vain observations, and of their unsuitableness and
-impropriety in one who fills so important an office in my family, and
-hath so far enjoyed my confidence as to have doubtless a great
-influence for evil or for good."
-
-This long preface Sir Oliver delivered, pacing slowly on the terrace
-with his eyes bent upon the ground. Cuthbert walked by his side,
-anxious for the direct charge, now too plainly whispered from within
-by his own swift thoughts.
-
-Sir Oliver paused, and, looking full and steadily upon the serious
-countenance of the youthful tutor, demanded of him whether it were
-true that he had said publicly before any of his family or household,
-that it was a barbarous and cruel thing to cut off Master Prynne's
-ears?
-
-"I certainly so expressed myself," was the calm answer of Cuthbert.
-
-"Where and to whom did you thus speak?"
-
-"It was in the library--the lady Alice was present, and Master Arthur
-was there at his lesson."
-
-"And are these the lessons that you teach in my house and to my
-children?--know you, sir, that Master Prynne is a traitor--that he
-speaketh evil of dignities, and soweth disloyalty--that he is a
-hypocrite and a fanatic?"
-
-"Sir Oliver," said Cuthbert, "there was no discourse upon this matter,
-save only the one remark of which you question me:--this fell from my
-heart when your good sister read out some news of him--and thereupon
-the lady Alice went forth without a word; for I presume not to
-intrude my poor thoughts of court affairs upon any one in this house.
-I know my place better."
-
-"Life of me! Thou dost not confess thy fault--thou dost not say thy
-pænitet for teaching this false lesson to my child!"
-
-"I would not be slow to speak out my sorrow and shame if I felt them,
-but I am conscience-whole in this thing,--and my few words did give no
-other lesson than one of plain humanity."
-
-"Master Cuthbert, I do believe thee a true and gentle youth, of best
-intentions, and thou comest of a good stock. Thy father is my good
-friend from the gladsome days when we were school-fellows together at
-St. Mary, Winton; and where hath church or state a better parson or
-better subject than he? therefore, I would for his sake, as for thine
-own, entreat thee mildly. Youth is warm and tender, and wanting a far
-sight to the great end of punishment--the axe might rust and the
-scourge gather cobwebs before hearts like thine would give rogues
-their due."
-
-"I am of sterner stuff, Sir Oliver, than to wish a rogue safe from
-the beadle, or a traitor from the headsman; but I am not so taught as
-to think the mistakes of a severe piety treasons deserving of
-torture."
-
-"Odd's life! I see how it is--thou art bitten by these gloomy
-fanatics--the venom is in thy veins:--well for me that I have seen its
-first workings. By my fathers! these new papists, these worse
-Carthusians, would drive sunshine from the earth, and kill the
-flowers, and stop the singing of birds, and give us a world of rock
-and clouds--hard as their stony hearts, and gloomy as their cold
-minds! Master Cuthbert, we must part. I'll not have the path of my boy
-shadowed over before it be God's will. The earth is green and goodly,
-and pleasant to the eyes; and long may his heart rejoice in it, as
-mine has before him. Look you, we must part."
-
-"At your pleasure I came, Sir Oliver, and I am ready, at your
-pleasure, to return to my father's. My stay with you has been short,
-and I would fain hope that I have not failed in my duty to you. May
-you be more fortunate in your choice of a tutor for Master Arthur
-than you have been in me!"
-
-Cuthbert spoke these words with so much self-command that not one
-syllable trembled in the utterance; yet the tone was at once mournful
-and resolved.
-
-The better feelings of Sir Oliver were touched: the expression of his
-eye showed plainly that he was repenting of his hastiness, relenting
-in his decision. What his reply might have been, may, in its spirit,
-be easily imagined; but a sudden interruption checked the words that
-were rising to his lips; and a sounder and more prudential reason for
-desiring the departure of Cuthbert was presented to his judgment than
-any objection which could have been urged at that time, with any
-semblance of fairness, against his errors as a churchman, or his sins
-as a subject.
-
-"Master Noble," called a rich clear voice from above them,--"Master
-Noble, we poor players do wait your pleasure, and are ready with our
-parts; but we cannot go on with our rehearsal till the manager doth
-come to us." Looking up, Sir Oliver saw his daughter leaning over the
-balustrade, with a paper in one hand, and a tall wand wreathed with
-flowers in the other; and, as he turned his eyes upon Cuthbert Noble,
-the strong emotions with which Cuthbert was evidently struggling did
-not escape his observation.
-
-"I have business with him just now, Kate," said her father: "go thy
-way. He shall come to thee in the hall anon." But as he spoke, the boy
-Arthur came down the steps, leading in his hand the little girl; and,
-running up to Cuthbert with joyous eagerness, cried out, "Kitten can
-do her part--she can say every word quite perfect--you must hear her."
-With that, the little girl letting go his hand, and putting back her
-sunny curls, which had fallen over her blue eyes, repeated, with an
-air of sweet intelligence and pretty innocence, these lines:--
-
-    "I do childhood represent,
-    Listen to my argument:
-    Mine the magic power to bring
-    Pleasure out of every thing;
-    Sunbeams, flowers, and summer air,
-    Music, wonders, visions fair,
-    All my happy steps attend;
-    Mine is peace without an end;--
-    All things are at peace with me,
-    Beast in field, and bird on tree;
-    The sheep that lie upon the grass
-    Never stir as I do pass;
-    If by the singing bird I stray,
-    He never quits his chosen spray;
-    If to the squirrel's haunt I go,
-    He comes with curious eye below;
-    Earth and I are full of love,
-    I fear no harm from Heav'n above,
-    For there, as here, all things do tell
-    A Father God doth surely dwell:--
-    O! could I be a child alway,
-    How happy were life's holyday!"
-
-The countenance of Sir Oliver recovered all its wonted expression of
-good humour, as the child prettily recited these lines; and patting
-her on the head, as she concluded, he turned to Cuthbert and said, in
-his usual kind tone, "We will talk our matter over another time: I see
-that you are no joy-killer, and would never mar an innocent
-pleasure-making--I was ever fond of a good play--a pox on these
-prick-eared knaves that would forbid them!
-
-    "'Why kings and emperors have taen delight
-    To make experience of their wits in plays,'
-
-as Master Kyd hath it, in his Spanish tragedy."
-
-Cuthbert said nothing; but having a recollection of the passage from
-which Sir Oliver had quoted, thought he might have found a more
-comfortable sanction and a much better authority.
-
-"But, prithee," continued Sir Oliver, "whose rhymes be these that the
-child has just spoken?"
-
-"They are my poor doggerel," answered Cuthbert; "for this dear child
-would give me no rest till I made a part for her in the Birthday
-Masque."
-
-"Marry," rejoined the knight, "the fancy of them pleaseth me, and for
-the verse I care not."
-
-They all now turned to ascend the steps; and as they did so, apparent
-at the same instant to both Sir Oliver and Cuthbert was Mistress
-Katharine, leaning over the balustrade of the upper terrace, with an
-air of grave and perplexed curiosity.
-
-As soon as they reached the top, which was level with the lawn in
-front of the mansion, Katharine caught Kitten in her arms, kissed her
-fair brow, and ran with her towards the house; the happy child calling
-out the while, "Come along, Master Noble, pray, come," and at the same
-time clapping together her two little hands at thought of the coming
-pleasure.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. II.
-
-    "White, I dare not say good, witches (for woe be to him
-    that calleth evil good!) heal those that are hurt, and help them
-    to lost goods.
-
-    "Methinks she should bewitch to herself a golden mine, at
-    least good meat, and whole clothes."
-                                  FULLER'_s_ _Profane State_.
-
-
-While a select few among the maidens and the serving men, who were, to
-their great contentment, to figure beneath strange dresses and uncouth
-vizards in the antimasque, and while some neighbouring gentles of
-quality, who were to take part in the masque itself, were rehearsing
-in the hall, old Philip, the butler, betook himself to the outer gate,
-and there sitting down on the porter's stone, replenished his pipe,
-and fell a-thinking about Sir Oliver and Master Noble. But the more he
-thought, the more he was puzzled; and so he opened his vest to catch
-the breeze from the valley, and smoked with half-closed eyes, too
-much accustomed to the glorious scene before him to be always moved by
-its beauties. Below him, in the rich bottom of the vale, flowed the
-shining Avon. The white foam of the water at Guy's mill might be seen,
-and the rush of it might be almost heard.
-
-The cliff of the renowned Guy presented a fine scarp of stone, the
-summit of which was overhung with knotted and rude shrubs of a
-fantastic growth; and far away to the left, at a distance of two
-miles, might be seen the lordly towers, and the tall and ivied wall of
-Warwick Castle. Such were the objects, which might, we say, have been
-discerned from the spot where old Philip sate, together with broad and
-pleasant meadows, well stocked with kine and sheep, and many goodly
-trees of a stately size, and many a distant coppice of rich underwood.
-Doubtless the old man had often felt the glad influence of that
-scene,--but now, overcome with heat, tobacco, and the labour of
-perplexed guesses about the grave mood of his master, he fell fast
-asleep. Philip was one of those good faithful old creatures whose
-world was his master's, and whose greatest sin was the love of
-victual. This sin was duly punished by black dreams; and now, as he
-lay snoring against the wall, his indulgence over a rich mutton pie at
-dinner was visited with the terrors of one of those nightmare visions
-with which he was deservedly familiar. He dreamed that it was the
-statute fair, and that they were roasting an ox whole in the
-market-place of Warwick. The frontlet of the poor beast was gaily
-gilded, and the horns were painted blue, and gilt at the tips. The
-mighty spit turned slowly round. On one side stood a fat cook basting
-the brown loins that the beast might not burn, and on the other a
-stout and expert carver occasionally stopped the rude spit, and with a
-long broad knife detached savoury portions for the greedy by-standers,
-who, on receiving the same, dropped their penny of thanks into the cap
-of the carver, and, slipping out of the crowd, made way for others.
-Dreams are to the dreamer realities. Philip's mouth watered: he
-thought he had never before seen beef so delicious; fat and lean in
-their exact proportions; the meat of the finest grain, juicy, and full
-of gravy; but then his suit, his badge, his pride of place, forbade
-his wishes: partake of the dainty he could not, but he might go near,
-just out of curiosity, and for mere amusement. Lo and behold! with an
-angry bellow forth leaped the furious beast, his eyes all fire, the
-spit point issuing from his foaming mouth, his carcass smoking and
-dripping, and half the sirloins cut away. He singled old Philip from
-the crowd; he lowered his blue and gilded horns; he shook the spit
-between his grinning teeth; and as he made his rush, old Philip died a
-thousand deaths in one, and woke into another world,--that other he
-had so shortly quitted. Nor was the object on which his waking eyes
-first rested exactly calculated to compose his terrors. A crowd of
-noisy clowns was standing round him; and in the midst of them, upon a
-hurdle, they bore an old withered and bony woman, crooked and
-blear-eyed, who was counted the witch of that neighbourhood, and well
-known by the name of yellow Margery of the Sand Pit.
-
-They set down the hurdle close at Philip's feet, and called loudly for
-justice and Sir Oliver. "Hag!"--"Crone!"--"Beldame!"--"To the
-faggot!"--"To the river,"--"Justice in the King's name!"--were the
-various cries by which the impatient rustics frighted all the
-household of Milverton from their propriety and their pleasures, and
-brought most of them forth to the gate, and the rest to the hall
-steps, or the casements. Sir Oliver himself came forth, among the
-first, loudly rating them. "Why, how now, ye rude varlets; is
-Milverton a pot-house, and the seat of justice an ale bench?
-Speak--what would you?--speak, you, Morton,--you should know better
-than to head a rabble rout of this fashion."
-
-"Why then, troth, Sir Oliver, as thou art a worshipful knight, and a
-king's justice, not man, woman, nor child in the whole parish can sup
-their porridge in peace or sleep o' nights for this old witch Margery:
-we've crown witness enough to hang, drown, and burn her twenty times
-over."
-
-"Not so fast, not so fast, neighbour," said Sir Oliver, seating
-himself on the stone from which old Philip had retired melting with
-fear. "Where are the witnesses, and what have they to say? Let them
-stand forth."
-
-"First, here's Master Crumble, the clerk; then, afore him, here's
-Master Screw, the great witch-finder from Coventry; and here's Jock,
-my carter; and old Blow, the blacksmith, and Pollard, your worship's
-woodman."
-
-"Stop, stop, I can't hear all at once,--say thy say, Crumble."
-
-"Why, your worship, my sow--your worship, my sow is dead: all of a
-sudden, this blessed morn, as I poured out her wash, down she lay all
-in the shivers; and if the poor dumb creature had been her own flesh
-and blood, my old woman could not ha' taken on more. Says I, directly,
-'This is a bit of Margery's work; for I see her brush the old sow with
-her black petticoat at the lane end, Sunday was a week.' It's quite a
-plain case you see, Sir Oliver."
-
-"Stand back, you silly man."
-
-"Silly, forsooth. I am thirty-seven year clerk of the parish, come
-next Lammas, and I say it's writ on the Bible, 'Thou shalt not suffer
-a witch to live.'"
-
-"That is true enough--it is so; but how do you know a witch?"
-
-"Why, I know that a man's not a witch."
-
-"That is true, thou art a man and no witch. But how dost thou know
-one?"
-
-"Why, it is an old woman, not to say any one, but a crook back, with a
-hooked nose, and a peaked chin like Margery."
-
-"Master Crumble, I have done with thee, and in the matter of thy sow's
-death do acquit Margery."
-
-"That's not crown law, nor Gospel charity," said the old clerk, as he
-stepped back into the crowd, who muttered and whispered among each
-other till the next witness spoke out. This was the witch-finder.
-
-"Please your worship, I am ready to make oath that she hath a
-familiar, always about her in the shape of a brown mouse; for I have
-seen it crawling about her neck, and playing and feeding in her hand."
-
-Here there was a mixed utterance of triumph and horror in the crowd,
-and Sir Oliver himself looked grave.
-
-"What dost thou answer to this, Margery?"
-
-"They say true in that they say I have a tame mouse; and haven't court
-ladies their monkeys, and their parrots, and their squirrels, and
-their white mice,--and why mayn't an old lone woman have her pet as
-well as they?" As thus she spoke, she held out her open hand, and a
-lively brown mouse sat up quietly on the palm seemingly quite tame.
-There was a slight shudder ran through the veins of all present; and
-Cuthbert Noble, fearing lest this mode of defence might rather hinder
-than help her, went up to advise her better.
-
-"A warm blessing on you, Master Noble,--the blessing of one whom you
-have saved before, and are trying to save again."
-
-Here Cuthbert stopped her, and observed to Sir Oliver aloud, that this
-mouse was but such a pet as a shepherd's boy might play with, and that
-the old woman, whose ways were odd, had once told him that when she
-was a child and her little brother died, she had taken to a field
-mouse which he had petted, and that she had ever since as one died
-procured another.
-
-The worthy knight was now for discharging Margery; but Farmer Morton
-insisted that they should hear his carter's story. Accordingly Jock
-stepped forward, and smoothing down his hair said,--"Please your
-worship, I lost my best startups (high shoes) the day before last
-cattle fair, and precious mad I was; and Sukey Sly told me if I went
-to old Margery, and took her a wheaten loaf, and crossed her palm with
-a silver penny, she'd tell me where to find 'em. Well, I went, and the
-old woman said she didn't want to have aught to say to me. 'Look ye,'
-says I, 'Margery, here I be, here's the bread and here's the money: I
-ha' lost my startups, and you must tell me where to find them; and I
-wo'n't budge till you do.' So with that she puts her mouse down
-against the loaf, and finely he nibbled away, and she set of a brown
-stud for a bit, and then told me to wait for the first full moon, and
-then, exactly at midnight, to walk backwards from the yard gate to the
-dung mixen, with my eyes fixed on the moon, and that I should find
-them on the mixen; but if it were before or after twelve o'clock, and
-if I looked behind me, or took my eyes off the moon, the charm would
-be broke, and I should never see my startups again; and sure enough I
-never have seen 'em."
-
-There was a little titter among the women; and Sukey Sly, whose legs
-were set off in a pair of new red stockings, could not suppress a
-laugh at Jock's story: but the clowns called out for justice, and Sir
-Oliver had much ado to pacify them. He did so at last, by assuring the
-old woman, that, on condition she told what was the great charm by
-which she was said to cure diseases, she should be set free.
-
-"Cure diseases! God bless you, Master! why I'm a poor helpless old
-body, that can't cure myself, and should starve but for pity," said
-Margery. "However, may be, once or so in a quarter there comes some
-wilful body like Jock, with a tied-up face, and makes a witch of me,
-whether or no, and will have the charm. Then I take his loaf and his
-money, and I say,--
-
-    "'My loaf in my lap,
-      My penny in my purse;
-    Thou art never the better;
-      I'm never the worse.'"
-
-This confession was followed by laughter, in which most joined; and,
-except the clerk of the parish and the balked witch-finder, all
-dispersed in such good humour, that the poor old crone was released
-from her hurdle and her troublesome attendants, and, with a basket of
-broken meat and a bottle of ale, was suffered to hobble back to her
-hovel in the sand pit, without let or hinderance. It is true that
-Margery was most justly liable to the charge of imposture in the
-matter of Jock; and certain that, but for the easy and kind temper of
-the knight, and the good humour which her own quaint and jocular
-confession suddenly struck out of the wayward crowd, she might have
-been committed by Sir Oliver, or half drowned by the brutal and
-superstitious rustics on her road back to her miserable hovel. But as
-she lived at a lone spot on the far side of the Avon, and was not
-often seen in the parish of Milverton, and as the good knight (though
-by no means free from the prevalent belief in witchcraft, and still
-doubting whether under the form of a mouse she was not attended by an
-imp, as the witch-finder had averred,) was a timid magistrate, hated
-trouble, and sincerely feared doing what was either wrong in law or
-severe in punishment, he rejoiced to be well quit of the troublesome
-appeal. Nevertheless, he was not a little secretly disturbed, when,
-late in the evening, old Philip--in a fear which had not even yielded
-to the comforting warmth of a cup of spiced ale--related to him his
-comical dream, with manifold exaggerations, and expressed his stout
-belief that he had been possessed during his sleep by the evil
-influence of old Margery.
-
-Truth to say, at the period of which we write such was the fear and
-hatred of those forlorn and miserable old women, whose unsightly
-features, infirm gait, and cross tempers, excited among their
-neighbours any suspicion that they held intercourse with evil spirits,
-and exercised the powers of witchcraft, as drove forth the unhappy
-beings to lonely abodes in solitary places. Here again, in the
-vicinity of some village, remote from the scene of their persecution,
-their very loneliness, all compelled and oppressive as it was, did
-most naturally subject them anew to the suspicions of fresh
-oppressors. So bloody, too, were the laws which at that time disgraced
-the statute book, having for their end the punishment of witchcraft,
-so cruel were the modes of trial among the mean and malignant persons
-who drove a lucrative trade as witch-finders, and so credulous was the
-ignorant and easily abused multitude, that, upon evidence far less
-colourable with guilt than that adduced against Margery, unfortunate
-persons of both sexes were publicly executed without shame and without
-pity. In numberless instances false confessions were extorted from the
-hopeless sufferers by torture, and adduced upon the day of trial, or
-proclaimed at the place of execution. Thus a rooted persuasion of the
-existence of sorcery and the practices of witchcraft was fixed in the
-minds of the vulgar, and even infected those of the better and the
-educated classes. As a natural consequence of this terrible
-superstition, some of the poor creatures suspected of witchcraft, who
-found themselves thrust out of the pale of human sympathy--avoided and
-shunned by some, beaten and set upon by others--did madden, and
-mumble curses in their gloomy solitude, and at last began to suspect
-themselves as the servants of unseen spirits, and the partakers of a
-supernatural power.
-
-In the breast of Cuthbert Noble the vulgar and cruel prejudice
-concerning witchcraft had no place. His humane and enlightened father
-had very early instilled into his mind clear notions of the love and
-care of the great Father of the human families; of the sacredness of
-human life, indeed of all life, and of the holiness of creation;--and
-he had, moreover, taught him to regard all particular cases of severe
-and inexplicable suffering as parts only of one vast and mysterious
-whole, and subserving, in the great end and issue, some wise, holy,
-wonderful purpose of divine and universal love. He had taught him,
-too, that ours was a marred and fallen nature; and how and by what
-means, and in whose divine person, it actually was restored; and how
-all the sons of Adam had become capable, through divine mercy, of
-partaking all the benefits of that restoration of man's nature--in
-some degree even in this troubled and probationary state--in full and
-satisfying perfection in that state which is future and eternal.
-Hence, to the eye of Cuthbert, every one of human form was an object,
-though not perhaps of personal interest and affection, yet of wonder
-and of reverence, as a creature of God, born for immortality--an
-imperishable, an indestructible being; and, when the crimes and errors
-of his fellow-creatures stirred up his angry passions to punish and
-withstand them, the sense of his own weakness and his own sinfulness
-was ever waiting for him in his heart's closet, to rebuke and humble
-him in the calmness of solitude. But Cuthbert as yet had been little
-tried; he knew not what spirit he was of. He thought that his placid
-and firm father was the model which he surely followed; but the
-settled and peaceful joy of that amiable and benevolent and subdued
-father was as yet unknown to him.
-
-However, the character and the life of Parson Noble will be the better
-understood and conceived of by transporting our reader to the village
-in Somersetshire where he dwelt, and where, had it been her good
-fortune to have been a parishioner of his, old Margery, in spite of
-her wild and withered aspect, might have lived unmolested and in peace
-with her neighbours, and would not have lacked such acquaintance with
-the mercy of the great Redeemer, as it is in the power of a mere human
-instrument to impart.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. III.
-
-    A branch of May we have brought you,
-      And at your door it stands;
-        It is but a sprout,
-        But it's well budded out,
-      By the work of our Lord's hands.
-
-      The hedges and trees they are so green,
-        As green as any leek;
-      Our heavenly Father he watereth them,
-        With his heavenly dew so sweet.
-                     _From the Mayer's Song._
-
-
-The morning star glittered brightly above the fine old tower of
-Cheddar church, and the low parsonage lay still and asleep amid the
-flowers and the dewy grass plots of its pleasant garden, as advancing,
-from beneath the ancient yew in the churchyard, to the wicket opposite
-the good vicar's porch, a party of hale young rustics with coloured
-ribands in their hats and on their loose white sleeves, planted, on
-either side the entrance, a fine branch of white thorn in full
-blossom, and struck up, with full and cheerful voices, the very
-ancient medley from which the stanzas at the head of our present
-chapter are taken. They had not sung two verses before the door of the
-parsonage was opened by a merry looking old serving man--two lasses'
-heads were thrust from a window over the kitchen--the mistress's good
-humoured eyes were seen over a white chamber blind,--and the parson
-himself, with a face as expressive of joy as a child's, though marked
-with the furrows of seven-and-sixty years, came forth to the wicket in
-a loose morning gown, with a black scull-cap on his silvery hairs, and
-listened, with a motion of the lips, that showed his voice, though not
-audible, and his kind heart were attuned to theirs, and to the coming
-holyday. When their song was done, he dismissed them with his
-blessing, with the customary gift of silver, and with a caution to
-keep their festival with gladness and innocence, and with the love of
-brothers; letting the poor and aged fare the better for it.
-
-"And let us have no brawls on the ale bench," said the old
-parson,--"let our May-pole be the rod of peace; so that none may rail
-at our sports and dances, but rather take note of us as merry folk and
-honest neighbours."
-
-With loud thanks, and lively promises, and rude invocations of
-Heaven's best gifts on him, and his lady, and his absent sons, the
-party now faced about, and with the accompaniment of pipe and tabor,
-and a couple of fiddles, moved off at a dancing pace to pay the like
-honours at the door of the chief franklin, and to deck the village
-street as they passed along.
-
-Parson Noble now passed round to his favourite terrace walk, that
-overlooked a rich and extensive level, and taking up his lute, which
-lay in a little alcove at one end of it, he breathed out his morning
-hymn of thanksgiving, as was his wont, and thus composed, went into
-his study, and secluded himself for an hour from all interruption. At
-the close he again came into his garden, where he commonly laboured
-both for pleasure and health, every day of his life, in company with
-the attached old servant, who, for his quaint words and ways, had
-been long known to the village by the name of plain Peter,--an
-epithet, which, as it gave him credit for blunt honesty, as well as
-for a cast in his eye, he readily pardoned,--nay, some said he was
-proud of it;--for what manner of man is it that hath not a pride in
-something?
-
-"Master," said Peter, putting down his rake as the parson came up the
-walk, "I have won a silver groat on your words this day."
-
-"How so? what dost thou mean, Peter?"
-
-"Why, last market day, when I was in the kitchen at the old Pack Horse
-at Axbridge, that vinegar-faced old hypocrite, Master Pynche, the
-staymaker, comes in, and asks me to bring out Betsy Blount's new
-stays.
-
-"Says I, 'That I'll do for Betsy's sake,--a lass that hasn't her
-better for a good heart, or a pretty face, in all Somersetshire.'
-
-"'Verily, Master Peter, I think,' said he, 'thy speech might have more
-respect to me, and more decency to the damsel, but thou savourest not
-of the things that be from above:--thou art of the earth, earthy.'
-
-"'Why, for the matter of things above,' said I, 'Master Pynche, I
-don't pretend to any skill in moonshine; and as to being of the earth,
-that I don't deny, and thirsty earth too; with that I put to my lips
-the cup of ale that I had in hand, and drank it down.'
-
-"'Is it not written,' he replied in a snuffling tone, 'that favour is
-deceitful, and beauty is vain?--but thou art a servant of Beelzebub,
-and thou speakest the words of thy master, and his works wilt thou
-do.'
-
-"'In the name of plain Peter,' I added, 'herewith I proclaim you
-Prince of Fools, and I will send you a coloured coat, and a hood and
-bells, and thou shalt have a bauble, and a bladder of pease, and a
-licence to preach next April.'
-
-"With that he lifted up his eyes and hands, and muttering something
-about pearls and swine, glided off like a ghost at cock crow."
-
-"Peter," interrupted Noble, "thou shouldst not have said such things."
-
-"Marry, did he not call me a servant of Beelzebub? the peevish old
-puritan!--Well, but to go on with my story. The folk in Dame Wattle's
-kitchen fell a discoursing after Pynche was gone; and some spake up
-after a fashion that made my hair stand up. Says a sturdy pedlar in
-the corner,--'Ay, they'll soon be uppermost, and the sooner the
-better; rot 'em, I don't like 'em, the godly rogues; but they are
-better than parsons, any way.'
-
-"So with that I felt my blood come up, and I was going to speak, when
-old Hardy, the cobbler, took up his words, and says he, 'That's true
-of some, and it's true of our old Tosspot; but there's Peter's master,
-of Cheddar,--you may search the country far and near before you will
-find his like. I remember when my niece Sally lay dying, night and
-day, fair weather and foul, he would trudge through mire or snow to
-give her medicine for body as well as soul, and that's what I call a
-good parson.'"
-
-"'A good puritan,' said Dame Wattle. 'I have heard of his sayings and
-doings, and trust me, he'll go with your parliament men, your
-down-church men: you'll never have any more May-games and Christmas
-gambols at Cheddar.'
-
-"'There you're out, Dame,' said I, 'and don't know any more about
-Master Noble than a child unborn.'
-
-"'A silver crown to a silver groat he'll give a long preachment
-against the May-pole next May-morning.'
-
-"'Done with you, Dame,' said I.
-
-"'You may lay a golden angel to a penny there will be no May-poles at
-all, if you make it May twelvemonth,' said the pedlar, 'without,
-indeed, there be such as have pikes at the end of them;' and with that
-he pulled out a printed paper, that he brought from London, and read
-out a long matter about the king and the bishops, and about church
-organs, and tithes, and play actors, and ship money, and Master
-Hampden; and made out, as plain as a pike staff, that there would be
-many a good buff coat and iron head piece taken down from the wall
-before long. 'We shall have a civil war soon, and God defend the
-right,' said he, as he folded up the paper and took up his pack.
-
-"Civil," thought I, "that's a queer word. I have heard talk of civil
-people and civil speeches, but a civil blow from a battle-axe is a
-new thing. I'll tell master all about it when I get home, and axe what
-it means;--but as I was on the path in Nine Acres, whom should I meet
-but Master Blount, the young one, and he made me promise not to say a
-word to you before May-day was come, for fear the old sports might be
-hindered; and he told me that civil war meant war at home; for which I
-didn't think him much of a conjuror, as my guess had reached that far:
-and now, Master, prithee tell me what civil means."
-
-"Peter, thou art an honest fellow, and as good a citizen as if thou
-knewest what it was called in Latin, and that a civil war was a war of
-citizens, but of a truth this is no matter for smiles; however,
-'sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' This is no morning for
-a cloudy face."
-
-"Well, then, here comes one, and the worst that darkens our doors. For
-my part, I can't bide the sight of it, 't would turn all the milk in
-the dairy."
-
-The vicar looked over his hedge, and saw the curate of a parish with
-whom he was but slightly acquainted, walking across the last close,
-which led by a footway into his orchard. The apple-trees concealed
-Noble from his approaching visiter, who, just as he reached the gate
-of the orchard, overtook a little boy, about nine years of age,
-carrying in his hand a cluster of cowslips half as big as himself, and
-having a thick crown of field flowers round his straw hat.
-
-With a severe scowl, he snatched the cowslips from the frightened
-child, and threw them away, and then made a gripe at his little hat;
-but, the boy drawing back with a blubbering cry, the zealous and tall
-curate, who had a little over-reached himself, slipped and fell prone
-upon the grass. This, however, was the lightest part of his
-misfortune; for it so chanced that his face came in full contact with
-a new-made rain-puddle, and he arose with his eyes half blinded, and
-his face covered and besmeared with mud. With the tears yet rolling
-down his red cheeks, the little fellow, as he saw himself avenged in
-a measure so contenting, and a manner so ridiculous, ran out of his
-reach, literally shrieking with laughter; and a hearty roar from old
-Peter at once completed his mortification, and determined his retreat.
-This soon became a maddened flight: for a sleeping dog roused by the
-noise of the laughter pursued him with angry barkings, from which, as
-he had no staff, and the grassy close could furnish no stone, there
-was no escape till the wearied animal paused and turned.
-
-The whole of this scene was so very swiftly enacted, that Noble had no
-opportunity to say or do any thing in the matter; and charity itself
-could not suppress a smile at a punishment so well suited to the
-morosity which had led to it. Neither was he at all sorry to be
-relieved upon this festal day from the intrusive visit of a sour,
-ill-instructed fanatic, whose opinions he could not value, and for
-whose character he felt no respect. He looked, therefore, with unmixed
-satisfaction at the laughing urchin, as he gathered up his scattered
-wealth, and departed.
-
-Now merrily rang out the lively bells of Cheddar Tower; and already
-was every street a green alley, freshened by thick boughs, and made
-fragrant by small branches of white thorn neatly interwoven.
-
-The house of the chief franklin, Mr. Blount, was more especially
-honoured. Before his door was planted the largest and fairest branch
-of May that could be found in a circuit of five good miles, and his
-hospitable porch was made a rich bower of shrubs and flowers. Beneath
-the tall trees in front of it was a little crowd of youths and
-maidens, in holyday trim, wearing garlands, with green rushes and
-strewing herbs in their arms, or aprons: full they were of smiles and
-glee; and, out on the road, all the village was assembled, save the
-infirm old and the cradled young; though, of these last, not a few
-were borne in their mothers' arms, or lifted up with honest pride in
-those of their brown fathers, whose burning toils a field were, for
-this joyous day, forgotten.
-
-From the words passing in these expectant groups, a stranger might
-soon have gathered that something more than the common sport of
-May-day was engaging the honest and buzzing mob of men, women, and
-children, that blocked the street opposite this goodly mansion, and
-what that something was. "Better day better luck."--"A bonny bride is
-soon dressed."--"Honest men marry soon," said a black-eyed, nut-brown
-wife, with a lively babe in her arms, and two curly-headed little ones
-holding her apron,--and "Wise men not at all," added a gruff old
-blacksmith, with a seamed visage.--"Ah, it's no good kicking in
-fetters, Roger," rejoined the laughing wife, at the same time giving
-her infant into the horny hands of a stout young woodman, with a green
-doublet and a clean white collar, who held it up, kicking and
-shrieking with delight, as though it would spring out of his arms, and
-chimed in with "Ah, Master Roger, it's an ill house where the hen
-crows loudest."--"Ah, thou'lt find that some day, Stephen;" for this
-he got a heavy slap on his shoulder from the young wife, whose coming
-words were checked by the sound of fiddles, as the bridal procession
-came forth. "Dear heart," said she, "how pretty Bessy does look in
-that lilac gown with brave red guardings and the golden cawl on her
-fair hair, and what a beautiful lace rochet she has."--"Ah, fine
-feathers make fine birds," said a spinster standing near.--"He's a
-proper man is young Hargood, and should have known better than choose
-a wife by the eye."--"She had rather kiss than spin, I'll
-warrant."--"Better be half hanged than ill wed."--"You may know a fool
-by her finery."--"A precious stone should be well set," said the young
-wife, sharply, "and Bessy's blue eyes and her blushing cheeks are
-small matters to her ways and words." But envy and ill will were
-low-voiced, and confined to few, for old Blount and all his house were
-well loved by the people; and with many a word of cheerful greeting
-they made way for the party, and the most of them followed it to the
-church.
-
-The procession was led by a few youths and maidens, with whom were all
-the musicians of the village; while others, walking immediately before
-the bride and her two bride maidens, strewed the ground, as they went,
-with rushes and herbs. The bridegroom, in a suit of violet-coloured
-cloth, guarded with velvet of the deepest crimson, and with a falling
-collar of worked linen, followed, supported by his bridesmen, in fit
-bravery of apparel; next came a group of relations, male and female,
-led by the old franklin himself, with his grave and comely wife, and
-the men and maids of his household brought up the rear of the
-procession. It was met at the churchyard gate by Parson Noble and his
-wife,--she joining old Mrs. Blount, and the good vicar, in his snowy
-surplice, taking place at the head of it, immediately between the
-herb-strewers and the bridal party; and now a gravity and silence
-succeeded, and in decency and order all entered the church, and
-proceeded with quiet steps to the altar. There, the sweet and solemn
-service, which binds together for "better for worse, for richer for
-poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do part," was reverently
-and impressively performed by Noble, his own deep and mellow tones
-being only interrupted by the manly voice of the bridegroom, and the
-faltering accents of the shy and trembling bride, as they gave
-utterance to their heart's true and hallowed responses. No sooner was
-the ceremony ended than the bells, which had, for a while, been
-silent, struck out with the wedding peal; and as the new married
-couple came forth into the churchyard the air was rent with the joyous
-acclamations of the crowd without; and the procession returned in
-nearly the same order as it had left the house of the worthy franklin,
-only, according to the good custom of the time, the parson made one of
-the wedding party, and partook of the marriage feast.
-
-Such of the old as could not walk abroad, stood leaning on staves, or
-sat dim-eyed on the stones before their doors, to see or hear the
-bridal train pass down; for each of these Parson Noble and the
-franklin had a kind word as they went by, returned by the benison and
-good wishes for the bride, who had herself no voice for any one, and,
-supported on her husband's arm, scarce saw her path through eyes that
-were filling from a happy bosom's overflow.
-
-We shall not detain our reader by describing the dinner at Master
-Blount's; right plentiful was the cheer. Parson Noble said a grace in
-rhyme, out of old Tom Tusser's book of Husbandry, to the great
-contentment of his hospitable host, that being the one book by which,
-after his Bible, Blount squared his honest life.
-
-    "God sendeth and giveth both mouth and the meat,
-    And blesseth us all with his benefits great;
-    Then serve we the God, who so richly doth give,
-    Show love to our neighbours, and lay for to live."
-
-This being the franklin's rule,--while his guests were feasted in the
-old oak parlour, at the back of the house; in the pleasant orchard,
-all his labourers were regaled with a hearty meal of meat and
-plum-porridge; and huge jacks of ale were emptied and replenished, to
-the health of bride and bridegroom and good master.
-
-After due carvings of veal and bacon, unlacing of fat capons, and
-untrussing of great pies of fruit and other dainties, in the parlour,
-and after some mantling cups of wine drank to the happy pair, the old
-people yielded to the impatience of the young, and all adjourned to
-Robin's Meadow, not, however, before they had sung, as the grace after
-meat, a short psalm of praise.
-
-The meadow, in which from generations before the May-pole was raised,
-had a fine level sward, which Blount kept smooth as a bowling-ground
-for the dancers, while a part of it rose in swelling banks, shaded by
-trees. These, though, as yet, but in early leaf, were gaily green, and
-contrasted well with the many-coloured and blushing wreaths of
-field-flowers that wound about the May-pole, at the top of which
-glittered a small crown, newly gilded in honour of the wedding, and
-further adorned with a few of the rarest plants which the gardens of
-Cheddar could produce.
-
-A pleasure it was, as they passed into the meadow, to see the happy
-children rolling and tumbling and racing down the steep bank, from
-which they now scrambled away, to make room for the franklin's party,
-and for the elders of the village, who, from this grassy knoll, were
-wont to preside over the pastimes of this holyday. We give not this
-scene in detail:--the dances of the young, as, with light and elastic
-steps, they bounded to lively measures round the May-pole, and the
-nodding heads of the musicians keeping time with the dancers, and the
-races and gambols of the ruddy children, each reader may figure forth
-to his own fancy. Neither tell we of the pretty ceremonies with which
-the milk maids brought their cows, with horns all garlanded, into the
-adjoining close, and prepared and offered the delicious syllabub: our
-aim is only to give an outline of a village May-day of the times of
-which we write, and to show the good parson of the best school of that
-period mingling in mirth among his people. Leaving, therefore, the
-happy villagers to continue their sports till set of sun, we shall
-confine ourselves to the steps of the pastor, and complete the journal
-of his day.
-
-As the chimes struck six o'clock, he quietly withdrew, and passed from
-the scenes of pleasure and feasting to those of sickness and of
-mourning. If he had regarded the former with complacent joy, he was
-not the less willing, nor the less prepared, to cheer the latter with
-those high contemplations and those tender sympathies to which, by
-faith, as a Christian, he could point, and which, in charity, as a
-man, he truly felt. Of the old, who were confined to their own
-thresholds, he found two or three cross and short, but most of them
-garrulous, and in good humour. They had got pleasant portions from the
-franklin, and they could tell of old May-days, and heard, with
-thankful nods and ready "ayes," and strong fetchings of the breath,
-that were not sighs of grief, the grave good words with which he
-taught them how only they could die in peace.
-
-Of his flock only one lay at the point of death, and her he visited
-last.
-
-She was the miller's daughter, and had been the May-queen of the
-bygone year. Sacred be such visit, in its most solemn communings! but
-we may paint the scene of it, and the trifles which belong to those
-sympathies of our humanity, that often survive the resigned hope of
-life.
-
-In a tall chair, against the back of which she leaned her head, sate a
-pale maiden, warmly wrapped in a robe of white woollen, close to the
-small window of an upper chamber, on which the evening sun shone warm:
-curling honey-suckles did make a frame to it; and one rose, with an
-opening bud, peeped from the trained bush beneath. Upon a little table
-near her stood a fragrant branch of May in a cup of water. There were
-faint flushes in her transparent cheeks, and there was an unearthly
-brightness in her eyes--not fitful--but a calm, steady, serene ray,
-that, as the declining sun poured over the damsel its yellow glories,
-presented her to the thoughtful gazer such as she might be when
-treading the celestial courts above.
-
-"And have you any other wish, my child?" said Noble, as he rose to go.
-
-"Yes, if it be not too foolish."
-
-"Tell it, my dear."
-
-"I would like some flowers from the May-pole strewn on my
-winding-sheet, and a bit of rosemary from your own garden put in my
-hands."
-
-"And you shall have them," said Noble, pressing her wan hand in his,
-and turning quick away.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. IV.
-
-    And if physitians in their art did see
-    In each disease there was some sparke divine,
-      Much more let us the hand of God confesse
-      In all these sufferings of our guiltinesse.
-                           _A Treatie of Warres._
-
-
-Night closed on Cheddar, without any other disturbance than a
-quarrel--loud and short as a thunder-storm--between the blacksmith and
-his old termagant wife, which, Roger being potent in liquor,
-terminated in a complete victory on his part; and thus silence, if not
-peace, was restored to the quarter in which he dwelt.
-
-Moreover, at the door of the Jolly Woodcutter, the most decent
-ale-house in the townlet, an old soldier with one leg, who tramped the
-country as a ballad-singer, with a fiddle and a dancing dog, became so
-very uproarious that it was found absolutely necessary by the parish
-constable to secure his one sturdy limb in the village stocks, where,
-after venting a few loud and angry curses at this dignitary, and
-abusing the village fiddlers for not playing the grand march of the
-king's beef-eaters to the right tune, he addressed himself to making
-as easy a sleeping posture as his wooden fetter would allow; and,
-being apparently very familiar with such a resting-place, soon
-grumbled off into snoring forgetfulness: his little four-footed
-companion and guard did meanwhile drag up the cloak, which he had
-dropped some yards from the place of his confinement, and, arranging
-it in a soft heap, curled itself thereon with an evident sense of
-comfort.
-
-But May-day festivals--though certainly in towns, and in those
-parishes in the rural districts where not conducted by discreet
-persons, they were often fruitful in scenes of riot and
-licentiousness--were not, in the present instance, chargeable with
-either of the noisy incidents which had for a half hour frighted the
-village from its propriety; seeing that the disputes of Roger and his
-rib were of every-day occurrence, and his potations also; and as for
-the old soldier, his drinking bouts were regulated by the state of
-that narrow poke in which he deposited his uncertain gains; and his
-sobriety was never secure while one coin remained in it.
-
-Our parson came forth at the first glimpse of day on the morrow, to
-inquire at the mill how the poor sufferer had passed the night. She
-was in a profound and calm sleep, and he returned thankfully home,
-taking the street which led by the market cross. Nobody was yet
-abroad; but, under the great tree in the market place, he saw the old
-soldier sitting up in the stocks, and looking about him very forlorn
-and penitential. No sooner did he perceive the good vicar approaching,
-than he began to plead for his freedom.
-
-"May it please your good reverence, make them loose me. I am not a
-pig, that I should be thus pounded:--never said or did harm to man or
-Christian, save only in the way of duty, your reverence. I am but a
-poor old toss-pike, done up in the wars; and gain an honest livelihood
-with this old kit and scraper, and this dumb creature, that shall
-dance you jig or coranto with any city madam of them all."
-
-"Why, I'll see what I can do; but you would not have been put here for
-nothing, friend."
-
-"Nothing in life, your reverence, but drinking the health of King
-Charles in a brimmer, last evening, that was May-day, and a court
-holyday all the world over; and then the wound in my old head always
-aches, Parson, and I say more nor I mean, and, may be, louder than
-your gentles talk."
-
-"Well, but this is a sorry way of life for an old soldier,--to go
-about like a vagabond. Have you no home?"
-
-"Home, bless you! none but this old bit of a cloak."
-
-"What parish were you born in?"
-
-"Ah! there it is! I was born i' the camp, in the Low Countries. That
-same day that the most noble Sir Philip Sidney was killed, my mother
-had a fright from a shot striking the sutler's waggon, and I came into
-the world a month before time."
-
-"And have you no friends living?"
-
-"None in the wide world that care a split straw whether I am above
-ground or under, this blessed day, save, may be, this little dumb
-thing that's used to me."
-
-"Where did you lose your leg?"
-
-"In the lines before St. Martin, your reverence: it will be thirteen
-years agone, come next September; and the right-worshipful knight, Sir
-Joseph Burroughs, was killed by the same shot. We used to say in
-hospital (you know, your reverence, we were vexed, and it was some of
-the officers, in their cups, spoke it out of a play-book,)--
-
-    "'Off with his head!--So much for Buckingham.'
-
-"Well, they had their wish, in a manner, a year after; and I always
-minded after, that Master Felton was one of them.--Poor fellow! He
-gave me four-pence in silver, when I hadn't a halfpenny to buy bread
-in London; and that same morning I saw his Grace of Buckingham in a
-sedan chair in Whitehall, and I would have tossed my staff before him,
-in hope of a largess; but his running footmen, with their fine silver
-badges, shouldered me into the gutter, crying, 'Room for his Grace!
-room for my Lord's Grace!' Well, it was little room he took or wanted
-that day was a month! I was very sorry for Master Felton,--and I went
-to see him hanged."
-
-"You know he was _a murderer_."
-
-"O yes, I know that; but he gave me four-pence when I was starving;
-and, though he was only a lieutenant, he was a better officer than
-Buckingham, who was all lace and velvet, satin and feathers:--a likely
-man to look upon, and did not want courage; but he knew no more about
-commanding an army than the court fool."
-
-"Don't you know, friend, that you must one day die yourself; and that
-it is a terrible thing to die and go before God without preparation?"
-
-The veteran gave his buff jerkin a twitch, and said, "Why, for the
-matter of that, Parson, you see, I am no scholar, and cannot tell a B
-from a bull's foot."
-
-"You believe in God?"
-
-"Why, Master, haven't I lain half my life abroad in the open fields,
-with the stars shining over my head? Ah, you don't know what grand
-things come into a poor fellow's mind when he wakes in the night and
-sees them bright things above him."
-
-"Yes, but I do," said Noble with emotion; "and it is because I do,
-that I ask you these things. Do you ever pray to God?"
-
-"Why, bless you, Master, I wouldn't trouble him about a poor chopstick
-like myself."
-
-"You know the name of Christ, friend?"
-
-"Yes," said the homeless wanderer, and bowed his grey head.
-
-"And what are your thoughts of him?"
-
-"Why that he'll be so good as to speak a word to God Almighty for me,"
-was the man's strange yet pregnant answer. It is this mixture of
-recklessness, ignorance, and the mysterious worship of that inner
-spirit, which struggles upwards after something to which the heart may
-reach, and where it may finally rest, that makes every human being a
-subject of sad yet of sublime contemplation;--a fellow, a brother, an
-immortal spirit, passing here below his brief time of sojourning, but
-born for eternity.
-
-Our good vicar was a true messenger of peace:--we need not say more
-than that this and all such opportunities were gladly improved by him.
-He sowed beside all waters. In the present instance the old soldier
-was speedily released, and taken up to the parsonage, and there, in
-the shady porch, he had a hearty breakfast; and when the little
-household assembled for prayer the wondering wayfarer was brought into
-the hall, and heard the more excellent way very plainly set before
-him,--and was then suffered to depart with bread in his wallet, and a
-parting word of solemn warning and brotherly kindness, as he set
-forward on his path, carrying with him the new thought and feeling,
-that, though he was a ballad singer and a sot, accustomed only to
-revilings, he had found a man of God, who had not passed him by, but
-had served him, and soothed him, and cared for his soul.
-
-Such a man and such a minister was our parson of Cheddar: he had been
-now resident in the parish for fifteen years. Hither he had then
-brought a sensible wife,--of many rare accomplishments, and of a solid
-piety. Three fine children then played in their garden: of these,
-their girl had been taken from them in her twelfth year; and their two
-boys, who had both attained the age of manhood, had quitted the
-paternal roof, and taken their respective paths in life. Cuthbert, the
-eldest, had been educated at Winchester College, had afterwards passed
-through his university course at Cambridge, and was now domiciled, as
-has been already seen, in the house of Sir Oliver Heywood, as a tutor.
-
-Martin, the youngest, had been five years at Westminster School as a
-day scholar, under the care, during that period, of one Mr. Philips, a
-worshipful and wealthy gentleman, of the most honourable company of
-Goldsmiths, and brother to the late Sir John Philips, knight, a very
-eminent merchant in the Levant trade, who, having made an unsuccessful
-speculation, and losing his whole venture, had taken the failure of
-his fortunes so much to heart, that he sickened and died soon after,
-leaving behind him one portionless daughter. This girl, while under
-the roof of her uncle, who was very considerably the junior of her
-father in age, was seen and admired by Noble, and had soon become his
-welcome prize.
-
-With this maternal uncle, Martin, at his own request, was placed, as
-soon as he quitted school, that he might be brought up in the same
-thriving business. He quickly became remarkable for his taste and
-skill in the art of design, and as a fine judge of precious stones, so
-that his uncle predicted for him great eminence and wealth in the line
-which he had chosen; but Martin chancing one day to wait upon Vandyck
-with an ornamental piece of plate which a nobleman presented to that
-great genius, and being questioned about the design, confessed, with
-some hesitation, that it was his own. Hereupon the painter broke out
-into praise so warm, and took such notice of the youth, that, to
-Martin, a painter did soon seem the highest style of man;--to be of
-this bright company was now the highest object of his ambition. He
-had a strong will; for this he rose early, and late took rest: and the
-bent of his inclination became so decided, and his promise of
-excellence so great, that his uncle, at the recommendation of Vandyck,
-determined to afford him the opportunity and advantage of visiting
-Italy, and pursuing his studies in the city of Rome. There, surrounded
-by the great models of the divine art to which he was devoted, daily
-extending his knowledge, and increasing his delight, Martin lived at
-once to labour and to enjoy.
-
-But the absence of these dear boys, though necessary, was severely
-felt by Noble and his wife; nor, in those days, were communications by
-letter of regular or frequent occurrence, even at home,--and of
-course, from abroad, very rare and most uncertain.
-
-The good vicar, though anxious about Martin's residence at Rome, was
-not wanting in true sympathy for his pursuits; having himself a taste
-for the arts, which he had improved by a leisure tour through Italy
-(before his marriage) as tutor and guardian to a young gentleman of
-large possessions in Oxfordshire.
-
-Nothing could be more retired than the life led by these childless
-parents at Cheddar.
-
-It is a large village, or townlet, situate at the foot of the Mendip
-Hills, in Somersetshire, and lying pleasantly sheltered on the
-south-west side of that bleak and naked chain. The noble tower of its
-fine old church is richly adorned with double buttresses, pinnacles,
-and pierced parapets, and in the open space, which forms the centre of
-its few irregular streets, is an ancient hexagonal market cross, where
-the wayfarer may find a shelter from the hot suns of July, or from the
-heavy rains of winter. The neighbourhood of Cheddar is romantic: it
-commands a fine view, in one direction, over a rich and extensive
-level; and it is immediately surrounded by rich, well-watered
-pastures, always verdant. Within a mile of the market cross before
-mentioned, on the road to Wells, there is a narrow, but a stupendous
-pass, or chasm, by which the chain of the lofty hills of Mendip is
-cleft, as it were, in sunder. The road winds through the bottom of
-this strange defile; the cliffs rise on either side--ragged, scarped,
-and terrific in their aspect--presenting, in many places, a sheer fall
-of four hundred feet. Nothing can more sublimely impress the spirit of
-a lonely traveller than the passage of this wild ravine, on a day of
-cloud, and gloom, and rushing winds. In the sunny calm of summer, when
-the wild pink, springing from the crevices of the rocks, adorns the
-scene with something of gentleness, it is still of uncommon grandeur.
-Black yews project from the larger fissures: here is a narrow ledge
-covered with verdure; there a thick mantle of ivy clothes the summit:
-here the mountain ash slants forward in its fantastic growth; while
-yet, in many places, the craggy front is naked and dazzling as a wall
-of stone.
-
-By this road, once a week, the quiet parson ambled on an old grey
-horse to the fair city of Wells to refresh and recreate his spirit at
-a private music meeting in the Close; nor did he ever omit on these
-occasions to pass one hour of joy and praise in its magnificent
-cathedral. Upon the breezy summits of the Mendip hills, which
-bordered this road, he spent many serene and healthful hours. His life
-was most even in its tenour; and the scenes around him, though daily
-before his eyes, were as dear to him, or more so, than when, first
-entering on residence, he had surveyed them with grateful rapture.
-
-Villages, however, like kingdoms, have their revolutions; and the
-chronicles of them are preserved in chimney-corners with more or less
-of fidelity, according to the interest of the events and the worth of
-the characters who figured in them.
-
-These rustic historians have a mode of reckoning very different from
-citizens. With prime ministers they have nought to do. Their
-government is nearer to them, and they have never wanted wit enough to
-know when that was good or evil. Over these rural communities the
-ruler has, from time immemorial, been the lord of the manor, or the
-chief franklin, or the parson of the parish. According as these
-personages were disposed to promote religion and happiness, or to look
-with indifference on vice and misery, the rustic population was
-contented and cheerful, (because industrious in their callings, and
-peaceable in their lives,) or they were sullen and profligate. Under
-the joint reign of Franklin Blount and Parson Noble the inhabitants of
-Cheddar had long dwelt together in comfort and harmony; but this is a
-world of change,--and many things in the aspect of public affairs, of
-which the villagers heard and heeded little, gave serious warning to
-the prescient mind of Noble, that trouble was near.
-
-He was so beloved and respected by his people, and so regarded and
-confided in by the worthy franklin, that he had hitherto been able to
-evade, counteract, or over-rule, for the good of his flock, those
-strange enactments which had been from time to time so inconsiderately
-imposed. That which enjoined him to _publish_ the Book of Sports on
-the Sabbath-day he totally disregarded. On this point he would have
-consented to deprivation rather than obey. Hence he became suspected,
-by some parsons of a very different stamp, for a puritan; and there
-were not wanting uncharitable surmises among these concerning the
-course which Master Noble would take in the hour of trial; not that
-those who really knew him well ever doubted of that course at all.
-
-But while these surmises were, as regarded himself, utterly devoid of
-foundation, it was asserted by some of his friends at Wells, the
-correctness of whose judgments and the charity of whose sentiments
-well accorded with his own, that his son Cuthbert had imbibed, from
-his late associates at Cambridge, a spirit of a very dangerous nature.
-Cuthbert had a large philanthropy, and a resolute courage to sustain
-and act out those promptings of benevolence which his love of freedom
-was continually urging upon his mind. Virtuous in his character,
-sanguine in his hopes, present evils he saw, and for present remedies
-he panted--but he looked not far on to consequences. A notion of his
-state of mind may be found in the letter which follows:--
-
-    "Most dear Father,
-
-     "You tell me in your last letter, which I have read over many
-     times with serious thought, that my mother wishes me to send
-     her a more particular account of this place and family, that
-     she may the better see my present courses with the eye of her
-     mind.--I will make a trial of my pen to set these matters in
-     some order before her--and, first, of this mansion: it is a
-     goodly fabric of stone, built by the father of the present
-     knight in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He, as you know,
-     exchanged some of his full money-bags for a fair estate in
-     land, and closed all his great and prosperous ventures in
-     commerce by a wise retirement to the noble pleasures of a
-     country life. A situation more pleasant than this of Milverton
-     you may not see in all the journey through these parts. The
-     house standeth on a fine swelling slope of verdant ground, and
-     is well sheltered by stately trees on three sides, but to the
-     front the prospect is open, and maketh the heart dance with
-     gladness, it is so full of delight. Looking to the south, you
-     see the towers of that famous castle of Guy of Warwick. This
-     castle is seated on a rock, very high, upon the river Avon, and
-     hath a look of strength and of great majesty; as seen against
-     the light of the distant sky--nothing can be more grand and
-     commanding;--also, from the middle of the good city of Warwick,
-     the fair pinnacles of the lofty tower of St. Mary's Church do
-     pierce the heaven, and she standeth like a crowned queen. I do
-     fear for her diadem, for they say that the embattled keep of
-     ancient Guy frowneth on our lady: but, turning the eyes from
-     these stately objects, which the intervening woods may not
-     conceal, directly below Milverton the river flows through a
-     fair valley of green pastures; and there cannot be, in all
-     England, a mill more pleasant to look upon and listen to than
-     Guy's mill: it standeth upon the farther bank of the Avon, over
-     which there is a foot-bridge of wood, very narrow, and long
-     enough to reach across a small meadow, which, when the waters
-     are out, is always flooded. Not far from this mill, to the
-     left, and upon the same bank, is an old decayed chapel, where I
-     have seen a rude statue of the renowned Guy, more than eight
-     feet in length; and near to this spot, close by the side of the
-     water, there is a cave in the rock, where, as a hermit, he
-     ended his days. But I will say no more of these places, of
-     which report may have reached you through the discourse of
-     others.
-
-     "Milverton House lacks nothing of furniture that money and good
-     taste may command. There is a profusion of very fine carved oak
-     in the hall and in the winter-parlour. In the latter, over the
-     fire-place, is a curious representation of the meeting of Jacob
-     and Esau; and inscribed above are the words, 'With my staff I
-     passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.' And in
-     the private chamber of Sir Oliver is another piece, in three
-     compartments, Jacob lying down alone in the Wilderness--the
-     Vision of the Ladder of Angels--and Jacob setting up his Pillar
-     of Remembrance.
-
-     "I name these things rather than the rich hangings and the
-     handsome carpets which cover some of the tables, and the ebony
-     cabinets, and the massy plate, because I know that they would
-     give more contentment to my pious mother than all the
-     costliness and bravery in the king's palace.
-
-     "In the small room appointed for me, there is a posy worked
-     upon a sampler, hung against the wall, that runneth thus:--
-
-    "What better bed than conscience good, to pass the night with sleep;
-    What better work than daily care, from sin thyself to keep."
-
-     And there is an engraved portrait of Luther, with the words 'In
-     silentio et in spe erit fortitudo vestra.' I cannot look upon
-     these things without being deeply reminded of those feeling
-     lectures of piety which the lips of my dear mother have read to
-     me from my very childhood; but, truth to say, my dear parents,
-     I feel an angel plucking me by the sleeve, and whispering in my
-     ear that my stay in this sweet abode will not be long. Sir
-     Oliver and Mistress Alice and Mistress Katharine entreat me
-     with that kind civility and favourable respect, which make my
-     days happy, and I find Master Arthur so docile and of such
-     lively parts that my office is never irksome.
-
-     "Nothing can be more orderly than the manner of life here; and
-     although the good knight is most hospitable, yet, as he doth
-     not use the exercise of hunting, and has no park, the visiters
-     are not many. He rides daily in the forenoon, and will
-     sometimes go to see the stag-hounds of Stoneleigh Abbey throw
-     off, with which pack he hunted for twenty years; but his chief
-     delight now is in the culture of his garden and orchards, and
-     of a vineyard, which he has laid out, at a great cost, on a
-     favourable site, one mile from the mansion. All the farms in
-     the village of Milverton are his, and his tenants are the sons
-     of those who held the land under his father; so that the hamlet
-     is but one large family, of which Sir Oliver is the head.
-
-     "Mistress Katharine, his daughter, rides constantly with her
-     father, except when she takes the diversion of hawking, or goes
-     out after the beagles with her young cousin, Arthur, who is as
-     high-spirited and active a youth in the field, as he is earnest
-     and persevering in the study. To see Mistress Katharine fly a
-     hawk is gladsome; and although I have, from boyhood, accounted
-     that sport cruel and unfeminine, yet, when I look on that
-     inspiring sight, I deem it so no longer; certain I am that her
-     mind did never once connect the thought of cruelty with a usage
-     so common. She, too, seems as eager to learn what my poor
-     scholarship can teach her as my own pupil; and if a tutor can
-     be happy, I am, in the privilege of reading with this noble
-     maiden, and seeing her fine countenance lighted up with the
-     love of wisdom and of truth.
-
-     "But this state of things is far too bright to last. When a man
-     dareth to think differently from those around him, he will soon
-     become an object of suspicion and prejudice. I feel that my
-     trial in this kind will assuredly come; for Sir Oliver, with
-     all his kindness, has so rooted a dislike to all change in the
-     established order of things, that a word against the undue
-     stretch of the king's authority, against the tyranny of the
-     starchamber, or those abuses in the state, which are manifest
-     to her best friends, would be enough to make his countenance
-     change towards me past recovery.
-
-     "Upon these subjects, you, my dear father, have written to me
-     with more earnestness and fear than I should have looked for.
-     You tell me that I see not the inevitable consequences which
-     must follow from the acting out of those opinions and
-     sentiments with which I am so captivated. I confess that I am
-     an ardent friend to civil and religious liberty. I desire to
-     see the laws administered without fear or favour; to see
-     taxation imposed by the Commons alone, and to see purity and
-     charity preaching from our pulpits and ministering at our
-     altars. You must not blame me: these were the desires that you
-     implanted, when you taught me the immutable and eternal
-     principles of justice, and when, both by lip and in your life,
-     you showed me how sacred was the character, and how hallowed
-     were the duties, of an ambassador for Christ. I look for
-     reformation in the state, and purification of the church. You,
-     perhaps, despair of either; and therefore you dread an ill
-     result to the patriotic and pure efforts which so many great
-     and good men are now making. Some of the best and wisest of my
-     college friends think with them. Of that number are my late
-     tutor and my late chamber-fellow, with both of whom you
-     expressed yourself so much delighted, when, during my last year
-     of residence, you visited Cambridge. I confess, frankly, that I
-     hold their sentiments, and entertain hopes of ultimate good to
-     my country as sanguine as theirs. The cause of liberty must
-     triumph.
-
-     "Your last letter gave but little hope of poor Fanny at the
-     mill: what a fair, cheerful, good girl she was. Martin will be
-     very sorry when he hears about her: if you remember, he was
-     always for dancing with Fanny on May-day.
-
-     "I am glad to hear that Bessy Blount is going to be married.
-     She will make Tom Hargood's farm as happy a home as any in
-     England. However, I will not talk about weddings,--the very
-     word makes me melancholy. I am just now preparing a short
-     masque, which we are to perform next week, in honour of Sir
-     Oliver's birth-day. I suppose Martin, as well as myself, has
-     very different notions of female beauty now to any we gathered
-     at Cheddar; though, I doubt, if we shall either of us become
-     the happier for our knowledge. Rosy cheeks and laughing eyes
-     are joyous and pleasant to look upon, but they seldom beget
-     cureless heart-aches, or plant the long-lived sorrow:--all this
-     is very idle. The love of country is the next best love to that
-     of God, and, after that, the most rewarding.
-
-     "I suppose that you will soon have a letter from Rome: no doubt
-     Martin is very happy among the galleries and studios of that
-     ancient city. I often wish that I could be transported there
-     for an hour, and see him, as he stands alone, before a
-     master-piece of Raphael, and sighs for the very fulness of his
-     admiration. Forget not to let me hear the earliest news of
-     Martin. I shall think of you all on May-day at old Blount's;
-     but, as the good old country customs are kept up here with
-     great spirit, shall have no leisure to grieve over my absence
-     from Cheddar, till night restores me to the solitude of my
-     chamber, and to that sacred companionship with you in prayer,
-     which I ever maintain.
-
-     "Your dutiful and loving son,
-     "CUTHBERT NOBLE.
-     "_Milverton, April 20, 1640._"
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. V.
-
-    Now winde they a recheat, the roused deer's knell,
-      And through the forrest all the beasts are aw'd;
-    Alarm'd by Eccho, Nature's sentinel,
-      Which shows that murd'rous man is come abroad.
-                                          _Gondibert._
-
-
-Early in the morning of the day after that on which the rehearsal at
-Milverton House was interrupted by the humiliating scene already
-recorded, Cuthbert sallied forth, while the first rays of the level
-sun were reflected back by glittering dewdrops; and brushing them with
-swift steps from his path, crossed the foot-bridge near Guy's mill,
-and was soon lost to view in the woods upon the far side of the Avon.
-The mill was already at work, but he lingered not to gaze upon the
-rushing waters. His eye glanced at the glad scene, and his ear drank
-in the living sound; but the prosy old miller was at his door, and his
-daughter stood on the stepping stones below, watching the white
-breasted ducks that played in the back current, therefore, with a
-short "good morrow," that waited for no reply, he passed onwards, for
-he was bound on an errand of mercy. Although the old body, Margery,
-had escaped the persecution of yesterday, there was good ground for
-fearing that it would be soon and more cruelly repeated, if she
-continued to dwell in her lonely and exposed hovel; and Cuthbert had
-found a poor bricklayer from Coventry, who was then employed in
-repairing the roof of an outhouse at Milverton, and who had witnessed
-the scene of the day before with a true Christian feeling, quite
-willing to give the old woman a lodging in the small house in the mean
-alley in which he dwelt, for such consideration as Cuthbert was
-willing to pay. With this proposal of shelter and security he sought
-the wood, in the bosom of which, beneath a sand-stone rock, in a
-forsaken pit, was poor Margery's desolate abode. From the rude clay
-chimney, in the blackened thatch, curled a blue wreath of smoke: he
-leaned against the rock above, and called to Margery, but there was
-no reply. He went down and entered the hut. Upon a low stretcher on a
-coarsely plaited mat of straw, dressed in the same rags in which she
-walked abroad, she lay fast asleep, and her breathing sounded soft as
-that of a child,--a raven with a clipped wing and club-foot hopped
-upon the floor, and croaked at the intrusion; but the sound, though
-loud, did not awaken her. "I will not fright away a sleep so
-friendly," thought Cuthbert: he went forth again, and seated himself
-beneath a stately oak at no great distance. In an open grassy glade
-not far off, in front, a few deer were feeding,--the scene around was
-peace and beauty,--trees, herbs, beasts of the field and fowls of the
-air were declaring the glory and praising the goodness of a present
-God. In silent rapture Cuthbert mused his praise; but adoration was
-succeeded by a sense of pain,--another scene, another image,
-interposed between the sunny objects before him and his mental vision.
-The stony desolation of Mount Calvary, and the black sky above, and
-the pale and holy forehead with its crown of thorns, came up startling
-and apparent, and reminded him that he was the inhabitant of a fallen
-world. This solemn turn being given to his thoughts, his mind
-reverted, with serious consideration, to the views of that party in
-the state which was already designated by the name of Puritans, and
-which had been hitherto, and but for the questions of civil liberty
-now widely agitated would still have been, a by-word and a reproach
-among the people. "It is true," said he, "a Christian must be a
-mourner--he cannot be other than a mourner; but yet, are we not
-graciously commanded to serve the Lord with gladness? is the
-countenance always to be sad? is there to be no rejoicing in the light
-of the sun? Where is the middle ground between these two great parties
-in church and state? Why is not a great and overwhelming majority of
-moderate men found there to defend the best interests of all?" The
-thoughts to which he thus gave utterance would have found a response
-in the bosoms of thousands--indeed they were the very sentiments of
-his own father; only that good man knew, what Cuthbert was as yet
-ignorant of,--a knowledge which he was soon to purchase at the heavy
-price of a most bitter and heart-breaking experience. He had yet to
-learn that, in times of public commotion, there is no middle path, and
-that a party does too often take the colour of the very worst persons
-among those who compose it. The cant of the fanatic and the curses of
-the cavaliers alike disgusted him. But yet he was of an age when men
-will be sanguine about having the world mended according to their
-desired pattern; and his heart glowed with the hope that the best men
-of the parliament side would in the end triumph over the cold and
-severe intolerance of the high church party, would control the power
-of the crown, and would effect great and glorious things for the
-liberty and the happiness of England. With these sentiments he had a
-very difficult card to play at Milverton, for Sir Oliver was a decided
-enemy to the party which he secretly approved; and some of the
-neighbouring gentlemen, holding the same opinions with the knight,
-gave a much coarser expression to them. He had to hold his mouth as
-with a bridle in their presence. Among these persons by far the most
-obnoxious was Sir Charles Lambert, a gentleman of about
-five-and-thirty, related to Sir Oliver, and residing within a few
-miles, at Bolton Grange, upon a fine property, with two younger
-sisters left dependent on him.
-
-He had been a great deal about the court formerly, and in his youth
-had been attached, for a few years, to the retinue of the late Duke of
-Buckingham. Not proving of a capacity for public affairs, he had been
-thrown back upon country life, without the true refinements of a
-courtier, but with all those vices and fopperies, which, in the train
-of Buckingham, it was not difficult to acquire. He covered with satin
-and musk a heart as brutal and savage as one of his own
-hounds,--resembling in nothing that generous and warm race of men the
-country gentlemen of England but in a fine person and in a passion for
-the chase. Nevertheless he did so conceal from Sir Oliver his true
-character, that he was always made welcome at Milverton. In such
-thoughts the mind of Cuthbert was tossed about as on a troubled sea;
-and from mere weariness he fell into a contemplation of the sweetness
-of nature, and the soft manner of her nursing, when we lie still and
-passive in her lap, and look upon her face. So long a time had he
-lingered in this green haunt, that the sun was three hours high; and
-the great clock of Warwick, striking seven, warned him to return home.
-Of the small herd in the open glade a few were still grazing,--others,
-and a noble hart among them, lay in perfect repose: but, suddenly,
-every neck was raised and turned--the ears stood erect--the nostrils
-distended and closed--the eyes dilated--and then, as by accord, they
-all stole slowly off to the rocky and difficult ground above them. He
-looked around, and could see nothing to alarm them; but, in the same
-instant, the blast of a distant hunting horn came up faint on the
-wind: the sound was again heard nearer; and the loud voice of dogs in
-concert, shrill yet deep, made the woods echo with notes that silenced
-every bird, and drove away all the panting creatures from their lairs.
-Yet was it a gallant sight--a sight to stir the blood--as within some
-twenty yards of the tree under which Cuthbert stood, the chase in
-full career swept by:--with antlers well thrown back, in its last
-staggering speed, came a blown stag, with a stanch hound so close upon
-its flank, you looked to see the fine creature torn down instantly;
-not far behind, two leash of dogs were hanging on its track, their
-mouths loud opening for prey:--with shouts of joy, and pace
-precipitate, the huntsmen followed,--a small but eager band on gallant
-steeds all foaming at the mouth, and stained with sweat. Swift as a
-vision of the night they passed, and from beyond a swell of ground in
-front a winding horn sent forth the well known mort. Cuthbert,
-naturally excited, ran to a knoll before him, which might command the
-country beyond. On the side of an open slope, at some considerable
-distance, he saw the last act of the death. The lifted knife, all red
-and reeking, was in the hand of a stranger of noble presence, by whose
-side stood Sir Charles Lambert. The lordly game lay stretched upon the
-ground, and near, with lolling tongues and panting sides, the hounds
-lay gasping as for life. The riders were all dismounted, and their
-horses, with drooping heads and their hind quarters sunk and
-contracted, stood stiff and motionless beside them. By the loud and
-exulting voices of the sportsmen you might know that the run had been
-severe; two or three lagging horsemen were seen coming up in their
-track; and by a cross path, just above the spot where the stag was
-killed, two foresters on foot burst down at the top of their speed,
-and joined the group that now more closely surrounded the noble game.
-The sound had brought out all the household at Milverton, from whence
-the slope was plainly to be seen. The boy Arthur, with some of the
-serving-men, ran down the pathway towards Guy's mill, while Cuthbert
-could discern Sir Oliver standing out on the terrace, and Mistress
-Katharine by his side, with a loose white kerchief thrown over her
-head, to keep off the rays of the sun, which were already powerful.
-
-The hunters now sounded the relief, and waved their caps towards
-Milverton; intimating, by that note and action, that they would claim
-the hospitality of the mansion; and then, leading their tired horses
-by the bridle, they proceeded thither by the mill. Cuthbert, unseen
-himself, watched all their motions; and when they had disappeared
-within the gates of Milverton, and all below and around him was again
-still, he turned, with a dead and jaded interest, towards the
-sand-pit. Upon the edge of it, near the rock, he saw the bent figure
-of Margery, as if in the act of listening; and as she raised her head,
-and observed him walking to the spot, she hastily disappeared below.
-
-He stepped quickly after her; but the door was already barred; and
-when he knocked and called to her, the hoarse croak of the raven was
-the sole reply. He rapped more loudly,--still the same voice of ill
-omen replied; but as he persisted, and said words to re-assure her,
-the door was slowly opened, and the withered tenant of the pit
-appeared.
-
-"Is it you, young master?" said Margery; "and are you alone, and is
-there no hunter with you?"
-
-"There is no one with me," he replied: "the hunters have gone over the
-river."
-
-"That's well, that's well, master: a hunting day, if the game takes
-this way, is ever an ill day with me. They that be cowards alone, are
-bold in merry company; and I have had a whip on my old shoulders, and
-the dogs hounded on me before now, if any thing crossed their sport.
-Three years ago, last fall, when his best hound, Bevis, was killed in
-the hollow yonder, nothing would serve the turn of Sir Charles but to
-float my poor old carcass across the river, and to weigh me against
-the church Bible! But he hath had many a sleepless night for that; and
-bold as he looks by day, the ticking of a death-watch will keep him
-shivering in his bed."
-
-"What do you mean, Margery? The folk may well think you a witch for
-words such as these."
-
-"Why, I mean," said the old woman wilfully and spitefully, "that I
-never wished ill to any one, but ill came upon 'em."
-
-"Had I thought this of you yesterday, I should have been slow to ask
-any one to give you house room; but you are God's creature, and have
-been crossed with ill usage; and when you find yourself beneath the
-roof of a Christian, safe from all enemies, your heart will melt, and
-you will taste God's peace yourself, and wish it to others. I have
-found a good man, that lives in Croft's Alley in Coventry, and he will
-give you a chamber and a chimney corner, and kind words, and a stout
-arm to protect you; and when we get you safe there your thoughts will
-be quiet."
-
-"Hout-tout! what talk ye about Alley and a chimney corner? haven't I
-my own ingle, and my own ways, and my own company? What voice more
-pleasant to me than those I heard when I was young, and hear still?
-What'll take better care of me than that old bird? Few there be that
-don't shun to pass close by this hut; and they that come to it step
-swiftly back again. I was told, with a curse, that I might not live
-any where else, many years ago; and here I shall stop till my old
-bones crumble."
-
-"Why, mother, why, you might starve here if you were taken ill, and
-none to help you."
-
-"Well, death is but death, let it come how it will."
-
-"But hunger is a bad death; and besides, are you not in constant
-danger of being taken up, and losing your life for a witch? Why, this
-bird that you keep, and your words and ways, will surely bring you to
-the stake one of these days."
-
-"Let the day come, if it is to come; and as to dying of hunger, where,
-think you, do the foxes die? and where do the birds of the air die?
-Why, they that escape the hounds die in their holes; and they that the
-bird-bolt misses find a dying place in some nest or corner. Go your
-way, young master! I am no tame rabbit, to be kept in a town hutch,
-and tormented by children. I don't want to be led to church, and hear
-the parson's jabber about my old soul."
-
-"Do not utter such wickedness, unhappy woman. It were charity to think
-you crazed, and take you into safe keeping against your will."
-
-At this the old woman gave a shriek of passion, fitful as that of a
-thwarted child, and then, suddenly overcome by fear, fell upon her
-aged knees, and lifted and joined her withered hands, and implored
-Cuthbert, with wild earnestness, never to have her moved.
-
-"Look you, young master, winter and summer, here I have watched and
-waked these many years. It's a small matter of meal that makes my
-porridge;--some give it for pity, and some give it for fear. There's
-no lack of rotten sticks to keep me warm: yonder spring is never dry;
-and it's free I am to go and to come, and nothing here to flout or to
-fret me: the deer and the kine take no count of me--the pretty
-creatures don't fear me; and it's not all the world calling me witch
-that will make them. That place is best we think best. Oh, for the
-love of God, master, let me alone--let me rot where I am."
-
-Cuthbert's mind was in an agony of prayer; but his tongue clave to the
-roof of his mouth. He would have said much; but he could speak
-nothing. He gave her alms; and telling her that he would do nothing
-against her will--nothing to make her unhappy, but that he would come
-and see her again--he raised her from her knees, and went upon his way
-homewards.
-
-"My father would not thus have left her," was his first thought. "He
-would have found some way to break into her heart. Strange
-world--strange thing this human life! This old solitary miserable has
-been wrapped in swaddling clothes, even as others--has been suckled at
-a human breast--has grasped, with tiny hand, a father's finger--and
-been kissed, and muched; and now, she has survived all kindred--lost
-all defence of strength or money--hath none of wisdom, and because her
-back is crooked, and nose and chin have come well nigh together, she
-has been hunted from her kind, and dwells apart. As God is love,--and
-that he is I cannot doubt and live,--this is a mystery! It's a skein
-so much entangled that my poor wit can not unwind it."
-
-Muttering to himself these wayward fancies, he hurried back to
-Milverton as to his heart's home. There he could see sunlight upon the
-earth, and feel warm in the comfort of it. Nor in his then mood was he
-sorry that the guest chambers would be full: he wished a day of
-cheerful cups, and pleasant voices, and music. Thus absorbed, he
-reached the mill, and passed it as swiftly as in the morning.
-
-"There he goes," said the old miller, speaking to his daughter, who
-was spreading out some linen to bleach--"There he goes, as shy as a
-hare, and as fast as if he were making for his form. I never gets a
-bit of chat with him. He's not much for company."
-
-"Why, father," replied the girl, coming upon the pathway, "he's a
-scholar, you know, and that's the fashion of them, you know."
-
-"Well, it's a bad fashion to go poking about the woods as lonesome as
-a stray mule; no good comes of those crazy fashions. I like an open
-face, and an open hand, and a free tongue."
-
-"Eh! he can talk fast enough, I'll warrant me, if he had a sweetheart
-to talk to."
-
-"He talk to a sweetheart! She must be a poor silly body that would
-listen. There are merry men and merry hearts enough in old England for
-the lasses to choose from, without giving ear to such as he."
-
-"Well, they give him kind words at the Hall,--and they say he's always
-more for good than harm; and I find him pleasant spoken enough when he
-comes to angle in the mill-pool."
-
-"There it is! I can never make him say a dozen words, black or white;
-now Parson Mullins will chat free for an hour on, and tosses you off a
-pot of ale with good words and good will. Why, he and I have smoked
-many a pipe together; and he's a clerk, and a rare scholar too. He
-doesn't give you ignorant stuff o' Sundays; but Latin, and Greek, and
-all the best that he has learned at college. That's the man for my
-money."
-
-"Well, father, for the matter o' that, I like to know what folk are
-saying; and it might be gipsy language for all you or I are the
-wiser."
-
-"I know where you got that lesson, Miss Pert; that's what the old
-Puritan pedlar said the other day,--rot him! he shall take seat on the
-old wive's ducking-stool if he comes this way again."
-
-"I am sure he was a quiet civil man; and you have not had a better
-piece of linen, or a cheaper, than he sold us, this many a year."
-
-"Hang his linen, and him too!" rejoined the sturdy old miller. "I
-didn't like the cut of his black head;" and with that he passed into
-the mill, and the girl went towards the dwelling.
-
-While this dialogue was passing, Cuthbert Noble was rapidly ascending
-the path, which rose gently over a swelling field of luxuriant grass,
-to Milverton. Certainly there was much about Cuthbert to excuse the
-prejudice of the miller. He was of low stature, with a long visage and
-grave aspect; and there was a peculiar expression of his eye, which
-disturbed or repelled those who saw him for a first time, or who saw
-him not at his ease; but to those whom, upon a nearer acquaintance,
-he liked, his dark eye beamed with light; the expression about his
-mouth was humane and gentle; his voice was low, and rather tremulous
-before strangers; he never laughed, and seldom smiled, save with his
-eyes, which gave quick and lively response to whatever pleased him.
-Though, in his first manhood, he was not without a knowledge of life
-and of the human heart, for his reading had been extensive; and he had
-that felicity of apprehension, by which the lessons of books are most
-happily caught, and most easily applied to the heart's daily wants.
-Moreover, he had all those graces of persuasion by which a pupil is
-best won upon and encouraged to climb the steep hill of fame. More
-happily placed he could not have been than in the family of Sir Oliver
-Heywood, but for one circumstance--he was too happy. A fear lay
-beating in his bosom. He dared not confess to himself the strange, yet
-deep, sentiments of admiration with which he regarded the daughter of
-the worthy knight. He would fain persuade himself that it was nothing
-but an emotion of gratitude to Mistress Katharine for that generous
-courtesy which would not suffer a scholar of gentle birth to want such
-attention and respect as she might delicately pay to him. Here,
-however, his wisdom was at fault. In vain had books taught him the
-misery of misplaced affections. He was launching out upon an unknown
-sea that has no shore.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. VI.
-
-    Some snakes must hiss, because they're born with stings.
-
-
-The table in Milverton Hall was already surrounded by the hungry
-guests; and a substantial old English breakfast, well suited to the
-appetites and the digestion of active and manly hunters, was spread
-before them. They were so busied over the cold joints and the venison
-pasties, or with the amber ale that foamed in silver tankards, as
-scarcely to notice the entrance of a latecomer, and therefore Cuthbert
-slipped into a vacant place at the bottom of the table, without other
-greeting than the good-humoured nod of a ruddy-looking young parson
-seated opposite, as he raised a tankard to his lips. There was little
-talk, save a few words about the sport, until having fairly finished
-their meal, the chairs were backed a little from the huge oaken table;
-the serving men lifted off the large dishes, still weighty with good
-fare, removed the trenchers, and having carried round the basin and
-ewer, large silver cups, filled with canary wine, prepared, after the
-fashion of the time, with sugar and with certain herbs, so as to make
-a delicious beverage in warm weather, were placed upon the table. The
-short grace "Benedicto benedicatur" having been uttered by George
-Juxon, the youthful rector alluded to, Sir Oliver took the massive cup
-which stood before himself, and intimating to Juxon to follow his
-example with the other, he rose, and giving for a toast, "His most
-gracious Majesty King Charles," took a small draught of it, and passed
-the cup to the noble looking gentleman who had been sitting on his
-right hand, and was then standing by his side. The toast passed round
-with an audible "God bless him!" from every guest, after the example
-of the loyal host.
-
-"Ah, Sir Philip," observed the worthy knight to the noble stranger
-near him, "we have fallen upon evil times; and it is grievous to think
-that there should be one house in all England where the health of his
-most sacred Majesty may no longer be duly drunk, as is becoming in
-all good and true subjects."
-
-"Yet, I fear," replied Sir Philip Arundel, "there are many in which
-the King's health is no longer a standing toast: unquestionably
-republican feelings and principles have made great progress among the
-burgher classes generally, and have infected not a few above them."
-
-"It is those sour-faced, canting rogues, the prick-eared,
-psalm-singing Puritans, that are doing all the mischief," said Sir
-Charles Lambert: "we want their ears, after the Turkish fashion,
-cropped by sacksful."
-
-"But it is not calling them names, or cutting off their ears," said
-George Juxon, "that will put them down; neither will all the water in
-your horse-ponds quench the fire in any of their bosoms."
-
-"Very likely; but there is nothing like trying what will stop them;
-and as sure as ever I catch any of the hypocritical rogues praying and
-singing near our parish they shall have a bellyful of muddy water, and
-a back-load of smart blows with whip or cudgel."
-
-There was an expression of most irrepressible disgust on the
-countenance of Cuthbert Noble as Sir Charles uttered this brutal
-speech; which Sir Charles observing, he turned quickly to Sir Oliver,
-and added, "These are times in which we should look well to all our
-housemates, for fear we should be fostering some of these godly
-knaves, who cover their false hearts with closed lips and demure
-faces, and may corrupt our children and our servants."
-
-"You mean me," said Cuthbert, starting on his feet with an energy
-which startled every one at table, and took Sir Charles so totally by
-surprise that he turned pale and livid, and seemed at a loss for
-words.
-
-"Sir Oliver," pursued the youthful tutor in a glow of indignation that
-overspread his cheeks, and made his eyes glance fire, "I have long and
-often endured the contemptuous and studied insults of your haughty
-kinsman on his visits here; and while they were only directed against
-me as a poor scholar and a dependant, it was well:--happy in your
-favour, and in the attachment and respect of the gentle young master,
-who is my pupil, I could afford to look down upon the dwarfish stature
-of so mean a mind; but when he would thus----"
-
-Before it was possible to arrest him, Sir Charles, who sat upon the
-same side of the table, had run behind him, and, ere he could turn,
-inflicted a deep wound in his back with a large hunting-knife. The
-young student fell, bathed in his blood, upon the floor; and all the
-household, already brought near to the door by the loudness of the
-voices, rushed into the hall. Nothing was more affecting than to see
-the terrified agony and loud sobs of the noble boy Arthur, who stood
-over his fainting tutor with tears, and would neither be comforted nor
-removed.
-
-George Juxon had instantly seized Sir Charles with an iron grasp. Sir
-Oliver was troubled, and scarce knew how to act; while Sir Philip
-Arundel, the most self-possessed of the party, desired the attendants
-to send swiftly to Warwick for a surgeon, and suggested to Sir Oliver
-that the aggressor should be committed to his charge, and that he
-would take him to his own home, and be responsible for his appearance
-to answer for the crime which he had just committed, when the charge
-should be preferred against him in due order. But George Juxon
-required that he should remain in custody at Milverton until it was
-ascertained whether the stab inflicted on Cuthbert might not prove
-fatal.
-
-The ladies of Milverton, who were absent, walking in the grounds, were
-happily spared this painful scene. To the exclamations of wonder,
-regret, and even condolence, with which Sir Charles was addressed by
-some others of the party, he answered nothing, but stood with lips
-closely compressed in sullen scorn and in a dogged silence.
-
-Juxon unhanded him, after Sir Philip promised that he should for the
-present be kept close guarded, and gave all his attention to Cuthbert,
-who was borne slowly and carefully up into his chamber, and his wound
-there bound up with a temporary dressing by Juxon himself, till proper
-assistance should arrive. This done, he left him for a while in the
-care of the servants, while he went down to aid in composing Sir
-Oliver and the ladies of the family.
-
-This young clergyman, who was a distant connection of the good bishop
-of the same name, the treasurer at that time of the King, was a good
-specimen of a particular class of richly beneficed clergy, not
-uncommon in his day. He was a ripe scholar, a kind, orthodox
-churchman, and a manly country gentleman. His habits were those of his
-time: they grew out of the circumstances of that period and the state
-of society in all country places; and he had seen his own pious and
-dignified relative hunt his own pack of beagles, without a thought
-that he was doing any thing more than taking a vigorous exercise,
-beneficial alike to the health of his body and his mind.
-
-Juxon was among, but above, sportsmen. He had a wealthy rectory, and
-lived hospitably with his equals, and charitably towards the poor. In
-the discharge of his parochial duties, he was sensible and serious: he
-valued books, and he had a due appreciation of genius.
-
-He had been of the hunting party this morning, and was thus a guest
-at Milverton, where he had long occasionally visited, and where, upon
-a former day, he had chanced to have rather a long and free
-conversation with Cuthbert, and, albeit widely different in their
-habits, had found common ground of interest in the subjects on which
-they talked, and they had parted well pleased with each other. Had
-they touched on politics, indeed, they would have differed; for Juxon
-was a most stanch supporter of the court party: through evil report
-and good report he stuck close to the crown; he wrote for it, spoke
-for it, and was ready to lay down his life in the defence of it; but
-he was of too large a mind to wonder at the opinions of those opposed
-to the government of the King; nor was he blind either to those abuses
-of the prerogative which had first awakened a spirit of resistance in
-men of undoubted worth and patriotism, nor to the grievous folly of
-those deplorable counsels, whereby the King had been induced or
-encouraged to force upon the proud and resolute Scots the discipline
-of a church to which they disclaimed allegiance.
-
-Again, he was of a generous spirit, detested persecution in any thing,
-especially in religion and matters of conscience, and had felt, with
-the Lord Falkland, in all the earlier stages of the present quarrel.
-Nevertheless, a decided and sincere attachment to the monarchy, an
-unshaken respect for the personal qualities of the King, and a
-devotion to the forms and to the spirit of that church in which he was
-baptized, suckled, and educated,--a devotion quite distinct from, and
-independent of, any feeling of self-interest, as an incumbent,--caused
-him to resolve upon his own course in the coming troubles with a
-cheerful firmness.
-
-These sentiments, if the conversation in the hall had not been so
-suddenly put an end to, would there have been elicited. He had not
-approved the outbreak and burst of indignation with which the
-sensitive and excited Cuthbert had so energetically appropriated the
-indirect, but mischievous, speech with which Sir Charles Lambert had
-sought to sow a suspicion of his tutor's integrity in the bosom of Sir
-Oliver; but he with his whole soul detested and abhorred the cowardly
-and bloody ferocity with which the haughty and maddened barbarian had
-resented the contemptuous expression of Cuthbert. There sprung up in
-his heart at that moment a warmth of interest for the youth, which
-never afterwards, in fortunes the most dark and divided, entirely died
-away. But to return to the actual present. He saw the ladies, who had
-but just returned from a walk to the vineyard, in company with Sir
-Oliver, in a remote corner of the garden, and immediately joined them.
-
-They were, as might be expected, very greatly troubled at the cruel
-occurrence, and pale with natural anxiety. Indeed there was an
-expression of concern upon the countenance of Mistress Katharine, so
-very deep, so profoundly sad, that even amid the sorrowful
-perplexities of the moment it glanced across the mind of Juxon, that,
-in one or other of the parties in this business, her own heart was
-most closely interested, and he thought that he had never before seen
-human beauty with such a divine aspect. At the readily adopted
-suggestion of Katharine, her aunt Alice would have proceeded
-instantly to the chamber of the sufferer, to render him any service in
-her power; but Juxon requested of her not to do so, and recommended
-that the ladies should keep themselves quiet and apart until the
-surgeon arrived, and the gentlemen now in the mansion should have
-departed. Observing, too, the extreme perplexity of Sir Oliver, who
-had been and still was exceedingly agitated by this strange event, he
-entreated him to remain with them, and to keep himself calm and quiet
-for the present; assuring him that every thing which he could suppose
-him to wish in the present distress should be properly done, and that
-he would certainly not leave Milverton himself while he could hope to
-render the slightest service to Sir Oliver in this difficulty. There
-was an earnestness of manner about Juxon, and at the same time such a
-quiet tone of internal confidence in the resources of his own
-judgment, that they all submitted to his guidance; and Sir Oliver was
-greatly comforted and strengthened by the thought that so wise and
-judicious a friend was near him in his necessity.
-
-The boy Arthur was watching and walking forwards on the Warwick road,
-as if his doing so could hasten the coming of assistance, and was in
-all that confusion of the troubled spirits which keeps the young heart
-throbbing with fear.
-
-In the library Sir Charles Lambert sat with folded arms and a lowering
-brow, while Sir Philip Arundel stood, looking from the window with a
-countenance simply expressive of cold annoyance.
-
-Of the half dozen gentlemen, who were still grouped in the hall, one,
-after observing, that "All's well that ends well,--and, perhaps, after
-all, the young man's hurt might not prove dangerous, and that he
-always hoped for the best,"--stole his hand across quietly to the wine
-cup, and took a very copious draught; another remarked, that he must
-say "the young man was very irritating;" a third wanted to know what
-was the use of their remaining there, and said he wanted to go home;
-while a fourth said, "One was a brute, and the other a fool: that he
-cared nothing for one, and knew nothing of the other."
-
-But two gentlemen of a more thoughtful cast walked the hall in low and
-serious discourse, apprehensive by their words that the injury would
-prove fatal to Cuthbert; and resolving that so fierce an action as
-that of Sir Charles should not pass unpunished. These were friends and
-neighbours of George Juxon; and expressed themselves well pleased
-that, for the sake of Sir Oliver and his family, so useful and kind a
-person chanced to be at Milverton under the present circumstances.
-
-At last the long expected surgeon arrived with the messenger who had
-been sent for him, both having used all diligent expedition. He was
-introduced into the chamber of the patient by Juxon, and immediately
-proceeded to examine the wound. At the first sight he shook his head,
-and said to himself, in a very quick, low tone of voice, "The wonder
-is, that he is yet alive;" but on questioning Cuthbert as to his
-feelings, and finding some of the expected symptoms absent, and on
-very carefully applying the probe, he cheerfully exclaimed, "There is
-good hope of you, young master: there is no man living could pass a
-sword where this blade has passed without injuring a vital part, if he
-were to try; but a good angel hath had the guiding of this one. If it
-please God to bless my skill, you shall do well; but it will be a slow
-case, and a tedious time before you will be fairly on your legs
-again."
-
-"God's will be done," said Cuthbert, "for life or for death."
-
-"If that is your mind," rejoined the surgeon, "my care will be well
-helped, and your cure the easier."
-
-After cleaning and dressing the wound, and giving particular
-directions as to diet broths, and writing a prescription for the
-necessary medicines to produce composure and sleep, he took his
-departure, promising an early visit on the morrow.
-
-The favourable opinion thus given of Cuthbert's wound was quickly made
-known throughout the mansion, and received as welcome by all;
-operating upon each according to their personal characters, and to the
-interest which they had felt in the issue of the violent deed which
-had stained the hospitable hall of Milverton. Sir Charles Lambert,
-indeed, but for the inconvenience and danger to himself, would have
-preferred the more tragical event. As it was, when Sir Philip Arundel
-returned from the gallery to the library, to announce to him that
-Cuthbert was considered in no present danger, he uttered no word
-beyond his wish instantly to return home.
-
-"You are surely thankful," said Sir Philip, "that this unpleasant
-affair has ended so much better than was feared. If you will not go
-and say so to the bleeding youth, which perhaps might just now too
-much disturb him, you will at least offer some words of atonement to
-your elderly relative, Sir Oliver, for the outrage done under his
-roof, and to a youth under his protection; a deed to be only excused
-by pleading that your anger transported you into a paroxysm of
-madness."
-
-"I shall go home," said Sir Charles: "are you ready?"
-
-"I will never, sir, again cross your threshold: you are no English
-knight--you are not even a man. I shall send orders to my grooms to
-follow me on my road home."
-
-These words were swallowed by the same man who would have taken a life
-that same morning for a look of contempt; and with a white cheek, on
-which passion literally trembled, Sir Charles hurried to the
-court-yard, called for his horse, mounted, and dashing spurs into his
-sides, rode violently away--hatred in his own heart, and contempt
-pursuing him. In succession all the guests took their departure,
-except George Juxon, whom Sir Oliver requested to continue with him
-till the morrow; and who, more for the sake of the patient than of the
-family, assented. He was not sorry that Sir Charles had departed in
-the manner and in the temper described, nor did he care now to have
-his person secured; for his offence, though grave as it yet stood, was
-not of a nature that in those days subjected to imprisonment any one
-who could find bail for his future appearance: and in the present case
-it was clear that Cuthbert would never prosecute a relation (albeit
-base and unworthy), yet a relation of Sir Oliver Heywood.
-
-The good knight, though a kind man, a fond father, and an easy master,
-having walked through life upon a path of velvet as smooth as his own
-lawn, was sadly discomposed by this visitation of care; and the very
-trouble and irregularity that was caused by it was felt by the old
-gentleman in many ways that he dared not confess to others, and was
-ashamed to acknowledge to himself. A great weight, indeed, was taken
-from his mind by the assurance of Cuthbert's safety; for he was
-humane, and he liked the youth: but he had private reasons for a deep
-regret at the conduct of Sir Charles Lambert, and the interruption to
-their intercourse which would of necessity ensue, and almost wished
-that he had parted with his young tutor immediately after that
-discovery of his political leanings which he had himself not many
-days ago so frankly made.
-
-However, what had now befallen Cuthbert beneath Sir Oliver's own roof,
-and by the hand of his own relative, gave him new and increased claims
-upon the knight's protection and kindness, and there could be no
-further thought of their separating now till a distant period. The day
-wore rapidly away, and by the hour of supper some appearance of order
-was again restored to a mansion, in which every thing usually
-proceeded with the regularity of clockwork.
-
-An intermitted dinner was an occurrence of which there was no previous
-memory or record in the recollection of the oldest servant on the
-establishment. Among the minor circumstances, and not the least
-affecting to the manly mind of Juxon, was a little dialogue which he
-overheard between the little girl Lily and the boy Arthur, the child
-being unable to comprehend the fact of one man cutting another man
-with a knife on purpose to hurt him. The true nature of the atrocious
-action of course no one cared to explain to the little innocent: but
-she had learned from the servants that Master Cuthbert was run through
-with a knife by Sir Charles Lambert; and she had come to cousin
-Arthur, in a grave and pretty wonder, to know what they could mean.
-
-The next day, being the birthday of Sir Oliver, was that on which the
-masque in preparation was to have been represented before a party of
-the neighbouring gentry, who had been specially invited to celebrate
-that annual feast in the good old hall of Milverton. Of so pleasant a
-holyday there could now be no further thought; and the May-day
-festival which was to follow the day after, though of course the
-villagers would have their dance according to the immemorial custom,
-would lose half its gaiety and spirit by the absence of the family
-from the manor house, and especially of the gentle and sweet Mistress
-Katharine, whose words and ways had won for her all the hearts in
-Milverton, and for miles round.
-
-It was an evening memorable in the life of Juxon, that in which he
-first sat down at table with the small family circle of the
-Heywoods;--in which he looked upon the majestic forehead of
-Katharine,--marked the gentle fire of her dark eyes, and the
-expression of all that is sweet and engaging in humanity about a mouth
-where her noble qualities were most fairly written.
-
-After the grave and laudable custom of those good old times, the
-evening service from the Book of Common Prayer was invariably read to
-the assembled households of the country gentlemen. The office of
-reading prayers was usually in the absence of a clergyman performed by
-Sir Oliver himself as the priest of his own family, or at times he
-deputed Cuthbert to supply his place. The duty this evening was
-performed by Juxon in a solemn, feeling, impressive manner; and when
-it was concluded, and the family retired, he hastened to the chamber
-of Cuthbert, and finding that the composing draught had taken kind
-effect, and that he was dropping off into a comforting sleep, withdrew
-again with as soft a step as he had entered, and, exhausted with the
-fatigues and the painful excitements of the day's adventures, he
-repaired to his own room, and thankfully lay down to rest. As he was
-extinguishing the lamp, his eye read the posy on the wall; and he
-could not but feel a sweet pleasure to be reposing in such a mansion,
-and with such a family:--
-
-    "Would'st have a friend, would'st know what friend is best?
-    Have God thy friend, who passeth all the rest."
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. VII.
-
-    Love is a kind of superstition,
-    Which fears the idol which itself hath framed.
-                              SIR THOMAS OVERBURY.
-
-
-Cuthbert was awakened at midnight by pain:--the glimmer of the night
-lamp in the little room adjoining cast a dim light into the chamber
-where he lay; and the breathing of the aged female servant, who sat
-there in watch, told him that she had been overcome by sleep. He cared
-not to disturb her, and made an effort to reach the cup of water on
-the little table by his side, but he found that he was no longer equal
-to the slightest exertion--he could not even change his posture. He
-endured his thirst, and tried to collect his thoughts, and gather up
-all that had passed in the hall, but he could not: he was dizzy with
-the sense of having been pushed to the very brink of eternity, and
-snatched back again. A gleam shone upon the portrait of Luther which
-hung opposite. "Though he slay me yet will I trust him," was now his
-own whispered act of confidence in God, and he lay passive, silent,
-and hopeful. Not only was he heavily oppressed with bodily anguish,
-but his mind, after undue excitement, and proportionate depression and
-exhaustion, had sunk into a state of torpor. At the moment when Sir
-Charles Lambert made the insidious speech to Sir Oliver, which
-Cuthbert truly discerned to be aimed at his suspected principles, and
-still more basely at a supposed line of conduct which he had far too
-high a sense of integrity to pursue.
-
-At that moment it seemed to him as if it was but fair and honourable
-to make open avowal of his true sentiments; but in the same quick
-glance of the mind he saw the first bitter and inevitable consequence.
-He must quit Milverton immediately, and for ever. Sir Oliver could no
-longer have retained in his family a man openly admiring the cause
-and the course of that party in the kingdom which opposed the crown.
-
-The collision in his mind of this fear of separation from so much that
-he loved, and of the honest impulse to do what was right, begat a
-momentary desperation; and thus it was, that he rose upon that
-occasion with so unbecoming a want of calmness, and that he was about
-to preface his statement by exhibiting his unmeasured scorn for the
-base assailant of his character, but the too sure destroyer of his
-present happiness.
-
-By the strange and bloody interruption of his purpose, the avowal of
-his political opinions was checked: his expression of contempt for Sir
-Charles had found utterance, and had been followed by a consequence,
-carrying with it, indeed, a severe rod of rebuke to himself for his
-rashness, but punishment in a tenfold degree more insupportable to his
-proud and brutal enemy; and, as a crowning consolation to Cuthbert,
-his sojourn beneath the blessed roof of Milverton was at least, for
-very many weeks to come, perfectly secure. He had felt no sorrow when
-he heard the surgeon pronounce his case as one that would be
-tedious--and that it must be long before he could be safely moved.
-
-He would have had a stronger reason for joy and thankfulness, could he
-have known that he had been the cause of producing such a developement
-of the fierce and cruel temper of Sir Charles Lambert as saved
-Katharine Heywood, if not from actually accepting him as a husband, to
-which she would never have consented, at least from all the present
-persecution of his attentions, as well as from all expression of the
-blind but yet obstinate wishes of her otherwise indulgent father.
-
-As Katharine lay wakeful on her pillow, believing and hoping that the
-life of Cuthbert would be spared, and no permanent injury would affect
-his future health or usefulness, she could not regret the occurrence
-of the morning.
-
-Certainly she would have died rather than have gone to the altar with
-Sir Charles, but she would have remained continually exposed to his
-selfish addresses; and this match having been the favourite plan of
-her father from her earliest girlhood would have been perpetually
-urged upon her by him in those many indirect and distressing ways in
-which affectionate and obedient children are sometimes long and
-ungenerously tormented by covetous or ambitious parents.
-
-One thing, when she first heard of the catastrophe, found a brief
-admission into her mind, and till she was made fully acquainted both
-by her father and by Juxon of all that had passed, and of the words
-which had been uttered at the time, was not entirely dismissed. This
-was no less than a fear, faint, indeed, and most reluctantly viewed as
-possible, that the quarrel might have arisen out of some feelings on
-both sides connected with herself. Nothing was farther removed from
-the true dignity of her noble character than the desire of making an
-impression upon any one; and it would have very seriously pained her,
-if those kind attentions, by which she had sought to make Cuthbert at
-home in the family, should have given birth in his breast to any
-warmer sentiment than that of respectful friendship.
-
-Her humility and her modesty were so genuine that she was quite
-unconscious of her own personal attractions, and, though alive to the
-beauty of many of her female friends, she regarded it as a quality so
-inferior, and secondary in its power of interesting the heart, or
-winning the homage of the mind, as to give little advantage to its
-possessor in the daily intercourse of society. This opinion being in
-her sincere and rooted, her charms were worn with a grace and ease so
-natural, that her influence over all who came within their sweet and
-magic circle was irresistible.
-
-This being her character, it was a great relief to her to be persuaded
-that there was not the slightest ground for the apprehensions, which
-she had slowly admitted. She was now surprised at herself for having
-entertained them even for a moment. She saw in the conduct of Cuthbert
-nothing more than a burst of human pride irritated into violence by
-the haughty insults of a worthless superior. Thus all her suspicions
-of the truth were lulled to sleep; and to alleviate the sufferings of
-Cuthbert during his confinement, and to cheer his convalescence when
-the hour of it should arrive, was to her plain judgment a simple and a
-pleasing duty.
-
-Sir Oliver himself passed a weary and feverish night,--all things
-seemed out of joint: one of his most favourite schemes was
-broken,--and his prospects of a peaceful and indolent old age, under
-the shadow of his own trees, were somewhat shaken. The trumpet of war
-had not, indeed, as yet sounded in the heart of England, though
-English blood had been already spilled freely on the borders. The few
-tall yeomen, with their goodly steeds, sent by himself to join the
-King's forces in the north, had marched fast and far only to meet an
-early end, and to swell the loss and the discredit of the ridiculous
-expedition against the Scots. With Sir Charles Lambert for a
-son-in-law, he would have felt better able to meet and take share in
-the coming troubles; and he reflected on the difficulties before him
-with dismay. Of battle or of death he had no fear,--though at his time
-of life, and with his habits, it was small service beyond that of a
-ready example of devotion which he could render in a camp; but when he
-thought of Katharine, and of Arthur in his boyhood, and of his aged
-sister, his household presented but a defenceless aspect. However,
-after the scene of yesterday, he could not ever directly encourage any
-future addresses of Sir Charles to his daughter; and it could not but
-suggest itself plainly to his own mind, as a gentlemen of a true
-English spirit, as far as personal bravery was concerned, that little
-dependence could be placed upon the courage or firmness of a man
-capable of the cruel and dastardly assault which he had yesterday
-witnessed. He had yet to learn the moral energies and the latent
-heroism of his noble daughter, and to discover the strength and the
-wisdom of a woman's mind, when the love of father and of country guide
-it in the path of duty and of honour. Some time was to elapse before
-the days of trial; and, indulging that love of ease which was habitual
-to him, he strove to stifle or put away from him the unwelcome
-conviction that come they must, and could not be averted. Therefore
-it was with no common sense of comfort, that, when he came forth into
-the gallery the next morning, he found Katharine, and his sister, and
-Arthur, already there, waiting to receive him with the kisses of fond
-congratulation, and saw his own portrait and that of his departed
-wife, who had been to him as an angel gently leading him for good, and
-ever watchful to guard him from error, framed, as it were, with choice
-and dewy flowers. He gazed at the portrait of his wife and then at
-Katharine, alternately, and was melted into a gush of grateful
-tenderness. All fears, difficulties, and troubles seemed to vanish in
-a present feeling of thankfulness and delight. He went instantly on to
-the chamber of Cuthbert: Juxon had been there from an early hour, and
-the surgeon was engaged at the moment in dressing his wound.
-
-The sight of the amiable young man, lying pale and helpless, bandaged
-and in pain, greatly moved Sir Oliver. He took Cuthbert by the hand,
-and spoke to him in that warm and feeling language of condolence which
-is balm to a sufferer's mind. The benevolent surgeon took a lively
-interest in his patient, and spoke most confidently of effecting a
-complete cure,--although he repeated, that the case would prove very
-tedious, and many weeks must elapse before he could be permitted, or
-indeed be able, to quit the recumbent posture. He gave directions that
-he should be kept particularly quiet in his actual state, and not be
-spoken with or disturbed throughout the day, except to give him
-necessary refreshment or medicine.
-
-At the earnest invitation of Sir Oliver, Juxon consented to remain at
-Milverton till the evening. The day passed pleasantly away. The worthy
-knight recovered his usual spirits; Mistress Alice her composure; and
-Katharine Heywood, having much secret content and thankfulness at
-heart, looked like some gracious angel of peace and goodness.
-
-It was a day of bliss to Juxon:--one never forgotten, but marked white
-for ever. He was one of those men who felt a reverence and tenderness
-for woman; and, whenever he addressed them, his eyes, his voice, his
-whole manner plainly manifested respect. He expected in the female
-character gentleness, purity, and charity; and yet, by some strange
-inconsistency, he shunned the society of women, was seldom to be seen
-in those gay and glittering circles where they shone, and where he
-might have been soon disenchanted of his cherished illusions.
-
-His residence in a sequestered parish in the country afforded him few
-opportunities of visiting where ladies were to be met; and being fond
-of all sports and manly exercises, and so ripe a scholar as to find
-study and the chase a pleasant relief to each other, he had not as yet
-been careful to seek opportunities of increasing his female
-acquaintance.
-
-Whatever there was of silent and maidenly reserve in sweet Katharine
-herself towards common strangers, and upon ordinary occasions,
-vanished at a time like this, in the presence of so manly, so modest,
-and so frank a man as George Juxon. As the family sat that day at
-table, not a shade of embarrassment was visible in any of the
-party:--Sir Oliver was in high good humour; the boy Arthur looked at
-their guest with those honest eyes which, in boyhood, fear not to
-show either like or dislike; and the little girl Lily, permitted that
-day to dine in the hall, sat without shyness opposite to Juxon, and
-shunned not his smile or his word of notice.
-
-The day wore on:--he walked with the ladies upon the verdant and
-velvet paths in the flower garden,--he paced the terrace with Sir
-Oliver,--and his presence was felt by them all as a strength and a
-comfort.
-
-The shade upon the dial had stole silently, but swiftly, forwards, and
-touched upon seven in the evening, when he ran up to the chamber of
-Cuthbert to press his hand at parting; and having afterwards said his
-farewell to the ladies on the lawn, he descended to the court-yard,
-accompanied by Sir Oliver and the boy Arthur, mounted the gallant roan
-gelding upon which he had hunted his way down on the morning of
-yesterday, and again shaking the hand of his host, and accepting a
-warm invitation to repeat his visit soon and often, George Juxon rode
-out of the gates at Milverton with a very new and strange feeling.
-
-The free animal, on which he rode, was impatiently checked as often as
-it broke from the measured walk at which it was now the pleasure of
-his master to travel homewards; and, whatever might be the cause, he
-was not allowed to perform in less than two hours a distance to be
-very easily accomplished within one. The reverie of Juxon was unbroken
-during the whole ride. The evening was mild, and the hedgerows were
-green, and the air was perfumed here with the scent of violets, there
-with the fragrance of cottage gardens or blushing orchards, and upon
-the woody or open parts of the road with the rich incense of the
-fresh-blown May.
-
-The news of Sir Charles Lambert's violence had reached his parsonage
-before him; and in the stone porch his old housekeeper met him as soon
-as he had dismounted, with as much anxiety as if he had narrowly
-escaped murder himself. The good old body, with that genuine
-philanthropy of feeling which is as natural as their breathing to
-kindly natures, learned the safety of Cuthbert, whom she had never
-seen or heard of before, with a lively expression of motherly joy;
-and Juxon was roused to remember how very narrowly the youth had
-missed an early and melancholy fate. Truth to say, so much of pleasure
-had grown up within these two days from the very circumstances arising
-out of the assault on Cuthbert, for her young master now to dwell on,
-and there seemed to open before him so pleasant a prospect in future
-intercourse with the family at Milverton, that, perhaps, he hardly
-felt enough for the present sufferings of the unfortunate patient.
-
-His thoughts, however, were soon diverted from Milverton, and from
-himself, by the entrance of his old gardener, to say the May-crown,
-which was kept in the summer-house, had been taken away, and that he
-had found a written paper on the shelf where it stood. This the old
-man handed to his master, saying he could not read it, but guessed it
-boded no good for the coming holyday, and that he had been gathering
-flowers to dress out the old May-pole to little purpose. George Juxon
-took the paper, upon which, in a stiff, quaint hand, were written
-these lines:--
-
-    "This head in a crown, and that without ears,
-    Is the pleasure of prelates, of courtiers, and peers.
-    Dance, revel, and sing, ye butterflies gay;
-    The time is at hand you shall weep, fast, and pray.
-    One holdeth the war-dogs, all ready to slip;
-    Pleasure's cup shall be spilled, and dashed from the lip.
-    To me is committed this message of woe:
-    The tears of the proud ones unpitied shall flow."
-
-He no sooner read it, than, quitting his supper, he went out into the
-village to ascertain if any copy of it had been left at any other
-place; and found, to his vexation, that one had been fastened to the
-May-pole, and had been taken down and read to half the people.
-Determined, however, that the customary sports should be neither
-hindered nor damped, he took home with him the village carpenter, set
-fairly to work, and in two hours, by the aid of lath, and pasteboard,
-and Dutch gilding, they finished off a crown far more splendid than
-the one stolen; and he wrote underneath it, with prompt good humour,--
-
-    "The preacher hath said it--For all things a time--
-    For fasting, for feasting, for dancing, for rhyme:--
-    No rhymes without reason shall hinder our pleasure;
-    We'll crown the old May-pole, and tread the old measure."
-
-This done, he again thought of Cuthbert's bed of suffering, and
-remembered him in his prayers. This little cross occurrence in his
-parish neither drove away his own sleep for a second nor delayed on
-the morrow the sports of his parishioners. Here, as in many other
-places, the popular and wise course of the minister preserved a good
-and happy understanding among the people. There is no social state
-more truly desirable than that of a well-ordered village population,
-where the miseries of the lane and the alley cannot reach; labour is
-performed in the open air; festivals are days of thanksgiving, danced
-through upon a green sward, to the nodding heads of merry musicians;
-and they see no crowns but such as are woven with roses for their
-May-queen, and know no sceptre but a white wand wreathed about with
-fragrant flowers.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. VIII.
-
-    Though their voices lower be,
-    Streams have, too, their melody;
-    Night and day they warbling run,
-    Never pause, but still sing on.
-                      GEORGE HICKES.
-
-
-For three summer months Cuthbert Noble was confined to a couch; and
-though latterly he was led forth into the garden, and suffered to lie
-down on a bench in the shade, yet his confinement had been lonely as
-well as tedious. No kindness on the part of any of the family was
-wanting: whatever could be thought of for his convenience and comfort
-was provided. While he was obliged to keep his own chamber, he was
-visited daily by Sir Oliver; Mistress Alice and Katharine looked in
-upon him together, and inquired gently concerning his pain; the boy
-Arthur would often forego his play in the garden, or his practice in
-archery, to sit and read to him; and not a week passed without a
-friendly and cheerful visit from George Juxon. Nevertheless, he was
-evidently dejected; and while he was grateful for all these
-attentions, nothing, it was observed, could effectually rouse his
-spirits to cheerfulness, although he repaid, by anxious words and
-quiet smiles, the least service which was done him. About the trouble
-which he unavoidably gave the servants, who, for their parts, were
-ever ready to oblige him, he was scrupulous even to anxiety. He seemed
-to pine after liberty--and would sit, for hours together, lost in deep
-thought, or in vacant sadness. It so happened that the clergyman of
-Milverton, whose manners were coarse, and whose morals were low, did
-not visit at the Hall. Although originally appointed by Sir Oliver, at
-the request of a friend, who, acquainted with his family, had taken
-little care to inquire more particularly into his character, he had
-early quarrelled with his patron, and preferred the freedom of an ale
-bench to the restraints of good society. This was unfortunate for
-Cuthbert; as a learned and religious clergyman, residing in the
-village, and intimate at the hall, might have kept him straight in
-the plain path of the true churchman. Now, though Juxon, had he been
-aware of all that was passing in the mind of Cuthbert, might have been
-truly serviceable in disabusing him of some strong prejudices, yet, as
-he presumed him to be a true son of the church, the subject was seldom
-named.
-
-He came to cheer and amuse him if he could; and the very atmosphere of
-Milverton Hall was that of purity and delight to George Juxon. His
-summer months presented a strange contrast to those of Cuthbert. He
-gave up his buck-hunting in the afternoons: he could not abide the
-rude and noisy companions of that sport of which he had been always so
-fond; and now he might be seen, day after day, in the guise of an
-angler, on the grassy margin of a silver stream, or, not unfrequently,
-stretched at his length beneath a shady tree near the bank, or sitting
-under a high honeysuckle hedge; and if he were not chewing his own
-sweet fancies, some book in his hand, of good old-fashioned poetry, to
-aid his pleasant meditations. George Juxon was now a lover--without
-melancholy, I do not say,--but only with so much of it as is ever
-welcome to a lover's mood, and gives a dignity to his passion.
-Nevertheless, his hope was unavowed; nor was he in haste: a long
-courtship was the fashion of those days; and a mistress seemed raised
-in the fancy of her admirer, by the thought that she must be slowly
-approached, and would be slowly won.
-
-His family, his private fortune, his present provision in the church,
-and his future prospects from the favour of the bishop, were such,
-that Sir Oliver could not object to him as a suitor for his daughter,
-though he might give the preference to another; and certainly, with
-her father, the title of a baronet would have outweighed that of a
-dean. However, these circumstances could only encourage him in his
-more sanguine moments, for Juxon was a modest man; and when he called
-up the image of Katharine in his walks, and thought upon a certain
-majesty in her countenance, and how serene and unmoved she was, how
-unsuspicious of the admiration which she excited, he could not but
-fear that she might prove indifferent to the suit of one so plain and
-unvarnished as himself, and that she would never entertain his
-addresses. Therefore it was that he nursed his love in secret, and
-patiently restrained all expression of particular regard for Mistress
-Katharine in his present visits to Milverton. How pleasant, in the
-mean time, were all those visits; how swiftly he rode through lane and
-wood, across field or common, as he went from home on those permitted
-errands of friendship; and at what a slow and lingering pace would he
-return from the gracious presence of this lady of his love!
-
-He had often heard it rumoured that Sir Charles Lambert was thought to
-be the accepted son-in-law of Sir Oliver; but this he had always
-doubted from the very first moment of his introduction at Milverton;
-and he felt that Katharine could never have endured his attentions. By
-these, however, she could now be troubled no farther; for Sir Charles,
-being deeply mortified and ashamed of the frantic violence which he
-had committed at his last visit, had left his home suddenly for
-London, and was solacing himself, for the contemptuous affront which
-he had received from Sir Philip Arundel, in the congenial atmosphere
-of bear gardens and cock pits. Nor had he forgotten how roughly he was
-handled by George Juxon, whom he at once feared for his courage, and
-hated for his virtues.
-
-However, he was no longer a visiter at Milverton; his sisters, indeed,
-still rode over from the Grange occasionally to pass a day with
-Katharine, and twice Juxon was of the party at table.
-
-To most eyes he would have appeared the admirer rather of these ladies
-than of Mistress Katharine; for Old Beech rectory was only four miles
-from Bolton Grange: and though he seldom accepted the invitations of
-Sir Charles, yet he met them often in hunting or hawking parties, and
-was apparently a very great favourite with them both. Sophy and Jane
-Lambert were both pretty: the one, with the rosy cheeks of health and
-laughing blue eyes; the other, brown and freckled, with an arch look
-that seemed to detect those secrets which men, and women too, most
-anxiously conceal, with a provoking and unerring sagacity.
-
-These good-tempered and warm-hearted girls had been at first sadly
-afflicted about their brother's conduct; but this last care concerning
-him was now six weeks old, and had been dismissed from their minds. He
-was, to their great contentment, now absent, and their tongues were
-again loosened to playfulness.
-
-As the party sat at dinner in Milverton Hall one day, about the middle
-of June, and as Juxon was carving a capon, that he might help Mistress
-Alice to a delicate wing,--
-
-"Prithee, Master Juxon," said Jane Lambert with a very roguish
-expression of the eye, "did you not hear our merry voices on Wednesday
-evening as we killed a buck under Walton coppice? and did you not see
-us lift our velvet caps to you? and did you shut your ears to the
-pleasant horn? or were you charmed to sleep by the fairies under that
-broad beech tree in the Bird Meadow? or were you saying your prayers?
-or were you reading Master Ford's Lover's Melancholy? or were you
-thinking of our Lady St. Katharine here at Milverton?"
-
-Juxon was so confused at this last question that he put the wing of
-the capon into the sauce boat instead of on the trencher of Mistress
-Alice, and said, with a stammer and a blush,--
-
-"Really, Mistress Jane, you are too bad; but I know that you dearly
-love a joke upon anglers: you are always jeering poor Moxon."
-
-"O do not mind her," said Katharine Heywood, coming to his relief:
-"she is privileged to say what she pleases, without meaning what she
-says; and my poor name always serves to point a fancy, if she wants
-one: if she were not so young and so pretty, she might be taken up for
-a false fortune-teller, and a dealer in witchcraft."
-
-"Cousin Kate, if I am a fortune-teller, I am a true one; and if a
-witch, you know I am a white one, and work marvellous cures. Shall I
-tell your fortune? and shall I name the name of a true knight in a far
-country?"
-
-A glance from the noble eyes of Katharine, which no one perceived but
-Jane Lambert, rebuked her into silence; and trying, though awkwardly,
-to laugh off the liberty which she had evidently taken with the
-feelings of Katharine, she sent her trencher for some venison, and
-said no more.
-
-Sir Oliver, too, fastening upon the simple fact of Juxon having turned
-a fisherman, began rallying him for having made so bad an exchange, as
-to leave the merry and social sport of hunting for the dull and
-solitary exercise of angling.
-
-"It is true," said the knight, "I have myself been forced to give up
-the jolly buck hunt; but, life of me, I could never take up with a rod
-and line in the place of it. I do wonder, when I see a man mope about
-the meadows, and stand, it may be, for hours, under the same willow,
-by the broken bank of a sluggish river, that it doth not end in his
-hanging himself for very weariness of the flat world."
-
-"And yet," quoth Juxon, "fishing hath its pleasures, ay, and its sport
-too; but if the angler catch nothing, still he hath a wholesome walk
-in the pure air; and if he go abroad early, and listeneth to the
-matins of the heaven-loving lark, he shall not want sweeter music
-than the cry of hounds, and the blasts of hunting horns."
-
-"By my faith, Master Juxon, you are bewitched; but whether by old
-Margery or by the sparkling eyes of Jane I say not; by Margery,
-methinks; for the faint heart of an angler will never win such a
-sprightly lady of the woods as our Jane."
-
-"Nay, nay, Sir Oliver, when a man is bewitched, and by love, too, as
-Mistress Jane will have it, his thoughts must be too roving and
-unquiet to sit still upon a mossy bank watching for the trembling of a
-quill."
-
-"Ay, ay; but he may sit quiet enough, and not watch any thing but his
-own fancies. I do verily think that thou must be touched with some
-strange care, to let thy brave gelding race it round his pasture for
-the madness of his desire to follow the chase, at sound of which he
-neigheth for his rider, and thou sitting the while like some poor
-scholar alone upon a tree stump."
-
-"At the least I find one blessing rests on anglers--where they walk,
-the grace of humility doth grow, lowly as the daisy, and plentiful as
-the meadow sweet."
-
-"I think," said Katharine, "that Master Juxon has good right to walk
-the valley with his rod, without being thus rated for his pleasure;
-and if he useth to find good thoughts in all he meeteth by the river
-side in summer evenings it is more than hunters do in the forest."
-
-"Marry, Kate, it is to get rid of thought that men go a-hunting. I
-tell thee that cares and sorrows, and wrongs and vexations, cannot
-keep pace with a bold hunter; self is forgotten; all is life, and joy,
-and wild delight. Troth I have lost mind and heart since the merry
-days when I hunted."
-
-"I am of thy mind, Sir Oliver," said Juxon, "and the falling leaf of
-October, and the chill gloom of November skies, can never cloud the
-heart of a hunter; but when woods are green, and sunbeams warm, and
-birds are singing, methinks the yelp of a hound is unseasonable
-music."
-
-"Well," said Jane, "all I know is, that you seldom missed an
-afternoon last summer; and if it was an early hunting day and a stag
-turned out in the morning, in spite of the green trees and the
-warbling larks, Master Juxon was never last in the field; but I will
-rate you no more: for, may-be, you are afraid of the Puritans, and do
-study _Master Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses_, and will give up the
-wicked ways of Esau, and turn shepherd--gentle shepherd, shall it be,
-or good?"
-
-"Lady," said Juxon, gravely, "there are good men among the Puritans;"
-and seeing her colour a little at his tone, he added, with a smile,
-"and good anglers too; but, in truth, you have hit me hard: for there
-are good men, who are no Puritans, who think that the sport of hunting
-is not seemly in a parson, especially in times like these."
-
-"Puritans or no Puritans," said Sir Oliver, "I hope you don't mind the
-muddy race that croak these black lessons of duty. I do not know
-whether they be fools or knaves; but they would preach us into walking
-tomb-stones, each showing its _memento mori_."
-
-"Beyond all question," replied Juxon, "they are wrong in many things;
-and push their severity against things innocent and pernicious with
-little or no distinction, with a strained application of Scripture
-prohibitions, and with a profound ignorance of human nature; and they
-seem only to discern God in clouds, and to hear him in the thunder.
-But there are men of great and stern virtues among them; and, it may
-be, of gentler hearts and gentler views than we give them credit for."
-
-"I don't believe a word of it. They are fanatics in religion, and
-knavish traitors in their politics: you think of them with more
-charity than I do, and it is a false charity, Master Juxon. There was
-one of my own name and kin among them: he turned republican, forsooth;
-old England, forsooth, had no liberty; our good church was a harlot,
-and all the rest of it; and he would seek true freedom in the forests
-and swamps of New England; and away he went with wife and daughters,
-and a son, whom he had made as great a fool as himself. A youth, sir,
-that bearded me with his treason at my own table. I sent him packing
-at midnight, sir, and would not let him sleep the night under my roof;
-and, in good truth, he was as ready to go as I to bid him; and now he
-and his father are felling trees in America for aught I know, or care,
-indeed."
-
-Katharine Heywood proposed to her aunt and the Lamberts that they
-should go into the Lime Walk, and Juxon would have turned the
-conversation; but Sir Oliver, with the images of his absent cousins
-before him, went on venting his feelings, as if in soliloquy. "The son
-of a clergyman, too, sir, a younger brother of mine, long dead, and he
-himself having been the faithful servant of a king, well accounted of
-for valour and discretion in the camp of the great Gustavus, where he
-commanded a regiment of musketeers. He to turn against kings and good
-order! He that punished a fault against discipline like a sin against
-Heaven, and taught his son that obedience was the first duty of a
-soldier, to come home, with his brave boy to his own country, and
-teach him to flout at the majesty of the crown! Troth, sir, the king
-was quit of bad subjects, and I of troublesome relations, when they
-took ship for the Plantations. I wish all that are as fantastic in
-their notions would follow them." At the close of this burst, the old
-gentleman took a cup of wine with an eagerness that sought relief, and
-a trembling hand, that betrayed how deeply he was agitated by angry
-feelings.
-
-Juxon, very unwilling to hear him further on so painful a subject,
-asked permission of the knight to go and visit Cuthbert Noble for half
-an hour, and promised to join him afterwards in the bowling green for
-their customary rubber. As he passed out of the hall, a serving man
-was coming in with Sir Oliver's pipe and tobacco-box; and leaving the
-strange weed to perform its calming office, Juxon, happy to escape,
-ran up stairs to the chamber of Cuthbert.
-
-The surgeon was seated by his side; and from the conversation, which,
-although they concealed not the subject or the tenour of it at the
-entrance of Juxon, they soon dropped, it was evident to him that they
-had a mutual understanding in matters of religion and politics, and
-were both of them friendly to the cause of the parliament. It had so
-chanced that, during the whole of his confinement, Cuthbert had, in
-the person of the surgeon who attended him, been daily in contact with
-a mind very deeply imbued with serious and severe principles. By this
-man Cuthbert's heart had been probed to the quick; and, under his
-influence, combining with a strong predisposition in itself, was made
-sad and heavy.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. IX.
-
-    Passions are likened best to floods and streames;
-    The shallow murmur, but the deepe are dumb.
-                                             RALEIGH.
-
-
-When, at the proposal of Mistress Katharine, the ladies left the hall,
-they proceeded to the Lime Walk: here they separated, Aunt Alice
-taking Sophia Lambert aside to show her a late addition to her aviary,
-and Katharine leading forward Jane towards the fish-pond, where, upon
-a low bench, placed under the broad arm of a noble cedar, they sat
-down quietly in the shade.
-
-Under all the disadvantages of a most neglected education, and a
-rusticity of manner very near to rudeness, Jane Lambert had some rare
-and valuable qualities, which greatly endeared her to those who took
-the pains to discover them. This Katharine had done. As for the last
-three years she had been thrown much into the society of the
-Lamberts, owing to their residence at Bolton Grange, and the frequent,
-but yet unavoidable, visits of Sir Charles, she had studied all their
-characters thoroughly; and the result of her observation satisfied
-her, that in Jane there was at the bottom a fund of sterling worth,
-high courage, and genuine affection. Her attainments were few and very
-imperfect; but she had a vigorous and a healthy intellect, which
-digested well the best and most generous sentiments of the few books
-which she was careful to read. Not a tenant or cotter upon the estate
-of her brother but had a look of honest love for Mistress Jane; and
-the falconers and foresters were proud of a bright lady who knew their
-craft so well, and had so true an eye for the slot of a deer or for
-the dim-seen quarry. If any poor man had a favour to ask of Sir
-Charles, it was through her, as the ready advocate of all who needed
-help or implored mercy, that the petition was preferred. Her
-admiration and love for Katharine Heywood were unbounded: she looked
-up to her as a model of exalted excellence, and with that affection
-which partakes of reverence; not that this was of a nature to check
-or chill the natural display of fondness in their ordinary
-intercourse; but at times the power of the loftier sentiment over her
-was so great, that her exuberant and unguarded levity would be in a
-moment abashed and driven away by one look from Katharine. Thus it had
-been to-day at table; and now, as they sat, she pressed her hand upon
-the shoulder of Katharine, and leaned her cheek upon it, and said
-feelingly,--
-
-"Dearest cousin Kate, why did you look so very sad and so very grave
-to-day? I was only joking; do not be angry with me, my sweet coz: I
-shall fret if I think you have been really angry." Katherine bent her
-face and kissed the presented cheek.
-
-"Was I ever angry with you, Jane?" she asked. "You know that I never
-was; but it is true that you often make me very anxious for you, and
-sometimes quite sad, by your ill-timed and thoughtless gaiety.
-Consider a little more the consequences of idle words, and their
-effect on strangers."
-
-"Well, my dear, I will: but there is no harm done, for I do not look
-upon Juxon as a stranger; and he is so sensible, and so good-tempered,
-that he will never take any speech by the wrong handle, and so honest
-and straightforward, that he will never look under it for a hidden
-meaning."
-
-"But yet, Jane, even Juxon will think it odd, that while the victim of
-your brother's passionate frenzy still lies on a couch helpless with
-his wound, and while your brother, who has narrowly escaped committing
-the heaviest of crimes, has absented himself for very shame, his
-sister should sport, as if nothing had happened, and be as playful in
-her words as a girl without care."
-
-"Do you think so? I should be sorry for that: but you know that I do
-not love my brother; and Cuthbert is safe from all danger, and out of
-all pain; and you are well, cousin, and not the sadder for this
-accident, if I know your heart as well as I love your happiness; and
-why then should I not appear cheerful, when, in truth, I am so. I
-should be vexed, indeed, if Juxon thought the worse of me; for he is
-one whose good opinion is worth having; but as for that of the world,
-I care not a jot about it."
-
-"There you are wrong, dear Jane: the opinion of the world may, and
-must be, in some things, despised, but the rule of its established
-proprieties and gentle observances can never be transgressed, without
-bringing some heavy penalty on the offender."
-
-"I do not love the world so well, dear Katharine, as to care for
-either its frowns or its favours; and I looked not for an advocate of
-its cold maxims and its deceitful forms in you--let it see me as I
-am."
-
-"There is your error, Jane: it cannot, it will not, it cares not to
-take the trouble to see you as you are; it looks only at your
-_seeming_; and though to be is better than to seem, and many seem fine
-gold that are but base metal, yet no one can despise the judgment of
-the world without rashness and without danger. They who place
-themselves above the opinion of the world, and the best rules of
-society, cast off a useful and an appointed restraint in the
-discipline of life."
-
-"Sweet coz, I love to hear you lecture, but you will never make me
-wise: I was born under a common star, and reared with foresters:--look
-as I like, and speak as I think."
-
-"Ah, dear Jane, you will some day learn to govern your bright looks,
-and to keep your sweetest thoughts locked closely in your heart.
-Wisdom herself, and, perhaps, though God forbid, sorrow will be your
-teacher."
-
-The serene eyes of the majestic Katharine were clouded, for a passing
-moment, with such a sadness as a compassionate angel might have worn;
-and she pressed Jane tenderly to her breast.
-
-"Promise me," she said, "dearest cousin, promise me faithfully that
-you never again hint even to any human being, the idle fancy that hung
-this morning on your lips, or the name you would have connected with
-it."
-
-"The promise has been already made in my own mind: your look was
-enough to make me wish the light word unspoken, and the tongue that
-uttered it blistered for a month to come. You are the only one at
-table who could have understood my allusion. I am certain that the
-most distant thought of my meaning could not enter the mind of your
-father or your aunt."
-
-"This, I believe, and it is well it should not: the bare suspicion,
-harboured in his mind, would make him miserable for life, and embitter
-his last moments with unworthy fears. I know his nature well: much as
-he loves me, and confides in me, to pacify his anger, and quiet his
-jealous apprehensions, would be, even for me, an impossible
-achievement; and yet he knows, or should know, that I am an English
-daughter."
-
-"How is it, Katharine, that you command all hearts? that not a man
-approaches you but he is at once, as by some sweet force, compelled to
-love you? and yet it is no wonder: there cannot be on earth another
-Katharine."
-
-"Cousin, this is idle and wicked talk; you must not use such vain and
-sinful words: would you could see me as I see myself, when, prostrate
-in weakness, I implore and find strength where alone it is to be
-obtained; but you cannot understand me yet."
-
-"Nay, Katharine, do not rebuke me so sharply for simple truths: why
-Charles himself is so tamed and altered for the day whenever he
-returns from Milverton, that I have sometimes been selfish enough to
-wish to see you his, in the hope that I might find a brother changed
-in nature; but no, dear Kate, I love you too well ever seriously to
-dwell on such a desire."
-
-"Jane, do not, prithee, do not pursue this foolish fancy further."
-
-"It is not fancy: can I not see? have I not eyes, and the perceptions
-and sympathies of woman? I tell you, the poor woe-begone scholar, that
-lies lonely on his couch above there, did look upon you as good men
-look up to the blue heavens."
-
-"Cousin, I will not stay another moment with you if your discourse is
-not changed to some better tone than these weak and unwomanly
-delusions of your idle brain do give it."
-
-"As you will, blessed coz, I say no more; but one need not be very
-deeply read in love-craft to prophesy that one of these fine days the
-worthy young rector of Old Beech will tell you that himself which I
-may not tell you for him."
-
-"Jane," said Katharine, as she slowly rose, and they moved back
-towards the Lime Walk, "you are not, my dear girl, serious, I hope, in
-this last surmise: you are not in earnest: it would greatly perplex
-and trouble me if I thought you were, and had good reason: about
-Cuthbert I am sure that you are altogether mistaken."
-
-"No, Katharine; I am a poor unfashioned creature, with little
-knowledge of the world, and little skill in books, or fair
-accomplishments: but this one gift I have,--I can read the human
-countenance, and see written thereon the thoughts of the heart, the
-play of the secret passions, the inclinations of the inner will, in
-characters plain to my faithful eye, and plainly I repeat my
-conviction that both these men do love you. The one will give you no
-trouble: his flame will burn within his melancholy heart, like a lamp
-glimmering in a tomb; but the other will make open avowal of what he
-is proud to feel, and will surely be courageous enough to confess: now
-do not look so pale and grave, but thank me for the timely caution.
-Kiss me, sweet coz; my sister is calling for me, and we must go." The
-tall and queen-like Katharine folded her young cousin to her heart;
-and Jane felt a tear fall heavy on her cheek as they embraced and
-parted.
-
-Katharine had one of those fine and stately forms which the sculptor
-of ancient times would have chosen to copy with his happiest skill, as
-the incarnation of wisdom. Her features were Roman; her dark hazel
-eyes were long and even, and there shone in them a soft, chaste fire;
-her mouth was pensive; but though the expression of her countenance
-was ever serious, yet was it human, gentle, and she would more fitly
-have represented the melancholy vestal, than the calm, passionless
-Minerva. She returned leisurely to her favourite cedar, and seated
-herself in that sad repose of the mind into which even the strongest
-and most virtuous will sometimes allow themselves to sink, as a short
-relief from the internal conflict. It was clear to her that Jane had
-penetrated that one secret, which she would hardly confess to herself,
-and which she could have wished had been altogether confined to her
-own bosom, and that one other, from which she felt resolutely and for
-ever divided. It was strange that the open-hearted girl had never
-mentioned it before; it was well that she had only now hinted it so
-vaguely as to leave it impenetrably veiled to others; it was well,
-too, that she had thus early arrested the danger of all further
-discovery, and obtained from the fond and faithful Jane that promise
-of secrecy, on which she could safely rely. Still it was disturbing to
-her pure and noble spirit, that even this sweet girl should be privy
-to her heart's great trial. However, Jane would understand her future
-silence on the subject, and well knew that those confidences, which
-the weaker order of women are ever ready to pour into the ear of the
-female friend, would never pass her lips. She held them too sacred,
-and she had that dignity of soul which in a sorrow of that peculiar
-nature is all-sufficient to itself. Could Cuthbert from his couch of
-patient suffering, or George Juxon from his solitary rides and walks,
-have looked in upon the heart of Katharine, and seen the image, which
-often rose before her mind's eye, and as often as it did so was felt
-to be a cherished one, the former would have striven against his weak
-idolatry yet more resolutely than he already did, and the manly Juxon
-would have given to the wind his vain hopes, and would have forborne
-to distress her with the language of a suitor.
-
-Katharine did not return to the mansion till long after all the guests
-had departed.
-
-It was the hour of supper; but she pleaded headache, retired to her
-chamber, and seated herself at the window to watch the dying day.
-There was a universal calm in nature; every leaf was still: there was
-a holy hush around; colours of a blessed hue streaked the far western
-sky; they grew faint, they faded, and the grey gloom of a summer's
-night rested upon all things. She was roused from a long reverie of
-sweet though solemn fancies by the entrance of her maid with a lamp,
-and in a few minutes afterwards she was joined by her aunt Alice.
-
-There was never in any nature more of the milk of human kindness than
-in Mistress Alice:--her own disappointments had subdued her vivacity,
-without souring her temper, or freezing her manners. Forgetful of
-herself, she lived for and in the happiness of others, and her niece
-Katharine was to her as a daughter;--not that she exercised any thing
-like a mother's control; Katharine had so ripe an understanding, and
-so mature a judgment, that Mistress Alice leaned upon her mind as
-though it were that of a sister or a bosom friend, to whose opinion
-she was pleased to defer her own.
-
-She loved Sir Oliver with a true affection, but she was not blind to
-the faults of his character. She knew him to be impatient of
-contradiction, full of strong prejudices, easy and indolent--the being
-of habit and of custom--but violent when thwarted, and selfish when
-opposed. Nevertheless a kind brother, a fond father, a liberal master,
-and a most loyal subject. It always deeply grieved her when she heard
-him speak harshly of her nephew Edward Heywood, and his son Francis,
-for they were the offspring of an unfortunate brother, to whom she had
-been very closely attached from her childhood.
-
-"This has been a trying day to me as well as to you, Katharine," she
-said when they were left together. "I think my poor brother allows
-himself to be more troubled about public matters than is good for him;
-and I wish that he would avoid the mention of your unhappy cousins in
-connection with those subjects--however wrong they may be, they have
-cares and troubles enough for pity, rather than hard words and ill
-wishes."
-
-Katharine looked steadily at her aunt when she began to speak, and was
-rather startled at her opening words; but as she proceeded, discerning
-clearly it was only a sympathy in common with her own that she
-invited, replied, quietly, that "it was indeed very painful to see the
-good temper of her dear father giving way so early in times like
-these, which were only the beginning of troubles; but consider,
-dearest aunt, he has passed all his life in pleasure and ease--my
-blessed mother made his peace her study; and, though she could never
-win him to her own happiest views of the only bliss, her whole life
-was a transcript of those gentle and charitable sentiments which were
-the secret springs of all her actions. He reposed upon her character,
-and found a tranquillity, of which he shared the comfort, but which
-lived not within his own breast."
-
-"Well, Katharine, I am sure you follow in your mother's path, and as
-far as daughter may, you supply her vacant place in his esteem and
-reverence. He loves you not as parent loves a child. You are his
-daughter, but you are also, in all seemly matters, his cherished
-adviser:--I have often noted it, my dear, with joy."
-
-"Do not humble me so sadly--my mother's path!--alas! I am far from
-it--far out of the way, when I think of her exalted hopes, her
-self-denying life, and her settled peace; and when I look within, I am
-ashamed, and may well tremble at the comparison:--but yet I cherish
-the memory of her bright example; and the words you have just spoken
-shall rouse me to do all by my father, which if her sainted spirit
-could look down upon us she would herself approve. I know the duty of
-a daughter, and I know how much the happiness and the honour of a
-father may be promoted by her due performance of it. You have well
-shown me the better way. For my father, and to my father, I will
-devote my life, and cast self and all softer wishes behind me. When
-the first rough steps of difficulty are passed, the noble qualities of
-my father will all be seen:--bless you, Aunt Alice, for your sweet
-counsel."
-
-"My dear Katharine, you are not wont to be thus excited: your calmness
-and your even dignity have ever been beyond your age: I meant simply
-what I said, and designed not, by any hint, to stimulate you to any
-course of conduct beyond that which I have always observed you to
-pursue:--you are not well--you think too much of what may
-happen--troubles are fast travellers, and need not be met half
-way--you are not well."
-
-"I believe you are right--I cannot be well--the day has been
-oppressively hot--and my temples throb with pain."
-
-Mistress Alice taking from the dressing table a curious shaped bottle
-of eastern porcelain, which contained elder-flower water, sat down
-tenderly by Katharine, and bathed her temples with gentle care. The
-noble girl leaned back upon her chair, silent, passive, grateful:--no
-sob escaped her; no nervous tears were allowed to fall; but to a
-keener eye than that of her benevolent aunt a slight quiver on the
-lip, and a heaving of the folds above her bosom, quicker than the
-wont, might have told that very deep and painful emotions were
-struggling in her full heart.
-
-Mistress Alice would not leave her till she saw her quietly put to
-bed, when, giving her the kiss of peace and good night as her pale
-cheek lay upon the pillow, she took her lamp, and went softly out of
-the chamber.
-
-Restored to solitude and silence, Katharine sent her sweet thoughts
-and prayerful wishes to that distant land, where, upon the narrow
-clearing of some tall and ancient forest, in their canvass booth or
-rude hut, after a day of new and unaccustomed toils, her self-exiled
-but heroic cousins reposed: the picture of their labours was to her
-mind primitive and sacred--and all the images presented to her fancy
-were peaceful.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. X.
-
-    Can warres, and jarres, and fierce contention,
-    Swoln hatred, and consuming envie, spring
-    From piety?
-                                       HENRY MORE.
-
-
-The good parson of Cheddar was never informed of the severe misfortune
-of his son till all danger was long past, and his convalescence was
-advanced to such a point that he could assure his parents he should
-soon be perfectly restored to health and to his wonted activity and
-strength.
-
-Noble and his wife were both deeply affected at the thought of all
-which Cuthbert must have suffered, and at the considerate care which
-he had manifested for their feelings. His letter was brief, and his
-relation of the conduct of Sir Charles Lambert was given in such a
-calm and quiet tone that it was plain he had learned the hard lesson
-to forgive an enemy. Yet it contained some expressions which troubled
-his father with the too sure presage of that course which Cuthbert was
-about to follow.
-
-He intended, it said, to leave Milverton at Michaelmas, and should
-recommend that Arthur, who was sufficiently forward in his studies,
-should be then entered at the University. "I shall not," it added,
-"accompany the dear boy to Oxford; indeed, with my sentiments, it
-would be alike unjust to Sir Oliver and to the youth himself to retain
-my present office in this family. Where a tutor is called upon to
-conceal his opinions and suppress his feelings (on the most important
-and the most sublime subjects which affect the present interests of
-society and the everlasting happiness of man), in his daily
-intercourse with his pupil, both parties are very seriously injured."
-
-It was particularly remarked by his mother that, in this letter, while
-Cuthbert acknowledged, in general terms of warmth, the kindness with
-which he had been treated throughout his illness by the whole family
-at Milverton, and while he mentioned the friendliness of Juxon, of
-whom they had never previously heard, and dwelt still more on his deep
-obligations to Master Randal, the surgeon, he never even named
-Mistress Katharine, of whom he had spoken with such a romantic warmth
-in his former correspondence.
-
-"My dear," said Noble, "Cuthbert has been on the brink of the grave,
-and his mind is full of all that has been solemn and awakening in that
-awful experience; but it is not a good sign that he has avoided all
-detail of that experience to us. I doubt not that his piety has been
-deepened, but I am not without a fear that his head is taken up with
-new notions, both of doctrine and of duty, and that he was unwilling
-to open them out to us. However, if by any path he has advanced to a
-nearer and more affecting view of his Redeemer than that to which he
-has hitherto attained, let us rejoice and thank God. He has all along
-been deficient in that simplicity of view which begets humility,
-peace, and joy:--he refines too much on every subject which is
-presented to his mind; muses when he should act; speculates when he
-should pray; and is lost in the cold and unsubstantial clouds which
-veil the mountain, when he might stand upon the serene summit in the
-warm light of the Sun of righteousness.
-
-"It was ever thus with him. In childhood we neglected to subdue his
-will, and we shall suffer, and he himself will suffer for our fond but
-mistaken indulgence."
-
-"I am sure, dear, that he was always affectionate and dutiful, and
-always will be."
-
-"Nay, Constance, that does not follow. He will always love us, I am
-well persuaded; but whether he will remain obedient to our wishes in
-those trying scenes which may sooner or later be presented to our eyes
-is very doubtful."
-
-"Well, Noble, it will be time enough to think of that when the trial
-comes:--happen what may, I feel certain that all will be safe and
-happy where you are. God ever takes good care of his own; and I always
-feel that there is a blessing and a guard round about our dwelling,
-for your dear sake."
-
-"Wife, how can you talk so weakly. What is there in two worms of the
-earth, like you and me, that should procure for us an exemption from
-calamity?--but this is unprofitable talking--sufficient unto the day
-is the evil thereof--to enjoy is to obey--and the voice of
-thanksgiving is melody. Let us bless God for past mercies, and bless
-him by trust for all future goodness."
-
-Their conversation was here interrupted by the entrance of Peter, to
-say that Master Daws, the sour precisian, who, it may be remembered,
-would have before prevented the customary sports and pleasures on the
-festival of the Mayday, was at the gate, and wanted to see Parson
-Noble, for a few minutes, on very urgent business.
-
-To rise and go out and ask him into his study with all courtesy was,
-of course, the duty of Noble, both as a brother minister and a
-Christian gentleman; but it was with no doubt as to the nature and
-object of his visit that he did so, and with a desire to bring their
-interview to as early a close as might consist with common civility.
-
-The contrast of the two parsons as they entered the study, and as
-Master Daws seated himself in the tall chair which Noble drew forward
-for him with a quick and rather, indeed, an impatient motion, was
-comic in the extreme, and would have greatly diverted any of Noble's
-old college cronies, as it would, of a truth, the good vicar himself,
-could he have looked on, and been spared the vexation of playing as a
-principal in the dull performance.
-
-Master Daws was a tall, gaunt, bony personage, of a stature exceeding
-six feet by nearly two inches: he presented a rigid outline of sharp
-angles from his cheek bones to his pointed and protuberant ankles. His
-features were coarse; his complexion muddy; his eyes round and dull;
-his forehead low; and there was an expression of bad temper about the
-corners of his mouth. His black hair was cut close, and he had thin
-weak eye-brows.
-
-He seated himself with a slow solemnity of manner; placed his tall
-greasy cane erect between his knees, and folded his clumsy hands upon
-the top of it; turned up the whites of his eyes in a pretended
-ejaculation; and in a drawling tone delivered himself of his
-hypocritical errand as follows:--
-
-"My dear brother in the Lord--thou art esteemed a master in
-Israel--thou hast a name to live. I would fain hope that thou art not
-a willing partaker of the sins of thy people; but verily they stink in
-the nostrils of all true Christians, who are thy neighbours. We have
-conferred together--we are sore grieved--we are ashamed for thy
-sake--and I am come to reason with thee alone concerning the
-abominations which are daily committed in thy parish, lest thou perish
-and thy people with thee."
-
-The good parson listened to this strange address without anger,
-without wonder, and without reply. The graceful ease of his composed
-attitude of attention,--the clear light of his kind intelligent
-eyes,--his high pale intellectual forehead,--his frame slender, and a
-little bent with the weight of advancing years, and the thin white
-hairs scattered on his temples,--would have made the sincere but
-deluded fanatic hesitate to proceed, or would have melted his
-remonstrance into all that was gentle and affectionate in expression.
-On the conscious, the interested, and the incensed hypocrite, however,
-his calmness had the opposite effect; and Master Daws, with a most
-stern tyranny of tongue, in language clumsily misquoted from the
-sacred books of the prophets, and grossly misapplied, went forward to
-denounce the wrath of Heaven against the poor rustics of Cheddar and
-their aged pastor. This speech we would rather leave to the
-imagination of such readers as may be familiar with the incongruous
-and disgusting jargon in which the sour zealots and the gloomy
-sectarians, who were then daily extending their severe notions,
-uttered their iron anathemas against the innocent gaieties of life. At
-the close of his very offensive harangue, he drew forth from his
-pocket a small volume in black letter, and presented it to the good
-vicar with these words:--
-
-"Brother, I have been perhaps too warm; but the fire burned within me,
-and it is accounted the first duty of a servant to be faithful. It is
-my zeal for the Lord;--and herewith, in love and compassion to thy
-poor blinded people, and in pity to thy soul, I do present to thee for
-thy private reading, and for the instruction of thy benighted mind,
-this book, which is _The Anatomie of Abuses: containing a Discoverie
-or briefe Summarie of such notable Vices and Corruptions as now raigne
-in many Christian Countreyes of the Worlde: but especially in the
-Countrey of Ailgna: together with most fearfull Examples of God's
-Judgements executed upon the Wicked for the same, as well in Ailgna of
-late, as in other Places elsewhere. Very godly, to be read of all true
-Christians every where; but most chiefly to be regarded in England.
-Made Dialogue-wise by Phillip Stubbes._ This wordy title-page, placing
-his spectacles upon his nose, he read slowly with a nasal whine, which
-the compression of the ill constructed spectacles he wore not a little
-assisted."
-
-"Neighbour Daws," said Noble patiently, "I do not need thy service in
-this matter, seeing I have on my own shelves the book of Master
-Phillip Stubbes; and I deny not that it contains some godly maxims and
-sound precepts, and it may have done some good by its ridicule of
-many vanities, and its condemnation of many sins and abuses: but I
-think he distinguishes not between things innocent and hurtful, and
-tears up many pleasant flowers of God's giving, under the dark fancy
-that they are poisonous weeds;--for the rest that thou hast spoken
-thyself concerning the little flock and fold over which the providence
-of God hath made me the humble and willing shepherd, I will not call
-thee unmannerly and uncharitable. I have heard thee with pain, though
-with patience; and, while I give thee full credit for sincerity in thy
-opinions, desire not to hear them further, now or ever again."
-
-As thus he spoke, he rose, and indicated by that action his wish that
-the interview should not be prolonged. Daws also, with a horrible
-smile upon his hideous face, in which was to be discerned all the mad
-irritation of a mean person, who felt himself despised, and for the
-moment baffled in producing alarm, raised himself slowly from his
-seat, and answered,--"Satan, the prince of hell, is lord over thy
-village and thy people--and he has blinded thy aged eyes, and sealed
-thy dumb mouth:--verily the Lord shall visit for these things, and
-that speedily;"--so saying, he stalked out with uplifted eyes, and as
-he passed the threshold stamped the dust from his feet with a
-vindictive action, and departed. "I wish that Cuthbert could have
-witnessed this scene," said Noble, as he saw the ruthless and envious
-bigot pass forth out of the wicket, and stride angrily across the
-church-yard; "but the wish is vain."
-
-Upon inquiring of Peter, he learned that, on the preceding evening,
-this morose personage had found a dozen children playing round a small
-bonfire, in a glen about half a mile from the village, and
-celebrating, as a game of play, the festival of St. John's eve,--the
-observance of which had in the present reign been discontinued. The
-joyous urchins, alike innocent of pagan or popish idolatry, were
-dancing about the flames, and tossing flowers into the rivulet, which
-flowed past the spot where they had kindled them, when Daws, who had
-his secret designs in many a walk which he took to the neighbourhood
-of Cheddar, came suddenly upon them, and driving them off with
-execrations and blows, kicked the half burned sticks into the
-water:--the little fearless sinners, however, making a swift and
-active retreat up a rock, where they felt secure from pursuit,
-revenged themselves by shouts and laughter; and in this the little
-fellow who had witnessed the ludicrous fall and flight of this same
-Daws on May morning, and who had been again recognised by him this
-evening, led the merry chorus of impudent little rebels with
-conspicuous glee.
-
-Although Noble listened to this news with a smile, the severe and
-mischievous spirit evinced during his interview with Daws, both in
-language, tone, and manner, gave him more uneasiness than he chose to
-impart to his wife, to whom he related much of what had passed between
-them in a light and jocular vein. But, alone, he could not but be
-impressed with the conviction, that a curate of this harsh and
-malevolent character was a very uncomfortable and unsafe neighbour,
-and might hereafter prove dangerous.
-
-However, he had now plainly paid his last visit in the quality of
-brother clergyman; and, if he was ever to come in that of enemy and
-accuser, he could only do so under the restraining guidance of that
-mighty, merciful, and mysterious Providence, which ordereth all things
-wisely and well.
-
-The good pastor was ill qualified to counteract the intrigues, or to
-contend with the violence, of parties. He was a quietist, an optimist,
-a dweller at home, enjoying to-day, and taking little anxious thought
-for the morrow. His hours were divided between his parish, his study,
-and his garden.
-
-Old Blount, the most honest and hospitable of English franklins, was
-the only neighbour with whom he could associate upon a footing of
-mutual intercourse: but there was not a threshold in the village which
-he did not often cross with some friendly inquiry or cheerful words
-upon his lip; not a child, that would not rather run to than from him;
-and the cottage curs were too familiar with his step and voice to do
-more than raise and turn their heads as they lay watching at the
-doors, when Noble passed by.
-
-His chief recreation was the weekly visit to Wells. As regularly as
-the appointed day came round, the worthy parson mounted his old white
-mare, with her well stuffed saddle, rejoicing, in a seat covered with
-cloth of a pale sky blue, much faded, and he was carried at a
-meditative jogtrot to the fair and ancient city.
-
-Here, at the house of his friend, he would refresh his spirits by
-listening to (and sometimes joining in the rich performance of) the
-best madrigals of the never surpassed composers of that day, and
-taking his part in most pleasant and tuneful exercises on the viol and
-the lute.
-
-The troublous aspect of the times had of late somewhat altered the
-character of these meetings; and the two holyday hours were now for
-the most part, if not entirely, consumed in grave and anxious
-consultations on public affairs. The severe spirit of the church
-reformers of that period frowned upon every semblance of pleasure: to
-them the song of harvest, the dance of the village green, and the
-merry catch round the winter hearth, were things sinful and forbidden,
-and the peal of the solemn organ in the house of prayer and praise
-was hated as an abomination.
-
-Yet they might have read in Scripture, in the very words of holy men
-of God, that "the ear of the Lord listeneth to the song of the reaper,
-and the joy of harvest; and that he delights not to turn the dance of
-the vintage into mourning, nor to make the young cease from their
-music:" but because the good provisions of God are daily abused by the
-many, who consider not the gracious Giver of them, therefore they
-would have the bread of all steeped in tears, and eaten with the
-bitter herbs of mourning. Of a truth, in some degree every Christian
-man, and minister more especially, must be a mourner, and is: but the
-spirit would fail and faint if it might not also taste the rich
-consolations of a hallowed joy; and if, amid the labours, the toils,
-and the mean cares of the daily pilgrimage, man might not stoop to
-gather the flower at his feet, or pause to listen to the feathered
-choristers of God's own temple, it would be to refuse and put away,
-with a sullen unthankfulness, the comforts which the Father of mercies
-has provided.
-
-Of such enjoyments Noble was most fearlessly fond. To him the world of
-nature was a vast and richly illuminated volume; on the various
-pictures of which he could pore for ever, with all the wonder, and
-with all the rapture, of childhood:--"his Father made them all"--that
-was his feeling. The arrows of trouble and disappointment fell blunted
-from a bosom, the shield of which was a God seen, acknowledged, and
-felt, in all things visible, as the very essence of love.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XI.
-
-    He makes the infirmity of his temper pass for revelations.
-                                                       BUTLER.
-
-
-The summer months at Milverton rolled swiftly on, Cuthbert slowly, but
-perfectly, regained his strength; and, early in August, he was once
-more able to walk abroad and to take exercise on horseback; but his
-vivacity and animation did not return with his health: he was no
-longer the cheerful and entertaining companion at table, or in the
-intervals of leisure. Sir Oliver found him a dull restraint, and
-wearied of his presence: even his pupil, who was truly attached to
-him, and was still, in the hours of study, delighted with his
-preceptor, felt the sad and depressing change; and if it had not been
-for the frequent visits of George Juxon, would have been disappointed
-of many of those joyous and manly exercises which Juxon delighted to
-encourage, and in which he excelled. The only diversions by which
-Cuthbert could now be attracted were fencing, and the use of the broad
-sword: but he practised them without a smile; and there was an
-earnestness of attention and a seriousness of effort about him,
-whenever he took a lesson from Juxon, which drove away smiles and
-jokes. His stamp was angry; the glance of his eye rapid and piercing;
-and after six weeks of occasional practice, when Juxon told him he
-would soon be a strong and complete swordsman, the grave scholar, so
-quiet and gentle in all his ways and words on common occasions,
-hastily and vehemently exclaimed, "Thank God."
-
-"For what?" asked his good-tempered instructor, "for what do you thank
-God so warmly?"
-
-"It matters not, it matters not," replied Cuthbert, hastily; "time
-will show."
-
-Juxon put down his sword, and, looking him earnestly in the face,
-asked him if he was well?
-
-"What a strange question! quite well."
-
-"No, Master Cuthbert, it is not always that a man is well who calls
-himself so, or even who thinks himself to be so. We are alone; we are
-friends; tell me what has thus moved you; tell me what it is that has
-so changed and saddened you; what are the dark purposes which lie hid
-in your bosom?"
-
-"Methinks this question is yet more strange. I have no purposes that
-be not honest; none that will not bear the light of open day; but,
-yet, I may not care to trouble others or myself by babbling of them."
-
-"Does the blow still rankle in your bosom, Cuthbert? Have you
-retracted the pardon uttered on your bed? And do you mean to seek out
-Sir Charles, and make him do battle for your revenge?"
-
-"Master Juxon, that is not well asked: such purpose would be dark,
-indeed: was not my pardon spoken before God, and at the grave's mouth?
-No; I forgave him as I hope to be forgiven; nay, in that it was a stab
-which sought my life I forgave it more readily than I could have done
-a blow; that, indeed, such slaves we are of pride, that might have
-rankled still."
-
-"True--I had forgotten--and my words have wronged you; but, Cuthbert,
-whatever are your purposes, they do not make you happy. I met you the
-other day riding much faster than is your wont, and your countenance
-was clouded, and your teeth were set, as if in hottest anger, and you
-would not stop, but only muttered a good morrow as you passed swiftly
-by. What do all these things mean?"
-
-"They mean that I am sick at heart for England; sick for the meek
-man's wrongs. I had just then met an aged countryman, his furrowed
-cheek newly branded, for a churchyard brawl: I questioned him closely,
-and found him a sufferer for conscience' sake, falsely accused and
-persecuted by a godless parson of his parish."
-
-"Cuthbert, did the countryman tell truth? Did he name the parish and
-the parson?"
-
-"He did; I know them well: in Oxfordshire was this outrage done, and
-the crime is not three months old."
-
-"Well, here is a case of wrong to be made known and to be redressed.
-Scandals there must be, even in the most sacred offices, when they are
-held by mere men. Some are cruel, and some are wanton by nature, and
-to punish these we have our judges and our bishops."
-
-"Yes we have--and the same who ruled the decisions of the
-Star-chamber. The wrong redressed! it would be smiled at; and if it
-were punished, what then? There's nothing but the grave-worm can take
-away the brand from the old man's cheek: his grandchildren will put
-their little fingers on the mark and ask the story of it, and he will
-tell them what he told me, and more. It is a hard world, Juxon."
-
-"And always was, and always will be. Legislation is a coarse thing:
-some innocent will always suffer with the guilty."
-
-"The guilty! is liberty of conscience guilt? Look you, Master Juxon,
-there are good men and true ready to stand up for that liberty."
-
-"And for a little more, perhaps: your secret is out; so, instead of
-our sword-play being mere exercise for pastime, after college fashion,
-I have been teaching the noble science of defence to a stout
-Parliamentarian, to an enemy of mother church."
-
-"Nay; no enemy to any persons or any institutions, but to the
-oppressor every where, and to oppression every where, by whatever
-titles or names they may be disguised."
-
-"You confess, then, that you wish an appeal to the sword."
-
-"I say not so; but if it come, as it may, and as in my present
-judgment it surely will, I shall be well pleased that my fingers have
-been taught to fight; for I would not be wanting in the day of
-battle."
-
-"I have heard you, Cuthbert, speak words of Christ's religion since
-your late illness, which I have thought of so sweet and heavenly a
-temper, as might well engage all men to follow the truth in love.
-Surely the weapons of a Christian's warfare are not carnal."
-
-"I tell you, the fat heart of the oppressor is proof against all
-other, and they that govern with the headsman's axe must look to be
-wounded by the patriot's sword."
-
-"Stop, Cuthbert, we'll say no more on this subject--you are standing
-upon a precipice--the gulf beneath is treason."
-
-"Not against Heaven, Juxon; and it is a poor thing to me to be judged
-by my fellow man."
-
-"Yes, Cuthbert, against Heaven. Your father will say so."
-
-"Never; though it is true that my father is old and timid, and he
-would bear the errors of the crown in charity and in hope, rather than
-see them openly opposed by arms."
-
-"And you would punish them in the field of battle?"
-
-"And gain a victory over the crown for the greater honour and more
-golden purity of the crown itself!"
-
-"Are you so weak, Cuthbert, as to think that a crown, beaten from a
-king's head by the sword, and lying soiled by the dust of a fall, can
-ever be replaced on the same brows with honour?--No! but among the
-successful rebels, some stern spirit would be found to wipe it and put
-it on; whose sceptre would have no peaceful globe surmounted by a
-dove; but would rather be a naked sword crimsoned to the hilt with
-blood."
-
-"Never, never:--you, like many good and generous persons, are the
-creature of prejudice and of circumstance; you do not see, and you
-will not believe, that the temple of true freedom needs only to be
-opened, and all the virtuous and the holy will flock there to worship
-in peace, and they will guard it alike from the rude tyrant and from
-the slavish rabble."
-
-"Cuthbert, you dream, and will awake some day in bitterness of soul.
-But if these be your sentiments--if thoughts like these fill your mind
-and colour your gloomy fancies--no wonder that your looks are sad."
-
-"My fancies are not gloomy. They are solemn. I am not sad, but I am
-serious. In visions of the night, I have seen this earth
-regenerate--its people walking in peace--holiness on the bells of the
-horses. I have heard the voice of thanksgiving and the song of praise.
-I have listened for sighs, and looked for tears, but there were none.
-I have asked about their happiness, and they have told me, 'In this
-region there is no one to hurt or to destroy:--we do not teach every
-man his neighbour, for from the least to the greatest we all know
-God.' Such have been my revelations; and I have been called, and
-chosen by name, to join that sacred band, which is to awaken a
-slumbering and captive people, and lead them forward to prepare the
-way for that monarchy of truth and universal love which is even now
-about to descend and bless mankind. The spear shall be broken, the
-sword turned into a ploughshare, and the sovereign Lord of all shall
-stand a second time upon the earth, and proclaim his promised reign of
-holiness and peace."
-
-Juxon listened to this rhapsody with awe and pain; and not without an
-effort to shake the strong delusion, which was evidently taking a fast
-hold upon the mind of Cuthbert.
-
-"My dear friend," he said, laying his hand gently upon his arm, "I
-confess that you greatly alarm me. Consider that, for the first two
-months after your wound, you were very weak in body; you were often
-obliged to have recourse to opiates to procure rest; and you was not
-in a state to examine the impressions made on your mind, and to
-separate illusion from reality. There is nothing wonderful in these
-phantasma having floated past your mind's eye: it is with sounds as
-with sights; the music of a dream is often clear and ravishing to the
-mind's ear; and our name may be thus, to our sleeping fancy, very
-distinctly called and connected with some message or charge of solemn
-import spoken as by a voice from Heaven. Or, it may be, Cuthbert, that
-the enemy of your soul, knowing that you can only be led aside from
-the path of duty and peace by the fair semblance of true religion and
-freedom, hath assumed these angel shapes to lure you to your ruin.
-
-"I can understand the plain and manly language of a Hampden, but this
-I cannot. It is unhealthy; it is the false fire of the fanatic. Rouse
-your intellect, and turn away from these notions, or you will be
-entangled and overcome: strangle the serpent while you have strength
-to do so."
-
-Cuthbert replied only by the grave smile of one so firmly persuaded
-of the truth of his own convictions as rather to pity than resent the
-very unwelcome effort to disturb them. However, he now communicated to
-Juxon that, in another month (it being then the end of September), he
-should accompany his pupil to enter at Oxford, and should there leave
-him, and proceed himself to join a friend in London. This arrangement,
-he observed, would enable him to reach the capital about the time when
-the new parliament was to assemble; for it had been just resolved by
-the King, in his great council of peers held at York, that a
-parliament should be called to sit on the third of November following.
-
-George Juxon was truly concerned to find that Cuthbert was so far gone
-in his views, that to reclaim him seemed hopeless; but there were so
-many amiable and engaging points in his character, that he could not
-allow any one chance of recovering him from a course which he truly
-thought would distress his father and destroy his own peace of mind,
-altogether neglected.
-
-He was aware that Cuthbert maintained a scrupulous silence on the
-subjects on which he had just spoken in his intercourse with the
-family; but he had often observed that, whatever was the matter of
-discourse at table, or elsewhere, the opinion of Mistress Katharine
-had great weight with him. He determined, therefore, to make a full
-disclosure to her of the state of Cuthbert's mind, and to engage her
-good offices to dissipate, if possible, the cloud of illusions which
-obscured or dazzled his present judgment. He was, however, obliged to
-defer this step by the sudden arrival of Sophia and Jane Lambert; the
-latter of whom instantly joined Sir Oliver and the ladies in the
-gallery, to communicate the arrival of their brother at the Grange,
-and his intention of again presenting himself at Milverton that
-evening, to express his sorrow to Sir Oliver for what had passed in
-the spring, and to acknowledge duly the frank and Christian
-forgiveness of Cuthbert Noble.
-
-Juxon learned from Sophia Lambert that Sir Charles having met with Sir
-Philip Arundel at some place of public amusement, had demanded
-satisfaction of him for the insulting words which Sir Philip had
-addressed to him on the evening when they last parted at Milverton;
-that they had retired to an adjoining tavern with their friends; and
-Sir Philip having been wounded, the quarrel was amicably adjusted, and
-the parties shook hands.
-
-By this duel, Sir Charles at once succeeded in stopping the mouth of
-one who would have reported the occurrence at Milverton more to his
-disadvantage and shame than it was yet considered among his London
-acquaintance, and knew that he should in some degree recover his lost
-ground with Sir Oliver and his neighbours in Warwickshire. For the
-credit of their family the sisters were naturally desirous of this;
-and, therefore, they had preceded their brother with cheerfulness, and
-with an earnest anxiety to secure him a good reception. Jane, indeed,
-well knew the feelings of Katharine Heywood, and loved her happiness
-far before that of Sir Charles; but still he was a brother, and the
-head of their house; and though she secretly determined to divert his
-attentions and his hopes from Katharine, she wished that the two
-families should resume their old footing of neighbourhood and
-frequent intercourse.
-
-The various projects devised by the kind heart of Jane Lambert were
-always most readily aided by an acute and contriving mind.
-
-She had already rendered Katharine a most important service in the
-matter of George Juxon's suit, which she had put an end to before any
-declaration of it distressing to the fair and noble object of it had
-been made.
-
-The modesty, the good sense, and the manliness of Juxon, enabled him,
-with very little assistance from the delicate though playful
-management of Jane Lambert, to discern the painful truth. He plainly
-saw that Katharine Heywood was not at all disposed to favour, or even
-entertain, his pretensions as a lover; and he made a worthy and
-successful effort to stifle in his breast the sentiment, which she had
-inspired, that he might still enjoy the privilege of visiting at
-Milverton as an intimate, and might attain to the happy and soothing
-distinction of being her true and faithful friend:--this consolation
-was already granted to his manly heart. Katharine saw and valued his
-sterling qualities; and to no one in the whole circle of her
-acquaintance were her manners more open, cordial, and confiding than
-to George Juxon.
-
-It was a curious thing, that evening, to see with what a shy,
-embarrassed air the noble Cuthbert, noble even in his errors, received
-the silken, though forced and momentary, submission of the man, whose
-savage anger had well nigh deprived him of life. No looker on,
-ignorant of their peculiar relation to each other, at the first
-interview, could have remotely guessed it from the manner or bearing
-of either.
-
-The cheek of Sir Charles was indeed coloured by a deep, though
-transient, stain of crimson, as he made his obeisance to Mistress
-Katharine, and took her slowly extended hand,--but with Sir Oliver he
-was quite at his ease immediately; not so, however, with Juxon, whose
-presence a little disconcerted him throughout the evening.
-
-As the weather was, for the season, very open and mild, and as there
-was a fine moon, it was soon arranged by Sir Oliver, that the party
-from the Grange should sup at Milverton, and ride home by moonlight.
-To Sir Oliver the reconciliation was most satisfactory; and as he saw
-Cuthbert sitting at the table, as strong and healthy as before the
-misfortune, and as he considered the name of Sir Charles completely
-white-washed in society, by his duel with Sir Philip Arundel, he
-dismissed all further thought about the ferocious crime which he
-committed. It was now passed without the sad consequences which might
-have followed--it was forgiven--it was already dwindling into very
-insignificant proportions--and was soon to be altogether forgotten.
-
-After the pleasant customs of that time, when supper was ended, the
-music books were introduced--the viol and lute were brought;--and an
-hour, or more, was delightfully spent to the health and refreshment of
-mind and body, in that familiar concert, where each person was
-expected to sing the appointed part at first sight. Among the
-permitted pleasures of our existence, those derived from the gift of
-sweet sounds, and from the divine art of musical composition, may be
-classed among the purest and most refined.
-
-They sung a few of the best madrigals of Orlando Gibbons, and Bird's
-rich harmony--"My Mind to me a Kingdom is;"--and they closed with a
-flowing glee for five voices, from Gibbons, entitled "The Silver
-Swan." The summer parlour in which they sung had been found so warm
-that the casements were half open, and the moonlight streamed in,
-scarcely overpowered by the lamp, which stood upon the table, and but
-dimly illuminated the oaken wainscot and ceiling. Except a whispered
-word, to the one sitting next, on the richness of Bird's harmonies, or
-on the delicate and sweet style of Orlando Gibbons, a long and silent
-pause followed the evening's performance, and they seemed to be
-enjoying again in memory what they had just made vocal. Suddenly there
-stole upon them from among the trees, at a short distance, a simple
-and soft melody of a most tender expression. It was the music of a
-pipe or reed, but such as none of the party had ever heard before. The
-tones were various,--now full and clear; now faint and exquisite; now
-died away into a charmed stillness; now, again, they were heard slow,
-chaste, and solemn, as if the burden of the air were some sacred hymn.
-At last, after ravishing the ears of the astonished party, who stood
-at the window, or leaned upon their chairs with mute attention, by
-breathing forth airs of strange harmony, which none could distinctly
-recognise, the invisible minstrel closed the magical prelude, in
-heavenly and melancholy notes of surpassing sweetness, with the
-favourite air of "Now, O now," by the famous Dowland, the well known
-friend of the immortal William Shakspeare. Not one of the party
-observed the sudden paleness and deep agitation of Katharine, while
-the sweet notes of this beautiful air were sounding in their ravished
-ears. All were silent, and most of them absorbed in still attention;
-and Katharine sat back in the shadow of the apartment, so that her
-countenance was hid.
-
-"Methinks it is a spirit," said Jane Lambert, with a smile.
-
-"Nay, if it be," observed Mistress Alice, "it is a good one, and has
-been gently bred.--I am sure I felt quite sorry when the last air
-ceased; and as for poor Master Cuthbert, I never saw any man so
-affected by music before.--Do you not observe it, Katharine?"
-
-"I cannot wonder, because I know that Dowland is a great favourite
-with him; and that air, played as it was, might affect a person less
-easily moved than Master Cuthbert."
-
-"Well, Kate," said Sir Oliver, "after all, it is but some piping
-stroller, perhaps, that is trudging it to Coventry fair; but, what
-with moonshine and fancy, you are making an Orpheus of the
-vagabond,--and I dare to say he would be well pleased to pipe a good
-fat hen out of the fowl house."
-
-"Really, Sir Oliver," said Jane Lambert, "you old gentlemen are very
-provoking:--you have a way of knocking down all castles in the air
-with a crab-stick; and if we do now and then get lifted off plain
-ground, you bring us down again with a vengeance. Now, even I, who am
-not very romantic, was painting to myself some disconsolate bard of
-noble presence, wandering about in sad banishment from the lady of
-his love, and solacing his despair with the melody of this pipe, given
-him, I am sure, by a magician."
-
-"Whoever he is," said Juxon, who with young Arthur had leaped from the
-window and ran to the wood, coming to the open casement a few minutes
-after, "he has certainly got the ring of Gyges; for there is not man
-or animal in that open beechery; and if any one had run forth we must
-have seen them in the close behind."
-
-"It may be, Juxon, he is perched in a tree, like your true
-nightingale," said Sir Oliver.
-
-"Nay, we looked up into the branches carefully, but could discern
-nothing: the birds at roost, though, had raised their heads from
-beneath their wings, to listen to the strange chorister. In faith, he
-is no common shepherd in clouted shoon, but a rare minstrel, such as
-poets feign Apollo. Hush! listen again."
-
-Again, after a playful prelude, the invisible musician performed the
-sweet air to which the song of Ariel in the Tempest was always sung.
-
-"Marry, Master Juxon," said Jane, "the precious songster mocks your
-pains, and gives you fair challenge to renew your hunt; but I think
-you might gather the night dew till cock-crow before you would find
-him."
-
-Every one seemed spell-bound till the air was done, and Jane Lambert
-spoke; but Juxon and Arthur now ran again to the beechery, and in a
-few minutes returned without better success than before.
-
-"Well," said Jane Lambert, "we shall soon find out who it is that this
-dainty spirit is come to honour; for if it be Sophy or me, we shall
-have him flying with us on a bat's back all the way to the Grange; and
-if it be you, dear Kate, you will have more music than sleep
-to-night."
-
-Katharine was spared all reply by Sir Oliver gravely saying, "that he
-remembered when he was a boy that beechery was said to be haunted, and
-that whenever the white lady appeared it boded evil to the family at
-Milverton." This old Philip had already mentioned to the servants, who
-stood grouped at the gate of the court-yard on the right, but none of
-whom had dared to venture down to the spot whence the music came,
-though they had seen all which passed.
-
-Master Cuthbert ventured to observe, that the music was not like the
-wailing of a ghost, which came as a forerunner of grief; nor was it of
-such solemnity, that a spirit from heaven could take delight in it:
-and he doubted not that the minstrel was plain flesh and blood; that
-he had, probably, been arrested by the sounds of their little concert,
-had amused himself by responding to them with his own pleasant
-instrument, and had practised cleverly upon their curiosity by the
-nimbleness with which he had evaded their search. But Sir Oliver shook
-his head at this natural explanation of the mystery; and the Lamberts
-and Juxon, after putting their lips to a stirrup cup of spiced wine,
-took leave of their host, and the trampling of their horses soon died
-away in the distance.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XII.
-
-    Why, alas! and are you he?
-    Be not yet those fancies changed?
-                              SIDNEY.
-
-
-To Katharine there had been no mystery: she could not doubt that the
-invisible minstrel was her cousin Francis, and that he was again too
-near for her peace or his own.
-
-Yet such is the sweet treachery of a loving heart, that she could not
-be sad to know, that one so dearly, though so hopelessly, attached to
-her, was perhaps within sight of the very window of her apartment, and
-standing upon some spot where they had formerly walked together in
-joy. Though resolved not to grant him more than one interview, and to
-dissuade him from seeking any future opportunities of intercourse, she
-could not but admit a natural feeling of delight, that she should
-once more, though but for a few brief moments, look upon him, and
-listen to his well remembered voice. In the solitude of her chamber
-she found that relief and freedom of thought which her spirit needed:
-her wakeful night was passed in reviewing former, and in shaping out
-future scenes; but of this last exercise of the mind she soon grew
-weary, for doubt hung over all her future prospects. It was about two
-hours after midnight, and the house was quite still, when Katharine,
-in a frame of mind that ill agreed with sleep and peace, arose, and
-wrapped in her night robe leaned from the casement of her chamber, and
-gazed out upon the fields and woods, and caught the sheen of the river
-as it glided beneath the holy moon. The scene was calm, the air
-serene, and her anxious spirit was soothed by contemplation. She
-remained long at the window; and as she was retiring turned her eyes
-to the left, where, beyond the Lime Walk, she could see the black
-shade of her favourite cedar near the fish-pond. In the moonlight near
-it she discerned the figure of a man walking slowly upon the grass.
-Her heart beat quick in her bosom; she leaned her brow against the
-wall: that surely was Francis. A projection of the building threw such
-a shadow over her window, that her figure could not be seen, and
-therefore she again looked forth and cast her eyes towards the cedar.
-The figure near paced slowly backwards and forwards, occasionally
-pausing for a minute or more, as if gazing at the house. Certainly it
-was Francis. Forbidden all access to the mansion by the angry
-prejudices of Sir Oliver, he had recourse to music to tell her of his
-return. They had often watched the moonbeams together from the terrace
-below; they had often been sheltered together beneath the broad arms
-of that very cedar in the heats of noon, till, suddenly, as by
-surprise, they loved and after shunned each other, from the sad
-knowledge that the barriers to their union were many, were cold, and
-were impassable. As all these after-thoughts crossed her noble mind,
-she suffered herself to look upon her cousin where he kept his lonely
-vigil, with that deep interest which must ever be inseparable from
-that being in whose heart we know that our image is enshrined and
-cherished.
-
-When the morning star shone brightly out the figure of Francis
-suddenly disappeared. Katharine now withdrew from the casement; and,
-exhausted by the various emotions, which had filled and troubled her
-anxious bosom with apprehension and with delight, she threw herself on
-her bed without taking off her robe, and slept so very long and
-profoundly, that when she awoke she found Mistress Alice seated by her
-side, with a look of affectionate alarm upon her kind face, and her
-maid frightened and in tears. It was already high noon. Katharine,
-however, knew nothing of the lapse of time; and imagining she might be
-an hour later than usual, was raising herself up with some expression
-about her strange fit of sleepiness, when her aunt put her hand gently
-upon her, and bade her lie down again. "When Master Randal has seen
-you, my dear," she said, "you shall be undressed, and have your bed
-made, and be put to rest properly and with comfort. He is below, and
-has been here this half hour, but he wished that your slumber should
-not be broken."
-
-But the effort to rise had already shown Katharine the unwelcome
-truth--she was in a high fever:--her head ached, her lips were
-parched, her mouth was dry, her skin was burning.
-
-The good doctor was instantly summoned; and having examined her case
-with very careful attention, directed that she should be confined to
-her bed, and that her chamber should be kept dark and still.
-
-"It was a violent fever," he said, "which would probably, in another
-stage, take an intermittent form;" but evidently, from the doctor's
-manner, it was a case of danger, demanding great watchfulness and
-skilful treatment.
-
-Promising Mistress Alice that his visits should be as frequent as
-possible, he returned to Warwick at speed, accompanied by a servant,
-who was to bring back the medicines prescribed.
-
-The trouble of Sir Oliver almost amounted to terror. His mind was by
-no means superior to those fears which vulgar errors impose; and as,
-in addition to the strange music of the evening before, he had that
-very morning seen a hare cross the high road just before his horse's
-feet, he augured no less a calamity than a fatal end to the sudden
-illness of his beloved daughter.
-
-Cuthbert Noble, however, rose to the occasion; and though it is
-certain that no individual in the family felt a more tender affection
-and concern for Katharine Heywood than he did, yet he was enabled, by
-a wise sympathy, to compose the fears and animate the hopes of Sir
-Oliver, and indeed of an entire household; for a despondency fell upon
-all, which the most comfortable arguments of plain reason and sound
-religion did but imperfectly remove.
-
-For three days the life of Katharine Heywood was, in truth, in very
-imminent danger, and the fever was of that malignant nature which
-defied all ordinary treatment: but as the doctor was a man of great
-decision and boldness in his practice, and, at the same time, one who
-committed all events with humility and simplicity to the will of God,
-he fought bravely with the disease; and after the third night of
-patient watching and vigorous experiments, he subdued it so far that
-he could announce to Sir Oliver the safety of his daughter. The crisis
-was passed; but her weakness was great, and her recovery very gradual.
-For the first three days of her attack she was almost without
-consciousness; but though her head became light, and her mind was
-confused, she uttered nothing in her wanderings which attracted the
-particular notice of Mistress Alice, or any of her attendants, or in
-the least betrayed the secret of her heart.
-
-Meanwhile Francis Heywood, in ignorance of the sad condition of his
-cousin Katharine, endured all the agony of a suspicion that he was at
-once neglected and scorned by her who had been the vision of his
-lonely hours of labour in a remote plantation, and who, as the very
-star of his destiny, had led him back again to the land in which she
-dwelt, as a land of promise. Liberty was his watchword; and it is true
-that when letters spoke so confidently of a civil war as inevitable,
-he obtained his father's permission to return to England, that he
-might join his patriotic countrymen in their contention for the rights
-of civil and religious liberty. Nor was this a mere pretext for escape
-from the tame drudgery of colonial life,--the cause of freedom was
-sacred in his sight, and was precious to his heart. He came to draw
-the sword, and bare his bosom in the battle. He had a life to offer on
-the altar of duty, and he joyously brought the willing sacrifice; but
-yet there lay at the bottom of his heart one bright, one good hope. He
-might be lifted, by the fortunes of this war, to renown, to rank, to
-fortune; he might survive all its chances; he might see peace and
-happiness restored:--the present relations between himself and his
-wealthy uncle might be greatly altered; the old prejudices against him
-might at last give way, and the crowning reward of all his honours and
-his fortunes might be the hand of Katharine. This was his dream by
-day--this was his dream by night:--like some chaste and solemn star,
-seen brightly shining in solitary and calm glory at the extremity of a
-narrow and gloomy valley, darkened by the shadows of lofty mountains,
-so the majestic loveliness of his cousin Katharine, irradiated by all
-her virtues, shone out beyond the cloudy path of blood and peril, as
-the blissful end and rest of all his labours.
-
-He had not passed a night of such rapture since he last parted from
-his cousin as that on which he reached Milverton, and the whole of
-which he mused away within sight of the mansion that contained the
-noble object of his attachment.
-
-Although he was fully persuaded that he should be recognised by
-Katharine as the wandering musician, yet he was in doubt whether she
-would afford him an immediate opportunity of meeting her alone;
-therefore he prepared an earnest appeal to her, in characters which,
-though enigmatical to others, would, he well knew, be readily
-understood by herself. The moon shone that night with so clear a
-brightness, that he had no sort of difficulty in executing his design.
-He made a slight fancy sketch, on a small piece of paper, of a setting
-sun; he introduced the cedar in the fore-ground, and in one corner he
-wrote, in a small hand, the Italian word "implora:" on the back of
-this paper he faintly sketched a dial-plate, the shadow touching the
-figure of seven in the evening. He placed this between the leaves of a
-copy of Spenser's "Fairy Queen," which he found upon the seat, and
-which he remembered to have been the garden companion of his fair
-cousin in former days. When, on the following evening, the sun had
-set, and the silver light of the moon touched all objects with the
-hues of peace, Francis repaired to the appointed spot with eager
-steps, and in confident hope that he should once more behold her for
-whom he had all that tender reverence which angelic purity could alone
-inspire. He seated himself beneath the well-known tree, and saw with
-pleasure that the book had been taken away. Katharine, then, had
-received his "implora," and she would not--she could not--disappoint
-him, and deny his prayer. The long delay of her coming perplexed him;
-and, after an hour of anxious waiting, every succeeding minute was
-insupportably slow, and weighty with sadness. He left and resumed his
-seat with restless discomposure; he paced the neighbouring bank; he
-went into the Lime Walk, to watch for the first glimpse of her distant
-form; at last, as he was approaching the cedar tree, with his eyes
-bent on the ground, he for the first time observed a fragment of paper
-lying near the trunk:--he took it up--it was a part of his note; it
-had been torn in halves, and trodden in the dust; it was divided at
-the very word "implora." The change of his feeling was, for the
-moment, terrible. All that he had read or heard of the pride, the
-caprice, and inconstancy of woman, rushed upon his memory to
-strengthen his black suspicions, and inflame his sudden indignation.
-But this rage was very soon exhausted, and was succeeded by a sorrow
-weak as that of infants. He did not weep,--but a few hot tears slowly
-gathered at long intervals, and fell heavily on the earth. And then he
-railed upon himself, and defended her neglect of him.
-
-"It was that accursed music: she ever scorned such fanciful and
-romantic folly:--how dared I to expect that she, whose words and ways
-are open as the clear sunshine of noon, should come in the shadows of
-evening, with silent footsteps, to a secret meeting with such an
-outcast as me--one who may not ring the bell of his kinsman's gate
-with better hope than that of rude dismissal? It is all well,
-Katharine, and yet I loved you loyally, and still will love you: of
-that privilege none can rob me. Like yon planet above me, you are a
-common blessing, for which the comforted pilgrim in this thorny
-wilderness glances his eye upward to the bounteous heavens, and thanks
-his God."
-
-Another, but a gloomier, vigil in the grounds of Milverton was thus
-passed by Francis; and again, when the dawn approached, he withdrew,
-and retired to a small hostelry in the suburbs of Warwick, where for
-his better concealment he had taken up his lodging. Here, however,
-some relief, if such it could be called, was awaiting him; for as he
-lay reposing on his bed, tired, yet unable to sleep, he overheard the
-following dialogue between his hostess and a passer by:--
-
-"Hast thou heard the bad news from Milverton, dame?" said the latter.
-
-"No; I have not seen my girl a week come to-morrow."
-
-"Eh, dear, don't you be frighted for your Ruth, but they've got the
-fever there quite bad. Master Randal, the 'pothecary, was over there
-three times yesterday, and all last night."
-
-"Lord, goody, what shall I do? I must go: my poor dear child is so
-delicate for taking of fever, she will be sure to catch it. Who is it
-that ha got it? is it the old gentleman, or Mistress Alice?"
-
-"No, God be merciful to her, 't is that dear, kind, blessed young
-lady, Mistress Katharine; and they are all in a great take on about
-her; for they say that the very night before she was took bad, her
-poor dear mother's ghost was seen on the terrace by moonlight, and
-sung beautiful, and for all every body was so frighted, yet they say
-it was like as if an angel had come down out of heaven; and they say,
-it is a sure sign that Mistress Katharine will die, and go happy."
-
-There is nothing more strange than the peculiar character of the
-selfishness of love--but it is ever the same. Francis felt a deep, a
-true, an anxious concern for the illness of Katharine: he was keenly
-afflicted with self-reproach at the thought that she might perhaps
-have been so disturbed by his sudden and strange announcement of his
-return as to have been made nervous and unwell. But this sorrow, ay,
-and the very apprehension of her death, (which feeling, however, he
-did not share,) would have been more endurable than the thought that
-he was forgotten, neglected, and scorned by one whom his soul held
-dear. However, he was, in his own judgment, persuaded that her
-illness, and all the circumstances attending it, were much exaggerated
-by those superstitious fears of the household, for which he could
-himself so very easily account. Descending, therefore, from his
-chamber, while the old gossips were continuing their talk, he took
-occasion, as soon as her neighbour had passed on, to urge his hostess
-to lose no time in going to inquire after her daughter; observing that
-he had often heard of the family at Milverton, and could not but feel
-a hope that the lady of whom they spoke would soon recover.
-
-"Precious angel," said the old woman: "I don't know why we should wish
-it, I am sure, except it be for the sake of others; for there was
-never a body fitter for heaven than that dear young lady."
-
-It was with keen anguish that, upon the return of his poor hostess in
-the afternoon, he learned that the life of Katharine was really in
-danger. At sunset he took his cloak, and passed the night in a
-position near the wood, from whence he could command the curtained
-window of the sufferer, and watch the dim light within, and those
-gloomy shadows which, as nurse or attendant slowly crossed the
-chamber, occasionally obscured it.
-
-His was a mind in which hope was ever anticipating enjoyment, or fear
-meeting and realising the dreaded misfortune. Now, therefore, with the
-lamp of a sick room burning faint before him, and with scenery around
-all silvery and spiritual, lying hushed and calm in a silence solemn
-as the grave, and yet sweet and peaceful as that of heaven, he
-resigned himself to the belief that Katharine was dying, or, rather,
-was departing to the abode of blessed spirits. He grew reconciled to
-the thought. No clouds of terror darkened it; and, as her pale image
-arose distinctly before his mind's eye, he became elevated with the
-sentiment of her sure and celestial happiness; and there was a feeling
-of ecstasy in the idea that he might cherish his love for her, as a
-sacred thing, for ever.
-
-Again, on the following night, he lay enfolded in his cloak, or leaned
-against a distant tree, or paced like a sentinel his lonely round,
-with his eyes fixed on the light in Katharine's chamber, and his
-meditations were sweet. But how tenderly he had been rocked in the
-cradle of sorrow, and how willingly he had allowed the true state of
-his own heart to be hidden from himself by fancied consolations, was
-evident, when, on returning from his watch upon the third morning, he
-learned from his hostess that the doctor had come home very early,
-and said, that the dear lady was out of danger. He had just command
-enough over his feelings not to betray to her that he took a private
-and deep interest in her intelligence; but, rushing up to his room,
-his hopes, his fears, his grief, his joy, his gratitude, gushed forth
-from his pent-up bosom in a flood of silent tears. He wept upon his
-knees.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XIII.
-
-    What man was he talked with you?
-           _Much Ado about Nothing._
-
-
-It was not till the crisis of danger was already past that the illness
-of Katharine became known at Bolton Grange, or at Old Beech.
-
-Jane Lambert was no sooner apprised of it than she hastened to her
-friend, and insisted, with all the devotion and tenderness of a
-sister, on being permitted to divide with Mistress Alice the duties of
-her present charge.
-
-Katharine loved Jane, and was comforted to have her seated near her,
-and was soothed by her affection: it was evident, however, to the
-latter, that something weighed heavily upon the spirits of her friend,
-and that the feelings of hope and the clear promise of recovery, did
-not impart to her all the gratitude and cheerfulness which might be
-naturally expected in the pleasant dawn of convalescence.
-
-She had not been many days at Milverton when an incident occurred
-which discovered the cause of her anxiety.
-
-As Jane was looking from the window in the afternoon, and remarking to
-Katharine on the beautiful effect of the low autumn lights, she
-observed the figure of a man with folded arms leaning near a tree in
-the beechery, and she playfully exclaimed, "That must certainly be the
-musical ghost, which played so sweetly, and brought us all such bad
-luck, and frightened every body in Milverton House but your dear self,
-and the grave Master Cuthbert:--how I should like to have the
-treacherous creature caught."
-
-"Dear lady," said Katharine's maid, "how can you talk so boldly?--why
-nobody can catch a spirit. It is only air."
-
-"I have a notion, good lass," replied Jane, "that it is very proper
-flesh and blood, and if I were a man, and not a maid, would try my
-speed with it, and bring it to parley. I should like to hear the
-voice of it, or see its face, and tell it of all the mischief it has
-done."
-
-"Well-a-day! what a heart you have, lady! There is not one in the
-kitchen but stout Richard would venture that; and though he could not
-find any thing the other day when he followed it, he's obstinate as a
-mule, and says it's no ghost, but a young gallant that's under hiding
-at my mother's, in Warwick Liberties; but there is nobody thinks with
-him at Milverton."
-
-"Well, then, I am of Richard's way of thinking, in part:--it is a tall
-man; but whether young, and whether under hiding, I know not."
-
-"Why, there is a gentleman under hiding at my mother's, sure enough,
-and one that knows my lady, as she says, and was quite glad when he
-heard that she first began to mend."
-
-"Ruth," said Katharine, raising her head from the pillow, "if you will
-go and make me some fresh barley water, I think I shall like it better
-than this fever drink." The wish was no sooner expressed than her maid
-vanished to do her bidding, and Katharine and her friend Jane were
-left by themselves.
-
-"Jane," said the invalid, "come and sit by me: I have something to
-tell you, and I have to ask of you a very strange favour. I desired to
-relieve my heart of its burden, but have hitherto delayed it. You
-know, Jane, that I love you, and that I have confidence in your
-attachment to me; but if it were not for my present helplessness,
-which compels me to engage your service as a true friend, whose good
-sense and firm principles I can safely trust, the subject which I am
-about to speak of would never have passed my lips even to you. The
-gentleman of whom they speak is my cousin Francis. He it was who so
-perplexed and alarmed the family with his mysterious music, and who
-still, I fear, haunts the same spot in silence and anxiety."
-
-"Your cousin Francis!--why, dear Kate, I thought he was in America!"
-
-"And I myself thought so until the night when he made his return known
-to me in tones which I could not mistake, and the meaning of which I
-but too well understood."
-
-"I have been long aware, Katharine, that he loved you."
-
-"You have, I believe, already discerned it. Alas! it is true--fatally
-for his own happiness and for mine;--but, Jane, have you courage for
-the task which I would impose upon you?"
-
-"Yes, Kate: you can ask me nothing too hard for me, if I can only feel
-that I do what may comfort you."
-
-"Well, Jane, you must contrive to see my cousin Francis; to deliver to
-him a note from me with your own hands, and to urge his immediate
-departure from this neighbourhood. Now, love, bring me those small
-tablets and paper, and support me while I write the few words which I
-would say."
-
-It was a sight for pity to see that noble damsel, her back propped by
-pillows, and the arm of her young friend tenderly supporting her,
-trace in silence and with a nervous hand the few lines which were to
-banish from the neighbourhood of Milverton her worthy and devoted
-lover.
-
-The task was soon done; and with the care as of a mother Jane Lambert
-again arranged the pillows for the aching head of Katharine; and the
-pale sufferer sunk back exhausted into the recumbent posture, and
-heaved a sigh so sad, that the eyes of Jane filled with thick tears.
-She averted her head to wipe them away, that they might not distress
-her friend, and putting the unsealed billet in her bosom, left the
-chamber with a thoughtful step, to do her very delicate and difficult
-office. She went to her own room, and taking a dark mantle with a
-hood, such as was the common church-going and street costume of women
-of the respectable middle classes of that period, she threw it across
-her arm, and walked through the Lime Walk, and by the fish ponds, to a
-small gate at the farther end of the grounds, by which she could gain
-a footpath that led across the fields to Warwick. She had no sooner
-passed the gate than she put on her cloak, and passing the hood over
-her head, that she might muffle and conceal her features, if she met
-any one, she proceeded towards the city. It was about four o'clock in
-the afternoon, and the sky was lowering and cloudy. She was anxious
-about her strange mission, and settling in her mind what she should do
-when she reached the hostelry, whither she was now bending her steps,
-and how she should contrive the interview with Francis, when the sound
-of steps very closely following suddenly startled her: the very object
-of her search had overtaken her, and was already at her side. At
-first, however, she was not aware of this, although the circumstance
-of this passenger being muffled, as closely as herself, awakened her
-suspicions of the truth, and forbade the alarm she would otherwise
-have felt at finding herself in a very lonely part of the pathway in
-such company. He did not stop when he overtook her, but went a few
-steps onward, as if to re-assure her before he ventured to speak. He
-crossed a stile and walked some paces without turning his head, till
-she had also crossed it; when loitering a little, till she was close
-to him, he stepped aside from the path, and gently put a question that
-very directly introduced them to each other, and gave Jane the ready
-opportunity of delivering her note, and fulfilling the further wishes
-of her dear Katharine.
-
-"You are from Milverton House, as I think, damsel?"
-
-"Even so, master," replied Jane.
-
-"Is the noble young mistress better to-day?"
-
-"I thank God she is; but it will be long ere she be quite well again."
-
-"She is out of all pain, I hope?"
-
-"Yes, she hath no bodily pain, save that which arises from weakness;
-and for such pain of mind as disquiets her it may be, in great part,
-removed by yourself, Master Francis."
-
-Thus saying, she threw back her hood, and Francis, who had before
-discovered his own features, recognised those of Jane Lambert. "I bear
-you a note from your cousin Katharine," she added, as he started at
-her utterance of his name. She drew it forth from her bosom, and
-placed it in his hand. He turned from her that he might read it
-without observation; but Jane could see by his action that he kissed
-it, and pressed it to his heart. With a glance it was perused, and
-then again and again; and with a bent head and staggering step he
-moved a few paces from Jane, and spoke in tones of anguish to himself
-words which she could not distinguish. At last, collecting himself, he
-returned towards the fair messenger of his Katharine, with a manly
-composure, and said, "Tell my beloved cousin that I will obey; that
-her wish is as a law to me: how could she dream that I would suffer
-the words of any one to outweigh her own?--but, she tells me that you
-are her devoted and faithful friend, and that to you I may safely
-intrust the object of my return, and the news of my father. There is,
-indeed, one subject on which she forbids me to speak even to herself;
-therefore my answer may be brief enough. My father is well:--all her
-kinsfolk in the Plantations are well, and free, and happy. For the
-object of my sudden return--it is the love of my country--a love that
-will not accept a divided heart; and yet the other love that lay
-enshrined beside it, was pure, was noble, was worthy such alliance,
-has filled my thoughts by day, has blessed the visions of my lonely
-nights. Tell Katharine she hath used me hardly--no, no, do not tell
-her that--not hardly--say that she bids me do something I cannot do--I
-am not of her order--forget her I never can--she is with me wherever I
-go--in all things that I do I think of her--and still must, if I
-would have fair and noble thoughts to bear me company."
-
-"Such things, Master Francis, I may not carry to her ear. There is
-about her a reserve so maidenly and grave, she would chide her own
-messenger for proving so unfaithful;--but I may tell her that your
-father is well; that loyalty hath brought you home; and that you will
-quit these parts instantly--for that it is, methinks, she most
-earnestly requests of you."
-
-"Even so: on that she is most urgent--cruel Katharine."
-
-"Say, rather, wise, dutiful, loyal Katharine."
-
-"Loyal, loyal!--that is a word of many imports. I, too, am loyal, and
-will learn to love the word:--mind you tell her that I am loyal."
-
-"Can I truly tell her so?"
-
-"Yes, truly:--but enough of this, fair girl,--go back to her who sent
-thee--wait, you are her friend--you nurse her--come, let me look into
-thine eyes--give me thy hand--on my knees I kiss it--her cheek is
-pale--I know it is--it must be--go touch it with thy hand, and offer
-there the chaste cold homage of my sorrow. You see that I am sad,
-lady--go--bless you--you are weeping:--how is this, girl?--be not so
-childish--a friend of Katharine's should not be weak--I, you see, am
-calm and strong--my hand does not tremble--and these eyes are
-dry--methinks my heart is frozen--tell her so."
-
-Jane Lambert stood fixed as a statue while he thus spoke; and as she
-watched him walking fast away, she felt, for the first time in her
-life, what it must be to have a lover, and to be the supreme object of
-such a man's affection. Her cheek was stained with tears--her face
-flushed with agitation--her whole air disordered and absent. She
-followed with her eyes the tall figure of Francis, till a turn in the
-pathway hid him from her view, and then walked slowly back to
-Milverton.
-
-In the very first field she met George Juxon, and it was evident to
-her, from his manner, as he stopped and spoke to her, that he must
-have witnessed, at least, the close of her interview with Francis.
-There was a surprise in his look, and something of embarrassment, as
-he shook her by the hand, and asked if she was well; but he did not
-seem to expect any particular reply, nor indeed did he offer to return
-with her to the house, though she was but too conscious that her
-faintness and discomposure might have naturally invited such an
-attention. Observing, coldly, that he had some business at a builder's
-yard in Warwick, but that he should return to sup and sleep at
-Milverton, he leisurely pursued his path to the city.
-
-Jane's heart gave way to the multitude of troublous and perplexing
-thoughts which now beset her; and leaning near a friendly tree, she
-found a momentary relief in a passionate flood of warm tears.
-
-Her trial was strange. The feelings which had been excited were
-altogether new to her; and the effect of the interview with
-Katharine's devoted cousin, combined with the cross and perplexing
-incident of her meeting with Juxon so immediately after, as to make it
-certain that he had seen her part from Francis Heywood, had very
-naturally overcome the ordinary courage and the cheerful composure of
-her character.
-
-She had witnessed, in the agitated Francis, the emotions of love. The
-sentiment, which thus shook him, she had never yet inspired--she had
-never felt for any one. Such love had been to her the poet's fable;
-but it would never again be so deemed of by her;--and something that
-made her heart throb and ache within her told truly the want of that
-heart, and unsealed a fountain of affection ready to overflow upon any
-being in whom she might be fortunate enough to find the noble
-qualities of a manly heart, and the gentle ways and genuine fervours
-of an ardent lover.
-
-It was a cruel thought that she must now be subject to suspicions, if
-not of lightness, yet of a secret attachment and stolen interviews
-with the object of it. Nor was the oppression of this thought at all
-weakened by the reflection that George Juxon, the very man whose good
-opinion she most valued, had seen her in a situation, and under
-circumstances, which he could not by any possibility interpret truly,
-and which her duty to Katharine forbade her to explain, however
-deeply her own character or happiness might suffer. In one short hour
-she had gathered an experience that filled her with wonder, and had
-incurred a suspicion that subjected her to censure and threatened her
-with misery. The consciousness of innocence could not restore to her
-the respect of Juxon, nor exempt her from the severe penalties with
-which the levity and imprudence of the thoughtless of her own sex are
-ever silently visited by the other, when some painful discovery of a
-woman's guile chills and revolts them.
-
-However in her case, the judgment of Juxon had not been harsh; but, of
-course, when he saw a man upon his knees before her--when he
-considered the loneliness of their place of interview--the cloaks
-evidently worn for disguise--and the agitated and discomposed
-appearance of Jane Lambert--he, at once, decided that she was
-betrothed to a lover, whom for fear or for shame she dared not openly
-avow.
-
-He had truly liked Jane, for her spirit, her sense, and, above all,
-for her devotion to Katharine Heywood; and his liking might soon have
-grown to a manly love,--but the flow of his admiration was now
-suddenly checked and frozen, and he whistled "Woman's a Riddle" all
-the way to Warwick and back again.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XIV.
-
-    O how full of briars is this working-day world!
-                                  _As you Like it._
-
-
-As soon as the affectionate Jane had entirely recovered her
-self-possession, she left her chamber, and repaired to Katharine. It
-was the dark evening hour of autumn, and there was no light in the
-room of the invalid but that emitted from the glowing embers on the
-hearth. Jane seated herself by the bedside, and, taking the hand of
-Katharine, gently pressed it, and said,--
-
-"My dear Kate, I have done all that you wished; and I have sped well."
-
-"You have, then, seen Francis?"
-
-"Yes; I put your note into his own hands. He was much affected; but he
-promised obedience to your wishes at once."
-
-Katharine gave a sigh, and turned her face to the wall. There was a
-short pause of silence before Jane proceeded:--
-
-"He bade me tell you that his father and your kinsfolk in America are
-well; and that the immediate object of his return is the love of his
-country."
-
-"Ah, Jane! I know what that means. I remember too well all the warm
-and bitter words that passed between my father and his on that
-subject. Would he had stayed in the peaceful Plantations! The ocean
-between us was not a wider separation than the gulf that divides party
-from party at home; besides, Jane, he is deluded: they will play upon
-his generous nature,--they will make a traitor of him. Rebellion is as
-the sin of witchcraft. Would he had stayed abroad!"
-
-"I must not forget, Katharine, to tell you that he strictly charged me
-to say that he was loyal. 'It is a word,' said he, 'of many
-imports:'--mind you tell her that I am loyal.'--No, dear Katharine,
-his is no traitor's heart: he may be on the wrong side of the
-quarrel, but he is the King's true subject at the bottom."
-
-"Hush! Jane; whisper not these dangerous words,--there is deceit in
-them. The soul's enemy finds each of us treacherous enough in will,
-and crooked enough in judgment, without the weak and indulgent folly
-of our friends. Be true to me,--be English, Jane:--I love you passing
-well."
-
-Jane kissed her pale cheek; and there was another pause. At last
-Katharine said, in a very low voice,--
-
-"How was Cousin Francis looking? Is he in health?"
-
-"His complexion is more brown, and he has less colour than formerly;
-his countenance, too, is very grave--almost sad; yet there is a steady
-fire in his eyes; and he is as graceful and as strong as ever. But for
-his late care and watching, I should say he was better in health than
-when he left Milverton for America."
-
-"He was not hurt at my note, I hope,--was he, Jane? Speak truly."
-
-"Not hurt; but disappointed, certainly. However, he is noble and
-sensible, and saw that it was right."
-
-"You think so."
-
-"I am sure of it, by his manner."
-
-"Do you think he will go away directly?"
-
-"Yes; perhaps he is already gone. I could see in the firm and resolute
-step with which he walked away from me that his decision was taken."
-
-"Then it was not at the hostelry that you saw him? Where did you meet
-him?"
-
-Jane now detailed, in part, the circumstances of their interview, as
-already related; suppressing all mention of the passionate words and
-gestures of Francis, and any notice of her having been seen in his
-company by Juxon. It had been the first intention of Jane to proceed
-to the house of Ruth's mother, on whose protection she could depend,
-and to wait there till Francis, who she doubted not was the lodger
-spoken of, should return thither; for, before Jane left Milverton
-House, Francis had already disappeared from the Beechery. It would be
-easy to invent some plausible excuse to Ruth's mother for her visit
-to Warwick; and, having contrived her interview with Francis as if by
-accident, to return to Milverton, if belated till dusk, under the old
-woman's escort. But this plan was rendered unnecessary by the
-circumstance of Francis overtaking Jane upon her way to the city.
-
-"My dear affectionate girl," said Katharine to her sweet friend, "how
-much, how very much, I thank you:--kiss me, dear, and leave me to
-compose myself, if I can, to sleep."
-
-But sleep was impossible in her frame of mind at that moment:--it was
-solitude she needed, that she might meditate and weep alone. However,
-there was a high sound principle ever at work in her bosom; so that a
-little solitary and prayerful reflection never failed to restore the
-calmness of her mind, and the strength of her resolutions.
-
-The spirit of Jane Lambert was of another sort; and, restored to the
-privacy of her own chamber, she gave a free vent to the sorrow and
-anxiety which she had so courageously suppressed before Katharine.
-
-When she descended to the hall to supper, and all the party were
-assembled, she remarked or fancied that George Juxon expressly avoided
-seating himself near her; and, after asking her one or two questions
-about the progress of Katharine's recovery, he addressed her no more.
-
-Her pride was a little wounded to observe that he was in high and
-careless spirits, and became quite the life of the table. Cuthbert,
-too, was, for him, unusually cheerful. Sir Oliver seemed in great good
-humour; and the boy Arthur was radiant with delightful and joyous
-anticipations of the new world, which an entrance at Oxford would open
-before him. Literary and characteristic anecdotes of distinguished and
-eccentric scholars of both universities, in times past as well as
-present, enlivened the social meal; and though but a very thin
-partition separated the subjects of university discipline from those
-of church polity and state government, neither were introduced that
-evening.
-
-Jane thought that she had never before discerned so clearly the fine
-qualities of Juxon;--his sound but charitable judgment, his accurate
-memory, the kindliness of his nature, and the playfulness of his
-stories, at once charmed and depressed her. She wished to leave the
-table; yet still she lingered on, listening and irresolute; and the
-proposal to retire was first made by Mistress Alice.
-
-An avowed contempt for the opinion of the many is not inconsistent
-with a very earnest and anxious regard for the judgment of the few
-whom we chance to admire and esteem. The dear, high-spirited girl, who
-thought herself above the censure of the world, and indifferent to its
-voice, was now, though clear from the slightest reproach of
-conscience, agonised with apprehensions lest she should have forfeited
-the respect of George Juxon. When, at a later hour, the household was
-assembled for the evening service, and the prayers were reverently
-read by Juxon, her heart beat in her bosom so quick and loud as to be
-audible to Cuthbert Noble, who kneeled near her. As soon as they rose,
-he regarded her with a look of such compassionate inquiry, that Jane,
-fearing he was about to question her concerning her health, and not
-daring to trust herself with a reply, abruptly left the apartment.
-
-Juxon had himself observed her flushed cheek and her disturbed
-manners, and began to entertain very serious alarm for her. How far
-his duty as a friend, and, above all, as a Christian minister,
-authorised him to seek acquaintance with the nature and extent of
-those secret engagements of Jane Lambert, which he could not but fear,
-from her evident agitation, were at variance with plain principle and
-prudence, it was not easy for him to resolve. He truly liked her
-frank, generous, and inartificial character. He knew full well that in
-her brother she had neither a kind, a careful, or a wise guardian. It
-was surely wrong to stand upon the brink of a whirlpool, and see any
-one drawn down to ruin, whom it was in our power, if not to save, at
-least to admonish of the danger. His mind instantly reverted to the
-noble Katharine as the proper channel through which his manly and
-benevolent warnings might be safely conveyed with delicacy and
-effect. But many days might yet elapse ere the opportunity of a
-conversation with Katharine might occur; for she was confined not only
-to her chamber, but to her bed. Should he venture to hint his fears to
-herself? Yes: if she was the character he yet hoped to find her, it
-would be taken well; if not, it would matter very little in what light
-she viewed his disinterested service.
-
-On the following morning, soon after breakfast, he saw Jane Lambert by
-herself in the Lime Walk, and he joined her.
-
-She looked surprised and embarrassed; and he was not without a fear
-that his presence at that moment was inconvenient and irksome, and
-very possibly prevented her going forth to an interview with her lover
-in the very same fields where he had met her the evening before.
-
-However, from the very fear he took courage; and, after the common
-salutations and usual words about the garden and the weather had
-passed, he broke the subject thus:--
-
-"Mistress Jane, you are too little acquainted with the world for your
-own happiness, or rather, for your security,--may a friend say this
-without offending you?"
-
-"A friend may say any thing to me, Master Juxon, that a damsel may not
-blush to hear."
-
-"I understand you--I must say no more--and yet I meant you well."
-
-"But good intentions do often tread upon the foot just where it is
-most tender."
-
-"Well, lady, enough: I will spare your maiden blushes; only remember,
-of our sex, that he doth always act most openly who is most loyal."
-
-"Loyal! Master Juxon, what mean you? Did you then so far forget
-yourself as to follow and trace out the gentleman whom you last
-evening stood watching as he parted from me?--I do not understand
-you."
-
-"Mistress Jane, you should have known me better;--so far from watching
-your interview with the strange gentleman with whom I saw you, it was
-to avoid intrusion that I waited in the adjoining close till you
-parted from him, and would have gone back again altogether, but for
-the great circuit and the business which I had in Warwick."
-
-"You saw us part, then?"
-
-"Yes, to my wonder, and to my sorrow that my eyes had caught an action
-meant only for your own. Lady, forgive the word; but at lovers' oaths
-forget not that Cupid laughs:--may Jane Lambert never be won by any
-suitor who does not openly woo her!"
-
-"Amen to your kind wish, Master Juxon--so be it:--I know what you
-think, and am sorry, but I cannot help it;--however, you are not my
-father confessor, nor do I ever wish to have one."
-
-"True, lady; but though not your confessor, I am your friend, your
-true and bold friend, or I should never have dared to utter what I
-have done. I can have no object in these hints but your best and
-highest interest: that which I have noticed to yourself I shall never
-mention to any other, except, perhaps, to Katharine Heywood, from
-whose lips whatever falls is wise and noble."
-
-"O! not to her--name not this idle matter to her. Promise me, Juxon,
-that you will not breathe a syllable about it to her. I shall be more
-unhappy if you do than I am already."
-
-"Alas! you are then unhappy, and would shun the best help and
-consolation which friendship would provide for you. No, this I cannot
-promise; on the contrary, I am only confirmed in the propriety of my
-intention."
-
-"Well, I implore you again, and earnestly, not to speak upon this
-subject to Katharine. As you value my peace of mind, be silent upon it
-to all: there is a mystery about it I may not unfold. I know that
-appearances are against me: I am sorry for your hard thoughts, but I
-must bear them. I could wish to explain these cross circumstances to
-you, but am not free to do so without violating a sacred duty. Promise
-me that you will meet my wish." Thus saying, she put her hand upon his
-arm, and looked into his face with wet and beseeching eyes. "Juxon,
-you have always been plain and true, and friendly to me; and though I
-and my perplexities ill deserve your interest or care, promise me
-that you will not name them to dear Katharine."
-
-For a moment Juxon was affected by the wild earnestness of her manner;
-and he thought he had never seen more heart or feeling in the
-expression of a human countenance than in the flushed face of Jane
-Lambert.
-
-"Well, Mistress Jane, you are so urgent, that I must promise to obey
-your will; but it grieves me to see you thus sadly troubled. May God
-help you, and guide you, and guard you, and keep you from evil, that
-it may not grieve you! Your secret is safe with me."
-
-"And shall I lose your friendship?"
-
-"No, lady, never: would only that it may have worth sufficient in your
-eyes to be used aright!"
-
-"Believe me, I shall never forget it, and I will never do aught to
-forfeit such a treasure;"--so saying, she hurried away, with tears in
-her eyes, and left him absorbed in a state of feeling which cannot be
-described.
-
-The more he thought of what he had witnessed the evening before, and
-the more he considered the conversation which had just passed, the
-more satisfied he was that Jane Lambert was secretly betrothed to some
-one whom she dared not openly acknowledge as her lover. It was also
-plain, that, for some powerful reason, she had not confided the secret
-of this attachment even to Katharine, who was her bosom friend. He had
-comfort in remembering that nothing could be more respectful than the
-action of the stranger, when he kissed her hand at parting; and
-combining this with her own honest looks and proud though mysterious
-expressions, he was satisfied that, up to the present moment, she had
-taken no irrevocable step. There was, moreover, a warm strength in her
-last words, that assured him his friendly cautions were not thrown
-away, and that his motives were not misinterpreted. Upon the whole, he
-was justified, to his own mind, in what he had done; and his thoughts
-rested upon the character of Jane with greater interest than it had
-ever before excited in him.
-
-"How very generous and devoted would be the love of such a girl,"
-said he to himself: "what a proud spirit, what an affectionate heart,
-she has; what a fire there is in her fine eyes--I never before saw her
-look half so beautiful:--it is clear that they have been lighted up by
-love:--well, God grant that the man of her choice may be worthy of
-it!"
-
-He now sauntered slowly back to the house; and entering the library,
-found Cuthbert Noble sitting alone, and making extracts from an old
-folio volume.
-
-"You see," said the young tutor, "I am making preparations for my
-departure from Milverton; but thus I may innocently suck honey from
-the hives of Sir Oliver, without robbing him, or those who come after
-him, of the smallest portion of such sweets as they contain."
-
-"And what may be your study?" said Juxon, as he came up to the table,
-and looked over him.
-
-"A curious work," replied Cuthbert, "containing the most remarkable
-pieces of John Huss, together with his life--imprinted in the last
-century at Augsburg."
-
-"Friend Cuthbert, you are too constant in these serious and solemn
-studies and speculations."
-
-"Master Juxon," answered the pale youth, "they are every thing or they
-are nothing."
-
-"Verily, for my part I think divine truth is as clear and glorious as
-the sun in the firmament; and to warm ourselves, and to walk in the
-light of it, is better wisdom than to read so many commentaries and
-discourses upon it."
-
-"May we not sometimes lie indolently warming ourselves by a fire of
-our own, and fancy it as comfortable as basking in the sun? Walking in
-the light is no such easy matter; and in my case I find that the
-words, and, above all, the examples, of those who have earnestly
-contended for the truth, as so many outstretched and helping hands to
-assist me in climbing the hill."
-
-"What hill?"
-
-"The high hill, Master Juxon, where the reformers and martyrs of past
-times have left the print of their blessed footsteps."
-
-"Cuthbert, I see that you are in earnest, that you are sincere; but
-you are on a road beset by enemies, to the full as dangerous as those
-on any other. Pride may be waiting to assail you,--spiritual pride,
-the worst of all enemies: you want to do something; you would unlock
-heaven's gates by some great performance:--remember its arches are so
-low that none can enter them who crawl not on their knees:--the little
-child's is the appointed stature for all believers."
-
-"That, indeed, is true--it is a solemn truth; but there are beasts to
-be fought with, Juxon, and the stern combat is at hand. It is upon
-this I think by day, on this I dream by night."
-
-"So much the worse: you are commanded, in many senses, to 'take no
-thought for the morrow;' and in none is it more your duty to obey the
-precept than in waiting the events of the coming day in quietness and
-in confidence: you conjure up shadows that you may fight with them."
-
-"Nay, but you wrong my judgment:--to you they may so seem; but my eye
-can see the black and dismal realities beyond, which reflect these
-shadows."
-
-"Well, Cuthbert, it is vain to talk with you on these subjects:--on
-all others you are so clear and reasonable, that I shall always
-remember our intercourse with pleasure. I hear that there is a new
-arrangement, and that you do not wait to accompany Arthur to Oxford;
-but that you leave Milverton next week, therefore, very probably, I
-shall not see you again till your departure. Farewell, friend: my best
-and warmest wishes for your happiness will always accompany you. I
-shall ever be happy to hear of or from you, and be delighted to meet
-you again."
-
-With these words he put out his hand to Cuthbert, who grasped it
-eagerly, and struggled for a reply in vain.
-
-The parting had taken him totally by surprise:--the thought of all
-Juxon's friendly and kind services, of all his frank and endearing
-qualities, came up, with a rush before his fancy, and choked his
-utterance. The strong pressure of Cuthbert's hand, and the slowness
-with which he released that of Juxon, told the latter all that he
-would have said; and, as the door closed behind his departing friend,
-Cuthbert sank back into his seat, and, resting his head with hidden
-face upon the table, remained for several minutes silent and
-motionless.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XV.
-
-    Religious contention is the devil's harvest.
-
-     _Old Proverb._
-
-
-To every member of the family at Milverton House Cuthbert had said
-farewell, when he retired to his chamber on the night before the
-morning fixed for his departure. He had taken leave of Mistress
-Katharine, in the presence of her aunt Alice and Jane Lambert, with a
-grave self-command which had surprised himself; and, as he left her
-room, he lifted his heart to Heaven in thanksgiving for the help of
-that strength which he had so earnestly implored in the privacy of his
-closet.
-
-But when he was alone for the last wakeful vigil in the apartment in
-which he had passed so many a sleepless night the image of Katharine
-looked in upon his solitude, and, for a time, re-asserted all its
-power over his heart.
-
-He had just parted, and, probably for ever, with her who had been to
-him, for many months, the angel of the scene. These months, though now
-short as hours to look back upon, had gathered into their brief and
-silvery revolutions much of that soft and essential happiness of his
-affections which he knew could never return again. Nevertheless, it
-was not in the power of separation or of hopelessness to destroy the
-memory of that sweet season of his youth; and he was content to accept
-that as all the bliss of its kind which the fortunes of his life and
-the new aims of his being, would permit him to enjoy.
-
-"Here, and for ever," said Cuthbert, speaking to himself aloud, "I
-forswear the weaknesses of love: life has rugged paths that are better
-trod by single men;--such a path is now shaping for me and for many.
-In the labour of establishing a people's rights I shall find a sense
-of peace; and when the call of duty is obeyed, contentment is the
-golden fruit with which conscience herself presents us."
-
-There is no process of the mind more common than that by which a man,
-while sore at heart by the thought of some desirable but unattainable
-good, turns away from the painful consideration of his own sorrows,
-and erects himself into the zealous friend of suffering humanity, and
-the ardent reformer of social evils.
-
-What curious springs in the world's clockwork are sorrow and
-disappointment! How many wheels are set in motion by their secret
-action, and what different results from those at which men aim are
-produced by their conduct! Here they strike for freedom, and elevate a
-despot--there they trample for the oppressor, and, lo! a seed of armed
-patriots is sown beneath their horse's feet.
-
-The idea of seeking the society of those among his friends whose minds
-were full of the stirring themes now daily suggested by political
-events was hailed as a relief and a consolation.
-
-Absorbed in musings, Cuthbert watched away the night, and obtained
-only a short and broken slumber towards the morning.
-
-It has been before observed, that to the language of love from the
-lips of Cuthbert Mistress Katharine never would have listened, and
-could not have responded.
-
-Katharine Heywood had only done what thousands have done before her,
-and are continually doing in the intercourse of life. She had
-manifested her own sweet nature in a ready and gentle appreciation of
-those qualities in the shy and humble student, which, wherever they
-are found, are worthy of regard.
-
-Indeed, during the residence of Cuthbert at Milverton, as the tutor to
-her cousin, she had largely shared the benefit of his instructions. He
-had imparted new pleasures to her mind, had purified her taste,
-enlarged her conceptions, and elevated her thoughts.
-
-These services she had repaid, in the character of mistress of her
-father's mansion, by studiously throwing the grace of her protection
-over the retiring scholar; but the smile of a queenly woman is a
-perilous shelter, and does oftentimes blight the happiness of those
-whom it was most innocently designed to cheer and to defend.
-
-It had been arranged that Cuthbert should depart before eight in the
-morning. By that hour his horse was already saddled in the stable,
-and the boy Arthur was in the stable-yard watching minutely all the
-preparations for the journey. The strapping on of the vallise, and of
-the holsters especially moved him on the present occasion, although he
-had seen the very same thing done a hundred times for others without
-curiosity or disquiet. What from the liveliness of his fancy, and the
-affectionateness of his disposition, the images of lonely ways and
-evil robbers made him fetch his breath quicker than usual. The good
-tempered groom, perceiving this by the youth's questions, began to
-allay his fears by saying, that "nobody would ever let or hinder a
-poor scholar like Master Cuthbert, and, besides that, God took care of
-all good persons; so there was no ill chance for such an one, but that
-he would go and come as safe as the King's own majesty;" which was the
-simple groom's notion of the most perfect security on earth.
-
-Meanwhile Cuthbert himself was taking a last melancholy gaze at the
-gallery, the hall, the summer and winter parlour, and the various
-objects of interest which they contained. The pictures, the books, the
-organ, the virginals, the lute, were all most intimately associated in
-his mind with her, whom to have seen and known was of itself a
-blessing.
-
-In vain the grey-haired butler, Philip, pressed him to partake of
-breakfast, and cautioned him against a weary way and an empty stomach.
-He pecked like a sick bird at the substantial venison pasty, and
-sipped at the warm tankard with a word the while now to the old
-domestic, and now to young Arthur, who had come in, and sat opposite
-him, in that vacant and natural sorrow which belongs to the broken
-moments of such a parting.
-
-At last Cuthbert descended the hall steps, which were full of the
-warm-hearted servants; and, pressing the hand of his affectionate
-pupil, mounted his horse and rode away.
-
-The day was cold and wet: nothing could be more gloomy or comfortless
-than his long and lonely ride. He met only one train of pack-horses,
-and a few single travellers on horseback, throughout the day. He
-baited his animal at a wayside alehouse, where he found nobody but a
-cross old woman and a deaf hostler; and it was not till the dusk of
-evening that he reached the town of Aylesbury, where he proposed
-sleeping.
-
-Within five miles of this place he was overtaken by a gentleman on
-horseback, who fell into conversation with him; and who, being like
-himself on a journey to town, offered to join company with him that
-night at the inn.
-
-Although it would have been far more agreeable to Cuthbert to have
-proceeded alone, yet the appearance of the stranger was so
-prepossessing, and his manners were so frank and courteous, that it
-was not possible to shake off his company without rudeness. Moreover,
-his speech had already shown him to be a man of gentle breeding, and
-that Cambridge had once reckoned him among her students,--so they rode
-forward together.
-
-At the entrance of the town, hard by one of the first houses in the
-street, sat a cobbler working and singing in his hutch. The companion
-of Cuthbert here pulled his bridle; and, turning his beast's nose
-almost into it, called out, in a loud jolly tone, "Ho, Crispin! canst
-tell me the way to the church?"
-
-"No," said the cobbler, throwing up an indifferent glance, and then
-stooping again over his last.
-
-"Art deaf, or hast lost thy wits, old surly?" said the traveller: "you
-know what a church is, don't you?"
-
-"I know what it is not," replied the old cobbler bluntly, without
-looking off his work.
-
-"What is it not, sirrah?"
-
-"It is not a great stone building standing alone in the middle of a
-town," said the cobbler raising his head, and looking his interrogator
-full in the face.
-
-"Thou hast more wit than good humour, knave," said our Cavalier.
-
-"And thou words than good breeding," retorted the sturdy artisan.
-
-"I see the stocks of this place are little used, or you should try how
-they fitted. You have not much fear, methinks, of the wooden collar.
-Didst ever see a pillory?"
-
-"I have, and a godly man in it; and I shall not soon forget the
-sight. Are you answered, my court bird?"
-
-"You are a prick-eared knave; and, if I were not tired and hungry, you
-should smart for your saucy answers."
-
-By this time a neighbour or two stood forth from the adjoining houses;
-and the horseman, turning to the nearest, said, "Prithee, friend,
-canst thou tell me the way to the Boar's Head, which is next to the
-church, as I think?"
-
-"It is so, true enough," answered the man, "and well placed, to my
-thought; for thou wilt be sure to find the parson on the bench of it,
-or it may be in the skittle yard wrangling with cheating Bob, and
-staggering at his own cast:--ride straight on--you can't miss it."
-
-"A pretty nest of godly rogues I have got into," said the traveller:
-"there will be an iron gag for your foul mouths soon." With this he
-struck spurs into his steed: the beast broke into a smart
-canter,--that of Cuthbert started in like manner; and they were
-instantly carried beyond the jeers and the loud laughter of the
-humorous old cobbler and his neighbours. Of this little scene
-Cuthbert had been the silent spectator; indeed the dialogue was so
-short, and so rapidly spoken, that there was no room for any question
-or remark of his;--and his companion having observed a silver crest
-upon the holsters of Cuthbert, did not doubt that he was a church and
-king man,--especially as there had not dropped from him a single
-expression which savoured of the Puritan.
-
-Mine host of the Boar's Head, a big and portly personage with bloated
-cheeks, received our weary guests with a cheerful welcome; and led the
-way to a large travellers' parlour, where, in an ample fire-place,
-huge logs were blazing on the hearth. The seats on either side were
-already occupied by guests, before whom, on small three-legged tables,
-their repasts were smoking.
-
-At one of these sat two persons, whose appearance was that of military
-men:--the younger of the two was very handsome, and of a commanding
-figure. No sooner did the gentleman in Cuthbert's company approach the
-fire than this martial youth rose, and addressing him by the name of
-Fleming, shook him cordially by the hand. The ear of Cuthbert did not
-catch the name by which, promptly responding to the recognition,
-Fleming replied, nor did he learn it throughout the evening. However,
-another small table was immediately drawn near, and covered. Eggs,
-sausages, and broiled bones were served up hastily; and, after
-Cuthbert and his companion had satisfied the keen appetites which they
-had gotten by a long journey in cold rain and on miry roads, a large
-jug of burnt claret was placed before them; and the following
-conversation between the two acquaintances was listened to by Cuthbert
-in silent astonishment:--
-
-"Well, Frank, you have not forgotten old times, I hope. I trust that
-we shall teach the volunteer gentry how to handle a sword after the
-fashion of the old Swedish troopers before long:--they made sorry work
-of it in the north last year; and for my part I was half ashamed to
-ride among such a rabble!"
-
-"What made you go at all then?" said the youthful soldier.
-
-"Why, to say truth, Frank, I found my life in the country very dull,
-and my old father's hunting companions as heavy as lead; and I
-heartily wished myself back in Germany, where I might hear a trumpet
-once more:--so when I heard that the King was going against the Scots
-away I posted to court, and waited upon his Majesty, and got a
-commission."
-
-"I hope, Fleming, you made yourself master of the quarrel before you
-offered your services."
-
-"Look you, Frank, I remember you was always as grave as a judge about
-war, and examined sides, and would know the rights of all that was
-done. That was never my way. I left Cambridge at nineteen, and went to
-the camp of Gustavus, as eager and as blind as a young colt; and so
-again now:--wherever the King's standard flies all must be right;
-besides, I hate these pricked-eared Puritans, and yon Scotch psalm
-singers that wo'n't use the Prayer Book."
-
-"It seems, however, that they can use the broad sword, and with good
-effect, if accounts speak true."
-
-"There you have me," rejoined the cheerful and light-hearted
-campaigner,--"there you have me. I never felt shame as a soldier till
-this Scotch campaign. Our tall fellows always turned their backs
-first, and retreated true runaway fashion:--you could never make them
-fire their pistols, and wheel off orderly; and it was well for them
-that they had raw Scots troopers at their tails instead of
-Pappenheim's cuirassiers."
-
-"It is clear enough that you must have run too," said the young
-soldier, laughing, "or you would not be here to tell the story."
-
-"To be sure I did,--but not without leaving the mark of my sword in
-the cheek of a stout Scotsman that pressed me a little too close and
-unmannerly. However, live and learn is a wise saying. When the King
-fairly raises a proper army, instead of a set of footmen and servants,
-commanded by courtiers and parsons, there will be warmer sport than we
-had in the north."
-
-"It will be sorry and grave sport, methinks, comrade, when Englishmen
-stand up against Englishmen, and little pleasure to see an old
-fellow-soldier in the ranks opposite."
-
-"Odd's life, I shall never see you enact rebel."
-
-"Rebel is a rough word:--suppose we change the subject."
-
-The conversation was now continued on various indifferent matters till
-the hour for rest. Cuthbert himself made but few observations, and was
-strangely exercised in his mind by contemplating the characters before
-him. In addition to those already named, there was one other traveller
-at a table by himself, who had partaken of no better fare than a bowl
-of oatmeal porridge, and who sat intent over a small closely printed
-book, without once opening his lips, and seldom even raising his eyes.
-The companion of Cuthbert often looked contemptuously askance at him,
-and indulged in many a fling against the Puritans; but the silent
-stranger either did not or would not hear these rude jests, and, as
-they met with no encouragement from any one present, they fell flat
-and powerless. At length the time of going to bed came; and the host
-appeared to conduct his guests to their chambers. Our host, having a
-quick eye to the quality of the parties, placed the Cavalier captain
-in his best chamber; the two military-looking men in the next; and the
-pale stranger in a small cold garret with Cuthbert.
-
-As soon as the door was closed behind them, and the foot of the
-landlord was heard descending the stairs, the stranger approached
-Cuthbert and invited him to join in prayer.
-
-"To me," said the stranger, with a face of the most earnest gravity,
-"to me is committed that rare and precious gift, the discerning of
-spirits: I see thou art a God-fearing youth:--as soon as thou didst
-enter the parlour I smelled the perfume of the angelic nature; even as
-also the sulphur and the brimstone of Tophet in the three sons of
-Belial, who are gone to lie down under the power of Beelzebub, and to
-sleep with evil spirits for company."
-
-"Friend," said Cuthbert, "I do not understand you: it is not my custom
-to join in prayer with an unknown stranger; there is thy bed, and
-here is mine:--let us lie down upon them in peace, and commune with
-our own hearts and be still."
-
-"Verily," rejoined the stranger, "thou art afraid:--it is no
-wonder:--thou art but a mere babe of grace, and thine eyes do see but
-dimly the glories of my high calling;--but I tell thee thou art a
-chosen vessel of the Lord,--and even now I feel my bowels moved
-towards thee, and the spirit of prayer is upon me, and I must wrestle
-with the powers of darkness to deliver thy poor soul from the snare of
-the fowler. This is my command,--and even now I am appointed unto thee
-for an angel of defence, and the fight is begun."
-
-The stranger now threw himself upon his knees, and poured forth a
-long, rambling and blasphemous petition,--the words of which made
-Cuthbert shudder.
-
-However, as he had been already told that there was no other chamber
-or bed vacant, and as he was greatly fatigued, he lay down to sleep,
-silently commending himself to the care of God, and endeavouring to
-substitute a feeling of pity for the deep disgust with which this
-crazy chamber-fellow inspired him.
-
-The last sounds of which he was conscious before his heavy eyes became
-sealed in forgetfulness were groanings from the adjoining bed--nor did
-he awake in the morning till it was broad daylight. He looked
-around--the chamber was empty;--at this he felt thankful: and,
-supposing that his last odd companion had travelled forward at an
-earlier hour, he arose, and proceeded to dress himself; but he
-instantly discovered that his purse was gone. He went forth on the
-stairs, and called loudly for the landlord. It was some time before he
-made his appearance; and when he did so, he listened to the tale with
-hard indifference, and coarse incredulity.
-
-"Ah! that's an old story, my devil's scholar, but it wo'n't go down
-with me:--you shan't budge from the Boar's Head till you pay your
-shot, I can tell you; and your nag shall go to the market cross before
-I let you ride off without paying for provender."
-
-Cuthbert's fury was roused to the uttermost; but his hot words were
-only laughed at by the rosy Boniface, who soon left him. He slipped on
-his clothes with all haste, and came down into the guest parlour,
-where the Cavalier and the two military men were already seated at
-breakfast by a cheerful fire. He stated his case before them all with
-the warm earnestness of truth. The Cavalier picked his teeth and
-whistled; but the younger of the other two seemed very much to
-sympathise in the embarrassment of Cuthbert, which in fact was more
-serious than he himself apprehended; for mine host came presently into
-the parlour to say, that his horse and his vallise were taken away by
-his chamber-fellow before dawn.
-
-"It was all a made up thing," said the landlord in a storm of passion.
-"I saw they were a couple of hypocritical rogues, and packed 'em
-together for safety's sake--'twould only be thief rob thief, I
-knew:--but it's my belief they take the horse turn by turn, and steal
-in company; for yon old one has left half a bottle of strong waters
-and the leg of a cold goose at his bed-foot:--come, young knave," he
-added, attempting to take Francis by the collar, "come with me afore
-the justice. He'll find thee a lodging in our cage."
-
-With a force to which indignation gave strength, Cuthbert threw back
-the fat bully against the wall, and turning to the Cavalier, who had
-rode with him part of his yesterday's journey,--
-
-"You may remember, sir," he said, "that when you joined me, I told you
-that I came from the neighbourhood of Warwick, and was on my journey
-to London. I told you, moreover, that I was a member of the University
-of Cambridge:--the silver crest on my holsters was the crest of Sir
-Oliver Heywood of Milverton, in whose house I have resided for this
-year past, as tutor to his nephew's son. The animal, in fact, is Sir
-Oliver's property, and was kindly lent me for the journey:--if you
-will answer for me to this landlord, and give me a crown piece to
-travel on with, I will faithfully repay you when I reach town. My
-name, sir, is Cuthbert Noble, son of Mr. Noble, rector of Cheddar, in
-Somerset."
-
-"A pack of stuff, good master," said the angry landlord to the
-Cavalier,--"don't you be made a fool of; don't be bamboozled by a
-smooth trumped up cock and a bull story like this: if the horse is Sir
-Oliver Heywood's, they have stolen it, and change riders on the road
-to Smithfield, where they will turn it into a purse of nobles before
-night. Marry, I'll go for constables, and, as you are honest gentlemen
-and true, hold the knave fast in your keeping till I come back again."
-Before, however, he could leave the room, as much to his astonishment
-and shame as to the surprise and relief of Cuthbert, the younger of
-the two travellers, whom his companion the Cavalier had last night
-claimed acquaintance with, came forward in a very open and cordial
-manner, and assured Cuthbert of his readiness to assist him.
-
-"I am connected," said the noble looking youth, "with the family at
-Milverton, nor is the name of Master Cuthbert Noble unknown to me. My
-purse is at your service; and I shall be glad of your company on the
-road. Though I have no horse to offer you, post-horses can be easily
-procured at every stage."
-
-Thus was Cuthbert at once released from a perplexity, and introduced
-to the friendship of Francis Heywood.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XVI.
-
-    The great vicissitude of things amongst men is the vicissitude
-    of sects and religions; for those orbs rule in men's minds most.
-                                                              BACON.
-
-
-On the third of November, 1640, the fatal Long Parliament began. On
-the 12th, the Earl of Strafford was impeached of treason, and
-committed to the Black Rod. The Lords denied him bail and council; and
-he was, in a few days more, commanded into close imprisonment in the
-Tower. One hundred thousand pounds were now voted to the Scots, and
-borrowed of the city of London. Ship money was soon questioned by the
-Parliament, and voted an illegal tax; and, in fine, all grievances and
-abuses were loudly proclaimed, and resolutely brought forward, by
-intrepid and patriotic men; of whom the best and noblest did certainly
-never contemplate, at that time, the sad and humiliating close of the
-labours and the authority of that memorable and august assembly.
-August, of a truth, that assembly may be called, in which a Hampden
-and a Falkland stood, at after moments, opposed in debate; and in
-which, in the following year, the grand remonstrance of the Commons
-was the subject of grave deliberation for thirty hours, and was only
-carried, at last, by a majority of nine voices.
-
-But to return to our story. It may be supposed that Cuthbert Noble was
-no indifferent or unmoved spectator of the great public events which
-every day brought forth in the winter of 1640. With his serious and
-peculiar notions, the questions that affected liberty of conscience
-and church reform were those which most deeply interested him; and
-when, upon the morning of the 23d of November, Prynne and Burton
-entered triumphantly into Westminster, followed by many thousands of
-the people, Cuthbert was foremost in the crowd; and not a zealot among
-them was more wildly excited than himself.
-
-Laughter and tears succeeded to each other, as those around expressed
-their rude sympathy;--now in remarks quaint and comical--now in pious
-commiseration, or in the stern tones of indignant and just anger.
-
-"Which is old Prynne?" said one.--"That's he," said his neighbour,
-"with his black head clipped close, looking, for all the world, like a
-skull-cap."--"See how the old boy grins."--"He's no beauty."--"Hurrah!
-hurrah!"--"Can you hear, old boy?"--"I wonder if a man can hear
-without his ears."--"To be sure a' can, all the better."--"Well, he
-can't have the ear-ache no more."--"Don't talk so unfeeling."--"Look,
-poor dear good man, he is as white as a sheet."--"That is prison and
-hunger."--"This is your bishops' work--od rot 'em--their turn shall
-come."
-
-With such vulgarities were mixed the solemn tones and pious
-expressions of many a sincere Christian, giving utterance to praise
-and thanksgiving for the deliverance of these persecuted men; while,
-here and there, a strong voice would be heard, above the crowd,
-denouncing the tyranny of the church and the crown in coarse language,
-in which the Establishment was likened to the whore of Babylon,--and
-the Archbishop of Canterbury was pointed out to the vengeance of the
-rabble.
-
-Such language would, in a moment of calm reflection, have been utterly
-revolting to the feelings of Cuthbert. He would have shut his ears to
-the base and bloody cry, and hurried away from the wretches who gave
-it utterance, as from the company of sinners, whose feet were already
-planted in the paths of wickedness, and were swift to shed blood. But
-now, though such fierce cries gave a jar to his better dispositions
-and nobler nature, they were regarded as the natural ebullitions of an
-irritated mob; and he stood among them as a partaker of their guilt by
-the sanction of his presence.
-
-Nothing is so blind--nothing is so deaf--nothing can stoop so low--as
-party spirit;--and at no period of English history was this more fully
-exemplified than at that of which we are now speaking. The Cavaliers,
-on their side, were not without the support of a rabble of their own;
-and by these, the slang of the tavern, the bear garden, and the
-brothel, was exhausted to furnish epithets of scorn, contempt, and
-ridicule, by which they might insult their fanatical opponents.
-
-To the mental eye of Cuthbert the two victims of a severe and
-intolerant hierarchy stood out in large and disproportionate
-grandeur,--filling all the foreground of the picture upon which he now
-gazed to the exclusion of all other objects.
-
-He saw them bearing the evident marks of torture and degradation on
-their mutilated forms. They had been thus treated, according to his
-notion, for a mere error in judgment--they were sufferers for
-conscience-sake:--his heart grew hot within him,--and he would have
-called down fire from heaven on the heads of their oppressors.
-
-He accompanied the crowd all through Westminster; and, in the
-eagerness of his excited mood, pressed in once close to the horse of
-Prynne, that he might utter a "God save you, master!" to the stern
-Puritan, face to face.
-
-There was a keen twinkle of triumph in the little eyes of the sour
-precisian, which showed that he felt his day of revenge would soon
-come, and that it would be his turn to play inquisitor towards his
-late haughty oppressor.
-
-However, he would have been more than human had he been superior to
-such an infirmity, after sustaining injuries so great.
-
-It happened on the day of this public entry of Prynne and Burton that
-Cuthbert was alone in the quarter of Westminster; and having remained
-a long time gazing on the show, he went into a tavern in a narrow
-street behind the Abbey to refresh.
-
-After satisfying his hunger over a fine joint of roast beef in company
-with a grave looking lawyer, who sat opposite him at the same table,
-with a roll of parchments and papers by his side, the man of law
-proposed a cup of canary to the health of Masters Prynne and Burton,
-in which he was readily seconded by Cuthbert.
-
-"Ah," said the stranger bitterly, "this is a different kind of
-procession to the fool's mummery which they made us play seven years
-ago, before the wanton queen and her dancing French gentlemen."
-
-"What! you mean the mask of the inns of court, on Candlemas-day, seven
-years ago?" asked Cuthbert.
-
-"Just so: that was got up to tickle the court party, and trample down
-Prynne and his book; but tables are turning."
-
-"Well, though I think they were very tyrannical about Prynne, I did
-not like his book; and never saw any harm in a mask or an interlude."
-
-"Why, to judge by your looks, you could only have been a boy when that
-mask was given, and perhaps you did not see it."
-
-"That is true; but I read the account of it that was printed, and
-surely it was a brave and glorious show; and, methinks, there were
-some witty hints given his Majesty in the anti-masks, which he might
-be the wiser for."
-
-"The man Charles Stuart," said the stranger, "will never be the better
-for hints."
-
-It was the first time that Cuthbert had ever heard from any lips so
-irreverent a mention of the King, and he coloured and was silent.
-
-"I say he will never be the better for hints,--though it is true that
-some of them were broad enough, and too humorous for offence; but you
-have forgotten that there was one anti-mask got up by the serviles to
-insult the poor. If it may not have a sneer of ridicule for poverty
-and misfortune, the pleasure of the proud wanteth its best relish."
-
-"I do not understand you," said Cuthbert; "of what speak you, master?"
-
-"Of that which has been played in joke, and shall come to pass in
-earnest. Little they thought, with their gibes and their mockery, that
-they were but foreshowing events, which the turn of the wheel is even
-now bringing to pass. I do remember all their gilded chariots and rich
-apparel, and gay liveries; and in the midst of that costly show, there
-rode an anti-mask of cripples and beggars, clothed in rags, and
-mounted on sorry lean jades, gotten out of dust carts, with dirty
-urchins snapping tongs and shovels before them for music,--and thus
-was the noble music, and thus were the gallant horses, and the velvets
-and silks and spangled habits, made more pleasing to the painted court
-Jezebels by the pitiful contrast. Shall not the Lord visit for these
-things?" he added, raising his voice, and changing the tone of it to a
-solemn sternness: "Yea, verily, he shall visit:--in his hand there is
-a cup,--and the dregs thereof shall be drunk out by the
-oppressors,--and the sword shall go through the land, and it shall be
-drunk with blood."
-
-The severe inference thus forced by the speaker from a trifling
-circumstance, of which the joyous projectors of the interlude thought
-perhaps very differently, and which might have been so turned by a
-playful mind, as a caricature against the foreign musicians, then so
-much about court; or, again, by a thoughtful mind, as a memento of
-those dark realities of human misery which invite and demand
-compassion. This inference was at once received by Cuthbert as just.
-It touched a chord in his heart that immediately responded, and he was
-played upon as a lute by his companion; till, at last, the latter
-opening a roll of parchment requested him to put down his name as a
-subscriber to the necessities of a few godly and persecuted men now
-suffering imprisonment for the great cause of liberty of conscience,
-and whose families were quite destitute.
-
-From his slender purse Cuthbert instantly took the few crowns it
-contained, and only reserving sufficient money to pay for his dinner,
-shook his new acquaintance heartily by the hand, and set forth on his
-way to the city, where he lodged, with a heart glowing with the love
-of God, of his country, and of mankind. His evil angel had only to
-appear clothed like an angel of light, and Cuthbert would follow,
-nothing doubting, whithersoever he was led. The false fire, which
-glimmered over the dangerous quagmire of gloomy fanaticism, was
-mistaken by Cuthbert for light from Heaven; and by the frequent
-perusal of controversies on religion, and a constant attendance on the
-private ministries of those fierce zealots, who were urging forward
-the overthrow of the Established Church, he became at length totally
-bewildered. It was in vain that Francis Heywood exposed to him the
-hypocrisy and inconsistency of some of those wolves in sheep's
-clothing by whom he was now continually surrounded, to the neglect of
-Heywood's own society and that of the higher and better order of the
-Parliamentarian supporters. He listened with pity to remonstrances
-which he considered as proceeding from a man of the world, and a
-deceived soul wandering in darkness; nevertheless his affectionate
-disposition survived the strength of his reason. He looked up to and
-loved Francis Heywood as a model of what the natural man might attain
-to; and as in their political views they were altogether agreed, they
-very often met. The ardent Francis might indeed have well doubted of
-the soundness of a political creed which numbered among its supporters
-such diversified and crazy characters as those whom he saw daily
-embrace it: but although he was not able to endure their sanctimonious
-professions, and morose manners, he viewed them as instruments
-necessary to the present warfare of principles; and, having returned
-from America on purpose to stand up for the popular rights, he
-remained steadfastly at his post, watching with intense interest the
-proceedings of parliament, and eager for the moment when those
-services, which he came to offer, might be required in the field.
-
-In one particular the lives of Francis Heywood and of Cuthbert Noble
-during the two following years corresponded well. Never were those
-hard duties which self-denial enjoins, practised with a more resolute
-and cheerful virtue. The means of both were slender; and they
-supported themselves by the exercise of their respective talents with
-credit and success.
-
-Cuthbert attended daily in the families of two or three merchants of
-the Puritan party as classical tutor to their boys; while Francis
-Heywood, reserving with great care the sum necessary to purchase a
-good charger, and military equipments, whenever he might need them,
-maintained his current expenses by the drawing of maps, plans, and
-views illustrative of the late campaigns of Gustavus Adolphus, and of
-the actual warfare in Germany which was then carrying on. These
-drawings found a sufficient sale, among the curious in such matters,
-to remunerate the light labour of producing them; and though the
-printseller, who purchased them from Francis, told him that gentlemen,
-very capable of advancing his interests, had made inquiries after him,
-yet he was forbidden by Francis to disclose his residence, or to
-answer any questions about him. His leisure from this easy occupation
-was employed in useful studies or in manly exercises. He daily
-frequented a school of arms, not for instruction, indeed, for he was a
-master of all weapons, but for health and diversion; and for the same
-end he went often to the grand manège in the quarter of the court;
-where he was so great a favourite with the chevalier, who taught the
-graces of horsemanship, that he was asked as a kindness to exercise
-the most spirited and beautiful animals of his stud in the open
-country:--an offer which, from the delight he took in the amusement of
-schooling a young and high bred horse, he very often accepted.
-
-Francis Heywood was not unknown to many families with whom his father
-had been intimate; and by some of them, notwithstanding his fortunes
-and his politics, and by others on account of them, he was invited to
-several houses, where he might have enjoyed all the pleasures and the
-refinements of social life; but he very rarely accepted their
-invitations, not merely from mistaken pride, but from a disrelish of
-scenes which would always so strongly and painfully suggest to him the
-happy intercourse he had once enjoyed in that domestic circle, of
-which his adored Katharine was at once the charm and the idol.
-
-Upon this sweet memory, in lonely hours of leisure, his mind would
-feed, and he would discourse of it, not indeed in words, but in the
-soft breathings of his lute; till, suddenly, by the strong effort of a
-manly will, he would tear himself from the dangerous indulgence, and
-sit closely down to his writing desk, that he might complete the
-minute journal of public events which he kept for his father, and
-despatched, as opportunities offered, to New England.
-
-To the review of these grave subjects he brought a generous spirit;
-and it was not without an occasional pang that he related the progress
-and triumph of the cause to which he was sincerely attached.
-
-He could not but exult to see the principles of government openly
-examined, and the just rights and liberties of the people clearly
-defined.
-
-He looked with veneration upon the labours of the Commons; and he
-watched with jealousy the advisers of the crown, and the sycophants
-about the court. He saw many abuses rectified, many grievances
-redressed. He saw the iniquitous Star Chamber and the High Commission
-Court abolished,--and a noble security against a return of
-misgovernment and tyranny in the famous bill for a triennial
-parliament.
-
-This last measure, the main pillar of the new constitution, was
-received by the whole nation with rejoicings; and when it passed
-solemn thanks were presented to his Majesty by both houses of
-parliament. But the sincerity of the court party and the moderation of
-the reformers were alike suspicious. The passions, the prejudices,
-and the interests of conflicting parties had been too rudely aroused
-by discussion to subside without an explosive collision; and it was
-evident to Francis that the struggle between the prerogatives of the
-crown and the privileges of parliament would never terminate without
-an appeal to arms.
-
-He shuddered to see the scaffold stained with the blood of Strafford;
-and though he was among those who clamoured against the minister, he
-profoundly commiserated the man, as the abandoned victim of his
-party,--and in his heart he despised Charles for signing the
-death-warrant of his favourite.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XVII.
-
-    There let the pealing organ blow,
-    To the full-voiced quire below,
-    In service high and anthems clear,
-    As may with sweetness through mine ear
-    Dissolve me into ecstasies,
-    And bring all heaven before mine eyes.
-                                   MILTON.
-
-
-The affliction of the good parson of Cheddar at the strange and
-painful conduct of his son Cuthbert was heavy to bear. However, from a
-sense of duty to his weaker partner, he made great efforts to preserve
-his wonted serenity and composure in her presence; but when alone he
-was bowed down in the dust.
-
-Nothing could possibly present a greater contrast to the tone of
-religious profession which was, at this period, obtaining a wide
-reception among men than that in which old Noble lay prostrate in his
-closet before his God.
-
-He had ever been a meek and cheerful Christian; but there were depths
-of humiliation which he had not as yet fathomed; and he would have
-fainted at the waves of trouble, which his prescient eye saw rolling
-onward, if he had not felt the hand, which led him down into the deep,
-was that of a heavenly Father, if he had not heard a voice that
-whispered in his ear, "_It is I, be not afraid_."
-
-In vain did he exhaust his heart in sound, pious, and affectionate
-remonstrances, meditated and penned in the spirit of prayer, that he
-might recall his dear and wandering child to the bosom of the church,
-or, at all events, so far recover him from gross delusions as to see
-him join that upright and devout portion of the community, which,
-though differing from the discipline of the church, maintained a pure
-and practical doctrine.
-
-In vain did he press the return of Cuthbert to Cheddar, by every
-argument which parental love could suggest.
-
-The letters of Noble and his wife were replied to in the words of
-love; but the fruit of his new persuasion was an obstinate self-will;
-and while he implored them, at great length, to consider his views,
-and urged the danger of despising them, he evinced to others, what was
-not perhaps suspected by himself, a degree of spiritual pride only to
-be exceeded by the strength of his delusion.
-
-He had adopted the notions of those fanatics who were styled
-Fifth-monarchy Men, and who ranged themselves where, indeed, any sect,
-however extravagant, might have found a place, under the banner of the
-Independents.
-
-It was some consolation to these troubled parents to hear from the
-Philips's, their relations, and also from other friends, that the life
-and the conduct of Cuthbert were, as regarded all moral and social
-duties, a credit to any theory, and such as became the pure precepts
-of the Gospel.
-
-His intellect was clear upon every other subject, except on that
-which, if it be rashly touched, seems to be guarded by invisible
-angels, who put forth their hands and smite the daring intruder with
-madness. "Oppression," saith the preacher, "will make a wise man
-mad;"--a truth abundantly proved by the events, which, leading first
-to a secret and salutary reform, ended at last in a bloody revolution
-and an iron rule.
-
-It may be added, that he who seeketh to meddle with the hidden
-mysteries of unfulfilled prophecy is often smitten with blindness and
-confusion for his presumption. Thus it was with Cuthbert:--sensible,
-amiable, and affectionate in all the relations of life, he was now the
-subject of a monomania, and turned a deaf ear to the voice of truth
-and wisdom, though it spoke with all the authority and all the
-earnestness of a father.
-
-These were not times in which a minister could leave his parish for a
-distant journey, nor, indeed, was it at all likely that the presence
-of his parents would have effected that change in the sentiments or
-the course of Cuthbert, which their admirable and Christian letters
-had failed to produce.
-
-Time wore on gloomily enough, even in the peaceful parsonage at
-Cheddar. Many a time as old Noble paced his garden amid sunbeams and
-flowers, praising that "mercy which endureth for ever," his
-thanksgivings ended in tears and lamentations, not for his domestic
-troubles, but for the great evils which he feared and expected would
-befall the church and the nation.
-
-Laud was already paying the penalty of his mistaken, but certainly
-conscientious, severity, in a prison, from whence it might be plainly
-foretold he would at length be conducted to the block. The bishops'
-votes in parliament were taken away, and the deans and chapters were
-already voted against in the Commons, although their spoliation had
-not yet taken place, neither were the cathedral services as yet
-discontinued. As regularly, therefore, as the Thursday came round,
-Noble, if not prevented by a special call of duty at home, made his
-weekly visit to the fair city of Wells; where he in the first instance
-always bent his steps to the cathedral, and joined the congregation
-assembled for morning service.
-
-It was on a saint's day, in the summer of 1641, that, as usual, he
-proceeded to that venerable and glorious temple, and took his seat in
-the vacant stall which it was his wont to occupy. Directly opposite he
-observed a tall uncouth man of harsh features and a sour countenance,
-sitting very upright, and glancing a severe and restless eye at the
-organ, the first tones of which were pealing through the long aisles,
-as the dean, the prebends, and other officers of the choir, preceded
-by the vergers with their maces, slowly entered, and reverently took
-their seats.
-
-The service began, and was conducted with that solemn decency, and
-with those clear fine chants, which dispose most hearts to a subdued
-feeling of intense devotion.
-
-There is a something in sacred music which does wonderfully compose
-the mind, and cleanse it of all earthly-rooted cares. Upon the
-stranger above mentioned, however, it produced no such effect. He sat
-erect, cold, and contemptuous: he put aside the Book of Common Prayer
-with a rude thrust; and taking a small volume from his pocket opened
-it with ostentatious gravity, and, not joining in the worship that he
-witnessed, either by response, gesture, or any conformity of posture
-with those around him, sat, now casting his eyes on the page of his
-book, now severely around, and now raising them to Heaven after a
-manner that left nothing but the jaundiced whites visible.
-
-This strange conduct disturbed, irritated, or amused the observers,
-according to the impression that was made upon them. Some of the
-prebends and vicars choral looked red and angry. The dean was greatly
-distressed, and knew not what to do. At first he called the verger,
-with a design to remove the intruder; but, upon second thoughts, he
-feared that a yet greater interruption and indecency might take place
-if such a course was attempted, he therefore commanded his feelings
-with as much dignity as he could. But his grave frowns were totally
-without power upon the youthful choristers, whose laughter would have
-been loud and audible, but for the thick folds of the surplice with
-which they stuffed their rebellious and aching jaws.
-
-Noble himself was mournfully agitated, and prayed in the spirit with
-that deep and melancholy fervour which hath no outward expression but
-the abased eyes.
-
-By degrees, the congregation recovered their composure, and never was
-an anthem performed with more earnest solemnity, or a sweetness more
-touching to the inmost soul, than the "_Ne Irascaris_," the "Be not
-Wroth," or "Bow thine Ear" of the famous composer Bird. At the words
-"Sion, thy Sion is wasted and brought low," which are set to a tender
-and solemn passage, and are sung very soft and slow, the effect was
-sublime. Moved by the deep pathos of the expression, the cheeks of
-Noble, as of a few others present, were bathed in tears.
-
-But the stranger remained in his seat without rising, and perused his
-book with a kind of resolved and insulting inattention to it all.
-
-The service was not permitted to close without this mysterious
-personage marking his contempt of it yet farther, by rising suddenly,
-while all the congregation were on their knees, and stalking slowly
-down the middle of the aisle with a loud and measured stamp of his
-great thick boots.
-
-He wore by his side a long heavy-looking sword, and had certainly the
-air of a man who could use it, if he chose, with little fear and no
-favour.
-
-Noble joined the clergy in the chapter-room directly after the morning
-prayers were ended, and there learned that there had been a riot the
-night before in the streets, excited by some mischievous emissary from
-London; and that some of the rabble had burned a bishop in effigy, in
-the close just under the windows of the dean. It seemed, however, that
-this outrage had been committed by a band of low persons, who had come
-up from Bristol to attend a fair, and had brought with them sundry
-printed papers and ribald songs to distribute in the lanes and alleys
-of the city: the object of which was to bring the church and clergy
-into public contempt.
-
-However, it so happens that, for the most part, the inhabitants of a
-cathedral town take a great pride in the edifice itself, whatever may
-be their indifference to religion. Those magnificent structures are
-the first wonders upon which the eyes of the human beings, born and
-suckled beneath their shadow, are taught to gaze. They are noble and
-solemn features in the scene of early life; and are printed so
-indelibly on the mind, that, let the native of a cathedral city wander
-where he will, the recollection of the venerable temple goes with him,
-associated, in his memory, with his birthplace, his holydays, his
-truant hours, with the merry music of festival bells, with the pride
-of having often seen strangers and travellers, both of high and low
-degree, walk about its walls, and linger in its spacious aisles, with
-pleasure and admiration.
-
-Therefore a party among the common people was easily roused to take up
-sticks and stones against the insulting mischief-makers, who were thus
-at last driven away from the city with great tumult.
-
-It was the very day following this riot that the offensive adventure
-in the cathedral, which we have just related, occurred. As no doubt
-existed in the minds of the clergy assembled in the chapter-room that
-the extraordinary person, who had just committed so gross and indecent
-an outrage in a place of public worship, was, in some measure,
-connected with the disturbance of the preceding day, they resolved to
-make an immediate complaint to the Mayor of Wells, that the obnoxious
-individual might be taken up, and committed to prison, or otherwise
-punished for his offence.
-
-Some little time had been lost in their consultations; and they came
-forth from the cathedral in a body, with the intention of despatching
-two of the prebends, already deputed for that purpose, to wait upon
-the mayor, when, to their surprise and mortification, they saw the
-object of their anger approaching them on horseback. As he drew near,
-it was evident that the opportunity of arresting him was already lost.
-He rode a very powerful young horse of generous breed and fine
-action--and he sat upon him as on a throne.
-
-"Look ye," said he, as he drew up close to the astonished
-group,--"Look ye, Scribes and Pharisees! hypocrites!--ye love
-greetings in the market-place--take mine:--the time is come to set
-your houses in order--even now the decree is gone forth--the sword is
-now sharpening that shall pass through the land:--it glitters, look
-ye." So saying, with a grim smile he drew the blade of his own half
-out of the scabbard, and let it fall again with a forcible rattle.
-
-The dean, who was a bold and athletic man, disregarding this fierce
-action, made an active effort to seize the bridle of the Puritan's
-steed; but the wary rider with a jerk of the reins threw up the
-animal's head, and at the same moment touching his flank with the spur
-made him give a plunge forward that scattered the frightened priests a
-few yards on either side. Nevertheless, the dean remonstrated in very
-angry terms against his insulting abuse; as did others, who were, like
-himself, courageous. They did not, however, succeed either in stopping
-the fanatic or in driving him away:--a small mob was gathering in the
-cathedral yard, and the fiery zealot continued his address.
-
-"What mean ye, ye priests of Baal, by your silks, and your satins, and
-your hoods, and your scarfs, and your square caps, and your surplices,
-and all your fooleries? what mean your boy choristers that bleat like
-young kids, and your men choristers that bellow like oxen? what means
-your grunting organ? Is it thus you worship God, as though he were an
-idol and an abomination, and his temple like that of the heathen? It
-should be a house of prayer, and ye have made it a den of thieves, and
-all its services vain and lewd mummeries. I cry, Fie upon you!--Wo,
-wo, wo!--Ye shall see me again when the blast of the trumpet soundeth,
-and mine eye shall not pity. I will smite, I will not spare you. Have
-ye not preached blasphemies? have ye not broken and polluted the holy
-Sabbath with your sports and your harlotries? have ye not shed the
-blood of God-fearing men? yea, verily. Now hear my warning:--come out
-of her, come out of her, my people. There are among you, even among
-your priests, some whom the Lord hath chosen:--yet again I call to
-you, Come out of her, come out of Babylon, that ye perish not with
-her. To me is appointed this cry:--every where I must lift up my voice
-thus, till the day of vengeance come. Wo shall be the portion of those
-who hear me not!"
-
-An insane delight gleamed in his dark eyes, a convulsive energy
-distorted his features, and seemed to affect and agitate his whole
-form. The crowd drew closer to him: the resolute dean beckoning them
-forward, again advanced with the intention of seizing him, when he
-suddenly gave his horse the head; and touching the high spirited beast
-with both spurs, he was borne out of their sight at a few rapid
-bounds, and was very soon beyond all danger of pursuit.
-
-Several of the mob ran round the corner after him jeering and
-cheering; but the clergy went their ways, by twos and threes, and
-talked over the uncomfortable though diseased words of the fanatic
-with much gravity and discomposure.
-
-Many painful extravagancies of a fanatic character had been already
-committed in various parts of the country; and in London many
-scandalous scenes had been enacted, expressive of a contempt for the
-Established Church and her ministers.
-
-The prelates and dignitaries were the especial marks of popular
-hatred; but, hitherto, nothing approaching to the indecency and
-outrage above recorded had occurred in the neighbourhood and under the
-eye of Noble.
-
-Again he could have wished Cuthbert to have been present, as he had
-formerly wished that he could have witnessed the unmannerly and
-unchristian bearing of Master Daws, the morose and designing curate,
-whose interview with Noble we have in a former part of this story
-related.
-
-"Surely," thought the mild man of peace,--"Surely such things would
-open his eyes to the spirit that is abroad, and to the aim and end of
-these violent men, who would purify our venerable church as with fire,
-and wash away her few stains with the blood and the tears of her
-faithful children."
-
-After partaking of a dinner, with little appetite, in the house of his
-friend, where the party assembled formed but a sad society, and where
-the time passed in the discussion of more grave and anxious matters
-than those upon which they were commonly engaged in these innocent
-weekly meetings, the worthy parson mounted his old mare, and rode back
-slowly to Cheddar. His thoughts were so profoundly and mournfully
-absorbed by reflections on the very startling occurrences of the
-morning, that he saw not the clouds which were gathering overhead,
-until he was awakened to observe them by a sudden and loud clap of
-thunder. The sunshine was suddenly obscured by a deep gloom. A few
-heavy rain drops fell upon him, and were soon followed by a thick and
-rushing deluge of such rain as falls in summer tempests. The sky was
-covered with a mass of clouds black as a funeral pall. Every moment
-flashes of angry lightning passed across it in vivid and arrowy forms;
-while thunder followed, peal after peal rolling in quick and troubled
-succession. Noble had just entered the defile or pass by which Cheddar
-is approached; and as the narrow road lies in the bottom of a chasm,
-on either side of which the rocks rise many hundred feet with a
-terrific grandeur, the horrid gloom--the lurid and ghastly
-lights--and the prolonged echoes with which the roar of the thunder
-was borne from crag to crag--gave a tenfold awfulness to the storm,
-and sublimely shadowed forth the power of Jehovah.
-
-Amid this war of elements the meek parson felt almost happy:--his
-frightened beast had stopped beneath a rock that inclined somewhat
-over the road, though not sufficiently to afford any shelter from the
-rain. He was drenched to the skin himself, and as he could not urge
-his animal forward he dismounted; but the wet and the delay were
-forgotten, were disregarded. There are moments of communion with the
-Deity, which, when they are accorded to his feeble children, cause
-their spirits to be rapt in seraphic love. The adoration that is born
-of a faith trembling yet holding fast is the sublimest human
-worship:--"the firmest thing in this inferior world is a believing
-soul." And he that can lift up his voice with the Psalmist, and, amid
-the horrors of a tempest, can say, "Praise the Lord, O my soul; and
-all that is within me praise his holy name," hath, as it were, a
-sublime foretaste of that great and terrible day of the Lord, when the
-Christian shall witness the final and everlasting triumph of his
-Redeemer over sin and death,--and shall behold his salvation draw
-nigh.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XVIII.
-
-    With that the mighty thunder dropt away
-    From God's unwary arm, now milder grown,
-    And melted into tears.
-                             GILES FLETCHER.
-
-
-In such a spirit Noble endured the pelting of the storm, and listened
-to the rolling of the thunder, and gazed upon the dread illumination
-which flashed at intervals on the desolate and dreary rocks around
-him. The fury of this summer tempest was soon exhausted:--the
-exceeding blackness of the clouds gave place to a lighter, though a
-sunless, sky; the claps of thunder were few and distant, and the
-lightning became a faint and harmless coruscation. The rain was thin
-and transparent; and Noble continued his way on foot, followed by his
-old mare, whose docility was that of an aged dog. They had not
-proceeded above two hundred yards when the mare gave a sudden start,
-and ran up a heap of loose stones on the right of the road. On the
-left of it, at the foot of a tremendous precipice, Noble descried the
-object which had alarmed her, and which, but for her fright, he should
-have passed without notice. A man lay upon the ground bleeding. Noble
-immediately crossed to the spot, and stooping down, he recognised the
-person of the stern fanatic, whose conduct at Wells has been related
-in the foregoing chapter. He was insensible, but did not, upon
-examination, appear to have sustained any injury more serious than a
-severe and stunning bruise; as well as a cut on the forehead from a
-sharp flint. From the prints of his horse's feet, it seemed evident,
-at first, that he had been thrown where he then lay, and had fainted;
-but on looking again, Noble observed that his pockets were turned
-inside out, and that his sword and cartridge belt were gone; for he
-remembered in the morning to have remarked his arms very particularly,
-and to have been struck by the circumstance of a man of his rigid
-ungraceful figure sitting so admirably on horseback, and managing the
-young animal which he rode with such a light and easy hand. Moreover,
-he now saw that the impressions of the horse's hoofs had been made
-before the rain had fallen. His first care was to endeavour to restore
-the sufferer from his swoon. This he soon effected by chafing the body
-to restore circulation, and by applying to the nostrils a pungent
-preparation, which he always carried about with him, as a preservative
-from infection, when his duties called him to visit the sick beds of
-those who were afflicted with any disease considered pestilential.
-When Noble had satisfied himself that the unfortunate man was a little
-recovered by the returning consciousness in his eyes, and the
-regularity of his breathing, he went after his mare. She had not
-strayed far, and he soon brought her back, and after a while he had
-the satisfaction to observe that the wounded traveller was able to
-move and sit up. He now persuaded and assisted him to get upon the
-patient beast, and supporting him in the saddle with his hand, moved
-off slowly towards Cheddar. Half a mile on they met plain Peter, who
-had come out to look for his master, and was wondering and
-uncomfortable at the unusual lateness of his return.
-
-The sight explained itself; and the honest domestic expressing some
-sorrow for the sufferer, but more for his master, took his place on
-the other side of the mare, and aided Noble in the task of supporting
-the stranger, who was so weak and exhausted that he could hardly be
-held upon the saddle by their joint exertions for the rest of the
-road.
-
-Although not a syllable had been uttered by the object of their care,
-that was intelligible to either, and although Noble had not mentioned
-a word about having seen him at Wells, still Peter had an instinctive
-dislike to the man's features and his dress--from both of which he
-pronounced him a Puritan. He went so far as to provoke an angry rebuke
-from his master for opposing the benevolent resolution of the latter
-to take him to his own house.
-
-"Surely," said Peter, "a pallet at the Jolly Woodman will serve his
-turn:--he'll be well enough taken care of by Dame Crowther: why bring
-him home to trouble and frighten my good mistress, and to make a fuss,
-and a dirt, and a sick house of the parsonage?"
-
-"Peter," said Noble, "how would you like to be dealt by if you had
-fallen among thieves, and lay bruised and bleeding, and without a
-friend or a penny?"
-
-"Why, I should think an inn good enough for me; and so it is writ in
-the Bible."
-
-"Peter you are hard--and know not what spirit you are of--and speak
-foolishly."
-
-"Ah! well I mind what you said once about that parable, and how you
-told us that had the good Samaritan's house been over against the inn
-he would have taken him in at his own gate;--but somehow I don't like
-this fancy of yours--it will be a bad job:--when his saintship is
-warmed by your fire, mayhap he will turn out a serpent."
-
-"Never use that word lightly, Peter. I have often forbade you to
-trifle with it--duties are ours, events are God's. I shall certainly
-take this man in." Having thus decided, they went forward to the
-parsonage in silence. Mistress Noble came out eagerly as soon as they
-appeared. Her mind was soon quieted on the surprise which the sight of
-the wounded stranger caused her, and her kind and hospitable heart
-acquiesced instantly to the proposal of her good husband.
-
-The sufferer was at once carefully put to bed; and Noble, as by his
-own bright fire he put on the warm dry vestments which he found ready
-for him in his study, revolved the singular incidents of the eventful
-day with wonder, gratitude, and a calm confiding faith.
-
-He could not but reflect thankfully on his own escape from the
-misfortune which had befallen the temporary inmate of his dwelling.
-For want of a better booty, doubtless he would have been assaulted
-himself by the robbers who had fallen upon the Puritan; and, had he
-not been preceded by this traveller on the road, or had he left Wells
-at an earlier hour, he might have suffered in his room, or shared his
-fate.
-
-Again, how strange that a daring enthusiast, who had that very morning
-violated the sanctity of the cathedral, and had insulted the
-ministers of the church in their decent performance of public and
-solemn worship, should, before the setting of the sun which had
-witnessed his impiety, be laid in the dust, and left dependent upon
-one who had been revolted by his fierce conduct for the mercies of
-help and protection.
-
-"To-morrow," said Noble to his wife, as he related to her all the
-circumstances which had taken place at Wells, "when our guest is in a
-reasonable and repenting mood, I may, perhaps, speak a word in season
-that shall serve to deliver him from the chains of that cruel and
-bigoted spirit of persecution by which he is held. God preserve our
-Cuthbert from the hateful errors of men like these! It has been well
-observed, that though the fanatic cannot be seduced by the love of any
-sinful pleasures, yet that he can be readily persuaded to walk in
-blood by the lust of a power which he deceives himself in thinking he
-should assuredly use to the glory of the King of heaven, and the
-benefit of the faithful people of God. When will Christians learn
-that the kingdom of the Messiah is not of this world?"
-
-They had not retired for the night, when their worthy neighbour
-Blount, the franklin, who had but just returned from Glastonbury, came
-in to learn the particulars of what had occurred at Wells, and to tell
-the bad news which he had heard at Glastonbury that morning.
-
-"The devil is busy enough, Master Noble," said the old man as he
-entered: "there is a little party of vinegar-faced rogues coming to
-the Bald Raven at Axbridge to-morrow, who call themselves 'a
-Corresponding Committee for informing and aiding the Grand Committee
-of Religion and that for scandalous Ministers;' and they tell me that
-that sour hypocrite Daws is as busy as a bee among them already. But
-what is this I hear about one of these godly rogues having been half
-murdered under the cliff and lying in your house?"
-
-Noble told him all the circumstances; and Peter, who had lingered a
-little at the parlour door, said, "Ay, I can see by Master Blount's
-eyebrows he don't think it were a wise job to take this round-headed
-madman in here. Why he's talking a pack of wild stuff enough to
-frighten the maidens out of their wits."
-
-On hearing this, Noble, accompanied by Blount, went up stairs to the
-chamber of their inmate, and found him sitting upright in his bed, and
-parleying with some visionary appearance, after a wild but most
-earnest manner.
-
-As soon as they entered the room, he turned towards them and sniffed
-repeatedly, then gravely said, "Two good spirits and one bad--verily I
-am not forsaken--two to one against thee, Beelzebub--look gentle
-spirits--look upon the wall--there goes a coach drawn by lions and
-tigers--there goes Everard the conjurer in boots and spurs--here is
-the great fiery dragon--who hath taken away my trusty sword?--where is
-my horse?--a horse is a vain thing to save a man--see how it
-grows--the dragon--the great red dragon--taller--taller--it fills the
-room--save Lord, or I perish."
-
-To these wild, incoherent expressions, produced by the strange images
-which flitted before his troubled fancy, succeeded a profuse
-perspiration, and they persuaded him to lie down under the blankets,
-that he might obtain the full benefit of such a relief.
-
-He did so, and they could now only hear whispered murmurs, and humble
-tones, as of a person praying with tears. Noble himself was not
-unaffected by this scene; and even Blount admitted, that, if it were
-not for the mischief they did, some of these enthusiasts were rather
-to be pitied than punished. "Now here," said he, "is a case, where
-they should shave the head and lock up the poor creature in an
-hospital; but the worst matter is, they go about like mad dogs, biting
-all the folk they meet--and so they must e'en be dealt with in like
-manner."
-
-"You are not far wrong, neighbour, in judging many of them crazy; but
-there are cunning men behind to urge them on: and there certainly are
-many excellent and pious persons, who, as they stand on the same side
-in this sad quarrel, give a credit to the cause of these levellers in
-church and state which they otherwise would want; and, notwithstanding
-the actions and utterances of the unknown individual before us, I
-cannot look upon him without interest and pity."
-
-An umph from old Peter, with a request that his master would go to bed
-himself, and leave him to take care of the stranger, ended the
-conversation: Blount went away,--and Noble to his own chamber.
-
-At an early hour on the following morning two odd-looking servants, in
-sad-coloured suits, mounted and armed, presented themselves at the
-gate of the vicarage, and inquired "if their master was not there, as
-from what they had heard at the blacksmith's shed they thought that
-the gentleman, who had been robbed and wounded beneath the rocks, and
-was now lying sick in that house, could be no other."
-
-"I don't think you are far wrong," said Peter, as he cocked his eye
-askew at their long lean faces and their plain liveries of a colour
-like the cinders in the ash heap. "Like master like man, they say;
-though it's little I thought that the poor crazy body up stairs had a
-serving-man to truss up his points for him.--What do ye call your
-master?"
-
-"The right worshipful and godly Sir Roger Zouch, an approved voice, a
-faithful witness, a preacher of the truth, a trier of spirits, a man
-of war--bold as a lion for his God."
-
-"Why, then, by my troth," said Peter, "thy master is here for a
-certainty, and lieth with a cracked skull in our blue room; and is now
-telling my good master how he fought last night with beasts from
-Ephesus, who is listening to him, poor simple kind soul as he is, with
-as much patience as if it was all sense and gospel."
-
-"Out upon thee, thou vile churl! talkest thou so of one of Zion's
-champions? None of thy gibes and jeers, or it may be thine own crown
-will feel the weight of my cudgel." So saying, the elder of the two
-domestics alighted, and not waiting to be conducted, strode past Peter
-with a rude thrust, and entered the house.
-
-"A plague o' thee!" grumbled Peter: "two can play at quarter staff, as
-I'll show thee;" and following him into the passage, he slammed the
-door behind him, and left the other servant alone with the two horses
-before the wicket. This last, however, tarrying for no invitation,
-proceeded deliberately to the stable, and finding it open, introduced
-his tired beasts to the astonished old mare; took off bridles and
-saddles; and, plentifully supplying the rack and manger with hay and
-oats, entered the parson's kitchen, and taking a seat by the dresser
-demanded of the frightened maids the creature comforts of breakfast.
-
-Old Peter, who had just been witnessing the meeting of master and man
-above stairs, and whose cross temper had given way to a humour that
-had been tickled by the quaint scene and the ludicrous speeches, came
-shaking with laughter into the kitchen; but the tired and hungry groom
-was in no laughing mood, and soon upset this grinning philosophy by a
-smart stroke of his whip across his shoulders.
-
-In a moment the old man caught up a broomstick to return the blow;
-and, though very unequal, either in strength or youth, was standing up
-manfully against the assault, when the cook, whose spirit was roused
-by Peter's danger, dipped her mop in a pail of foul water, and
-thrusting it into the groom's face, drove him into the yard with dirty
-cheeks and blinded eyes. The cry of "murder" having been in the mean
-time screamed forth at the top of her voice by the other maiden, the
-kitchen was instantly filled with every person in the house; for even
-Sir Roger Zouch himself, albeit in no seemly garb for appearing in
-public, descended close after Noble, and stood up in the midst of them
-rather like a ghost newly risen from the grave than true flesh and
-blood,--though the stain of the last was indeed sufficiently visible
-beneath the folds of the bandage about his head.
-
-"How now!" said Sir Roger, in a voice rather more stentorian than
-might have been expected from the plight in which he had been put to
-bed the night before, and in a tone of authority as if he had been in
-his own mansion and with only his own household--"How now! brawlings
-and fightings: who is the striker, Gabriel Goldworthy?" but before
-this slow elder had screwed his mouth up to reply, Peter answered in
-his own blunt fashion, and the cook, in a shrill voice, chanted an
-echo to his complaint. Meantime the culprit groom, with a foul face,
-stood at the yard door as white as a stone with passion, while Sir
-Roger thus rejoined:--
-
-"Verily, thou art a trouble to me, Abel, and makest me a reproach
-among the people wheresoever I go: it was only last week, at the
-hostel of the Pied Bull in Tewksbury, thou didst raise a brawl about
-thy victuals at the buttery hatch: thou makest a god of thy belly.
-Remember that man liveth not by bread alone:--a good soldier must
-endure hardness, and never strike but in battle, and then home. I fear
-that thou art sensual, and it were not for thy godly grand-mother, and
-this, thy God-fearing uncle Gabriel, the man of my right hand, I would
-send thee back to thy ditching and delving."
-
-Abel muttered out that the children of Belial were making a mock of
-his master, and that he struck Peter in pure zeal for Sir Roger's
-honour; this Gabriel affirmed of his own knowledge to be true, and Sir
-Roger was pacified: but an opportunity of preaching, so favourable as
-it seemed to his weak judgment, was not to be neglected; he therefore
-proceeded to deliver a long rambling discourse on prophecy; and
-directed his looks and words with all the persuasive expression that
-he could possibly command towards the distressed parson and his good
-wife. He flattered himself that he had brought salvation to that
-house, and that all which had befallen him was in the order of
-Providence to that end. He had taken for his text, "Come out of her,
-my people;" and these words were repeated at the close of every
-passage, with all the varieties of intonation that his voice admitted.
-All efforts to induce him to stop or return up stairs till he had
-finished this wearisome preachment were vain. He stood half an hour
-with naked feet upon the kitchen stones, and was listened to even by
-Peter with a wonder so great, and with so painful a sense of his
-craziness, as forbade even a smile. He closed by so earnestly invoking
-peace on that house, and enjoining the exhibition of a quiet and an
-orderly spirit so forcibly upon the offending Abel, that during the
-rest of the day nothing disturbed the household.
-
-The hardy old Puritan nothing the worse for this exercise of his
-lungs, and very little so for the bruise and cut in his encounter with
-the robbers the evening before, took his seat at Noble's dinner table
-at noon, and seemed very sensible of the truly Christian hospitality
-of his host.
-
-As arguments or any appeals to reason would so evidently be thrown
-away upon a man under the prejudices and delusions of Sir Roger Zouch,
-Noble dexterously avoided inflaming the mind of his guest with a
-discussion on grave matters, and led him to speak on other topics. He
-found that he had travelled a great deal, and had in his youth served
-in the Low Countries. Upon these subjects he conversed rationally and
-pleasantly enough; and, as they walked after their meal into the
-garden, he showed an acquaintance with plants and flowers, and a
-knowledge of the various methods of laying out a garden, which in so
-stern a fanatic would seem strange; but what is there so variable, so
-inconstant, as man?--he is "some twenty several men in every hour;"
-not that either the dinner or the walk in the garden passed over
-without sundry efforts to spiritualise and improve the subjects which
-those occasions offered. In the garden especially, after talking a
-while like any other rational and well informed gentleman, he suddenly
-broke out in a rhapsody about the approaching millennium, and the
-personal reign of the Messiah upon this earth. His politics were
-violent; but in this they differed not from many able and patriotic
-men of the time. Against the church, however, his wrath evidently
-burned, and he affected to disbelieve the possibility of so pious a
-minister, as Noble plainly was, being sincerely resolved to remain in
-her communion. Upon this point, however, Noble was too bold and too
-honest to conceal his resolutions.
-
-It so happened that the next morning, before Sir Roger Zouch left the
-parsonage of Cheddar, there came to Noble a summons to attend the
-Committee of Inquiry into Church Matters, of which old Blount had
-warned the worthy parson on the evening of his return from Wells. Of
-this Noble informed his guest, and asked him if, as he saw the name of
-Zouch among the commissioners, it was any relation of his? The knight
-replied in the affirmative, and told Noble not to trouble himself to
-attend; for that as he was himself going to Axbridge he would make
-known to the committee his wish that no molestation might be given
-him. To this Noble would by no means consent, till he had received a
-solemn promise from Sir Roger that he would not represent him as less
-opposed to their proceedings against the church than he truly was, or
-less attached to that sacred institution which they sought to destroy.
-
-Thus was the trial of Noble for another brief season deferred, and the
-malicious designs and interested hopes of the meddling and
-hypocritical Daws were for the present disappointed. However, the gold
-was yet to be put into the fire at the appointed time.
-
-All these circumstances were related by Noble in a letter to his son
-Cuthbert, exactly as they occurred, with very little comment, and
-thus, as he rightly judged, they would make a forcible impression on
-his mind. They did so: a due consideration of them delivered him from
-some of his own delusions, and opened his eyes to those of a few of
-his companions; and though he was not at all more separated from the
-Non-conformists, yet he attached himself to the most sober among
-them.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XIX.
-
-    In thee, faire mansion, let it rest,
-    Yet know, with what thou art possest;
-    Thou entertaining in thy brest
-    But such a mind, mak'st God thy guest.
-                               BEN JONSON.
-
-
-What time the primroses were beginning to spread palely over the green
-and sunny banks in the neighbourhood of Milverton House, in the spring
-of 1642, the grimed armourers of England were busy in their smoky
-workshops; and there was no hall in the land, whether private or
-civic, in which the arms were not taken down from the walls and put in
-order. Every where notes of preparation were heard, and eyes of
-settled resolve might be seen.
-
-The House of Commons had petitioned the King for the militia, and they
-were already active in raising men. Sir Oliver Heywood, refusing to
-act in this matter, resigned his office of magistrate and justice of
-the peace, and took a decided part for the King. But although he had
-good will to the royal cause, and spoke his sentiments loudly and
-bitterly, although he was ready to make some personal exertions and
-some pecuniary sacrifices for his party, he was, as has been observed
-before, an indolent, self-indulgent old gentleman, a lover of ease and
-of his own way; methodical in all his habits, and obstinate in all his
-prejudices. The frequent visits of those hard and active men of
-business, who were employed to forward the royal cause by negotiating
-with all the Cavalier gentry for supplies of men and money, before the
-commission of array was actually issued, disturbed him sadly, and his
-temper became very irritable. Sir Charles Lambert had been long
-re-established in his good graces, and to the deep sorrow of Katharine
-had become once more a constant guest at Milverton. It is true that a
-great improvement had apparently taken place in his outward conduct,
-but Katharine disliked, mistrusted, feared him. She saw that he again
-entertained hopes of accomplishing his purposes upon her weak father,
-and of thus obtaining possession of her hand in marriage. It was an
-inconceivable mystery to her that any human being should desire to be
-united to another, when aware that his very touch was evaded with a
-shudder, and that from his gaze the face was averted with loathing.
-
-Some changes had taken place at the Hall within the last year, which
-had glided away with the swiftness of a shadow. In the January
-immediately preceding the season of which we are now writing, Mistress
-Alice had been summoned by that call, which, sooner or later, all must
-obey, and laid in a peaceful grave:--the snows that fell upon it were
-not more pure and spotless than had been her kind and innocent life,
-and her dissolution had been as gentle and as soft as their quick and
-silent melting.
-
-The family and household were still in their mourning for her; and had
-any stranger gazed upon Katharine Heywood, as in her sad robes of
-black she paced the terrace alone with slow and thoughtful steps, he
-would have wept for sympathy, and deemed her one of those silent
-mourners for the dead who refuse to be comforted, and cherish the
-sweet memory of a vanished image; but it was far otherwise,--her
-griefs were those of doubt and apprehension about the living. If ever
-a glance of the mind looked after the departed Alice, it did so with
-affection and complacency; with a calm joy that she was taken from the
-evil to come, and with an envy of her quiet tomb. But such movements
-of impatience at the difficulties of her path and the dreariness of
-that waste which lay before her in her appointed pilgrimage were never
-of any long continuance. She knew them to be wicked, and she knew them
-to be vain: she wore divine and secret armour, and she neither fled
-nor fainted in her hours of trial. The occasional, though less
-frequent, visits of George Juxon were a great relief to her,--and Jane
-Lambert continued to be her constant friend and beloved companion.
-Over the character of Jane there had come a change, which, though at
-times it was viewed with serious anxiety by Katharine, did upon the
-whole suit far better with those habits of her own soul which care
-had begotten.
-
-Jane Lambert's eyes, which were used to be lighted up with bright and
-joyous expression, and a certain lively and winning archness, did now
-often fill with unbidden tears, or were fixed gravely upon vacancy.
-
-One day, as the friends were walking together in a silent mood, the
-hand of Katharine resting gently upon the shoulder of Jane, and their
-steps slow as those of vestals in their groves, Juxon came suddenly
-upon them in their path; and so deep was the abstraction of both, that
-he was not seen of either till they met closely.
-
-"I am sorry," he observed, "to break the spell by which you are both
-bound, but I could not turn back, for I have business with Sir Oliver;
-however, it was to all seeming a spell so black and melancholy that
-perhaps it is better broken."
-
-"It is a good omen for us that it is broken by you, Master Juxon, for
-you are always a prophet of good, and misfortune never makes choice of
-such a messenger," said Katharine, with an effort at cheerfulness.
-Jane, too, suddenly recollecting herself, endeavoured to put on a
-careless smile, of welcome, but the effort failed her, and she burst
-into a flood of tears.
-
-Juxon, distressed and affected by the sight, made no reply to
-Katharine, but stood rivetted to the spot, hesitating whether he
-should proceed towards the house, and leave Jane to recover herself
-under the care of her friend, or whether he should remain to render
-what service he could, by diverting and calming a sorrow, the secret
-cause of which he fancied that he knew.
-
-Meanwhile, Katharine pressed Jane to her heart, and, covering her from
-observation, as though she were a child, said, "This is the natural
-effect of a night without sleep, and a nervous headache: it will do
-her good; you need not stay with us; we shall do very well, and Jane
-will be all the brighter for it at supper. You will find my father in
-the vineyard."
-
-Jane, however, in part relieved by these tears, quickly raised her
-head, and, with one of her most natural smiles dimpling her wet
-cheeks, said, "Pray do not let me drive you away: this is just
-nothing at all but what my old nurse used to call the mopes and the
-megrims: there, it is all over; that's one advantage we women have
-over you lords of the creation; that is, such of us as are not
-heroines, which I shall never be for one: we may now and then have a
-good cry; and, take my word for it, it is a fine cure for all
-nonsenses,--another favourite noun plural of my dear old nurse when I
-was little and naughty." This flash of affected gaiety did only light
-up her features, however, for a passing moment, and ere her few words
-were uttered an air of extreme depression returned upon her.
-
-"Nay, Mistress Jane," said Juxon, "these are no child's tears, neither
-are they fantastical like the melancholy of your fine lady: the
-fountain of them is deeper than any of these; you are unhappy. Here,
-before your noble friend, I must say that I have seen this for a long
-time: for more than a year I have witnessed with deep pain your
-altered manners and your failing health. Tell her the sad cause of
-your trouble; pour out your heart to her; she will safely advise and
-surely comfort you."
-
-"Really, Master Juxon," replied Jane, "you are a very strange person;
-and when you take a fancy into your head you are like good Sir Oliver,
-and truth would not drive it out again, though spoken by an angel,
-therefore a poor silly girl like me may not make the attempt."
-
-"For that matter, lady, you can look and speak persuasively as ever
-angel did: where do you hide your wings?"
-
-"Wings!--well, really now, if I were a court lady instead of a rustic,
-and had that magic mirror that hides all freckles, and gives every
-body that looks into it the face of a beauty, that fine compliment
-would win my heart; but as it is, I must e'en be content to walk the
-earth on two serviceable feet; on which I shall very soon run from
-your words and looks, if you do not speak about a more entertaining
-subject than me and my megrims."
-
-The gravity of her eyes contradicted the gaiety of her lips, as she
-thus spoke; and the unuttered wish in the deep recesses of her heart
-was, "Oh that I had the wings of a dove, that I might flee away, and
-be at rest!"
-
-Juxon looked upon her, for a moment, with a tender manly expression of
-countenance, in which were blended respectful pity and warm
-admiration; then turning to Katharine, he changed the subject, and
-diverted all further attention from Jane by telling the former upon
-what matter he was seeking Sir Oliver.
-
-"I have just received a letter," said he, "from Oxford, from that fine
-youth Arthur: it is both conceived and expressed in a spirit worthy
-the days of chivalry and of a man of mature age. He desires me to urge
-upon Sir Oliver his brave request, which is, that he may be permitted
-to come down instantly and take the field with whatever men Sir Oliver
-can raise for the King's service. He says that it is useless to compel
-him to remain at the University and pursue his studies in the present
-distracted state of public affairs, and that his age is not younger
-than that at which many a person renowned in history has appeared in
-arms for his country. The reason, it seems, of his preferring this
-request through me is, that he has been sharply reprimanded by Sir
-Oliver for even thinking of it; for he has already decided to place
-all the horsemen which he can raise under Sir Charles Lambert. Arthur
-truly observes, that as the infirmities of Sir Oliver now forbid his
-going to camp himself, it is right that a representative of his name
-should ride at the head of his tenants and yeomen; and that, although
-too young for a responsible charge, he can at least share their
-danger, and set a good example of devotion to the King's service. That
-he is quite willing to be under the command of Sir Charles Lambert;
-but that, if his present wish is refused, he will, at the risk of the
-worthy knight's displeasure, join the banner of the lords Falkland or
-Carnarvon as a simple volunteer."
-
-To this statement Katharine listened with a generous admiration of the
-gallant boy, and a hearty approval of his conduct; moreover, she felt
-that, by this arrangement, she should have a young protector, not only
-for the family, but whom she could depend upon as a shield from the
-dreaded importunities of Sir Charles, and whose presence would take
-away one of her father's excuses for urging upon her an abhorred
-connection. Of Arthur's conduct and character she felt sure: he looked
-up to her with the reverence of a son and the affection of a brother;
-and though her heart beat with a regretted fondness for another
-Heywood, a cousin separated from her by fate and fortune, towards this
-youth Arthur she entertained the composed and quiet affection of a
-young mother or an elder sister; therefore she rejoiced at the
-prospect of his return to Milverton, and promised to say every thing
-to her father which could move him to consent to this proposal.
-
-Juxon now left the ladies, and walked on at a faster pace towards the
-house.
-
-As soon as he was out of hearing, Katharine took Jane by the hand, and
-looking steadfastly into her face, said,--
-
-"My dear, dear friend, it is the privilege of friendship, and it is
-the enjoined duty of Christians, to weep with those that weep:--Juxon
-is right--you are unhappy--some secret sorrow is devouring your
-inward peace--reveal it to me."
-
-"Nay, Katharine, urge me not:--every heart knoweth its own
-bitterness--to every one is appointed some inward cross, which is
-better borne in silence."
-
-"Yet the sympathy of a friend is as a balm to the wounded spirit--a
-balm, Jane, which you have often poured gently and sweetly into mine,
-to the refreshment of my soul and the comfort of my aching
-heart;--besides, Jane, we must not let our private and inward griefs
-prey upon and consume our vital strength at a period like the
-present:--great trials are coming upon us, and severe duties will soon
-demand all our energies."
-
-"I know it, beloved Katharine,--and by your side I can meet them all.
-You are to me, all things: I have nothing on earth but you to whom I
-can cling: the stream of my heart would run to waste if it might not
-flow forth on you."
-
-"Hush! beloved,--hush!--these words are vain,"--and pointing to the
-blue sky and the fleecy clouds above them, Katharine silently
-conveyed to Jane her soft reproof and gentle admonition.
-
-"I know all that you would say to me," answered the mournful girl;
-"but, when all is said, how much of our present being must ever remain
-a mystery--sunbeams shine upon our heads, and violets spring beneath
-our feet--and yet, Kate, the world which this God of love hath created
-is a scene of misery--you know it is. What have you ever done that
-your brow should be clouded with sorrow, and your cheek blanched by
-care----"
-
-"Stop, Jane; for your life, not another word like this:--'they build
-too low who build below the sky:'--a curse is on this earth--a
-recorded curse--we may not, must not, cannot make a heaven of it:--it
-is our school, our place of discipline--the infancy of our
-existence:--what have any of us done, or what can any of us do, that
-so many countless blessings should be poured upon us? that we should
-be invited and taught to acquaint ourselves with that Holy One, by
-whom came truth, pardon, and peace--through whom we may win an
-entrance to that heavenly city, where 'all tears shall be wiped from
-all faces?'"
-
-A light of hope beamed in her serious eyes as thus she spoke, and Jane
-beheld it with reverence. The friends walked slowly back towards the
-house--there was a long pause in their discourse. It was broken by
-Jane asking, "You surely admit, dear cousin, that there is a vast
-difference in the fortunes and the trials of mankind?"
-
-"The seeming difference is vast, but not perhaps the real:--we see
-only the outward aspect of suffering and of prosperity--but the cup of
-life is mixed."
-
-"Surely to many, who are prosperous and happy, few trials are
-appointed:--they are pleasant in their lives, and honoured in their
-deaths; they appear even upon earth to be the favourites of Heaven."
-
-"If truly such, my love, their portion in this life will be little
-thought of; for they will know that in the bosom of Abraham the
-Lazarus of this world has his high place of honour as of comfort, and
-that the fashion of this world passeth away; nay, before the great
-change comes, one turn of the wheel may bring the loftiest fortunes to
-the dust, and crush them beneath it; even now, do we not see and hear
-the preparations of war?"
-
-"There, again, Katharine,--how can we reconcile with the power of a
-God of love the existence of so dark and terrible a curse as war?"
-
-"It is but one of many forms of death."
-
-"But the miseries in its violent and bloody path----"
-
-"Are not so great as those of pestilence, or famine, or the
-hurricane."
-
-"Well, Katharine, why pestilence, or famine, or hurricane?--_why
-death?_--and _whence sin?_"
-
-"Jane, we know not now--we shall know hereafter; let us not perplex
-ourselves with doubts and inquiries which none can solve; the origin
-of evil lies hidden from our eyes; it is a deep thing--enough for us
-that the Divine champion hath triumphed over sin--hath plucked the
-sting from death--and victory from the grave:--in and through him we
-may all be conquerors."
-
-"And can they so conquer if they be not followers of the Lamb?--and
-may the followers of the Lamb fight and shed each other's blood in
-battle?"
-
-"It is sad, very sad," rejoined Katharine, with a shudder of her whole
-frame: "it seems a stern necessity in the condition of all the
-kingdoms of this world that they should be defended by the sword. Good
-men, great men, the holiest servants of Heaven have wielded earthly
-arms, and the weapons of death:--with his sword and with his bow the
-father of the faithful led his own household to the combat,--and the
-virtues of the warrior are the chosen illustrations of those required
-in the secret conflicts of the Christian."
-
-"I know it, Katharine--and that to the spirit of Christian children
-there must be joined the courage of sacred warriors. Alas! for me--my
-heart faints within me--my mind is confused:--I wish I were a man, for
-then, in the excitement of these struggles, I could escape those of
-the closet."
-
-"To suffer, Jane, requires a more enduring courage than to act; and in
-patient suffering the high constancy of woman's mind hath ever shone
-most purely:--for the wives of England bitter trials are coming--ours
-will be light to theirs; and yours, dear girl, as you well know, less
-heavy than even mine."
-
-"Katharine, you do not know my trial, or you would not speak
-thus:--not a faithful and suffering wife in all England but I shall
-envy her the sweetness of her sufferings: it is in storms that we
-cling most closely to what we love."
-
-"True, fond girl, but remember that they may also divide us from what
-we love. Still there is a sweet truth in your melancholy words: I
-think you would be happy united to such a man as Juxon. He is
-evidently much attached to you; and I think you are not indifferent to
-him."
-
-"Cousin, he is worthy of a better fortune. He never can be mine."
-
-"What is the meaning of that strong emphasis? Is, then, the secret of
-your sorrow a concealed attachment to another?"
-
-"Katharine, you see not clearly in this matter; I am pitied by Juxon,
-not loved."
-
-"I know not, dear Jane, for what he should pity you; but pity is akin
-to love."
-
-"And also to contempt:--Juxon despises me: yes, the pity of one so
-generous and noble hearted is heavy to bear."
-
-"Impossible! he knows your sterling worth; he knows that you could not
-do what was wrong: you utter many things that are idle; but I have
-heard him warmly express his regard for your frank character; his
-faith in your high principles, and his fear that you judged others by
-yourself, and might in the trials of life prove too confiding towards
-others."
-
-"Have you, indeed, Kate? what, lately?"
-
-"Yes; not many days ago."
-
-"Well, this is comfort; for I love him passing well:--keep my secret,
-Katharine; you know not how faithfully I have kept yours." As Jane
-Lambert thus spoke, she took the hand of her fair cousin and pressed
-it against her beating heart. Katharine drew it away with a sudden
-agitation, and placing it on her pale forehead seemed to muse awhile:
-her eyes wore the expression of one that was wildly busy over the
-mysterious tablets of her memory; at last, fixing them on Jane with a
-troubled gaze, "I have it," she said: "a light flashes on me; the
-interview with Francis: it was observed by some one; it was known to
-Juxon, and you have borne----"
-
-"Nothing that I would not bear again for the love of Katharine, and
-for her peace of mind."
-
-"Noblest of beings, alas! how am I punished for having thus employed
-you! why did you not tell me all? May God forgive me! I never can
-forgive myself."
-
-"Talk not thus," said Jane, rushing into her arms. "This moment richly
-repays whatever I have suffered: that which I may now safely relate to
-you you could not have borne at the time, nor should I tell it even
-now, if it were not that I know you will be seeking some explanations
-from Juxon."
-
-The generous girl now gave a minute narration of all that had passed
-between herself and Francis at their interview. She told how very
-deeply she had been affected by the devotion with which he spoke of
-Katharine, and by those looks and gestures which revealed the
-constancy and the ardour of his love: the action so passionate towards
-her, upon whom his mind's eye was inwardly resting, with which Francis
-had parted from herself, was not forgotten. The circumstance of her
-immediately after meeting with Juxon, and the scene which passed
-between them, were described with the like fidelity.
-
-A paleness as of marble overspread the face of Katharine; her eyes
-assumed a vacant regard; her hand became cold, and from her moving
-lips no sound was audible. She stood a while like one suddenly turned
-to stone; and Jane, expecting her every instant to swoon away,
-supported her in trembling terror. It seemed an age of agony to Jane,
-though the trance did not last more than three awful minutes. The
-eyelids of Katharine closed; tears glittered on the long dark lashes;
-warmth and consciousness returned. She slowly opened her eyes; and,
-fixing them on Jane with an affection no words could convey, suffered
-herself to be led back in unbroken silence to the mansion.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XX.
-
-    'Tis _jest_ to tell a people that they're free:
-    _Who_ or _how many_ shall their _masters_ be
-    Is the sole doubt.
-                                            COWLEY.
-
-
-Before the walls of Hull, in Yorkshire, King Charles was first made
-sensible that the powers and the prerogatives of the crown were
-already usurped by the Parliament. Sir John Hotham shut the gates of
-the city, and refused to admit the small force by which the King was
-attended.
-
-The governor stood upon the wall, and the King, who had appointed him
-to that office of trust, sat upon his horse beneath, and heard a
-sickening protestation of loyalty to his person, while the guards, to
-whom he intrusted its defence, were treated as the enemies of his
-throne and kingdom. Here began that artful distinction, whereby the
-Parliamentarians professed to keep garrisons and raise soldiers in
-the name of the King, while they opposed his wishes and resisted his
-authority.
-
-They had already taken from the King the power of the militia; and
-having compelled him to throw himself on the support of the private
-gentry, the flame of civil war was soon kindled.
-
-At the time when his Majesty was thus repulsed by Sir John Hotham, he
-was surrounded by a small company of gallant gentlemen, who had formed
-themselves into a body guard; and he found himself, in a province
-remote from his capital, without a regiment, without money to raise
-one, and without a single garrison or company of soldiers in all
-England receiving his pay or acknowledging the royal orders: the navy,
-the ordnance, stores, magazines, and the revenue, were in the keeping
-of the Parliament. His sole dependence was on the loyalty, the
-courage, and the resources of the country gentlemen of England.
-
-The midland counties were for the most part subjected to the influence
-of the Parliament, and lay too near the city of London to resist or
-even dispute the commands of that powerful assembly.
-
-This body was no sooner apprised of the conduct of Hotham, and
-informed that he had been proclaimed a traitor by the King, than they
-openly justified the conduct of that governor, and soon after publicly
-voted "that the King intended to levy war against the Parliament."
-This declaration was followed by active preparations for war on both
-sides; but the advantages for commencing it were greatly on the side
-of the Parliament; and the gentry in the west, and more especially in
-the northern counties, were, at first, disheartened by the evident
-distraction of the King's counsel, and the gloomy aspect of his
-affairs.
-
-Therefore, in Yorkshire, though many promises were given, few troops
-were raised; and if Shropshire and Wales had not been animated by a
-more lively hope, and a warmer zeal, no royal army could ever have
-appeared in the field.
-
-Meanwhile the levies for the Parliament were very successful, and men
-came in as fast as they could be received and armed. In addition to
-these volunteers, the rustics drawn for the militia were compelled to
-join their corps, and were put under the training of such officers as
-could be found.
-
-In July, the Parliament voted the Earl of Essex their general of foot,
-and appointed the Earl of Bedford the commander of their horse; and
-early in August declared themselves necessitated to take arms and to
-commence hostilities.
-
-These vigorous measures inspired their partisans throughout the
-kingdom with a resolute spirit, and in London not a voice was openly
-lifted up for the King.
-
-As early as the month of May, Francis Heywood had procured his
-services to be accepted as captain of a troop of horse under Sir John
-Balfour, and was by him immediately appointed an instructor or
-sergeant-major[A] of cavalry.
-
-    [A] The titles of Sergeant-Major, and Sergeant-Major-General, at
-    that period, correspond with Adjutant-Major and Adjutant-General
-    of our times.
-
-At such a moment, the zeal of Cuthbert Noble would not suffer him to
-remain behind, while so many were taking arms for the great, and, as
-he thought, holy cause, of liberty. He did not find it difficult,
-through the favour of a friend, to obtain the grade of lieutenant in a
-company of foot; and he set forth on a fine morning in June to join a
-regiment then assembled in quarters at the town of St. Albans, in
-Hertfordshire, for training.
-
-His finances did not admit of more than a very humble
-equipment,--accordingly he was mounted on a low shambling pony, across
-which he had also placed the saddle bags containing his better gear,
-his Bible, and two or three violent pamphlets of the day against
-prelacy and the divine right of kings.
-
-Notwithstanding the heat of his opinions, and his hearty concurrence
-in the measures of the Parliament, Cuthbert, in his lonely hours, was
-of that serious and solemn temper of mind, that he could not but
-reflect on the step he was now taking with more than his wonted
-gravity.
-
-That his present course would be distressing to his father he well
-knew; but he silenced this whisper of his better angel with the
-consideration that his father was old, timid, and averse to change,
-rather from early prejudices and associations than from the light of
-conscience and the use of right reason.
-
-Again, with that obliquity of mind with which men who are in fact
-taking their own way wish to think it that appointed by Providence, he
-ran over all the texts of Scripture then in the mouths of the
-Roundheads, as justifying their appeal to arms, and silenced all the
-lingering remonstrances that yet struggled in his bosom with those
-inapplicable words of Holy Writ, "He that loveth father or mother more
-than me is not worthy of me."
-
-Having thus, by forcibly wresting a quotation from Scripture, served
-his immediate purpose, and given freedom and tranquillity to his
-spirit, he suffered his imagination to dress out the duties of
-military life in all their most sacred glory. The language of the Old
-Testament, and that of the profane authors with which he was familiar,
-were called up in a strange confusion to gild the prospect before
-him,--and now a song of triumph from his Bible, now a quotation from
-Homer, was sounding on his lips, and ere he was aware was kindling a
-vain and unholy ambition:--a secret and impious persuasion of the
-favour and approval of Heaven filled him with a swelling anticipation
-of coming victories and high rewards. He resolved that the virtues of
-the Spartan or the Roman soldier should in his person be combined with
-the ardour and the holiness of the most chosen warriors of Israel.
-
-He saw not the lean and sorry nag beneath him; he thought not of those
-weary marches which he should have to make afoot, when the miserable
-jade on which he was now sitting astride his saddle bags should be
-stumbling along stony or miry ways in a train of baggage horses; but
-he pictured out a future in which he should ride among the princes of
-the people, and in marches of triumph.
-
-From this dream of his fancy he was suddenly and very effectually
-awakened by feeling the animal, which he was riding, sink under him
-with an uneasy motion; and, before he could possibly prevent it, he
-found the water of a considerable stream, which he was then fording,
-above his knees, and his saddle bags thoroughly soaked through. The
-beast had his own notions of enjoyment as well as his dreamy rider;
-and, as the day was hot, the road was dusty, and his burden
-sufficiently oppressive, had taken this very seasonable refreshment.
-
-Nature suddenly asserted her power over the precise young Puritan;
-and, to the scandal of all his late professions, he gave vent to his
-wrath in certain violent and unseemly phrases which would not have
-disgraced the most accomplished swearer among the wild Cavaliers of
-that time. These oaths were but the accompaniments of sundry hard
-blows with a cudgel, kickings with the heel, and jerks of the rein, by
-dint of which the nag, unable to rebuke him for his injustice, was
-compelled to rise and go forward. The accident was in itself
-sufficiently provoking; and the irritation of Cuthbert was increased
-by encountering on the bank an old beggar with a wooden leg, who,
-tossing his staff pike fashion, loudly asked his alms for an old
-crippled soldier done up in the wars; and, thrusting his tongue in
-his cheek, eyed his foolish plight with a merry satisfaction, which he
-could not conceal.
-
-"Out upon thee!" said Cuthbert, "for an old drunken impostor:--such
-fellows as you tippling bawlers of ballads are the curse of the
-land;--go scrape your cracked fiddle for sots on the ale bench, and
-don't trouble honest men on their road."
-
-"The lie in thy throat, thou prick-eared canting Roundhead!" replied
-the old soldier:--"thou foul-mouthed hypocrite! is it for thou to rate
-sinners after rattling out oaths like a shameless brawler in a bear
-garden? I am a cleaner spoken man than thou, blessings on him who
-taught me, and more honest than to play traitor to my king:--God bless
-his gracious Majesty! I wish him no better luck than that all the
-Roundheads, militia, and train-bands, horse and foot, were just such a
-set of raw awkward spoonies as yourself."
-
-While he was yet speaking, Cuthbert's jade, as if moved by the very
-spirit of mischief, shook her ears and was down in the middle of the
-loose dusty road, without better warning than before; for the
-attention of Cuthbert being quite taken up by his anger with the old
-soldier, he was again too late to prevent it. The dust plentifully
-adhered to his legs, thighs, and saddle bags. He instantly dismounted
-in a rage, kicked the beast up again, drove it forward, and, turning
-short round upon the old man, in a fury, said,--
-
-"If it were not for your age and grey hairs, you insolent old
-vagabond, I would rap your pate smartly with my cudgel."
-
-"That were easier spoken than done," rejoined the old man, holding his
-quarter staff lightly in a defensive posture.
-
-A little dog, which accompanied the old man, perceiving by these
-actions, and by the loudness of their speech, that the stranger was
-quarrelling with his master, flew at Cuthbert with a sharp and angry
-bark, than which perhaps nothing does more inflame the rising choler;
-he, therefore, struck at the little animal furiously, and the end of
-his cudgel inflicted on it a sharp stroke, which sent it howling and
-yelping behind its master.
-
-The old soldier, without a moment's loss of time, resented this injury
-by so heavy and well placed a blow on the head of Cuthbert, that his
-steeple-crowned hat was knocked off; and had it not been defended
-within by the strong bars of iron with which it had been recently
-fitted for the wars, he would have gotten a severe bruise.
-
-"He that touches my dog touches me," said the old man: "I am sorry
-that I did not make thee feel it." The quarter staff of the beggar
-had, by his stumbling and over-reaching himself, flown out of his
-hand, and his old rabbit-skin cap had fallen upon the ground:--a fine
-polished head thinly strewn with grey hairs lay bare and
-exposed.--"There, you may crack it if you will now," he added, raising
-the ineffectual defence of his arm.
-
-"I am a man," said Cuthbert, "and not a brute: I would not strike thee
-for all my hot words; but I have been beside myself with passion. May
-God forgive me for my great offence against him--and do you forgive
-me for the hard things I said to you, and the stroke I gave your dog."
-
-So speaking, he picked up the old man's quarter staff and his cap, and
-gave them into his hands; at the same time taking a piece of silver
-out of his pocket, he tendered it with a look of good will--but the
-soldier would not take it.
-
-"It would do me no good," said he: "I should have no luck with it, and
-could never relish the bread or beer it bought me."
-
-"Then lay it out in dog's meat, friend: thy poor cur will have
-forgotten my rude blow before thou hast forgiven my uncomfortable
-words:--you wo'n't go to sleep in ill will with me, I hope."
-
-"No, I shan't do that," rejoined the aged beggar,--"the good old
-parson of Cheddar taught me better than that,--and I minds what he
-said as if it were yesterday--God bless him!--church and king for
-ever, say I.--I wo'n't have your money."
-
-Surprized and startled by this strange and unexpected mention of his
-father, Cuthbert drew from the old man the whole story of his
-adventure at Cheddar, and his interview with Noble.
-
-He listened with deep emotion to the narrative, and recognised in all
-the circumstances the internal evidence of its truth, from its exact
-correspondence with the character of his father's mind and heart, and
-those large and tolerant notions which he had always taught and
-carried out into practice.
-
-"I know that good parson well," said Cuthbert, "and love him like a
-father."
-
-"Do you indeed?--then I'll take your money, and give you hearty thanks
-for it.--But I say, young master, if you knows the parson of Cheddar
-so well, it's my belief your taking the wrong road:--a man can't serve
-two masters--without you do call God and the king two; and he that
-serves God first, and king the next after, must always be right, as I
-have heard say from the time I was the height of this quarter staff."
-
-Cuthbert gave him two pieces, and walked on in a humbled and in no
-satisfied frame of mind.
-
-His poor beast, like a patient packhorse, was quietly browsing by the
-road-side at no great distance, and Cuthbert drove it before him, not
-caring to mount again till the sun and air had dried his wet breeches
-and hose.
-
-The pettiness of the mortification which had moved him to such
-ungovernable anger was now lost in the most gloomy reflections on the
-sin of having so greatly dishonoured the commandments of God by
-cursing and swearing. Though naturally of a warm temper, he had never
-been at all addicted to the odious use of vulgar oaths, and for awhile
-he began to doubt the sincerity of his faith, and to imagine that the
-whole work of religion must be entered upon as a new thing.
-
-Again, the very strange circumstance of his father's image being
-brought before him in a manner so unexpected, by a way-side beggar,
-and the lesson of charity, and the solemn monition to turn back from
-the party which he had chosen, conveyed by so lowly an instrument,
-perplexed his reason and staggered his resolution.
-
-But the die was cast, the step was taken, and it was impossible for
-him, even if willing, to recede without disgrace. He ran over in his
-mind all the wrongs and the oppressions which had been committed in
-the name and with the sanction of the King. He recalled the sufferings
-of Prynne and his companions. He remembered the tyrannical imposition
-of ship money; the noble resistance to that measure by Hampden, now
-himself in arms; the violence towards the Scots; the articles
-exhibited against the five members; and, more than all, he considered
-that, if the King should conquer in the impending struggle, the
-despotic rule of the crown would be established more firmly than ever;
-the hateful tribunal of the Star Chamber would be again erected;
-prelacy, armed with new powers, would rear its mitre on the ruins of
-religious liberty; and all those abuses in church and state, which had
-called forth the famous Remonstrance of the Commons, and the Petition
-of Rights founded on it, would most certainly be restored.
-
-As these considerations passed through the mind of Cuthbert, he felt
-shame that he could for a moment have doubted the righteousness of the
-cause in which he had embarked. What was the little incident, which
-had so discomposed and ruffled him, when it was stripped naked? His
-nag had lain down in the water, and he had got a wetting. He should
-have laughed it off, and so he would have done but for wounded pride.
-He was conscious of the poverty of his equipment, and yet more so of
-his unmilitary appearance;--that the witness of his accident should
-mock him, and be an old soldier to boot, was more than he could bear.
-He finally resolved all that had passed into a hellish temptation of
-the evil one to divert him from the path of Christian duty; and thus
-comforting himself, and speaking peace to his heart, with a very
-slight repentance for his plain transgression of God's law, he
-recovered his serenity. He now mounted his nag, and cheerfully pursued
-his way till the fine massive tower of St. Alban's Abbey reminded him
-that he was near the place of his destination. He stopped under a
-shady tree a little off the road; brushed off the marks of his foolish
-misadventure; adjusted his dress; buckled the belt of his rapier more
-tightly, and rode into the town with a wish that he might escape
-present observation, and get soon housed. But it so chanced that in
-the narrow entrance of the very first street in St. Alban's Cuthbert
-met the whole garrison marching forth to exercise. The leading rank of
-musketeers, forming the advanced guard, filled the width of the street
-from house to house on either side of the way; therefore he was forced
-to stop, and placing his pony close to the wall that he might prove as
-small an obstacle as possible, saw the whole force pass him, and
-attracted the attention of them all. At any other time, and under
-other circumstances, he would have gazed upon the military show with a
-natural pleasure, and as it was, he looked upon them with much
-curiosity; but his position was very uncomfortable; and he felt small
-as they filed by with a strong and measured tread, keeping time to a
-few loud drums and piercing fifes.
-
-Several divisions of foot, composed of musketeers and pikemen in equal
-proportions, and each led by a mounted officer, and with their
-appointed number of captains, lieutenants, and sergeants, followed
-each other in succession; but there was a great difference in their
-equipment and bearing.
-
-The three leading divisions, amounting to nearly nine hundred
-effective men, were a fine sample of the very best infantry which had
-as yet been formed under the orders of the Parliament. Their clothing
-was of a coarse red cloth: the belts and bandaliers of those who were
-armed with muskets were of buff leather; and a girdle of double buff,
-eight inches broad, was worn under the skirts of the doublet. The
-musketeers also wore black steeple-crowned hats, with small but strong
-bars of iron fastened under the felt. In addition to their muskets and
-rests, they were all provided with a good stiff tuck, not very long,
-so fixed in the belt as not to swing or incommode them.
-
-The pikemen were furnished with good pikes, eighteen feet in length,
-with small steel heads, and good stiff tucks like those of the
-musketeers. They had also for defensive armour iron head pieces, with
-back and breast pieces of the same quality, pistol-proof, and each man
-was provided with a good long buff glove for the left hand; they also
-wore the broad buff girdle; the musketeers had bands about their hats
-of a considerable width, finished in front with a rose of orange
-cloth, but they had no feathers or plumes; and there was a steadiness
-and severity in their whole aspect which commanded admiration. It was
-one of the first regiments embodied, composed principally of a better
-order of volunteers, and commanded by a very strict and experienced
-officer. From these men Cuthbert had nothing to suffer: they were
-silent in their ranks; and merely glanced at him as they passed with
-looks of gloomy or proud indifference; but the regiment that followed
-was a raw levy of militiamen just raised: they had arms, indeed, and
-were divided already into musketeers and pikemen, like those who
-preceded them; but their clothing and equipment was very incomplete,
-and few of the pikemen had either back or breast pieces. Of these,
-numbers had been drawn, reluctantly, from the neighbouring villages,
-to supply the quota of men required by the militia act, and were
-enrolled with the mockery of an oath, by which they were sworn in, to
-fight "_for the King against the King_,"--a distinction which of
-course the greater part of them could not understand. They only wanted
-to be left alone, and suffered to follow their ploughs in peace. Most
-of them had some excuse to offer in the Shire Hall, and some story to
-tell why they should not go for soldiers. This man had aged parents to
-support; another had a family of children; and that man had just
-married a wife. Others, who were not provided with such good excuses,
-feigned deafness, bad eyes, lame shoulders, weak ankle bones, fits,
-rheumatic pains, or some other disqualification, to escape the irksome
-duties of praying and fighting under Puritan commanders. Many kissed
-their own thumbs instead of the Bible when they took their oaths of
-service, meaning to desert the first opportunity that offered; still
-there were numbers of idle rustics who came when they were called out,
-and did as they were bid, without further question; and these, in
-spite of their officers and sergeants, and Puritan comrades, contrived
-their own amusements, and laughed at the grave preachments which
-forbade them.
-
-As a file of these young swains passed Cuthbert, one struck the end of
-a lighted match under his pony's tail; and to the astonishment of
-Cuthbert, and the disturbance of the whole division following, the
-poor animal, hitherto as lazy and patient as a laden donkey, began
-kicking with such sudden activity and vigour, that the rider had some
-difficulty in keeping his seat. However, though inwardly vexed,
-Cuthbert stuck close to the saddle, and putting a good face on the
-vexatious incident disarmed the laughter which was at first generally
-excited by joining in it himself, till a humane sergeant plucked away
-the burning cause of the animal's pain and terror,--and the frightened
-beast stood still, trembling and in a bath of sweat. Until this
-moment Cuthbert was at a loss to know what had so alarmed his pony;
-but he now alighted and made a complaint about what had been done to
-an officer that was passing.
-
-The grave personage whom he addressed said, with a sly
-smile,--"Verily, friend, thy little garron was in the way, and I
-counsel thee to patience in this matter:--there is no harm done, and
-verily thou didst stick to thy saddle like a sergeant-major of
-cavalry."
-
-Without waiting for any rejoinder, the officer marched on; and no
-sooner had the infantry defiled, than the shrill tones of a few
-trumpets announced the advance of four troops of horse. As these fine
-men walked their powerful animals along the street, they cast down
-looks of contempt upon poor Cuthbert and his little hack; and he could
-not but feel that he had never as yet rightly conceived what were the
-naked realities of soldiership. There were far more unpleasant and
-painful experiences to come than the petty mortifications of this his
-first contact with troops. However, he had a wise, generous, and noble
-friend to instruct and arm his mind in the path on which he had
-entered; and his spirit was now in its first moment of weakness and
-need sustained and comforted by his appearance.
-
-Immediately in the rear of this body of horse rode an officer
-admirably mounted and equipped, and beneath his polished helmet
-Cuthbert instantly recognised Francis Heywood. By this old campaigner
-his position was seen and understood at a glance. He stopped, shook
-hands with him heartily, and desiring him to find out his quarter at
-the house of a brewer in the next street, bade him give his baggage
-pony in charge to his batman, and occupy his apartment till the
-exercise should be over.
-
-This was so great a lift and recovery to the sinking spirits of
-Cuthbert that he had no sooner put up his pony than he turned back and
-followed the troops to the plain where they were drawn out.
-
-It was a fine sight to the unaccustomed eye to watch the evolutions of
-the musketeers and the pikemen, as the former advanced to skirmish and
-cover the movements of the more solid body, and again as they rapidly
-retired, and, kneeling down in front of the close array of pikemen,
-awaited under the protection of their long pikes to receive the charge
-of cavalry, and repulse it with a close and steady fire.
-
-The sunbeams glittered on the steel heads of the tall pikes, and were
-reflected in a blaze from the breast and back pieces and the iron head
-pieces of the dragoons and the pikemen. The rolling of the drums, and
-the blasts of trumpets, gave animation to the movements of the various
-divisions; and as the dragoons and musketeers were furnished with a
-few rounds of blank or practice cartridge in their bandaliers, the
-mimic show of battle or the rehearsal of a scene of death was with the
-more select divisions very complete.
-
-The words of command were given and repeated in loud firm tones; and
-there was no lack with some of these stout Puritan commanders of
-oaths, peculiar, indeed, to themselves, but as earnest and as
-blasphemous as those of any profane swearer in the royal army. For
-instance, to the dismay of Cuthbert, he heard a voice of thunder
-directed against a dull but godly lieutenant of the very regiment
-which he was come to join with such a mild rebuke as, "The Lord
-deliver thee to Satan, Master Whitefoot, for a blockhead: dost thou
-not know thy right hand from thy left?"--"Face to the left, man," was
-the concluding roar, "and slope thy partisan."
-
-However, though our young Puritan lieutenant was a little astounded at
-the chance of being soon subject to such rude addresses, he had good
-sense enough to feel that men ought to know their right hands from
-their left, and that it must be very provoking to a commanding
-officer, and very perplexing and dangerous for others as well as
-themselves, if they did not; but he was, nevertheless, a little
-startled and shocked at so violent and sinful a misapplication of
-Scripture.
-
-However, he considered that the repulsive infirmities of the few ought
-not to outweigh the solid piety and the devoted patriotism of the
-great leaders of the Parliamentarian levies; and wisely resolving
-always to remember his right hand from his left, he joined Francis
-after the exercise of the day was over, and passed an evening in his
-society with a more deep and rational delight in it than he had ever
-before experienced during their previous intercourse.
-
-Francis gave him so much sensible advice in trifles, as well as in
-matters of moment, at his entrance on this new and strange course of
-life, that when Cuthbert lay down to rest all his difficulties seemed
-to have vanished. He had been introduced by Francis to the commander
-of the regiment he was to join, and to several other officers of horse
-as well as foot; and he soon discerned that there was as great a
-variety of character and of manners in this host of the Lord as in
-armies assuming a less presumptuous title.
-
-
-                       END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
-
-
-                               LONDON:
-                     Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODE,
-                         New-Street-Square.
-
-
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 </head>
 
 <body>
-
-
-<pre>
-
-Project Gutenberg's The Broken Font, Vol. 1 (of 2), by Moyle Sherer
-
-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: The Broken Font, Vol. 1 (of 2)
-       A Story of the Civil War
-
-Author: Moyle Sherer
-
-Release Date: July 20, 2013 [EBook #43261]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROKEN FONT, VOL. 1 (OF 2) ***
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-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
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-
-</pre>
-
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43261 ***</div>
 
 <div class="figcenter">
 <img class="border" src="images/titlepage.jpg" width="354" height="600" alt="" />
@@ -7604,383 +7565,6 @@ Printed by A. <span class="smcap">Spottiswoode</span>,<br />
 New-Street-Square.
 </p>
 
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's The Broken Font, Vol. 1 (of 2), by Moyle Sherer
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-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROKEN FONT, VOL. 1 (OF 2) ***
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+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43261 ***</div>
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-Project Gutenberg's The Broken Font, Vol. 1 (of 2), by Moyle Sherer
-
-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: The Broken Font, Vol. 1 (of 2)
-       A Story of the Civil War
-
-Author: Moyle Sherer
-
-Release Date: July 20, 2013 [EBook #43261]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROKEN FONT, VOL. 1 (OF 2) ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by sp1nd, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-  THE BROKEN FONT.
-
-  A STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR.
-
-  BY THE AUTHOR OF "TALES OF THE WARS OF OUR TIMES,"
-  "RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PENINSULA," &c. &c. &c.
-
-
-  IN TWO VOLUMES.
-
-  VOL. I.
-
-  LONDON:
-
-  PRINTED FOR
-  LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMAN,
-  PATERNOSTER-ROW.
-
-  1836.
-
-
-  LONDON:
-  Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODE,
-  New-Street-Square.
-
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-It is impossible to read or meditate concerning that period of history
-in which the scene and action of my tale are laid without partaking of
-the feelings of both parties in that great quarrel, and "being (in an
-innocent sense) on both sides."
-
-
-In such a spirit has my story been conceived and written. Until the
-sword was drawn, the more generous and constitutional Royalists were
-separated by but a faint line from the best and most patriotic men of
-the Parliament party.
-
-
-I have, however, confined myself more particularly to the
-contemplation of those miseries and violent acts of persecution which
-the appeal to arms brought upon many private families, and especially
-upon those of the clergy.
-
-
-In the contrivance of such a fiction, it became necessary to introduce
-pictures of fanaticism and hypocrisy, and to describe scenes of
-cruelty and of low interested persecution; but such parts of the story
-must not be considered separately from the rest. The general tenor of
-my volumes will, I trust, be found in strict consistency with that
-charity that "thinketh no evil," but "hopeth all things."
-
-
-
-
-THE BROKEN FONT.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-    Thus till man end, his vanities goe round,
-    In credit here, and there discredited;
-    Striving to binde, and never to be bound;
-    To governe God, and not bee governed:
-      Which is the cause his life is thus confused,
-      In his corruption, by these arts abused.
-                                   LORD BROOKE.
-
-
-It was the early afternoon of a fine open day in the last week of
-April, in the year 1640. The sun shone warm; not a breath of wind was
-stirring the tender foliage of the tall trees, or the delicate flower
-of the lowly harebell beneath the hedge-rows. All was still, save that
-at intervals the voice of the cuckoo was heard--loud, but yet
-mellow--from the bosom of a neighbouring wood. The swains in the
-field lay stretched in the shade, as though summer were already come:
-in gardens and court-yards not a sound of labour or a clatter of life
-disturbed the silence of the hour.
-
-In a shady alcove, which looked out on the bowling alley of Milverton
-House, sate the worthy old master of the mansion, with one leg crossed
-over the other, a book upon his knee, and a kindly smile playing
-across his manly features. Not far distant, upon the steps which led
-up to the near end of a stately terrace, was seated a fair little
-girl, about six years of age. A thick laurel protected her with its
-shadow; and it might be seen by the paper in her hand, by the motion
-of her lips, and by the sway of her little head and neck, that she was
-committing some task to memory, with that pleasure that makes a
-pastime even out of a lesson. Out on the smooth green an old
-flap-mouthed hound, whose hunting days were long past, lay basking in
-the sun, among the dispersed bowls, which the last players had idly
-neglected to put away; and with them a boy's bow and arrow had been
-left, or forgotten, on the ground. The child's murmur was lower than
-the soft coo from the dove-cote, or the gentle music of the fountain;
-and there was a hush of quiet about all these whispers of created life
-that was in harmony with the general silence.
-
-The shadow of the dial had crept on nearly half an hour before this
-repose was broken. It was so at last, by a hot boy of fourteen, with
-vest unbuttoned, and without a hat, who came to seek his bow and
-arrow. The glad cry of "I have found them!" dispelled the silence: the
-little girl thrust her paper into her bosom, and jumped up at the
-sound of the welcome voice; and the old man looked up, and, putting
-his book down on the seat beside him, scolded the noble boy for having
-left the bowls out to be scorched and injured by the sun.
-
-With no abatement of good humour, the cheerful boy, eagerly helped by
-the little girl, gathered them up, and carried them into the
-bowl-house. The old hound was too much accustomed to the thing even to
-stir for it, though one of the bowls almost touched his nose.
-
-This duty done, the boy, upon whose mind one thing lay uppermost, with
-that abruptness which belongs to nature and to boyhood, propounded to
-his great-uncle, Sir Oliver Heywood, the following most startling
-question:--
-
-"Was it not, sir, a very wicked thing to cut off Mr. Prynne's ears?"
-
-Had it suddenly thundered the old knight could not have been more
-surprised; and, if a wasp had stung him in a tender place, he could
-not have been less pleased.
-
-"Master Prynne! what do you know about Master Prynne, you foolish
-boy?"
-
-"O, I know--I know very well! they cut off his ears because he didn't
-like plays; and that was very cruel! What a shame it would be to cut
-off the ears of old Josh. Cross, that takes care of your hawks,
-because he didn't like to hear Stephen play upon the fiddle!"
-
-"Why, Arthur, what has come to you, boy? who has been teaching you
-this nonsense? If Master Prynne had lost his head, instead of his
-ears, it would be no more than he deserved, and I hope he may live to
-own it."
-
-At this rebuke the boy coloured, and hung his head; but added, as if
-pleading for his fault,--
-
-"It was Master Noble said so; and you know, sir, you have told us all
-to mind what he says, for he is always in the right."
-
-Sir Oliver bade him hastily go play; and the boy, taking his little
-niece by the hand, they ran out of the bowling-green at one angle,
-while the good old knight, not a little discomposed by the incident,
-ascended slowly to the terrace. Here he found old Philip, the keeper
-of the buttery, seated at the far end, in the shade, in the calm
-enjoyment of a pipe. Instead of the wonted word of pleasant greeting,
-Sir Oliver told him, in a rough tone, to go and seek instantly for
-Master Noble, and send him thither.
-
-While the kind old serving man went away with his message in no
-comfortable mood--for the young tutor was as great a favourite in
-kitchen as in hall--the old gentleman paced the terrace with a
-leisurely and thoughtful step; and made frequent stops and soliloquies
-on the strange and unexpected words and sentiments which he had just
-heard from the lips of his open and artless boy. While thus engaged,
-we will leave him for a few moments to place before our reader the
-state of the family at the time of which we write.
-
-At the village of Milverton, in Warwickshire, upon a sweet spot above
-the valley of the Avon, Sir Oliver Heywood, the descendant of a
-successful and honoured merchant, occupied a fair and pleasant mansion
-erected in the reign of Elizabeth by his wealthy father.
-
-The family at Milverton House consisted of the worthy knight, a maiden
-sister, his daughter--an only child--and a boy who was the son of a
-favourite nephew slain in the German wars, in which he had been led to
-engage as a diversion of his grief on the loss of a beloved wife.
-
-In addition to these regular members of the family there was a little
-orphan girl, whom his benevolent sister had adopted. This sister,
-Mistress Alice, was two years the junior of Sir Oliver, and had
-attained the age of sixty-one. She had taken up her abode with him at
-the death of Lady Heywood, about four years before the period of
-which we now speak.
-
-Katharine, his daughter, was in her twentieth year, and his nephew's
-son was about fourteen years of age.
-
-Master Noble, of whom mention has been made, was tutor to the boy
-Arthur, and resided with the family.
-
-This young scholar was the son of an old school-fellow and friend of
-Sir Oliver's, who held the benefice of Cheddar, in Somersetshire.
-Cuthbert Noble, like his father before him, had been educated at
-William of Wykeham's school of Winchester; but not succeeding so far
-as to obtain a fellowship at New College, Oxford, which is the usual
-aim and reward of the scholars upon the Winchester foundation, he had
-proceeded to Cambridge, and there graduated with good report. He had
-been now six months at Milverton.
-
-Sir Oliver's birthday was ever a high festival at the manor-house.
-This year it was the pleasure of his daughter to celebrate it by a
-masque; and all the arrangements for this masque were referred by
-Mistress Katharine to Cuthbert Noble. He cheerfully undertook them;
-and having gained some experience in these matters at college, and
-having some skill in painting, set himself to prepare scenes--then a
-very recent invention. As, with a painting brush in his hand, he was
-standing before a scene, nearly finished, and dashing in the white and
-foamy water upon canvass, that was fast changing into a torrent,
-falling from rocks, and rushing through a lonely glen,--and as he
-stood back surveying the effect, and humming the fragment of a song,
-Philip came slowly up the gallery, and said gravely,--
-
-"Master Cuthbert, Sir Oliver wants to speak with you directly."
-
-"Where is he?"
-
-"In the garden, on the lower terrace; and I wish he was looking more
-pleasant:--it's my thought, Master, there's something wrong; for it is
-not a small matter that can vex him."
-
-Cuthbert put down his brush and palette, and proceeded slowly towards
-the terrace. As he was descending the wide steps which led to it, he
-could not but observe that the good knight was serious, if not angry.
-
-"Master Cuthbert," said Sir Oliver with an air of gravity and
-displeasure, "I have sent for you to hear from your own lips some
-little explanation or defence of a matter that hath come to my
-knowledge by the accident of a child's artless utterance. It may be
-that it was only a word lightly dropped by you--a passing levity--a
-lapsus of the tongue, not of the judgment--such an indiscretion as I
-may pass over in one of your unripe age and little experience, without
-further correction than a faithful reproof, and a timely warning of
-the danger of such vain observations, and of their unsuitableness and
-impropriety in one who fills so important an office in my family, and
-hath so far enjoyed my confidence as to have doubtless a great
-influence for evil or for good."
-
-This long preface Sir Oliver delivered, pacing slowly on the terrace
-with his eyes bent upon the ground. Cuthbert walked by his side,
-anxious for the direct charge, now too plainly whispered from within
-by his own swift thoughts.
-
-Sir Oliver paused, and, looking full and steadily upon the serious
-countenance of the youthful tutor, demanded of him whether it were
-true that he had said publicly before any of his family or household,
-that it was a barbarous and cruel thing to cut off Master Prynne's
-ears?
-
-"I certainly so expressed myself," was the calm answer of Cuthbert.
-
-"Where and to whom did you thus speak?"
-
-"It was in the library--the lady Alice was present, and Master Arthur
-was there at his lesson."
-
-"And are these the lessons that you teach in my house and to my
-children?--know you, sir, that Master Prynne is a traitor--that he
-speaketh evil of dignities, and soweth disloyalty--that he is a
-hypocrite and a fanatic?"
-
-"Sir Oliver," said Cuthbert, "there was no discourse upon this matter,
-save only the one remark of which you question me:--this fell from my
-heart when your good sister read out some news of him--and thereupon
-the lady Alice went forth without a word; for I presume not to
-intrude my poor thoughts of court affairs upon any one in this house.
-I know my place better."
-
-"Life of me! Thou dost not confess thy fault--thou dost not say thy
-paenitet for teaching this false lesson to my child!"
-
-"I would not be slow to speak out my sorrow and shame if I felt them,
-but I am conscience-whole in this thing,--and my few words did give no
-other lesson than one of plain humanity."
-
-"Master Cuthbert, I do believe thee a true and gentle youth, of best
-intentions, and thou comest of a good stock. Thy father is my good
-friend from the gladsome days when we were school-fellows together at
-St. Mary, Winton; and where hath church or state a better parson or
-better subject than he? therefore, I would for his sake, as for thine
-own, entreat thee mildly. Youth is warm and tender, and wanting a far
-sight to the great end of punishment--the axe might rust and the
-scourge gather cobwebs before hearts like thine would give rogues
-their due."
-
-"I am of sterner stuff, Sir Oliver, than to wish a rogue safe from
-the beadle, or a traitor from the headsman; but I am not so taught as
-to think the mistakes of a severe piety treasons deserving of
-torture."
-
-"Odd's life! I see how it is--thou art bitten by these gloomy
-fanatics--the venom is in thy veins:--well for me that I have seen its
-first workings. By my fathers! these new papists, these worse
-Carthusians, would drive sunshine from the earth, and kill the
-flowers, and stop the singing of birds, and give us a world of rock
-and clouds--hard as their stony hearts, and gloomy as their cold
-minds! Master Cuthbert, we must part. I'll not have the path of my boy
-shadowed over before it be God's will. The earth is green and goodly,
-and pleasant to the eyes; and long may his heart rejoice in it, as
-mine has before him. Look you, we must part."
-
-"At your pleasure I came, Sir Oliver, and I am ready, at your
-pleasure, to return to my father's. My stay with you has been short,
-and I would fain hope that I have not failed in my duty to you. May
-you be more fortunate in your choice of a tutor for Master Arthur
-than you have been in me!"
-
-Cuthbert spoke these words with so much self-command that not one
-syllable trembled in the utterance; yet the tone was at once mournful
-and resolved.
-
-The better feelings of Sir Oliver were touched: the expression of his
-eye showed plainly that he was repenting of his hastiness, relenting
-in his decision. What his reply might have been, may, in its spirit,
-be easily imagined; but a sudden interruption checked the words that
-were rising to his lips; and a sounder and more prudential reason for
-desiring the departure of Cuthbert was presented to his judgment than
-any objection which could have been urged at that time, with any
-semblance of fairness, against his errors as a churchman, or his sins
-as a subject.
-
-"Master Noble," called a rich clear voice from above them,--"Master
-Noble, we poor players do wait your pleasure, and are ready with our
-parts; but we cannot go on with our rehearsal till the manager doth
-come to us." Looking up, Sir Oliver saw his daughter leaning over the
-balustrade, with a paper in one hand, and a tall wand wreathed with
-flowers in the other; and, as he turned his eyes upon Cuthbert Noble,
-the strong emotions with which Cuthbert was evidently struggling did
-not escape his observation.
-
-"I have business with him just now, Kate," said her father: "go thy
-way. He shall come to thee in the hall anon." But as he spoke, the boy
-Arthur came down the steps, leading in his hand the little girl; and,
-running up to Cuthbert with joyous eagerness, cried out, "Kitten can
-do her part--she can say every word quite perfect--you must hear her."
-With that, the little girl letting go his hand, and putting back her
-sunny curls, which had fallen over her blue eyes, repeated, with an
-air of sweet intelligence and pretty innocence, these lines:--
-
-    "I do childhood represent,
-    Listen to my argument:
-    Mine the magic power to bring
-    Pleasure out of every thing;
-    Sunbeams, flowers, and summer air,
-    Music, wonders, visions fair,
-    All my happy steps attend;
-    Mine is peace without an end;--
-    All things are at peace with me,
-    Beast in field, and bird on tree;
-    The sheep that lie upon the grass
-    Never stir as I do pass;
-    If by the singing bird I stray,
-    He never quits his chosen spray;
-    If to the squirrel's haunt I go,
-    He comes with curious eye below;
-    Earth and I are full of love,
-    I fear no harm from Heav'n above,
-    For there, as here, all things do tell
-    A Father God doth surely dwell:--
-    O! could I be a child alway,
-    How happy were life's holyday!"
-
-The countenance of Sir Oliver recovered all its wonted expression of
-good humour, as the child prettily recited these lines; and patting
-her on the head, as she concluded, he turned to Cuthbert and said, in
-his usual kind tone, "We will talk our matter over another time: I see
-that you are no joy-killer, and would never mar an innocent
-pleasure-making--I was ever fond of a good play--a pox on these
-prick-eared knaves that would forbid them!
-
-    "'Why kings and emperors have taen delight
-    To make experience of their wits in plays,'
-
-as Master Kyd hath it, in his Spanish tragedy."
-
-Cuthbert said nothing; but having a recollection of the passage from
-which Sir Oliver had quoted, thought he might have found a more
-comfortable sanction and a much better authority.
-
-"But, prithee," continued Sir Oliver, "whose rhymes be these that the
-child has just spoken?"
-
-"They are my poor doggerel," answered Cuthbert; "for this dear child
-would give me no rest till I made a part for her in the Birthday
-Masque."
-
-"Marry," rejoined the knight, "the fancy of them pleaseth me, and for
-the verse I care not."
-
-They all now turned to ascend the steps; and as they did so, apparent
-at the same instant to both Sir Oliver and Cuthbert was Mistress
-Katharine, leaning over the balustrade of the upper terrace, with an
-air of grave and perplexed curiosity.
-
-As soon as they reached the top, which was level with the lawn in
-front of the mansion, Katharine caught Kitten in her arms, kissed her
-fair brow, and ran with her towards the house; the happy child calling
-out the while, "Come along, Master Noble, pray, come," and at the same
-time clapping together her two little hands at thought of the coming
-pleasure.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. II.
-
-    "White, I dare not say good, witches (for woe be to him
-    that calleth evil good!) heal those that are hurt, and help them
-    to lost goods.
-
-    "Methinks she should bewitch to herself a golden mine, at
-    least good meat, and whole clothes."
-                                  FULLER'_s_ _Profane State_.
-
-
-While a select few among the maidens and the serving men, who were, to
-their great contentment, to figure beneath strange dresses and uncouth
-vizards in the antimasque, and while some neighbouring gentles of
-quality, who were to take part in the masque itself, were rehearsing
-in the hall, old Philip, the butler, betook himself to the outer gate,
-and there sitting down on the porter's stone, replenished his pipe,
-and fell a-thinking about Sir Oliver and Master Noble. But the more he
-thought, the more he was puzzled; and so he opened his vest to catch
-the breeze from the valley, and smoked with half-closed eyes, too
-much accustomed to the glorious scene before him to be always moved by
-its beauties. Below him, in the rich bottom of the vale, flowed the
-shining Avon. The white foam of the water at Guy's mill might be seen,
-and the rush of it might be almost heard.
-
-The cliff of the renowned Guy presented a fine scarp of stone, the
-summit of which was overhung with knotted and rude shrubs of a
-fantastic growth; and far away to the left, at a distance of two
-miles, might be seen the lordly towers, and the tall and ivied wall of
-Warwick Castle. Such were the objects, which might, we say, have been
-discerned from the spot where old Philip sate, together with broad and
-pleasant meadows, well stocked with kine and sheep, and many goodly
-trees of a stately size, and many a distant coppice of rich underwood.
-Doubtless the old man had often felt the glad influence of that
-scene,--but now, overcome with heat, tobacco, and the labour of
-perplexed guesses about the grave mood of his master, he fell fast
-asleep. Philip was one of those good faithful old creatures whose
-world was his master's, and whose greatest sin was the love of
-victual. This sin was duly punished by black dreams; and now, as he
-lay snoring against the wall, his indulgence over a rich mutton pie at
-dinner was visited with the terrors of one of those nightmare visions
-with which he was deservedly familiar. He dreamed that it was the
-statute fair, and that they were roasting an ox whole in the
-market-place of Warwick. The frontlet of the poor beast was gaily
-gilded, and the horns were painted blue, and gilt at the tips. The
-mighty spit turned slowly round. On one side stood a fat cook basting
-the brown loins that the beast might not burn, and on the other a
-stout and expert carver occasionally stopped the rude spit, and with a
-long broad knife detached savoury portions for the greedy by-standers,
-who, on receiving the same, dropped their penny of thanks into the cap
-of the carver, and, slipping out of the crowd, made way for others.
-Dreams are to the dreamer realities. Philip's mouth watered: he
-thought he had never before seen beef so delicious; fat and lean in
-their exact proportions; the meat of the finest grain, juicy, and full
-of gravy; but then his suit, his badge, his pride of place, forbade
-his wishes: partake of the dainty he could not, but he might go near,
-just out of curiosity, and for mere amusement. Lo and behold! with an
-angry bellow forth leaped the furious beast, his eyes all fire, the
-spit point issuing from his foaming mouth, his carcass smoking and
-dripping, and half the sirloins cut away. He singled old Philip from
-the crowd; he lowered his blue and gilded horns; he shook the spit
-between his grinning teeth; and as he made his rush, old Philip died a
-thousand deaths in one, and woke into another world,--that other he
-had so shortly quitted. Nor was the object on which his waking eyes
-first rested exactly calculated to compose his terrors. A crowd of
-noisy clowns was standing round him; and in the midst of them, upon a
-hurdle, they bore an old withered and bony woman, crooked and
-blear-eyed, who was counted the witch of that neighbourhood, and well
-known by the name of yellow Margery of the Sand Pit.
-
-They set down the hurdle close at Philip's feet, and called loudly for
-justice and Sir Oliver. "Hag!"--"Crone!"--"Beldame!"--"To the
-faggot!"--"To the river,"--"Justice in the King's name!"--were the
-various cries by which the impatient rustics frighted all the
-household of Milverton from their propriety and their pleasures, and
-brought most of them forth to the gate, and the rest to the hall
-steps, or the casements. Sir Oliver himself came forth, among the
-first, loudly rating them. "Why, how now, ye rude varlets; is
-Milverton a pot-house, and the seat of justice an ale bench?
-Speak--what would you?--speak, you, Morton,--you should know better
-than to head a rabble rout of this fashion."
-
-"Why then, troth, Sir Oliver, as thou art a worshipful knight, and a
-king's justice, not man, woman, nor child in the whole parish can sup
-their porridge in peace or sleep o' nights for this old witch Margery:
-we've crown witness enough to hang, drown, and burn her twenty times
-over."
-
-"Not so fast, not so fast, neighbour," said Sir Oliver, seating
-himself on the stone from which old Philip had retired melting with
-fear. "Where are the witnesses, and what have they to say? Let them
-stand forth."
-
-"First, here's Master Crumble, the clerk; then, afore him, here's
-Master Screw, the great witch-finder from Coventry; and here's Jock,
-my carter; and old Blow, the blacksmith, and Pollard, your worship's
-woodman."
-
-"Stop, stop, I can't hear all at once,--say thy say, Crumble."
-
-"Why, your worship, my sow--your worship, my sow is dead: all of a
-sudden, this blessed morn, as I poured out her wash, down she lay all
-in the shivers; and if the poor dumb creature had been her own flesh
-and blood, my old woman could not ha' taken on more. Says I, directly,
-'This is a bit of Margery's work; for I see her brush the old sow with
-her black petticoat at the lane end, Sunday was a week.' It's quite a
-plain case you see, Sir Oliver."
-
-"Stand back, you silly man."
-
-"Silly, forsooth. I am thirty-seven year clerk of the parish, come
-next Lammas, and I say it's writ on the Bible, 'Thou shalt not suffer
-a witch to live.'"
-
-"That is true enough--it is so; but how do you know a witch?"
-
-"Why, I know that a man's not a witch."
-
-"That is true, thou art a man and no witch. But how dost thou know
-one?"
-
-"Why, it is an old woman, not to say any one, but a crook back, with a
-hooked nose, and a peaked chin like Margery."
-
-"Master Crumble, I have done with thee, and in the matter of thy sow's
-death do acquit Margery."
-
-"That's not crown law, nor Gospel charity," said the old clerk, as he
-stepped back into the crowd, who muttered and whispered among each
-other till the next witness spoke out. This was the witch-finder.
-
-"Please your worship, I am ready to make oath that she hath a
-familiar, always about her in the shape of a brown mouse; for I have
-seen it crawling about her neck, and playing and feeding in her hand."
-
-Here there was a mixed utterance of triumph and horror in the crowd,
-and Sir Oliver himself looked grave.
-
-"What dost thou answer to this, Margery?"
-
-"They say true in that they say I have a tame mouse; and haven't court
-ladies their monkeys, and their parrots, and their squirrels, and
-their white mice,--and why mayn't an old lone woman have her pet as
-well as they?" As thus she spoke, she held out her open hand, and a
-lively brown mouse sat up quietly on the palm seemingly quite tame.
-There was a slight shudder ran through the veins of all present; and
-Cuthbert Noble, fearing lest this mode of defence might rather hinder
-than help her, went up to advise her better.
-
-"A warm blessing on you, Master Noble,--the blessing of one whom you
-have saved before, and are trying to save again."
-
-Here Cuthbert stopped her, and observed to Sir Oliver aloud, that this
-mouse was but such a pet as a shepherd's boy might play with, and that
-the old woman, whose ways were odd, had once told him that when she
-was a child and her little brother died, she had taken to a field
-mouse which he had petted, and that she had ever since as one died
-procured another.
-
-The worthy knight was now for discharging Margery; but Farmer Morton
-insisted that they should hear his carter's story. Accordingly Jock
-stepped forward, and smoothing down his hair said,--"Please your
-worship, I lost my best startups (high shoes) the day before last
-cattle fair, and precious mad I was; and Sukey Sly told me if I went
-to old Margery, and took her a wheaten loaf, and crossed her palm with
-a silver penny, she'd tell me where to find 'em. Well, I went, and the
-old woman said she didn't want to have aught to say to me. 'Look ye,'
-says I, 'Margery, here I be, here's the bread and here's the money: I
-ha' lost my startups, and you must tell me where to find them; and I
-wo'n't budge till you do.' So with that she puts her mouse down
-against the loaf, and finely he nibbled away, and she set of a brown
-stud for a bit, and then told me to wait for the first full moon, and
-then, exactly at midnight, to walk backwards from the yard gate to the
-dung mixen, with my eyes fixed on the moon, and that I should find
-them on the mixen; but if it were before or after twelve o'clock, and
-if I looked behind me, or took my eyes off the moon, the charm would
-be broke, and I should never see my startups again; and sure enough I
-never have seen 'em."
-
-There was a little titter among the women; and Sukey Sly, whose legs
-were set off in a pair of new red stockings, could not suppress a
-laugh at Jock's story: but the clowns called out for justice, and Sir
-Oliver had much ado to pacify them. He did so at last, by assuring the
-old woman, that, on condition she told what was the great charm by
-which she was said to cure diseases, she should be set free.
-
-"Cure diseases! God bless you, Master! why I'm a poor helpless old
-body, that can't cure myself, and should starve but for pity," said
-Margery. "However, may be, once or so in a quarter there comes some
-wilful body like Jock, with a tied-up face, and makes a witch of me,
-whether or no, and will have the charm. Then I take his loaf and his
-money, and I say,--
-
-    "'My loaf in my lap,
-      My penny in my purse;
-    Thou art never the better;
-      I'm never the worse.'"
-
-This confession was followed by laughter, in which most joined; and,
-except the clerk of the parish and the balked witch-finder, all
-dispersed in such good humour, that the poor old crone was released
-from her hurdle and her troublesome attendants, and, with a basket of
-broken meat and a bottle of ale, was suffered to hobble back to her
-hovel in the sand pit, without let or hinderance. It is true that
-Margery was most justly liable to the charge of imposture in the
-matter of Jock; and certain that, but for the easy and kind temper of
-the knight, and the good humour which her own quaint and jocular
-confession suddenly struck out of the wayward crowd, she might have
-been committed by Sir Oliver, or half drowned by the brutal and
-superstitious rustics on her road back to her miserable hovel. But as
-she lived at a lone spot on the far side of the Avon, and was not
-often seen in the parish of Milverton, and as the good knight (though
-by no means free from the prevalent belief in witchcraft, and still
-doubting whether under the form of a mouse she was not attended by an
-imp, as the witch-finder had averred,) was a timid magistrate, hated
-trouble, and sincerely feared doing what was either wrong in law or
-severe in punishment, he rejoiced to be well quit of the troublesome
-appeal. Nevertheless, he was not a little secretly disturbed, when,
-late in the evening, old Philip--in a fear which had not even yielded
-to the comforting warmth of a cup of spiced ale--related to him his
-comical dream, with manifold exaggerations, and expressed his stout
-belief that he had been possessed during his sleep by the evil
-influence of old Margery.
-
-Truth to say, at the period of which we write such was the fear and
-hatred of those forlorn and miserable old women, whose unsightly
-features, infirm gait, and cross tempers, excited among their
-neighbours any suspicion that they held intercourse with evil spirits,
-and exercised the powers of witchcraft, as drove forth the unhappy
-beings to lonely abodes in solitary places. Here again, in the
-vicinity of some village, remote from the scene of their persecution,
-their very loneliness, all compelled and oppressive as it was, did
-most naturally subject them anew to the suspicions of fresh
-oppressors. So bloody, too, were the laws which at that time disgraced
-the statute book, having for their end the punishment of witchcraft,
-so cruel were the modes of trial among the mean and malignant persons
-who drove a lucrative trade as witch-finders, and so credulous was the
-ignorant and easily abused multitude, that, upon evidence far less
-colourable with guilt than that adduced against Margery, unfortunate
-persons of both sexes were publicly executed without shame and without
-pity. In numberless instances false confessions were extorted from the
-hopeless sufferers by torture, and adduced upon the day of trial, or
-proclaimed at the place of execution. Thus a rooted persuasion of the
-existence of sorcery and the practices of witchcraft was fixed in the
-minds of the vulgar, and even infected those of the better and the
-educated classes. As a natural consequence of this terrible
-superstition, some of the poor creatures suspected of witchcraft, who
-found themselves thrust out of the pale of human sympathy--avoided and
-shunned by some, beaten and set upon by others--did madden, and
-mumble curses in their gloomy solitude, and at last began to suspect
-themselves as the servants of unseen spirits, and the partakers of a
-supernatural power.
-
-In the breast of Cuthbert Noble the vulgar and cruel prejudice
-concerning witchcraft had no place. His humane and enlightened father
-had very early instilled into his mind clear notions of the love and
-care of the great Father of the human families; of the sacredness of
-human life, indeed of all life, and of the holiness of creation;--and
-he had, moreover, taught him to regard all particular cases of severe
-and inexplicable suffering as parts only of one vast and mysterious
-whole, and subserving, in the great end and issue, some wise, holy,
-wonderful purpose of divine and universal love. He had taught him,
-too, that ours was a marred and fallen nature; and how and by what
-means, and in whose divine person, it actually was restored; and how
-all the sons of Adam had become capable, through divine mercy, of
-partaking all the benefits of that restoration of man's nature--in
-some degree even in this troubled and probationary state--in full and
-satisfying perfection in that state which is future and eternal.
-Hence, to the eye of Cuthbert, every one of human form was an object,
-though not perhaps of personal interest and affection, yet of wonder
-and of reverence, as a creature of God, born for immortality--an
-imperishable, an indestructible being; and, when the crimes and errors
-of his fellow-creatures stirred up his angry passions to punish and
-withstand them, the sense of his own weakness and his own sinfulness
-was ever waiting for him in his heart's closet, to rebuke and humble
-him in the calmness of solitude. But Cuthbert as yet had been little
-tried; he knew not what spirit he was of. He thought that his placid
-and firm father was the model which he surely followed; but the
-settled and peaceful joy of that amiable and benevolent and subdued
-father was as yet unknown to him.
-
-However, the character and the life of Parson Noble will be the better
-understood and conceived of by transporting our reader to the village
-in Somersetshire where he dwelt, and where, had it been her good
-fortune to have been a parishioner of his, old Margery, in spite of
-her wild and withered aspect, might have lived unmolested and in peace
-with her neighbours, and would not have lacked such acquaintance with
-the mercy of the great Redeemer, as it is in the power of a mere human
-instrument to impart.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. III.
-
-    A branch of May we have brought you,
-      And at your door it stands;
-        It is but a sprout,
-        But it's well budded out,
-      By the work of our Lord's hands.
-
-      The hedges and trees they are so green,
-        As green as any leek;
-      Our heavenly Father he watereth them,
-        With his heavenly dew so sweet.
-                     _From the Mayer's Song._
-
-
-The morning star glittered brightly above the fine old tower of
-Cheddar church, and the low parsonage lay still and asleep amid the
-flowers and the dewy grass plots of its pleasant garden, as advancing,
-from beneath the ancient yew in the churchyard, to the wicket opposite
-the good vicar's porch, a party of hale young rustics with coloured
-ribands in their hats and on their loose white sleeves, planted, on
-either side the entrance, a fine branch of white thorn in full
-blossom, and struck up, with full and cheerful voices, the very
-ancient medley from which the stanzas at the head of our present
-chapter are taken. They had not sung two verses before the door of the
-parsonage was opened by a merry looking old serving man--two lasses'
-heads were thrust from a window over the kitchen--the mistress's good
-humoured eyes were seen over a white chamber blind,--and the parson
-himself, with a face as expressive of joy as a child's, though marked
-with the furrows of seven-and-sixty years, came forth to the wicket in
-a loose morning gown, with a black scull-cap on his silvery hairs, and
-listened, with a motion of the lips, that showed his voice, though not
-audible, and his kind heart were attuned to theirs, and to the coming
-holyday. When their song was done, he dismissed them with his
-blessing, with the customary gift of silver, and with a caution to
-keep their festival with gladness and innocence, and with the love of
-brothers; letting the poor and aged fare the better for it.
-
-"And let us have no brawls on the ale bench," said the old
-parson,--"let our May-pole be the rod of peace; so that none may rail
-at our sports and dances, but rather take note of us as merry folk and
-honest neighbours."
-
-With loud thanks, and lively promises, and rude invocations of
-Heaven's best gifts on him, and his lady, and his absent sons, the
-party now faced about, and with the accompaniment of pipe and tabor,
-and a couple of fiddles, moved off at a dancing pace to pay the like
-honours at the door of the chief franklin, and to deck the village
-street as they passed along.
-
-Parson Noble now passed round to his favourite terrace walk, that
-overlooked a rich and extensive level, and taking up his lute, which
-lay in a little alcove at one end of it, he breathed out his morning
-hymn of thanksgiving, as was his wont, and thus composed, went into
-his study, and secluded himself for an hour from all interruption. At
-the close he again came into his garden, where he commonly laboured
-both for pleasure and health, every day of his life, in company with
-the attached old servant, who, for his quaint words and ways, had
-been long known to the village by the name of plain Peter,--an
-epithet, which, as it gave him credit for blunt honesty, as well as
-for a cast in his eye, he readily pardoned,--nay, some said he was
-proud of it;--for what manner of man is it that hath not a pride in
-something?
-
-"Master," said Peter, putting down his rake as the parson came up the
-walk, "I have won a silver groat on your words this day."
-
-"How so? what dost thou mean, Peter?"
-
-"Why, last market day, when I was in the kitchen at the old Pack Horse
-at Axbridge, that vinegar-faced old hypocrite, Master Pynche, the
-staymaker, comes in, and asks me to bring out Betsy Blount's new
-stays.
-
-"Says I, 'That I'll do for Betsy's sake,--a lass that hasn't her
-better for a good heart, or a pretty face, in all Somersetshire.'
-
-"'Verily, Master Peter, I think,' said he, 'thy speech might have more
-respect to me, and more decency to the damsel, but thou savourest not
-of the things that be from above:--thou art of the earth, earthy.'
-
-"'Why, for the matter of things above,' said I, 'Master Pynche, I
-don't pretend to any skill in moonshine; and as to being of the earth,
-that I don't deny, and thirsty earth too; with that I put to my lips
-the cup of ale that I had in hand, and drank it down.'
-
-"'Is it not written,' he replied in a snuffling tone, 'that favour is
-deceitful, and beauty is vain?--but thou art a servant of Beelzebub,
-and thou speakest the words of thy master, and his works wilt thou
-do.'
-
-"'In the name of plain Peter,' I added, 'herewith I proclaim you
-Prince of Fools, and I will send you a coloured coat, and a hood and
-bells, and thou shalt have a bauble, and a bladder of pease, and a
-licence to preach next April.'
-
-"With that he lifted up his eyes and hands, and muttering something
-about pearls and swine, glided off like a ghost at cock crow."
-
-"Peter," interrupted Noble, "thou shouldst not have said such things."
-
-"Marry, did he not call me a servant of Beelzebub? the peevish old
-puritan!--Well, but to go on with my story. The folk in Dame Wattle's
-kitchen fell a discoursing after Pynche was gone; and some spake up
-after a fashion that made my hair stand up. Says a sturdy pedlar in
-the corner,--'Ay, they'll soon be uppermost, and the sooner the
-better; rot 'em, I don't like 'em, the godly rogues; but they are
-better than parsons, any way.'
-
-"So with that I felt my blood come up, and I was going to speak, when
-old Hardy, the cobbler, took up his words, and says he, 'That's true
-of some, and it's true of our old Tosspot; but there's Peter's master,
-of Cheddar,--you may search the country far and near before you will
-find his like. I remember when my niece Sally lay dying, night and
-day, fair weather and foul, he would trudge through mire or snow to
-give her medicine for body as well as soul, and that's what I call a
-good parson.'"
-
-"'A good puritan,' said Dame Wattle. 'I have heard of his sayings and
-doings, and trust me, he'll go with your parliament men, your
-down-church men: you'll never have any more May-games and Christmas
-gambols at Cheddar.'
-
-"'There you're out, Dame,' said I, 'and don't know any more about
-Master Noble than a child unborn.'
-
-"'A silver crown to a silver groat he'll give a long preachment
-against the May-pole next May-morning.'
-
-"'Done with you, Dame,' said I.
-
-"'You may lay a golden angel to a penny there will be no May-poles at
-all, if you make it May twelvemonth,' said the pedlar, 'without,
-indeed, there be such as have pikes at the end of them;' and with that
-he pulled out a printed paper, that he brought from London, and read
-out a long matter about the king and the bishops, and about church
-organs, and tithes, and play actors, and ship money, and Master
-Hampden; and made out, as plain as a pike staff, that there would be
-many a good buff coat and iron head piece taken down from the wall
-before long. 'We shall have a civil war soon, and God defend the
-right,' said he, as he folded up the paper and took up his pack.
-
-"Civil," thought I, "that's a queer word. I have heard talk of civil
-people and civil speeches, but a civil blow from a battle-axe is a
-new thing. I'll tell master all about it when I get home, and axe what
-it means;--but as I was on the path in Nine Acres, whom should I meet
-but Master Blount, the young one, and he made me promise not to say a
-word to you before May-day was come, for fear the old sports might be
-hindered; and he told me that civil war meant war at home; for which I
-didn't think him much of a conjuror, as my guess had reached that far:
-and now, Master, prithee tell me what civil means."
-
-"Peter, thou art an honest fellow, and as good a citizen as if thou
-knewest what it was called in Latin, and that a civil war was a war of
-citizens, but of a truth this is no matter for smiles; however,
-'sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' This is no morning for
-a cloudy face."
-
-"Well, then, here comes one, and the worst that darkens our doors. For
-my part, I can't bide the sight of it, 't would turn all the milk in
-the dairy."
-
-The vicar looked over his hedge, and saw the curate of a parish with
-whom he was but slightly acquainted, walking across the last close,
-which led by a footway into his orchard. The apple-trees concealed
-Noble from his approaching visiter, who, just as he reached the gate
-of the orchard, overtook a little boy, about nine years of age,
-carrying in his hand a cluster of cowslips half as big as himself, and
-having a thick crown of field flowers round his straw hat.
-
-With a severe scowl, he snatched the cowslips from the frightened
-child, and threw them away, and then made a gripe at his little hat;
-but, the boy drawing back with a blubbering cry, the zealous and tall
-curate, who had a little over-reached himself, slipped and fell prone
-upon the grass. This, however, was the lightest part of his
-misfortune; for it so chanced that his face came in full contact with
-a new-made rain-puddle, and he arose with his eyes half blinded, and
-his face covered and besmeared with mud. With the tears yet rolling
-down his red cheeks, the little fellow, as he saw himself avenged in
-a measure so contenting, and a manner so ridiculous, ran out of his
-reach, literally shrieking with laughter; and a hearty roar from old
-Peter at once completed his mortification, and determined his retreat.
-This soon became a maddened flight: for a sleeping dog roused by the
-noise of the laughter pursued him with angry barkings, from which, as
-he had no staff, and the grassy close could furnish no stone, there
-was no escape till the wearied animal paused and turned.
-
-The whole of this scene was so very swiftly enacted, that Noble had no
-opportunity to say or do any thing in the matter; and charity itself
-could not suppress a smile at a punishment so well suited to the
-morosity which had led to it. Neither was he at all sorry to be
-relieved upon this festal day from the intrusive visit of a sour,
-ill-instructed fanatic, whose opinions he could not value, and for
-whose character he felt no respect. He looked, therefore, with unmixed
-satisfaction at the laughing urchin, as he gathered up his scattered
-wealth, and departed.
-
-Now merrily rang out the lively bells of Cheddar Tower; and already
-was every street a green alley, freshened by thick boughs, and made
-fragrant by small branches of white thorn neatly interwoven.
-
-The house of the chief franklin, Mr. Blount, was more especially
-honoured. Before his door was planted the largest and fairest branch
-of May that could be found in a circuit of five good miles, and his
-hospitable porch was made a rich bower of shrubs and flowers. Beneath
-the tall trees in front of it was a little crowd of youths and
-maidens, in holyday trim, wearing garlands, with green rushes and
-strewing herbs in their arms, or aprons: full they were of smiles and
-glee; and, out on the road, all the village was assembled, save the
-infirm old and the cradled young; though, of these last, not a few
-were borne in their mothers' arms, or lifted up with honest pride in
-those of their brown fathers, whose burning toils a field were, for
-this joyous day, forgotten.
-
-From the words passing in these expectant groups, a stranger might
-soon have gathered that something more than the common sport of
-May-day was engaging the honest and buzzing mob of men, women, and
-children, that blocked the street opposite this goodly mansion, and
-what that something was. "Better day better luck."--"A bonny bride is
-soon dressed."--"Honest men marry soon," said a black-eyed, nut-brown
-wife, with a lively babe in her arms, and two curly-headed little ones
-holding her apron,--and "Wise men not at all," added a gruff old
-blacksmith, with a seamed visage.--"Ah, it's no good kicking in
-fetters, Roger," rejoined the laughing wife, at the same time giving
-her infant into the horny hands of a stout young woodman, with a green
-doublet and a clean white collar, who held it up, kicking and
-shrieking with delight, as though it would spring out of his arms, and
-chimed in with "Ah, Master Roger, it's an ill house where the hen
-crows loudest."--"Ah, thou'lt find that some day, Stephen;" for this
-he got a heavy slap on his shoulder from the young wife, whose coming
-words were checked by the sound of fiddles, as the bridal procession
-came forth. "Dear heart," said she, "how pretty Bessy does look in
-that lilac gown with brave red guardings and the golden cawl on her
-fair hair, and what a beautiful lace rochet she has."--"Ah, fine
-feathers make fine birds," said a spinster standing near.--"He's a
-proper man is young Hargood, and should have known better than choose
-a wife by the eye."--"She had rather kiss than spin, I'll
-warrant."--"Better be half hanged than ill wed."--"You may know a fool
-by her finery."--"A precious stone should be well set," said the young
-wife, sharply, "and Bessy's blue eyes and her blushing cheeks are
-small matters to her ways and words." But envy and ill will were
-low-voiced, and confined to few, for old Blount and all his house were
-well loved by the people; and with many a word of cheerful greeting
-they made way for the party, and the most of them followed it to the
-church.
-
-The procession was led by a few youths and maidens, with whom were all
-the musicians of the village; while others, walking immediately before
-the bride and her two bride maidens, strewed the ground, as they went,
-with rushes and herbs. The bridegroom, in a suit of violet-coloured
-cloth, guarded with velvet of the deepest crimson, and with a falling
-collar of worked linen, followed, supported by his bridesmen, in fit
-bravery of apparel; next came a group of relations, male and female,
-led by the old franklin himself, with his grave and comely wife, and
-the men and maids of his household brought up the rear of the
-procession. It was met at the churchyard gate by Parson Noble and his
-wife,--she joining old Mrs. Blount, and the good vicar, in his snowy
-surplice, taking place at the head of it, immediately between the
-herb-strewers and the bridal party; and now a gravity and silence
-succeeded, and in decency and order all entered the church, and
-proceeded with quiet steps to the altar. There, the sweet and solemn
-service, which binds together for "better for worse, for richer for
-poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do part," was reverently
-and impressively performed by Noble, his own deep and mellow tones
-being only interrupted by the manly voice of the bridegroom, and the
-faltering accents of the shy and trembling bride, as they gave
-utterance to their heart's true and hallowed responses. No sooner was
-the ceremony ended than the bells, which had, for a while, been
-silent, struck out with the wedding peal; and as the new married
-couple came forth into the churchyard the air was rent with the joyous
-acclamations of the crowd without; and the procession returned in
-nearly the same order as it had left the house of the worthy franklin,
-only, according to the good custom of the time, the parson made one of
-the wedding party, and partook of the marriage feast.
-
-Such of the old as could not walk abroad, stood leaning on staves, or
-sat dim-eyed on the stones before their doors, to see or hear the
-bridal train pass down; for each of these Parson Noble and the
-franklin had a kind word as they went by, returned by the benison and
-good wishes for the bride, who had herself no voice for any one, and,
-supported on her husband's arm, scarce saw her path through eyes that
-were filling from a happy bosom's overflow.
-
-We shall not detain our reader by describing the dinner at Master
-Blount's; right plentiful was the cheer. Parson Noble said a grace in
-rhyme, out of old Tom Tusser's book of Husbandry, to the great
-contentment of his hospitable host, that being the one book by which,
-after his Bible, Blount squared his honest life.
-
-    "God sendeth and giveth both mouth and the meat,
-    And blesseth us all with his benefits great;
-    Then serve we the God, who so richly doth give,
-    Show love to our neighbours, and lay for to live."
-
-This being the franklin's rule,--while his guests were feasted in the
-old oak parlour, at the back of the house; in the pleasant orchard,
-all his labourers were regaled with a hearty meal of meat and
-plum-porridge; and huge jacks of ale were emptied and replenished, to
-the health of bride and bridegroom and good master.
-
-After due carvings of veal and bacon, unlacing of fat capons, and
-untrussing of great pies of fruit and other dainties, in the parlour,
-and after some mantling cups of wine drank to the happy pair, the old
-people yielded to the impatience of the young, and all adjourned to
-Robin's Meadow, not, however, before they had sung, as the grace after
-meat, a short psalm of praise.
-
-The meadow, in which from generations before the May-pole was raised,
-had a fine level sward, which Blount kept smooth as a bowling-ground
-for the dancers, while a part of it rose in swelling banks, shaded by
-trees. These, though, as yet, but in early leaf, were gaily green, and
-contrasted well with the many-coloured and blushing wreaths of
-field-flowers that wound about the May-pole, at the top of which
-glittered a small crown, newly gilded in honour of the wedding, and
-further adorned with a few of the rarest plants which the gardens of
-Cheddar could produce.
-
-A pleasure it was, as they passed into the meadow, to see the happy
-children rolling and tumbling and racing down the steep bank, from
-which they now scrambled away, to make room for the franklin's party,
-and for the elders of the village, who, from this grassy knoll, were
-wont to preside over the pastimes of this holyday. We give not this
-scene in detail:--the dances of the young, as, with light and elastic
-steps, they bounded to lively measures round the May-pole, and the
-nodding heads of the musicians keeping time with the dancers, and the
-races and gambols of the ruddy children, each reader may figure forth
-to his own fancy. Neither tell we of the pretty ceremonies with which
-the milk maids brought their cows, with horns all garlanded, into the
-adjoining close, and prepared and offered the delicious syllabub: our
-aim is only to give an outline of a village May-day of the times of
-which we write, and to show the good parson of the best school of that
-period mingling in mirth among his people. Leaving, therefore, the
-happy villagers to continue their sports till set of sun, we shall
-confine ourselves to the steps of the pastor, and complete the journal
-of his day.
-
-As the chimes struck six o'clock, he quietly withdrew, and passed from
-the scenes of pleasure and feasting to those of sickness and of
-mourning. If he had regarded the former with complacent joy, he was
-not the less willing, nor the less prepared, to cheer the latter with
-those high contemplations and those tender sympathies to which, by
-faith, as a Christian, he could point, and which, in charity, as a
-man, he truly felt. Of the old, who were confined to their own
-thresholds, he found two or three cross and short, but most of them
-garrulous, and in good humour. They had got pleasant portions from the
-franklin, and they could tell of old May-days, and heard, with
-thankful nods and ready "ayes," and strong fetchings of the breath,
-that were not sighs of grief, the grave good words with which he
-taught them how only they could die in peace.
-
-Of his flock only one lay at the point of death, and her he visited
-last.
-
-She was the miller's daughter, and had been the May-queen of the
-bygone year. Sacred be such visit, in its most solemn communings! but
-we may paint the scene of it, and the trifles which belong to those
-sympathies of our humanity, that often survive the resigned hope of
-life.
-
-In a tall chair, against the back of which she leaned her head, sate a
-pale maiden, warmly wrapped in a robe of white woollen, close to the
-small window of an upper chamber, on which the evening sun shone warm:
-curling honey-suckles did make a frame to it; and one rose, with an
-opening bud, peeped from the trained bush beneath. Upon a little table
-near her stood a fragrant branch of May in a cup of water. There were
-faint flushes in her transparent cheeks, and there was an unearthly
-brightness in her eyes--not fitful--but a calm, steady, serene ray,
-that, as the declining sun poured over the damsel its yellow glories,
-presented her to the thoughtful gazer such as she might be when
-treading the celestial courts above.
-
-"And have you any other wish, my child?" said Noble, as he rose to go.
-
-"Yes, if it be not too foolish."
-
-"Tell it, my dear."
-
-"I would like some flowers from the May-pole strewn on my
-winding-sheet, and a bit of rosemary from your own garden put in my
-hands."
-
-"And you shall have them," said Noble, pressing her wan hand in his,
-and turning quick away.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. IV.
-
-    And if physitians in their art did see
-    In each disease there was some sparke divine,
-      Much more let us the hand of God confesse
-      In all these sufferings of our guiltinesse.
-                           _A Treatie of Warres._
-
-
-Night closed on Cheddar, without any other disturbance than a
-quarrel--loud and short as a thunder-storm--between the blacksmith and
-his old termagant wife, which, Roger being potent in liquor,
-terminated in a complete victory on his part; and thus silence, if not
-peace, was restored to the quarter in which he dwelt.
-
-Moreover, at the door of the Jolly Woodcutter, the most decent
-ale-house in the townlet, an old soldier with one leg, who tramped the
-country as a ballad-singer, with a fiddle and a dancing dog, became so
-very uproarious that it was found absolutely necessary by the parish
-constable to secure his one sturdy limb in the village stocks, where,
-after venting a few loud and angry curses at this dignitary, and
-abusing the village fiddlers for not playing the grand march of the
-king's beef-eaters to the right tune, he addressed himself to making
-as easy a sleeping posture as his wooden fetter would allow; and,
-being apparently very familiar with such a resting-place, soon
-grumbled off into snoring forgetfulness: his little four-footed
-companion and guard did meanwhile drag up the cloak, which he had
-dropped some yards from the place of his confinement, and, arranging
-it in a soft heap, curled itself thereon with an evident sense of
-comfort.
-
-But May-day festivals--though certainly in towns, and in those
-parishes in the rural districts where not conducted by discreet
-persons, they were often fruitful in scenes of riot and
-licentiousness--were not, in the present instance, chargeable with
-either of the noisy incidents which had for a half hour frighted the
-village from its propriety; seeing that the disputes of Roger and his
-rib were of every-day occurrence, and his potations also; and as for
-the old soldier, his drinking bouts were regulated by the state of
-that narrow poke in which he deposited his uncertain gains; and his
-sobriety was never secure while one coin remained in it.
-
-Our parson came forth at the first glimpse of day on the morrow, to
-inquire at the mill how the poor sufferer had passed the night. She
-was in a profound and calm sleep, and he returned thankfully home,
-taking the street which led by the market cross. Nobody was yet
-abroad; but, under the great tree in the market place, he saw the old
-soldier sitting up in the stocks, and looking about him very forlorn
-and penitential. No sooner did he perceive the good vicar approaching,
-than he began to plead for his freedom.
-
-"May it please your good reverence, make them loose me. I am not a
-pig, that I should be thus pounded:--never said or did harm to man or
-Christian, save only in the way of duty, your reverence. I am but a
-poor old toss-pike, done up in the wars; and gain an honest livelihood
-with this old kit and scraper, and this dumb creature, that shall
-dance you jig or coranto with any city madam of them all."
-
-"Why, I'll see what I can do; but you would not have been put here for
-nothing, friend."
-
-"Nothing in life, your reverence, but drinking the health of King
-Charles in a brimmer, last evening, that was May-day, and a court
-holyday all the world over; and then the wound in my old head always
-aches, Parson, and I say more nor I mean, and, may be, louder than
-your gentles talk."
-
-"Well, but this is a sorry way of life for an old soldier,--to go
-about like a vagabond. Have you no home?"
-
-"Home, bless you! none but this old bit of a cloak."
-
-"What parish were you born in?"
-
-"Ah! there it is! I was born i' the camp, in the Low Countries. That
-same day that the most noble Sir Philip Sidney was killed, my mother
-had a fright from a shot striking the sutler's waggon, and I came into
-the world a month before time."
-
-"And have you no friends living?"
-
-"None in the wide world that care a split straw whether I am above
-ground or under, this blessed day, save, may be, this little dumb
-thing that's used to me."
-
-"Where did you lose your leg?"
-
-"In the lines before St. Martin, your reverence: it will be thirteen
-years agone, come next September; and the right-worshipful knight, Sir
-Joseph Burroughs, was killed by the same shot. We used to say in
-hospital (you know, your reverence, we were vexed, and it was some of
-the officers, in their cups, spoke it out of a play-book,)--
-
-    "'Off with his head!--So much for Buckingham.'
-
-"Well, they had their wish, in a manner, a year after; and I always
-minded after, that Master Felton was one of them.--Poor fellow! He
-gave me four-pence in silver, when I hadn't a halfpenny to buy bread
-in London; and that same morning I saw his Grace of Buckingham in a
-sedan chair in Whitehall, and I would have tossed my staff before him,
-in hope of a largess; but his running footmen, with their fine silver
-badges, shouldered me into the gutter, crying, 'Room for his Grace!
-room for my Lord's Grace!' Well, it was little room he took or wanted
-that day was a month! I was very sorry for Master Felton,--and I went
-to see him hanged."
-
-"You know he was _a murderer_."
-
-"O yes, I know that; but he gave me four-pence when I was starving;
-and, though he was only a lieutenant, he was a better officer than
-Buckingham, who was all lace and velvet, satin and feathers:--a likely
-man to look upon, and did not want courage; but he knew no more about
-commanding an army than the court fool."
-
-"Don't you know, friend, that you must one day die yourself; and that
-it is a terrible thing to die and go before God without preparation?"
-
-The veteran gave his buff jerkin a twitch, and said, "Why, for the
-matter of that, Parson, you see, I am no scholar, and cannot tell a B
-from a bull's foot."
-
-"You believe in God?"
-
-"Why, Master, haven't I lain half my life abroad in the open fields,
-with the stars shining over my head? Ah, you don't know what grand
-things come into a poor fellow's mind when he wakes in the night and
-sees them bright things above him."
-
-"Yes, but I do," said Noble with emotion; "and it is because I do,
-that I ask you these things. Do you ever pray to God?"
-
-"Why, bless you, Master, I wouldn't trouble him about a poor chopstick
-like myself."
-
-"You know the name of Christ, friend?"
-
-"Yes," said the homeless wanderer, and bowed his grey head.
-
-"And what are your thoughts of him?"
-
-"Why that he'll be so good as to speak a word to God Almighty for me,"
-was the man's strange yet pregnant answer. It is this mixture of
-recklessness, ignorance, and the mysterious worship of that inner
-spirit, which struggles upwards after something to which the heart may
-reach, and where it may finally rest, that makes every human being a
-subject of sad yet of sublime contemplation;--a fellow, a brother, an
-immortal spirit, passing here below his brief time of sojourning, but
-born for eternity.
-
-Our good vicar was a true messenger of peace:--we need not say more
-than that this and all such opportunities were gladly improved by him.
-He sowed beside all waters. In the present instance the old soldier
-was speedily released, and taken up to the parsonage, and there, in
-the shady porch, he had a hearty breakfast; and when the little
-household assembled for prayer the wondering wayfarer was brought into
-the hall, and heard the more excellent way very plainly set before
-him,--and was then suffered to depart with bread in his wallet, and a
-parting word of solemn warning and brotherly kindness, as he set
-forward on his path, carrying with him the new thought and feeling,
-that, though he was a ballad singer and a sot, accustomed only to
-revilings, he had found a man of God, who had not passed him by, but
-had served him, and soothed him, and cared for his soul.
-
-Such a man and such a minister was our parson of Cheddar: he had been
-now resident in the parish for fifteen years. Hither he had then
-brought a sensible wife,--of many rare accomplishments, and of a solid
-piety. Three fine children then played in their garden: of these,
-their girl had been taken from them in her twelfth year; and their two
-boys, who had both attained the age of manhood, had quitted the
-paternal roof, and taken their respective paths in life. Cuthbert, the
-eldest, had been educated at Winchester College, had afterwards passed
-through his university course at Cambridge, and was now domiciled, as
-has been already seen, in the house of Sir Oliver Heywood, as a tutor.
-
-Martin, the youngest, had been five years at Westminster School as a
-day scholar, under the care, during that period, of one Mr. Philips, a
-worshipful and wealthy gentleman, of the most honourable company of
-Goldsmiths, and brother to the late Sir John Philips, knight, a very
-eminent merchant in the Levant trade, who, having made an unsuccessful
-speculation, and losing his whole venture, had taken the failure of
-his fortunes so much to heart, that he sickened and died soon after,
-leaving behind him one portionless daughter. This girl, while under
-the roof of her uncle, who was very considerably the junior of her
-father in age, was seen and admired by Noble, and had soon become his
-welcome prize.
-
-With this maternal uncle, Martin, at his own request, was placed, as
-soon as he quitted school, that he might be brought up in the same
-thriving business. He quickly became remarkable for his taste and
-skill in the art of design, and as a fine judge of precious stones, so
-that his uncle predicted for him great eminence and wealth in the line
-which he had chosen; but Martin chancing one day to wait upon Vandyck
-with an ornamental piece of plate which a nobleman presented to that
-great genius, and being questioned about the design, confessed, with
-some hesitation, that it was his own. Hereupon the painter broke out
-into praise so warm, and took such notice of the youth, that, to
-Martin, a painter did soon seem the highest style of man;--to be of
-this bright company was now the highest object of his ambition. He
-had a strong will; for this he rose early, and late took rest: and the
-bent of his inclination became so decided, and his promise of
-excellence so great, that his uncle, at the recommendation of Vandyck,
-determined to afford him the opportunity and advantage of visiting
-Italy, and pursuing his studies in the city of Rome. There, surrounded
-by the great models of the divine art to which he was devoted, daily
-extending his knowledge, and increasing his delight, Martin lived at
-once to labour and to enjoy.
-
-But the absence of these dear boys, though necessary, was severely
-felt by Noble and his wife; nor, in those days, were communications by
-letter of regular or frequent occurrence, even at home,--and of
-course, from abroad, very rare and most uncertain.
-
-The good vicar, though anxious about Martin's residence at Rome, was
-not wanting in true sympathy for his pursuits; having himself a taste
-for the arts, which he had improved by a leisure tour through Italy
-(before his marriage) as tutor and guardian to a young gentleman of
-large possessions in Oxfordshire.
-
-Nothing could be more retired than the life led by these childless
-parents at Cheddar.
-
-It is a large village, or townlet, situate at the foot of the Mendip
-Hills, in Somersetshire, and lying pleasantly sheltered on the
-south-west side of that bleak and naked chain. The noble tower of its
-fine old church is richly adorned with double buttresses, pinnacles,
-and pierced parapets, and in the open space, which forms the centre of
-its few irregular streets, is an ancient hexagonal market cross, where
-the wayfarer may find a shelter from the hot suns of July, or from the
-heavy rains of winter. The neighbourhood of Cheddar is romantic: it
-commands a fine view, in one direction, over a rich and extensive
-level; and it is immediately surrounded by rich, well-watered
-pastures, always verdant. Within a mile of the market cross before
-mentioned, on the road to Wells, there is a narrow, but a stupendous
-pass, or chasm, by which the chain of the lofty hills of Mendip is
-cleft, as it were, in sunder. The road winds through the bottom of
-this strange defile; the cliffs rise on either side--ragged, scarped,
-and terrific in their aspect--presenting, in many places, a sheer fall
-of four hundred feet. Nothing can more sublimely impress the spirit of
-a lonely traveller than the passage of this wild ravine, on a day of
-cloud, and gloom, and rushing winds. In the sunny calm of summer, when
-the wild pink, springing from the crevices of the rocks, adorns the
-scene with something of gentleness, it is still of uncommon grandeur.
-Black yews project from the larger fissures: here is a narrow ledge
-covered with verdure; there a thick mantle of ivy clothes the summit:
-here the mountain ash slants forward in its fantastic growth; while
-yet, in many places, the craggy front is naked and dazzling as a wall
-of stone.
-
-By this road, once a week, the quiet parson ambled on an old grey
-horse to the fair city of Wells to refresh and recreate his spirit at
-a private music meeting in the Close; nor did he ever omit on these
-occasions to pass one hour of joy and praise in its magnificent
-cathedral. Upon the breezy summits of the Mendip hills, which
-bordered this road, he spent many serene and healthful hours. His life
-was most even in its tenour; and the scenes around him, though daily
-before his eyes, were as dear to him, or more so, than when, first
-entering on residence, he had surveyed them with grateful rapture.
-
-Villages, however, like kingdoms, have their revolutions; and the
-chronicles of them are preserved in chimney-corners with more or less
-of fidelity, according to the interest of the events and the worth of
-the characters who figured in them.
-
-These rustic historians have a mode of reckoning very different from
-citizens. With prime ministers they have nought to do. Their
-government is nearer to them, and they have never wanted wit enough to
-know when that was good or evil. Over these rural communities the
-ruler has, from time immemorial, been the lord of the manor, or the
-chief franklin, or the parson of the parish. According as these
-personages were disposed to promote religion and happiness, or to look
-with indifference on vice and misery, the rustic population was
-contented and cheerful, (because industrious in their callings, and
-peaceable in their lives,) or they were sullen and profligate. Under
-the joint reign of Franklin Blount and Parson Noble the inhabitants of
-Cheddar had long dwelt together in comfort and harmony; but this is a
-world of change,--and many things in the aspect of public affairs, of
-which the villagers heard and heeded little, gave serious warning to
-the prescient mind of Noble, that trouble was near.
-
-He was so beloved and respected by his people, and so regarded and
-confided in by the worthy franklin, that he had hitherto been able to
-evade, counteract, or over-rule, for the good of his flock, those
-strange enactments which had been from time to time so inconsiderately
-imposed. That which enjoined him to _publish_ the Book of Sports on
-the Sabbath-day he totally disregarded. On this point he would have
-consented to deprivation rather than obey. Hence he became suspected,
-by some parsons of a very different stamp, for a puritan; and there
-were not wanting uncharitable surmises among these concerning the
-course which Master Noble would take in the hour of trial; not that
-those who really knew him well ever doubted of that course at all.
-
-But while these surmises were, as regarded himself, utterly devoid of
-foundation, it was asserted by some of his friends at Wells, the
-correctness of whose judgments and the charity of whose sentiments
-well accorded with his own, that his son Cuthbert had imbibed, from
-his late associates at Cambridge, a spirit of a very dangerous nature.
-Cuthbert had a large philanthropy, and a resolute courage to sustain
-and act out those promptings of benevolence which his love of freedom
-was continually urging upon his mind. Virtuous in his character,
-sanguine in his hopes, present evils he saw, and for present remedies
-he panted--but he looked not far on to consequences. A notion of his
-state of mind may be found in the letter which follows:--
-
-    "Most dear Father,
-
-     "You tell me in your last letter, which I have read over many
-     times with serious thought, that my mother wishes me to send
-     her a more particular account of this place and family, that
-     she may the better see my present courses with the eye of her
-     mind.--I will make a trial of my pen to set these matters in
-     some order before her--and, first, of this mansion: it is a
-     goodly fabric of stone, built by the father of the present
-     knight in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He, as you know,
-     exchanged some of his full money-bags for a fair estate in
-     land, and closed all his great and prosperous ventures in
-     commerce by a wise retirement to the noble pleasures of a
-     country life. A situation more pleasant than this of Milverton
-     you may not see in all the journey through these parts. The
-     house standeth on a fine swelling slope of verdant ground, and
-     is well sheltered by stately trees on three sides, but to the
-     front the prospect is open, and maketh the heart dance with
-     gladness, it is so full of delight. Looking to the south, you
-     see the towers of that famous castle of Guy of Warwick. This
-     castle is seated on a rock, very high, upon the river Avon, and
-     hath a look of strength and of great majesty; as seen against
-     the light of the distant sky--nothing can be more grand and
-     commanding;--also, from the middle of the good city of Warwick,
-     the fair pinnacles of the lofty tower of St. Mary's Church do
-     pierce the heaven, and she standeth like a crowned queen. I do
-     fear for her diadem, for they say that the embattled keep of
-     ancient Guy frowneth on our lady: but, turning the eyes from
-     these stately objects, which the intervening woods may not
-     conceal, directly below Milverton the river flows through a
-     fair valley of green pastures; and there cannot be, in all
-     England, a mill more pleasant to look upon and listen to than
-     Guy's mill: it standeth upon the farther bank of the Avon, over
-     which there is a foot-bridge of wood, very narrow, and long
-     enough to reach across a small meadow, which, when the waters
-     are out, is always flooded. Not far from this mill, to the
-     left, and upon the same bank, is an old decayed chapel, where I
-     have seen a rude statue of the renowned Guy, more than eight
-     feet in length; and near to this spot, close by the side of the
-     water, there is a cave in the rock, where, as a hermit, he
-     ended his days. But I will say no more of these places, of
-     which report may have reached you through the discourse of
-     others.
-
-     "Milverton House lacks nothing of furniture that money and good
-     taste may command. There is a profusion of very fine carved oak
-     in the hall and in the winter-parlour. In the latter, over the
-     fire-place, is a curious representation of the meeting of Jacob
-     and Esau; and inscribed above are the words, 'With my staff I
-     passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.' And in
-     the private chamber of Sir Oliver is another piece, in three
-     compartments, Jacob lying down alone in the Wilderness--the
-     Vision of the Ladder of Angels--and Jacob setting up his Pillar
-     of Remembrance.
-
-     "I name these things rather than the rich hangings and the
-     handsome carpets which cover some of the tables, and the ebony
-     cabinets, and the massy plate, because I know that they would
-     give more contentment to my pious mother than all the
-     costliness and bravery in the king's palace.
-
-     "In the small room appointed for me, there is a posy worked
-     upon a sampler, hung against the wall, that runneth thus:--
-
-    "What better bed than conscience good, to pass the night with sleep;
-    What better work than daily care, from sin thyself to keep."
-
-     And there is an engraved portrait of Luther, with the words 'In
-     silentio et in spe erit fortitudo vestra.' I cannot look upon
-     these things without being deeply reminded of those feeling
-     lectures of piety which the lips of my dear mother have read to
-     me from my very childhood; but, truth to say, my dear parents,
-     I feel an angel plucking me by the sleeve, and whispering in my
-     ear that my stay in this sweet abode will not be long. Sir
-     Oliver and Mistress Alice and Mistress Katharine entreat me
-     with that kind civility and favourable respect, which make my
-     days happy, and I find Master Arthur so docile and of such
-     lively parts that my office is never irksome.
-
-     "Nothing can be more orderly than the manner of life here; and
-     although the good knight is most hospitable, yet, as he doth
-     not use the exercise of hunting, and has no park, the visiters
-     are not many. He rides daily in the forenoon, and will
-     sometimes go to see the stag-hounds of Stoneleigh Abbey throw
-     off, with which pack he hunted for twenty years; but his chief
-     delight now is in the culture of his garden and orchards, and
-     of a vineyard, which he has laid out, at a great cost, on a
-     favourable site, one mile from the mansion. All the farms in
-     the village of Milverton are his, and his tenants are the sons
-     of those who held the land under his father; so that the hamlet
-     is but one large family, of which Sir Oliver is the head.
-
-     "Mistress Katharine, his daughter, rides constantly with her
-     father, except when she takes the diversion of hawking, or goes
-     out after the beagles with her young cousin, Arthur, who is as
-     high-spirited and active a youth in the field, as he is earnest
-     and persevering in the study. To see Mistress Katharine fly a
-     hawk is gladsome; and although I have, from boyhood, accounted
-     that sport cruel and unfeminine, yet, when I look on that
-     inspiring sight, I deem it so no longer; certain I am that her
-     mind did never once connect the thought of cruelty with a usage
-     so common. She, too, seems as eager to learn what my poor
-     scholarship can teach her as my own pupil; and if a tutor can
-     be happy, I am, in the privilege of reading with this noble
-     maiden, and seeing her fine countenance lighted up with the
-     love of wisdom and of truth.
-
-     "But this state of things is far too bright to last. When a man
-     dareth to think differently from those around him, he will soon
-     become an object of suspicion and prejudice. I feel that my
-     trial in this kind will assuredly come; for Sir Oliver, with
-     all his kindness, has so rooted a dislike to all change in the
-     established order of things, that a word against the undue
-     stretch of the king's authority, against the tyranny of the
-     starchamber, or those abuses in the state, which are manifest
-     to her best friends, would be enough to make his countenance
-     change towards me past recovery.
-
-     "Upon these subjects, you, my dear father, have written to me
-     with more earnestness and fear than I should have looked for.
-     You tell me that I see not the inevitable consequences which
-     must follow from the acting out of those opinions and
-     sentiments with which I am so captivated. I confess that I am
-     an ardent friend to civil and religious liberty. I desire to
-     see the laws administered without fear or favour; to see
-     taxation imposed by the Commons alone, and to see purity and
-     charity preaching from our pulpits and ministering at our
-     altars. You must not blame me: these were the desires that you
-     implanted, when you taught me the immutable and eternal
-     principles of justice, and when, both by lip and in your life,
-     you showed me how sacred was the character, and how hallowed
-     were the duties, of an ambassador for Christ. I look for
-     reformation in the state, and purification of the church. You,
-     perhaps, despair of either; and therefore you dread an ill
-     result to the patriotic and pure efforts which so many great
-     and good men are now making. Some of the best and wisest of my
-     college friends think with them. Of that number are my late
-     tutor and my late chamber-fellow, with both of whom you
-     expressed yourself so much delighted, when, during my last year
-     of residence, you visited Cambridge. I confess, frankly, that I
-     hold their sentiments, and entertain hopes of ultimate good to
-     my country as sanguine as theirs. The cause of liberty must
-     triumph.
-
-     "Your last letter gave but little hope of poor Fanny at the
-     mill: what a fair, cheerful, good girl she was. Martin will be
-     very sorry when he hears about her: if you remember, he was
-     always for dancing with Fanny on May-day.
-
-     "I am glad to hear that Bessy Blount is going to be married.
-     She will make Tom Hargood's farm as happy a home as any in
-     England. However, I will not talk about weddings,--the very
-     word makes me melancholy. I am just now preparing a short
-     masque, which we are to perform next week, in honour of Sir
-     Oliver's birth-day. I suppose Martin, as well as myself, has
-     very different notions of female beauty now to any we gathered
-     at Cheddar; though, I doubt, if we shall either of us become
-     the happier for our knowledge. Rosy cheeks and laughing eyes
-     are joyous and pleasant to look upon, but they seldom beget
-     cureless heart-aches, or plant the long-lived sorrow:--all this
-     is very idle. The love of country is the next best love to that
-     of God, and, after that, the most rewarding.
-
-     "I suppose that you will soon have a letter from Rome: no doubt
-     Martin is very happy among the galleries and studios of that
-     ancient city. I often wish that I could be transported there
-     for an hour, and see him, as he stands alone, before a
-     master-piece of Raphael, and sighs for the very fulness of his
-     admiration. Forget not to let me hear the earliest news of
-     Martin. I shall think of you all on May-day at old Blount's;
-     but, as the good old country customs are kept up here with
-     great spirit, shall have no leisure to grieve over my absence
-     from Cheddar, till night restores me to the solitude of my
-     chamber, and to that sacred companionship with you in prayer,
-     which I ever maintain.
-
-     "Your dutiful and loving son,
-     "CUTHBERT NOBLE.
-     "_Milverton, April 20, 1640._"
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. V.
-
-    Now winde they a recheat, the roused deer's knell,
-      And through the forrest all the beasts are aw'd;
-    Alarm'd by Eccho, Nature's sentinel,
-      Which shows that murd'rous man is come abroad.
-                                          _Gondibert._
-
-
-Early in the morning of the day after that on which the rehearsal at
-Milverton House was interrupted by the humiliating scene already
-recorded, Cuthbert sallied forth, while the first rays of the level
-sun were reflected back by glittering dewdrops; and brushing them with
-swift steps from his path, crossed the foot-bridge near Guy's mill,
-and was soon lost to view in the woods upon the far side of the Avon.
-The mill was already at work, but he lingered not to gaze upon the
-rushing waters. His eye glanced at the glad scene, and his ear drank
-in the living sound; but the prosy old miller was at his door, and his
-daughter stood on the stepping stones below, watching the white
-breasted ducks that played in the back current, therefore, with a
-short "good morrow," that waited for no reply, he passed onwards, for
-he was bound on an errand of mercy. Although the old body, Margery,
-had escaped the persecution of yesterday, there was good ground for
-fearing that it would be soon and more cruelly repeated, if she
-continued to dwell in her lonely and exposed hovel; and Cuthbert had
-found a poor bricklayer from Coventry, who was then employed in
-repairing the roof of an outhouse at Milverton, and who had witnessed
-the scene of the day before with a true Christian feeling, quite
-willing to give the old woman a lodging in the small house in the mean
-alley in which he dwelt, for such consideration as Cuthbert was
-willing to pay. With this proposal of shelter and security he sought
-the wood, in the bosom of which, beneath a sand-stone rock, in a
-forsaken pit, was poor Margery's desolate abode. From the rude clay
-chimney, in the blackened thatch, curled a blue wreath of smoke: he
-leaned against the rock above, and called to Margery, but there was
-no reply. He went down and entered the hut. Upon a low stretcher on a
-coarsely plaited mat of straw, dressed in the same rags in which she
-walked abroad, she lay fast asleep, and her breathing sounded soft as
-that of a child,--a raven with a clipped wing and club-foot hopped
-upon the floor, and croaked at the intrusion; but the sound, though
-loud, did not awaken her. "I will not fright away a sleep so
-friendly," thought Cuthbert: he went forth again, and seated himself
-beneath a stately oak at no great distance. In an open grassy glade
-not far off, in front, a few deer were feeding,--the scene around was
-peace and beauty,--trees, herbs, beasts of the field and fowls of the
-air were declaring the glory and praising the goodness of a present
-God. In silent rapture Cuthbert mused his praise; but adoration was
-succeeded by a sense of pain,--another scene, another image,
-interposed between the sunny objects before him and his mental vision.
-The stony desolation of Mount Calvary, and the black sky above, and
-the pale and holy forehead with its crown of thorns, came up startling
-and apparent, and reminded him that he was the inhabitant of a fallen
-world. This solemn turn being given to his thoughts, his mind
-reverted, with serious consideration, to the views of that party in
-the state which was already designated by the name of Puritans, and
-which had been hitherto, and but for the questions of civil liberty
-now widely agitated would still have been, a by-word and a reproach
-among the people. "It is true," said he, "a Christian must be a
-mourner--he cannot be other than a mourner; but yet, are we not
-graciously commanded to serve the Lord with gladness? is the
-countenance always to be sad? is there to be no rejoicing in the light
-of the sun? Where is the middle ground between these two great parties
-in church and state? Why is not a great and overwhelming majority of
-moderate men found there to defend the best interests of all?" The
-thoughts to which he thus gave utterance would have found a response
-in the bosoms of thousands--indeed they were the very sentiments of
-his own father; only that good man knew, what Cuthbert was as yet
-ignorant of,--a knowledge which he was soon to purchase at the heavy
-price of a most bitter and heart-breaking experience. He had yet to
-learn that, in times of public commotion, there is no middle path, and
-that a party does too often take the colour of the very worst persons
-among those who compose it. The cant of the fanatic and the curses of
-the cavaliers alike disgusted him. But yet he was of an age when men
-will be sanguine about having the world mended according to their
-desired pattern; and his heart glowed with the hope that the best men
-of the parliament side would in the end triumph over the cold and
-severe intolerance of the high church party, would control the power
-of the crown, and would effect great and glorious things for the
-liberty and the happiness of England. With these sentiments he had a
-very difficult card to play at Milverton, for Sir Oliver was a decided
-enemy to the party which he secretly approved; and some of the
-neighbouring gentlemen, holding the same opinions with the knight,
-gave a much coarser expression to them. He had to hold his mouth as
-with a bridle in their presence. Among these persons by far the most
-obnoxious was Sir Charles Lambert, a gentleman of about
-five-and-thirty, related to Sir Oliver, and residing within a few
-miles, at Bolton Grange, upon a fine property, with two younger
-sisters left dependent on him.
-
-He had been a great deal about the court formerly, and in his youth
-had been attached, for a few years, to the retinue of the late Duke of
-Buckingham. Not proving of a capacity for public affairs, he had been
-thrown back upon country life, without the true refinements of a
-courtier, but with all those vices and fopperies, which, in the train
-of Buckingham, it was not difficult to acquire. He covered with satin
-and musk a heart as brutal and savage as one of his own
-hounds,--resembling in nothing that generous and warm race of men the
-country gentlemen of England but in a fine person and in a passion for
-the chase. Nevertheless he did so conceal from Sir Oliver his true
-character, that he was always made welcome at Milverton. In such
-thoughts the mind of Cuthbert was tossed about as on a troubled sea;
-and from mere weariness he fell into a contemplation of the sweetness
-of nature, and the soft manner of her nursing, when we lie still and
-passive in her lap, and look upon her face. So long a time had he
-lingered in this green haunt, that the sun was three hours high; and
-the great clock of Warwick, striking seven, warned him to return home.
-Of the small herd in the open glade a few were still grazing,--others,
-and a noble hart among them, lay in perfect repose: but, suddenly,
-every neck was raised and turned--the ears stood erect--the nostrils
-distended and closed--the eyes dilated--and then, as by accord, they
-all stole slowly off to the rocky and difficult ground above them. He
-looked around, and could see nothing to alarm them; but, in the same
-instant, the blast of a distant hunting horn came up faint on the
-wind: the sound was again heard nearer; and the loud voice of dogs in
-concert, shrill yet deep, made the woods echo with notes that silenced
-every bird, and drove away all the panting creatures from their lairs.
-Yet was it a gallant sight--a sight to stir the blood--as within some
-twenty yards of the tree under which Cuthbert stood, the chase in
-full career swept by:--with antlers well thrown back, in its last
-staggering speed, came a blown stag, with a stanch hound so close upon
-its flank, you looked to see the fine creature torn down instantly;
-not far behind, two leash of dogs were hanging on its track, their
-mouths loud opening for prey:--with shouts of joy, and pace
-precipitate, the huntsmen followed,--a small but eager band on gallant
-steeds all foaming at the mouth, and stained with sweat. Swift as a
-vision of the night they passed, and from beyond a swell of ground in
-front a winding horn sent forth the well known mort. Cuthbert,
-naturally excited, ran to a knoll before him, which might command the
-country beyond. On the side of an open slope, at some considerable
-distance, he saw the last act of the death. The lifted knife, all red
-and reeking, was in the hand of a stranger of noble presence, by whose
-side stood Sir Charles Lambert. The lordly game lay stretched upon the
-ground, and near, with lolling tongues and panting sides, the hounds
-lay gasping as for life. The riders were all dismounted, and their
-horses, with drooping heads and their hind quarters sunk and
-contracted, stood stiff and motionless beside them. By the loud and
-exulting voices of the sportsmen you might know that the run had been
-severe; two or three lagging horsemen were seen coming up in their
-track; and by a cross path, just above the spot where the stag was
-killed, two foresters on foot burst down at the top of their speed,
-and joined the group that now more closely surrounded the noble game.
-The sound had brought out all the household at Milverton, from whence
-the slope was plainly to be seen. The boy Arthur, with some of the
-serving-men, ran down the pathway towards Guy's mill, while Cuthbert
-could discern Sir Oliver standing out on the terrace, and Mistress
-Katharine by his side, with a loose white kerchief thrown over her
-head, to keep off the rays of the sun, which were already powerful.
-
-The hunters now sounded the relief, and waved their caps towards
-Milverton; intimating, by that note and action, that they would claim
-the hospitality of the mansion; and then, leading their tired horses
-by the bridle, they proceeded thither by the mill. Cuthbert, unseen
-himself, watched all their motions; and when they had disappeared
-within the gates of Milverton, and all below and around him was again
-still, he turned, with a dead and jaded interest, towards the
-sand-pit. Upon the edge of it, near the rock, he saw the bent figure
-of Margery, as if in the act of listening; and as she raised her head,
-and observed him walking to the spot, she hastily disappeared below.
-
-He stepped quickly after her; but the door was already barred; and
-when he knocked and called to her, the hoarse croak of the raven was
-the sole reply. He rapped more loudly,--still the same voice of ill
-omen replied; but as he persisted, and said words to re-assure her,
-the door was slowly opened, and the withered tenant of the pit
-appeared.
-
-"Is it you, young master?" said Margery; "and are you alone, and is
-there no hunter with you?"
-
-"There is no one with me," he replied: "the hunters have gone over the
-river."
-
-"That's well, that's well, master: a hunting day, if the game takes
-this way, is ever an ill day with me. They that be cowards alone, are
-bold in merry company; and I have had a whip on my old shoulders, and
-the dogs hounded on me before now, if any thing crossed their sport.
-Three years ago, last fall, when his best hound, Bevis, was killed in
-the hollow yonder, nothing would serve the turn of Sir Charles but to
-float my poor old carcass across the river, and to weigh me against
-the church Bible! But he hath had many a sleepless night for that; and
-bold as he looks by day, the ticking of a death-watch will keep him
-shivering in his bed."
-
-"What do you mean, Margery? The folk may well think you a witch for
-words such as these."
-
-"Why, I mean," said the old woman wilfully and spitefully, "that I
-never wished ill to any one, but ill came upon 'em."
-
-"Had I thought this of you yesterday, I should have been slow to ask
-any one to give you house room; but you are God's creature, and have
-been crossed with ill usage; and when you find yourself beneath the
-roof of a Christian, safe from all enemies, your heart will melt, and
-you will taste God's peace yourself, and wish it to others. I have
-found a good man, that lives in Croft's Alley in Coventry, and he will
-give you a chamber and a chimney corner, and kind words, and a stout
-arm to protect you; and when we get you safe there your thoughts will
-be quiet."
-
-"Hout-tout! what talk ye about Alley and a chimney corner? haven't I
-my own ingle, and my own ways, and my own company? What voice more
-pleasant to me than those I heard when I was young, and hear still?
-What'll take better care of me than that old bird? Few there be that
-don't shun to pass close by this hut; and they that come to it step
-swiftly back again. I was told, with a curse, that I might not live
-any where else, many years ago; and here I shall stop till my old
-bones crumble."
-
-"Why, mother, why, you might starve here if you were taken ill, and
-none to help you."
-
-"Well, death is but death, let it come how it will."
-
-"But hunger is a bad death; and besides, are you not in constant
-danger of being taken up, and losing your life for a witch? Why, this
-bird that you keep, and your words and ways, will surely bring you to
-the stake one of these days."
-
-"Let the day come, if it is to come; and as to dying of hunger, where,
-think you, do the foxes die? and where do the birds of the air die?
-Why, they that escape the hounds die in their holes; and they that the
-bird-bolt misses find a dying place in some nest or corner. Go your
-way, young master! I am no tame rabbit, to be kept in a town hutch,
-and tormented by children. I don't want to be led to church, and hear
-the parson's jabber about my old soul."
-
-"Do not utter such wickedness, unhappy woman. It were charity to think
-you crazed, and take you into safe keeping against your will."
-
-At this the old woman gave a shriek of passion, fitful as that of a
-thwarted child, and then, suddenly overcome by fear, fell upon her
-aged knees, and lifted and joined her withered hands, and implored
-Cuthbert, with wild earnestness, never to have her moved.
-
-"Look you, young master, winter and summer, here I have watched and
-waked these many years. It's a small matter of meal that makes my
-porridge;--some give it for pity, and some give it for fear. There's
-no lack of rotten sticks to keep me warm: yonder spring is never dry;
-and it's free I am to go and to come, and nothing here to flout or to
-fret me: the deer and the kine take no count of me--the pretty
-creatures don't fear me; and it's not all the world calling me witch
-that will make them. That place is best we think best. Oh, for the
-love of God, master, let me alone--let me rot where I am."
-
-Cuthbert's mind was in an agony of prayer; but his tongue clave to the
-roof of his mouth. He would have said much; but he could speak
-nothing. He gave her alms; and telling her that he would do nothing
-against her will--nothing to make her unhappy, but that he would come
-and see her again--he raised her from her knees, and went upon his way
-homewards.
-
-"My father would not thus have left her," was his first thought. "He
-would have found some way to break into her heart. Strange
-world--strange thing this human life! This old solitary miserable has
-been wrapped in swaddling clothes, even as others--has been suckled at
-a human breast--has grasped, with tiny hand, a father's finger--and
-been kissed, and muched; and now, she has survived all kindred--lost
-all defence of strength or money--hath none of wisdom, and because her
-back is crooked, and nose and chin have come well nigh together, she
-has been hunted from her kind, and dwells apart. As God is love,--and
-that he is I cannot doubt and live,--this is a mystery! It's a skein
-so much entangled that my poor wit can not unwind it."
-
-Muttering to himself these wayward fancies, he hurried back to
-Milverton as to his heart's home. There he could see sunlight upon the
-earth, and feel warm in the comfort of it. Nor in his then mood was he
-sorry that the guest chambers would be full: he wished a day of
-cheerful cups, and pleasant voices, and music. Thus absorbed, he
-reached the mill, and passed it as swiftly as in the morning.
-
-"There he goes," said the old miller, speaking to his daughter, who
-was spreading out some linen to bleach--"There he goes, as shy as a
-hare, and as fast as if he were making for his form. I never gets a
-bit of chat with him. He's not much for company."
-
-"Why, father," replied the girl, coming upon the pathway, "he's a
-scholar, you know, and that's the fashion of them, you know."
-
-"Well, it's a bad fashion to go poking about the woods as lonesome as
-a stray mule; no good comes of those crazy fashions. I like an open
-face, and an open hand, and a free tongue."
-
-"Eh! he can talk fast enough, I'll warrant me, if he had a sweetheart
-to talk to."
-
-"He talk to a sweetheart! She must be a poor silly body that would
-listen. There are merry men and merry hearts enough in old England for
-the lasses to choose from, without giving ear to such as he."
-
-"Well, they give him kind words at the Hall,--and they say he's always
-more for good than harm; and I find him pleasant spoken enough when he
-comes to angle in the mill-pool."
-
-"There it is! I can never make him say a dozen words, black or white;
-now Parson Mullins will chat free for an hour on, and tosses you off a
-pot of ale with good words and good will. Why, he and I have smoked
-many a pipe together; and he's a clerk, and a rare scholar too. He
-doesn't give you ignorant stuff o' Sundays; but Latin, and Greek, and
-all the best that he has learned at college. That's the man for my
-money."
-
-"Well, father, for the matter o' that, I like to know what folk are
-saying; and it might be gipsy language for all you or I are the
-wiser."
-
-"I know where you got that lesson, Miss Pert; that's what the old
-Puritan pedlar said the other day,--rot him! he shall take seat on the
-old wive's ducking-stool if he comes this way again."
-
-"I am sure he was a quiet civil man; and you have not had a better
-piece of linen, or a cheaper, than he sold us, this many a year."
-
-"Hang his linen, and him too!" rejoined the sturdy old miller. "I
-didn't like the cut of his black head;" and with that he passed into
-the mill, and the girl went towards the dwelling.
-
-While this dialogue was passing, Cuthbert Noble was rapidly ascending
-the path, which rose gently over a swelling field of luxuriant grass,
-to Milverton. Certainly there was much about Cuthbert to excuse the
-prejudice of the miller. He was of low stature, with a long visage and
-grave aspect; and there was a peculiar expression of his eye, which
-disturbed or repelled those who saw him for a first time, or who saw
-him not at his ease; but to those whom, upon a nearer acquaintance,
-he liked, his dark eye beamed with light; the expression about his
-mouth was humane and gentle; his voice was low, and rather tremulous
-before strangers; he never laughed, and seldom smiled, save with his
-eyes, which gave quick and lively response to whatever pleased him.
-Though, in his first manhood, he was not without a knowledge of life
-and of the human heart, for his reading had been extensive; and he had
-that felicity of apprehension, by which the lessons of books are most
-happily caught, and most easily applied to the heart's daily wants.
-Moreover, he had all those graces of persuasion by which a pupil is
-best won upon and encouraged to climb the steep hill of fame. More
-happily placed he could not have been than in the family of Sir Oliver
-Heywood, but for one circumstance--he was too happy. A fear lay
-beating in his bosom. He dared not confess to himself the strange, yet
-deep, sentiments of admiration with which he regarded the daughter of
-the worthy knight. He would fain persuade himself that it was nothing
-but an emotion of gratitude to Mistress Katharine for that generous
-courtesy which would not suffer a scholar of gentle birth to want such
-attention and respect as she might delicately pay to him. Here,
-however, his wisdom was at fault. In vain had books taught him the
-misery of misplaced affections. He was launching out upon an unknown
-sea that has no shore.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. VI.
-
-    Some snakes must hiss, because they're born with stings.
-
-
-The table in Milverton Hall was already surrounded by the hungry
-guests; and a substantial old English breakfast, well suited to the
-appetites and the digestion of active and manly hunters, was spread
-before them. They were so busied over the cold joints and the venison
-pasties, or with the amber ale that foamed in silver tankards, as
-scarcely to notice the entrance of a latecomer, and therefore Cuthbert
-slipped into a vacant place at the bottom of the table, without other
-greeting than the good-humoured nod of a ruddy-looking young parson
-seated opposite, as he raised a tankard to his lips. There was little
-talk, save a few words about the sport, until having fairly finished
-their meal, the chairs were backed a little from the huge oaken table;
-the serving men lifted off the large dishes, still weighty with good
-fare, removed the trenchers, and having carried round the basin and
-ewer, large silver cups, filled with canary wine, prepared, after the
-fashion of the time, with sugar and with certain herbs, so as to make
-a delicious beverage in warm weather, were placed upon the table. The
-short grace "Benedicto benedicatur" having been uttered by George
-Juxon, the youthful rector alluded to, Sir Oliver took the massive cup
-which stood before himself, and intimating to Juxon to follow his
-example with the other, he rose, and giving for a toast, "His most
-gracious Majesty King Charles," took a small draught of it, and passed
-the cup to the noble looking gentleman who had been sitting on his
-right hand, and was then standing by his side. The toast passed round
-with an audible "God bless him!" from every guest, after the example
-of the loyal host.
-
-"Ah, Sir Philip," observed the worthy knight to the noble stranger
-near him, "we have fallen upon evil times; and it is grievous to think
-that there should be one house in all England where the health of his
-most sacred Majesty may no longer be duly drunk, as is becoming in
-all good and true subjects."
-
-"Yet, I fear," replied Sir Philip Arundel, "there are many in which
-the King's health is no longer a standing toast: unquestionably
-republican feelings and principles have made great progress among the
-burgher classes generally, and have infected not a few above them."
-
-"It is those sour-faced, canting rogues, the prick-eared,
-psalm-singing Puritans, that are doing all the mischief," said Sir
-Charles Lambert: "we want their ears, after the Turkish fashion,
-cropped by sacksful."
-
-"But it is not calling them names, or cutting off their ears," said
-George Juxon, "that will put them down; neither will all the water in
-your horse-ponds quench the fire in any of their bosoms."
-
-"Very likely; but there is nothing like trying what will stop them;
-and as sure as ever I catch any of the hypocritical rogues praying and
-singing near our parish they shall have a bellyful of muddy water, and
-a back-load of smart blows with whip or cudgel."
-
-There was an expression of most irrepressible disgust on the
-countenance of Cuthbert Noble as Sir Charles uttered this brutal
-speech; which Sir Charles observing, he turned quickly to Sir Oliver,
-and added, "These are times in which we should look well to all our
-housemates, for fear we should be fostering some of these godly
-knaves, who cover their false hearts with closed lips and demure
-faces, and may corrupt our children and our servants."
-
-"You mean me," said Cuthbert, starting on his feet with an energy
-which startled every one at table, and took Sir Charles so totally by
-surprise that he turned pale and livid, and seemed at a loss for
-words.
-
-"Sir Oliver," pursued the youthful tutor in a glow of indignation that
-overspread his cheeks, and made his eyes glance fire, "I have long and
-often endured the contemptuous and studied insults of your haughty
-kinsman on his visits here; and while they were only directed against
-me as a poor scholar and a dependant, it was well:--happy in your
-favour, and in the attachment and respect of the gentle young master,
-who is my pupil, I could afford to look down upon the dwarfish stature
-of so mean a mind; but when he would thus----"
-
-Before it was possible to arrest him, Sir Charles, who sat upon the
-same side of the table, had run behind him, and, ere he could turn,
-inflicted a deep wound in his back with a large hunting-knife. The
-young student fell, bathed in his blood, upon the floor; and all the
-household, already brought near to the door by the loudness of the
-voices, rushed into the hall. Nothing was more affecting than to see
-the terrified agony and loud sobs of the noble boy Arthur, who stood
-over his fainting tutor with tears, and would neither be comforted nor
-removed.
-
-George Juxon had instantly seized Sir Charles with an iron grasp. Sir
-Oliver was troubled, and scarce knew how to act; while Sir Philip
-Arundel, the most self-possessed of the party, desired the attendants
-to send swiftly to Warwick for a surgeon, and suggested to Sir Oliver
-that the aggressor should be committed to his charge, and that he
-would take him to his own home, and be responsible for his appearance
-to answer for the crime which he had just committed, when the charge
-should be preferred against him in due order. But George Juxon
-required that he should remain in custody at Milverton until it was
-ascertained whether the stab inflicted on Cuthbert might not prove
-fatal.
-
-The ladies of Milverton, who were absent, walking in the grounds, were
-happily spared this painful scene. To the exclamations of wonder,
-regret, and even condolence, with which Sir Charles was addressed by
-some others of the party, he answered nothing, but stood with lips
-closely compressed in sullen scorn and in a dogged silence.
-
-Juxon unhanded him, after Sir Philip promised that he should for the
-present be kept close guarded, and gave all his attention to Cuthbert,
-who was borne slowly and carefully up into his chamber, and his wound
-there bound up with a temporary dressing by Juxon himself, till proper
-assistance should arrive. This done, he left him for a while in the
-care of the servants, while he went down to aid in composing Sir
-Oliver and the ladies of the family.
-
-This young clergyman, who was a distant connection of the good bishop
-of the same name, the treasurer at that time of the King, was a good
-specimen of a particular class of richly beneficed clergy, not
-uncommon in his day. He was a ripe scholar, a kind, orthodox
-churchman, and a manly country gentleman. His habits were those of his
-time: they grew out of the circumstances of that period and the state
-of society in all country places; and he had seen his own pious and
-dignified relative hunt his own pack of beagles, without a thought
-that he was doing any thing more than taking a vigorous exercise,
-beneficial alike to the health of his body and his mind.
-
-Juxon was among, but above, sportsmen. He had a wealthy rectory, and
-lived hospitably with his equals, and charitably towards the poor. In
-the discharge of his parochial duties, he was sensible and serious: he
-valued books, and he had a due appreciation of genius.
-
-He had been of the hunting party this morning, and was thus a guest
-at Milverton, where he had long occasionally visited, and where, upon
-a former day, he had chanced to have rather a long and free
-conversation with Cuthbert, and, albeit widely different in their
-habits, had found common ground of interest in the subjects on which
-they talked, and they had parted well pleased with each other. Had
-they touched on politics, indeed, they would have differed; for Juxon
-was a most stanch supporter of the court party: through evil report
-and good report he stuck close to the crown; he wrote for it, spoke
-for it, and was ready to lay down his life in the defence of it; but
-he was of too large a mind to wonder at the opinions of those opposed
-to the government of the King; nor was he blind either to those abuses
-of the prerogative which had first awakened a spirit of resistance in
-men of undoubted worth and patriotism, nor to the grievous folly of
-those deplorable counsels, whereby the King had been induced or
-encouraged to force upon the proud and resolute Scots the discipline
-of a church to which they disclaimed allegiance.
-
-Again, he was of a generous spirit, detested persecution in any thing,
-especially in religion and matters of conscience, and had felt, with
-the Lord Falkland, in all the earlier stages of the present quarrel.
-Nevertheless, a decided and sincere attachment to the monarchy, an
-unshaken respect for the personal qualities of the King, and a
-devotion to the forms and to the spirit of that church in which he was
-baptized, suckled, and educated,--a devotion quite distinct from, and
-independent of, any feeling of self-interest, as an incumbent,--caused
-him to resolve upon his own course in the coming troubles with a
-cheerful firmness.
-
-These sentiments, if the conversation in the hall had not been so
-suddenly put an end to, would there have been elicited. He had not
-approved the outbreak and burst of indignation with which the
-sensitive and excited Cuthbert had so energetically appropriated the
-indirect, but mischievous, speech with which Sir Charles Lambert had
-sought to sow a suspicion of his tutor's integrity in the bosom of Sir
-Oliver; but he with his whole soul detested and abhorred the cowardly
-and bloody ferocity with which the haughty and maddened barbarian had
-resented the contemptuous expression of Cuthbert. There sprung up in
-his heart at that moment a warmth of interest for the youth, which
-never afterwards, in fortunes the most dark and divided, entirely died
-away. But to return to the actual present. He saw the ladies, who had
-but just returned from a walk to the vineyard, in company with Sir
-Oliver, in a remote corner of the garden, and immediately joined them.
-
-They were, as might be expected, very greatly troubled at the cruel
-occurrence, and pale with natural anxiety. Indeed there was an
-expression of concern upon the countenance of Mistress Katharine, so
-very deep, so profoundly sad, that even amid the sorrowful
-perplexities of the moment it glanced across the mind of Juxon, that,
-in one or other of the parties in this business, her own heart was
-most closely interested, and he thought that he had never before seen
-human beauty with such a divine aspect. At the readily adopted
-suggestion of Katharine, her aunt Alice would have proceeded
-instantly to the chamber of the sufferer, to render him any service in
-her power; but Juxon requested of her not to do so, and recommended
-that the ladies should keep themselves quiet and apart until the
-surgeon arrived, and the gentlemen now in the mansion should have
-departed. Observing, too, the extreme perplexity of Sir Oliver, who
-had been and still was exceedingly agitated by this strange event, he
-entreated him to remain with them, and to keep himself calm and quiet
-for the present; assuring him that every thing which he could suppose
-him to wish in the present distress should be properly done, and that
-he would certainly not leave Milverton himself while he could hope to
-render the slightest service to Sir Oliver in this difficulty. There
-was an earnestness of manner about Juxon, and at the same time such a
-quiet tone of internal confidence in the resources of his own
-judgment, that they all submitted to his guidance; and Sir Oliver was
-greatly comforted and strengthened by the thought that so wise and
-judicious a friend was near him in his necessity.
-
-The boy Arthur was watching and walking forwards on the Warwick road,
-as if his doing so could hasten the coming of assistance, and was in
-all that confusion of the troubled spirits which keeps the young heart
-throbbing with fear.
-
-In the library Sir Charles Lambert sat with folded arms and a lowering
-brow, while Sir Philip Arundel stood, looking from the window with a
-countenance simply expressive of cold annoyance.
-
-Of the half dozen gentlemen, who were still grouped in the hall, one,
-after observing, that "All's well that ends well,--and, perhaps, after
-all, the young man's hurt might not prove dangerous, and that he
-always hoped for the best,"--stole his hand across quietly to the wine
-cup, and took a very copious draught; another remarked, that he must
-say "the young man was very irritating;" a third wanted to know what
-was the use of their remaining there, and said he wanted to go home;
-while a fourth said, "One was a brute, and the other a fool: that he
-cared nothing for one, and knew nothing of the other."
-
-But two gentlemen of a more thoughtful cast walked the hall in low and
-serious discourse, apprehensive by their words that the injury would
-prove fatal to Cuthbert; and resolving that so fierce an action as
-that of Sir Charles should not pass unpunished. These were friends and
-neighbours of George Juxon; and expressed themselves well pleased
-that, for the sake of Sir Oliver and his family, so useful and kind a
-person chanced to be at Milverton under the present circumstances.
-
-At last the long expected surgeon arrived with the messenger who had
-been sent for him, both having used all diligent expedition. He was
-introduced into the chamber of the patient by Juxon, and immediately
-proceeded to examine the wound. At the first sight he shook his head,
-and said to himself, in a very quick, low tone of voice, "The wonder
-is, that he is yet alive;" but on questioning Cuthbert as to his
-feelings, and finding some of the expected symptoms absent, and on
-very carefully applying the probe, he cheerfully exclaimed, "There is
-good hope of you, young master: there is no man living could pass a
-sword where this blade has passed without injuring a vital part, if he
-were to try; but a good angel hath had the guiding of this one. If it
-please God to bless my skill, you shall do well; but it will be a slow
-case, and a tedious time before you will be fairly on your legs
-again."
-
-"God's will be done," said Cuthbert, "for life or for death."
-
-"If that is your mind," rejoined the surgeon, "my care will be well
-helped, and your cure the easier."
-
-After cleaning and dressing the wound, and giving particular
-directions as to diet broths, and writing a prescription for the
-necessary medicines to produce composure and sleep, he took his
-departure, promising an early visit on the morrow.
-
-The favourable opinion thus given of Cuthbert's wound was quickly made
-known throughout the mansion, and received as welcome by all;
-operating upon each according to their personal characters, and to the
-interest which they had felt in the issue of the violent deed which
-had stained the hospitable hall of Milverton. Sir Charles Lambert,
-indeed, but for the inconvenience and danger to himself, would have
-preferred the more tragical event. As it was, when Sir Philip Arundel
-returned from the gallery to the library, to announce to him that
-Cuthbert was considered in no present danger, he uttered no word
-beyond his wish instantly to return home.
-
-"You are surely thankful," said Sir Philip, "that this unpleasant
-affair has ended so much better than was feared. If you will not go
-and say so to the bleeding youth, which perhaps might just now too
-much disturb him, you will at least offer some words of atonement to
-your elderly relative, Sir Oliver, for the outrage done under his
-roof, and to a youth under his protection; a deed to be only excused
-by pleading that your anger transported you into a paroxysm of
-madness."
-
-"I shall go home," said Sir Charles: "are you ready?"
-
-"I will never, sir, again cross your threshold: you are no English
-knight--you are not even a man. I shall send orders to my grooms to
-follow me on my road home."
-
-These words were swallowed by the same man who would have taken a life
-that same morning for a look of contempt; and with a white cheek, on
-which passion literally trembled, Sir Charles hurried to the
-court-yard, called for his horse, mounted, and dashing spurs into his
-sides, rode violently away--hatred in his own heart, and contempt
-pursuing him. In succession all the guests took their departure,
-except George Juxon, whom Sir Oliver requested to continue with him
-till the morrow; and who, more for the sake of the patient than of the
-family, assented. He was not sorry that Sir Charles had departed in
-the manner and in the temper described, nor did he care now to have
-his person secured; for his offence, though grave as it yet stood, was
-not of a nature that in those days subjected to imprisonment any one
-who could find bail for his future appearance: and in the present case
-it was clear that Cuthbert would never prosecute a relation (albeit
-base and unworthy), yet a relation of Sir Oliver Heywood.
-
-The good knight, though a kind man, a fond father, and an easy master,
-having walked through life upon a path of velvet as smooth as his own
-lawn, was sadly discomposed by this visitation of care; and the very
-trouble and irregularity that was caused by it was felt by the old
-gentleman in many ways that he dared not confess to others, and was
-ashamed to acknowledge to himself. A great weight, indeed, was taken
-from his mind by the assurance of Cuthbert's safety; for he was
-humane, and he liked the youth: but he had private reasons for a deep
-regret at the conduct of Sir Charles Lambert, and the interruption to
-their intercourse which would of necessity ensue, and almost wished
-that he had parted with his young tutor immediately after that
-discovery of his political leanings which he had himself not many
-days ago so frankly made.
-
-However, what had now befallen Cuthbert beneath Sir Oliver's own roof,
-and by the hand of his own relative, gave him new and increased claims
-upon the knight's protection and kindness, and there could be no
-further thought of their separating now till a distant period. The day
-wore rapidly away, and by the hour of supper some appearance of order
-was again restored to a mansion, in which every thing usually
-proceeded with the regularity of clockwork.
-
-An intermitted dinner was an occurrence of which there was no previous
-memory or record in the recollection of the oldest servant on the
-establishment. Among the minor circumstances, and not the least
-affecting to the manly mind of Juxon, was a little dialogue which he
-overheard between the little girl Lily and the boy Arthur, the child
-being unable to comprehend the fact of one man cutting another man
-with a knife on purpose to hurt him. The true nature of the atrocious
-action of course no one cared to explain to the little innocent: but
-she had learned from the servants that Master Cuthbert was run through
-with a knife by Sir Charles Lambert; and she had come to cousin
-Arthur, in a grave and pretty wonder, to know what they could mean.
-
-The next day, being the birthday of Sir Oliver, was that on which the
-masque in preparation was to have been represented before a party of
-the neighbouring gentry, who had been specially invited to celebrate
-that annual feast in the good old hall of Milverton. Of so pleasant a
-holyday there could now be no further thought; and the May-day
-festival which was to follow the day after, though of course the
-villagers would have their dance according to the immemorial custom,
-would lose half its gaiety and spirit by the absence of the family
-from the manor house, and especially of the gentle and sweet Mistress
-Katharine, whose words and ways had won for her all the hearts in
-Milverton, and for miles round.
-
-It was an evening memorable in the life of Juxon, that in which he
-first sat down at table with the small family circle of the
-Heywoods;--in which he looked upon the majestic forehead of
-Katharine,--marked the gentle fire of her dark eyes, and the
-expression of all that is sweet and engaging in humanity about a mouth
-where her noble qualities were most fairly written.
-
-After the grave and laudable custom of those good old times, the
-evening service from the Book of Common Prayer was invariably read to
-the assembled households of the country gentlemen. The office of
-reading prayers was usually in the absence of a clergyman performed by
-Sir Oliver himself as the priest of his own family, or at times he
-deputed Cuthbert to supply his place. The duty this evening was
-performed by Juxon in a solemn, feeling, impressive manner; and when
-it was concluded, and the family retired, he hastened to the chamber
-of Cuthbert, and finding that the composing draught had taken kind
-effect, and that he was dropping off into a comforting sleep, withdrew
-again with as soft a step as he had entered, and, exhausted with the
-fatigues and the painful excitements of the day's adventures, he
-repaired to his own room, and thankfully lay down to rest. As he was
-extinguishing the lamp, his eye read the posy on the wall; and he
-could not but feel a sweet pleasure to be reposing in such a mansion,
-and with such a family:--
-
-    "Would'st have a friend, would'st know what friend is best?
-    Have God thy friend, who passeth all the rest."
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. VII.
-
-    Love is a kind of superstition,
-    Which fears the idol which itself hath framed.
-                              SIR THOMAS OVERBURY.
-
-
-Cuthbert was awakened at midnight by pain:--the glimmer of the night
-lamp in the little room adjoining cast a dim light into the chamber
-where he lay; and the breathing of the aged female servant, who sat
-there in watch, told him that she had been overcome by sleep. He cared
-not to disturb her, and made an effort to reach the cup of water on
-the little table by his side, but he found that he was no longer equal
-to the slightest exertion--he could not even change his posture. He
-endured his thirst, and tried to collect his thoughts, and gather up
-all that had passed in the hall, but he could not: he was dizzy with
-the sense of having been pushed to the very brink of eternity, and
-snatched back again. A gleam shone upon the portrait of Luther which
-hung opposite. "Though he slay me yet will I trust him," was now his
-own whispered act of confidence in God, and he lay passive, silent,
-and hopeful. Not only was he heavily oppressed with bodily anguish,
-but his mind, after undue excitement, and proportionate depression and
-exhaustion, had sunk into a state of torpor. At the moment when Sir
-Charles Lambert made the insidious speech to Sir Oliver, which
-Cuthbert truly discerned to be aimed at his suspected principles, and
-still more basely at a supposed line of conduct which he had far too
-high a sense of integrity to pursue.
-
-At that moment it seemed to him as if it was but fair and honourable
-to make open avowal of his true sentiments; but in the same quick
-glance of the mind he saw the first bitter and inevitable consequence.
-He must quit Milverton immediately, and for ever. Sir Oliver could no
-longer have retained in his family a man openly admiring the cause
-and the course of that party in the kingdom which opposed the crown.
-
-The collision in his mind of this fear of separation from so much that
-he loved, and of the honest impulse to do what was right, begat a
-momentary desperation; and thus it was, that he rose upon that
-occasion with so unbecoming a want of calmness, and that he was about
-to preface his statement by exhibiting his unmeasured scorn for the
-base assailant of his character, but the too sure destroyer of his
-present happiness.
-
-By the strange and bloody interruption of his purpose, the avowal of
-his political opinions was checked: his expression of contempt for Sir
-Charles had found utterance, and had been followed by a consequence,
-carrying with it, indeed, a severe rod of rebuke to himself for his
-rashness, but punishment in a tenfold degree more insupportable to his
-proud and brutal enemy; and, as a crowning consolation to Cuthbert,
-his sojourn beneath the blessed roof of Milverton was at least, for
-very many weeks to come, perfectly secure. He had felt no sorrow when
-he heard the surgeon pronounce his case as one that would be
-tedious--and that it must be long before he could be safely moved.
-
-He would have had a stronger reason for joy and thankfulness, could he
-have known that he had been the cause of producing such a developement
-of the fierce and cruel temper of Sir Charles Lambert as saved
-Katharine Heywood, if not from actually accepting him as a husband, to
-which she would never have consented, at least from all the present
-persecution of his attentions, as well as from all expression of the
-blind but yet obstinate wishes of her otherwise indulgent father.
-
-As Katharine lay wakeful on her pillow, believing and hoping that the
-life of Cuthbert would be spared, and no permanent injury would affect
-his future health or usefulness, she could not regret the occurrence
-of the morning.
-
-Certainly she would have died rather than have gone to the altar with
-Sir Charles, but she would have remained continually exposed to his
-selfish addresses; and this match having been the favourite plan of
-her father from her earliest girlhood would have been perpetually
-urged upon her by him in those many indirect and distressing ways in
-which affectionate and obedient children are sometimes long and
-ungenerously tormented by covetous or ambitious parents.
-
-One thing, when she first heard of the catastrophe, found a brief
-admission into her mind, and till she was made fully acquainted both
-by her father and by Juxon of all that had passed, and of the words
-which had been uttered at the time, was not entirely dismissed. This
-was no less than a fear, faint, indeed, and most reluctantly viewed as
-possible, that the quarrel might have arisen out of some feelings on
-both sides connected with herself. Nothing was farther removed from
-the true dignity of her noble character than the desire of making an
-impression upon any one; and it would have very seriously pained her,
-if those kind attentions, by which she had sought to make Cuthbert at
-home in the family, should have given birth in his breast to any
-warmer sentiment than that of respectful friendship.
-
-Her humility and her modesty were so genuine that she was quite
-unconscious of her own personal attractions, and, though alive to the
-beauty of many of her female friends, she regarded it as a quality so
-inferior, and secondary in its power of interesting the heart, or
-winning the homage of the mind, as to give little advantage to its
-possessor in the daily intercourse of society. This opinion being in
-her sincere and rooted, her charms were worn with a grace and ease so
-natural, that her influence over all who came within their sweet and
-magic circle was irresistible.
-
-This being her character, it was a great relief to her to be persuaded
-that there was not the slightest ground for the apprehensions, which
-she had slowly admitted. She was now surprised at herself for having
-entertained them even for a moment. She saw in the conduct of Cuthbert
-nothing more than a burst of human pride irritated into violence by
-the haughty insults of a worthless superior. Thus all her suspicions
-of the truth were lulled to sleep; and to alleviate the sufferings of
-Cuthbert during his confinement, and to cheer his convalescence when
-the hour of it should arrive, was to her plain judgment a simple and a
-pleasing duty.
-
-Sir Oliver himself passed a weary and feverish night,--all things
-seemed out of joint: one of his most favourite schemes was
-broken,--and his prospects of a peaceful and indolent old age, under
-the shadow of his own trees, were somewhat shaken. The trumpet of war
-had not, indeed, as yet sounded in the heart of England, though
-English blood had been already spilled freely on the borders. The few
-tall yeomen, with their goodly steeds, sent by himself to join the
-King's forces in the north, had marched fast and far only to meet an
-early end, and to swell the loss and the discredit of the ridiculous
-expedition against the Scots. With Sir Charles Lambert for a
-son-in-law, he would have felt better able to meet and take share in
-the coming troubles; and he reflected on the difficulties before him
-with dismay. Of battle or of death he had no fear,--though at his time
-of life, and with his habits, it was small service beyond that of a
-ready example of devotion which he could render in a camp; but when he
-thought of Katharine, and of Arthur in his boyhood, and of his aged
-sister, his household presented but a defenceless aspect. However,
-after the scene of yesterday, he could not ever directly encourage any
-future addresses of Sir Charles to his daughter; and it could not but
-suggest itself plainly to his own mind, as a gentlemen of a true
-English spirit, as far as personal bravery was concerned, that little
-dependence could be placed upon the courage or firmness of a man
-capable of the cruel and dastardly assault which he had yesterday
-witnessed. He had yet to learn the moral energies and the latent
-heroism of his noble daughter, and to discover the strength and the
-wisdom of a woman's mind, when the love of father and of country guide
-it in the path of duty and of honour. Some time was to elapse before
-the days of trial; and, indulging that love of ease which was habitual
-to him, he strove to stifle or put away from him the unwelcome
-conviction that come they must, and could not be averted. Therefore
-it was with no common sense of comfort, that, when he came forth into
-the gallery the next morning, he found Katharine, and his sister, and
-Arthur, already there, waiting to receive him with the kisses of fond
-congratulation, and saw his own portrait and that of his departed
-wife, who had been to him as an angel gently leading him for good, and
-ever watchful to guard him from error, framed, as it were, with choice
-and dewy flowers. He gazed at the portrait of his wife and then at
-Katharine, alternately, and was melted into a gush of grateful
-tenderness. All fears, difficulties, and troubles seemed to vanish in
-a present feeling of thankfulness and delight. He went instantly on to
-the chamber of Cuthbert: Juxon had been there from an early hour, and
-the surgeon was engaged at the moment in dressing his wound.
-
-The sight of the amiable young man, lying pale and helpless, bandaged
-and in pain, greatly moved Sir Oliver. He took Cuthbert by the hand,
-and spoke to him in that warm and feeling language of condolence which
-is balm to a sufferer's mind. The benevolent surgeon took a lively
-interest in his patient, and spoke most confidently of effecting a
-complete cure,--although he repeated, that the case would prove very
-tedious, and many weeks must elapse before he could be permitted, or
-indeed be able, to quit the recumbent posture. He gave directions that
-he should be kept particularly quiet in his actual state, and not be
-spoken with or disturbed throughout the day, except to give him
-necessary refreshment or medicine.
-
-At the earnest invitation of Sir Oliver, Juxon consented to remain at
-Milverton till the evening. The day passed pleasantly away. The worthy
-knight recovered his usual spirits; Mistress Alice her composure; and
-Katharine Heywood, having much secret content and thankfulness at
-heart, looked like some gracious angel of peace and goodness.
-
-It was a day of bliss to Juxon:--one never forgotten, but marked white
-for ever. He was one of those men who felt a reverence and tenderness
-for woman; and, whenever he addressed them, his eyes, his voice, his
-whole manner plainly manifested respect. He expected in the female
-character gentleness, purity, and charity; and yet, by some strange
-inconsistency, he shunned the society of women, was seldom to be seen
-in those gay and glittering circles where they shone, and where he
-might have been soon disenchanted of his cherished illusions.
-
-His residence in a sequestered parish in the country afforded him few
-opportunities of visiting where ladies were to be met; and being fond
-of all sports and manly exercises, and so ripe a scholar as to find
-study and the chase a pleasant relief to each other, he had not as yet
-been careful to seek opportunities of increasing his female
-acquaintance.
-
-Whatever there was of silent and maidenly reserve in sweet Katharine
-herself towards common strangers, and upon ordinary occasions,
-vanished at a time like this, in the presence of so manly, so modest,
-and so frank a man as George Juxon. As the family sat that day at
-table, not a shade of embarrassment was visible in any of the
-party:--Sir Oliver was in high good humour; the boy Arthur looked at
-their guest with those honest eyes which, in boyhood, fear not to
-show either like or dislike; and the little girl Lily, permitted that
-day to dine in the hall, sat without shyness opposite to Juxon, and
-shunned not his smile or his word of notice.
-
-The day wore on:--he walked with the ladies upon the verdant and
-velvet paths in the flower garden,--he paced the terrace with Sir
-Oliver,--and his presence was felt by them all as a strength and a
-comfort.
-
-The shade upon the dial had stole silently, but swiftly, forwards, and
-touched upon seven in the evening, when he ran up to the chamber of
-Cuthbert to press his hand at parting; and having afterwards said his
-farewell to the ladies on the lawn, he descended to the court-yard,
-accompanied by Sir Oliver and the boy Arthur, mounted the gallant roan
-gelding upon which he had hunted his way down on the morning of
-yesterday, and again shaking the hand of his host, and accepting a
-warm invitation to repeat his visit soon and often, George Juxon rode
-out of the gates at Milverton with a very new and strange feeling.
-
-The free animal, on which he rode, was impatiently checked as often as
-it broke from the measured walk at which it was now the pleasure of
-his master to travel homewards; and, whatever might be the cause, he
-was not allowed to perform in less than two hours a distance to be
-very easily accomplished within one. The reverie of Juxon was unbroken
-during the whole ride. The evening was mild, and the hedgerows were
-green, and the air was perfumed here with the scent of violets, there
-with the fragrance of cottage gardens or blushing orchards, and upon
-the woody or open parts of the road with the rich incense of the
-fresh-blown May.
-
-The news of Sir Charles Lambert's violence had reached his parsonage
-before him; and in the stone porch his old housekeeper met him as soon
-as he had dismounted, with as much anxiety as if he had narrowly
-escaped murder himself. The good old body, with that genuine
-philanthropy of feeling which is as natural as their breathing to
-kindly natures, learned the safety of Cuthbert, whom she had never
-seen or heard of before, with a lively expression of motherly joy;
-and Juxon was roused to remember how very narrowly the youth had
-missed an early and melancholy fate. Truth to say, so much of pleasure
-had grown up within these two days from the very circumstances arising
-out of the assault on Cuthbert, for her young master now to dwell on,
-and there seemed to open before him so pleasant a prospect in future
-intercourse with the family at Milverton, that, perhaps, he hardly
-felt enough for the present sufferings of the unfortunate patient.
-
-His thoughts, however, were soon diverted from Milverton, and from
-himself, by the entrance of his old gardener, to say the May-crown,
-which was kept in the summer-house, had been taken away, and that he
-had found a written paper on the shelf where it stood. This the old
-man handed to his master, saying he could not read it, but guessed it
-boded no good for the coming holyday, and that he had been gathering
-flowers to dress out the old May-pole to little purpose. George Juxon
-took the paper, upon which, in a stiff, quaint hand, were written
-these lines:--
-
-    "This head in a crown, and that without ears,
-    Is the pleasure of prelates, of courtiers, and peers.
-    Dance, revel, and sing, ye butterflies gay;
-    The time is at hand you shall weep, fast, and pray.
-    One holdeth the war-dogs, all ready to slip;
-    Pleasure's cup shall be spilled, and dashed from the lip.
-    To me is committed this message of woe:
-    The tears of the proud ones unpitied shall flow."
-
-He no sooner read it, than, quitting his supper, he went out into the
-village to ascertain if any copy of it had been left at any other
-place; and found, to his vexation, that one had been fastened to the
-May-pole, and had been taken down and read to half the people.
-Determined, however, that the customary sports should be neither
-hindered nor damped, he took home with him the village carpenter, set
-fairly to work, and in two hours, by the aid of lath, and pasteboard,
-and Dutch gilding, they finished off a crown far more splendid than
-the one stolen; and he wrote underneath it, with prompt good humour,--
-
-    "The preacher hath said it--For all things a time--
-    For fasting, for feasting, for dancing, for rhyme:--
-    No rhymes without reason shall hinder our pleasure;
-    We'll crown the old May-pole, and tread the old measure."
-
-This done, he again thought of Cuthbert's bed of suffering, and
-remembered him in his prayers. This little cross occurrence in his
-parish neither drove away his own sleep for a second nor delayed on
-the morrow the sports of his parishioners. Here, as in many other
-places, the popular and wise course of the minister preserved a good
-and happy understanding among the people. There is no social state
-more truly desirable than that of a well-ordered village population,
-where the miseries of the lane and the alley cannot reach; labour is
-performed in the open air; festivals are days of thanksgiving, danced
-through upon a green sward, to the nodding heads of merry musicians;
-and they see no crowns but such as are woven with roses for their
-May-queen, and know no sceptre but a white wand wreathed about with
-fragrant flowers.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. VIII.
-
-    Though their voices lower be,
-    Streams have, too, their melody;
-    Night and day they warbling run,
-    Never pause, but still sing on.
-                      GEORGE HICKES.
-
-
-For three summer months Cuthbert Noble was confined to a couch; and
-though latterly he was led forth into the garden, and suffered to lie
-down on a bench in the shade, yet his confinement had been lonely as
-well as tedious. No kindness on the part of any of the family was
-wanting: whatever could be thought of for his convenience and comfort
-was provided. While he was obliged to keep his own chamber, he was
-visited daily by Sir Oliver; Mistress Alice and Katharine looked in
-upon him together, and inquired gently concerning his pain; the boy
-Arthur would often forego his play in the garden, or his practice in
-archery, to sit and read to him; and not a week passed without a
-friendly and cheerful visit from George Juxon. Nevertheless, he was
-evidently dejected; and while he was grateful for all these
-attentions, nothing, it was observed, could effectually rouse his
-spirits to cheerfulness, although he repaid, by anxious words and
-quiet smiles, the least service which was done him. About the trouble
-which he unavoidably gave the servants, who, for their parts, were
-ever ready to oblige him, he was scrupulous even to anxiety. He seemed
-to pine after liberty--and would sit, for hours together, lost in deep
-thought, or in vacant sadness. It so happened that the clergyman of
-Milverton, whose manners were coarse, and whose morals were low, did
-not visit at the Hall. Although originally appointed by Sir Oliver, at
-the request of a friend, who, acquainted with his family, had taken
-little care to inquire more particularly into his character, he had
-early quarrelled with his patron, and preferred the freedom of an ale
-bench to the restraints of good society. This was unfortunate for
-Cuthbert; as a learned and religious clergyman, residing in the
-village, and intimate at the hall, might have kept him straight in
-the plain path of the true churchman. Now, though Juxon, had he been
-aware of all that was passing in the mind of Cuthbert, might have been
-truly serviceable in disabusing him of some strong prejudices, yet, as
-he presumed him to be a true son of the church, the subject was seldom
-named.
-
-He came to cheer and amuse him if he could; and the very atmosphere of
-Milverton Hall was that of purity and delight to George Juxon. His
-summer months presented a strange contrast to those of Cuthbert. He
-gave up his buck-hunting in the afternoons: he could not abide the
-rude and noisy companions of that sport of which he had been always so
-fond; and now he might be seen, day after day, in the guise of an
-angler, on the grassy margin of a silver stream, or, not unfrequently,
-stretched at his length beneath a shady tree near the bank, or sitting
-under a high honeysuckle hedge; and if he were not chewing his own
-sweet fancies, some book in his hand, of good old-fashioned poetry, to
-aid his pleasant meditations. George Juxon was now a lover--without
-melancholy, I do not say,--but only with so much of it as is ever
-welcome to a lover's mood, and gives a dignity to his passion.
-Nevertheless, his hope was unavowed; nor was he in haste: a long
-courtship was the fashion of those days; and a mistress seemed raised
-in the fancy of her admirer, by the thought that she must be slowly
-approached, and would be slowly won.
-
-His family, his private fortune, his present provision in the church,
-and his future prospects from the favour of the bishop, were such,
-that Sir Oliver could not object to him as a suitor for his daughter,
-though he might give the preference to another; and certainly, with
-her father, the title of a baronet would have outweighed that of a
-dean. However, these circumstances could only encourage him in his
-more sanguine moments, for Juxon was a modest man; and when he called
-up the image of Katharine in his walks, and thought upon a certain
-majesty in her countenance, and how serene and unmoved she was, how
-unsuspicious of the admiration which she excited, he could not but
-fear that she might prove indifferent to the suit of one so plain and
-unvarnished as himself, and that she would never entertain his
-addresses. Therefore it was that he nursed his love in secret, and
-patiently restrained all expression of particular regard for Mistress
-Katharine in his present visits to Milverton. How pleasant, in the
-mean time, were all those visits; how swiftly he rode through lane and
-wood, across field or common, as he went from home on those permitted
-errands of friendship; and at what a slow and lingering pace would he
-return from the gracious presence of this lady of his love!
-
-He had often heard it rumoured that Sir Charles Lambert was thought to
-be the accepted son-in-law of Sir Oliver; but this he had always
-doubted from the very first moment of his introduction at Milverton;
-and he felt that Katharine could never have endured his attentions. By
-these, however, she could now be troubled no farther; for Sir Charles,
-being deeply mortified and ashamed of the frantic violence which he
-had committed at his last visit, had left his home suddenly for
-London, and was solacing himself, for the contemptuous affront which
-he had received from Sir Philip Arundel, in the congenial atmosphere
-of bear gardens and cock pits. Nor had he forgotten how roughly he was
-handled by George Juxon, whom he at once feared for his courage, and
-hated for his virtues.
-
-However, he was no longer a visiter at Milverton; his sisters, indeed,
-still rode over from the Grange occasionally to pass a day with
-Katharine, and twice Juxon was of the party at table.
-
-To most eyes he would have appeared the admirer rather of these ladies
-than of Mistress Katharine; for Old Beech rectory was only four miles
-from Bolton Grange: and though he seldom accepted the invitations of
-Sir Charles, yet he met them often in hunting or hawking parties, and
-was apparently a very great favourite with them both. Sophy and Jane
-Lambert were both pretty: the one, with the rosy cheeks of health and
-laughing blue eyes; the other, brown and freckled, with an arch look
-that seemed to detect those secrets which men, and women too, most
-anxiously conceal, with a provoking and unerring sagacity.
-
-These good-tempered and warm-hearted girls had been at first sadly
-afflicted about their brother's conduct; but this last care concerning
-him was now six weeks old, and had been dismissed from their minds. He
-was, to their great contentment, now absent, and their tongues were
-again loosened to playfulness.
-
-As the party sat at dinner in Milverton Hall one day, about the middle
-of June, and as Juxon was carving a capon, that he might help Mistress
-Alice to a delicate wing,--
-
-"Prithee, Master Juxon," said Jane Lambert with a very roguish
-expression of the eye, "did you not hear our merry voices on Wednesday
-evening as we killed a buck under Walton coppice? and did you not see
-us lift our velvet caps to you? and did you shut your ears to the
-pleasant horn? or were you charmed to sleep by the fairies under that
-broad beech tree in the Bird Meadow? or were you saying your prayers?
-or were you reading Master Ford's Lover's Melancholy? or were you
-thinking of our Lady St. Katharine here at Milverton?"
-
-Juxon was so confused at this last question that he put the wing of
-the capon into the sauce boat instead of on the trencher of Mistress
-Alice, and said, with a stammer and a blush,--
-
-"Really, Mistress Jane, you are too bad; but I know that you dearly
-love a joke upon anglers: you are always jeering poor Moxon."
-
-"O do not mind her," said Katharine Heywood, coming to his relief:
-"she is privileged to say what she pleases, without meaning what she
-says; and my poor name always serves to point a fancy, if she wants
-one: if she were not so young and so pretty, she might be taken up for
-a false fortune-teller, and a dealer in witchcraft."
-
-"Cousin Kate, if I am a fortune-teller, I am a true one; and if a
-witch, you know I am a white one, and work marvellous cures. Shall I
-tell your fortune? and shall I name the name of a true knight in a far
-country?"
-
-A glance from the noble eyes of Katharine, which no one perceived but
-Jane Lambert, rebuked her into silence; and trying, though awkwardly,
-to laugh off the liberty which she had evidently taken with the
-feelings of Katharine, she sent her trencher for some venison, and
-said no more.
-
-Sir Oliver, too, fastening upon the simple fact of Juxon having turned
-a fisherman, began rallying him for having made so bad an exchange, as
-to leave the merry and social sport of hunting for the dull and
-solitary exercise of angling.
-
-"It is true," said the knight, "I have myself been forced to give up
-the jolly buck hunt; but, life of me, I could never take up with a rod
-and line in the place of it. I do wonder, when I see a man mope about
-the meadows, and stand, it may be, for hours, under the same willow,
-by the broken bank of a sluggish river, that it doth not end in his
-hanging himself for very weariness of the flat world."
-
-"And yet," quoth Juxon, "fishing hath its pleasures, ay, and its sport
-too; but if the angler catch nothing, still he hath a wholesome walk
-in the pure air; and if he go abroad early, and listeneth to the
-matins of the heaven-loving lark, he shall not want sweeter music
-than the cry of hounds, and the blasts of hunting horns."
-
-"By my faith, Master Juxon, you are bewitched; but whether by old
-Margery or by the sparkling eyes of Jane I say not; by Margery,
-methinks; for the faint heart of an angler will never win such a
-sprightly lady of the woods as our Jane."
-
-"Nay, nay, Sir Oliver, when a man is bewitched, and by love, too, as
-Mistress Jane will have it, his thoughts must be too roving and
-unquiet to sit still upon a mossy bank watching for the trembling of a
-quill."
-
-"Ay, ay; but he may sit quiet enough, and not watch any thing but his
-own fancies. I do verily think that thou must be touched with some
-strange care, to let thy brave gelding race it round his pasture for
-the madness of his desire to follow the chase, at sound of which he
-neigheth for his rider, and thou sitting the while like some poor
-scholar alone upon a tree stump."
-
-"At the least I find one blessing rests on anglers--where they walk,
-the grace of humility doth grow, lowly as the daisy, and plentiful as
-the meadow sweet."
-
-"I think," said Katharine, "that Master Juxon has good right to walk
-the valley with his rod, without being thus rated for his pleasure;
-and if he useth to find good thoughts in all he meeteth by the river
-side in summer evenings it is more than hunters do in the forest."
-
-"Marry, Kate, it is to get rid of thought that men go a-hunting. I
-tell thee that cares and sorrows, and wrongs and vexations, cannot
-keep pace with a bold hunter; self is forgotten; all is life, and joy,
-and wild delight. Troth I have lost mind and heart since the merry
-days when I hunted."
-
-"I am of thy mind, Sir Oliver," said Juxon, "and the falling leaf of
-October, and the chill gloom of November skies, can never cloud the
-heart of a hunter; but when woods are green, and sunbeams warm, and
-birds are singing, methinks the yelp of a hound is unseasonable
-music."
-
-"Well," said Jane, "all I know is, that you seldom missed an
-afternoon last summer; and if it was an early hunting day and a stag
-turned out in the morning, in spite of the green trees and the
-warbling larks, Master Juxon was never last in the field; but I will
-rate you no more: for, may-be, you are afraid of the Puritans, and do
-study _Master Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses_, and will give up the
-wicked ways of Esau, and turn shepherd--gentle shepherd, shall it be,
-or good?"
-
-"Lady," said Juxon, gravely, "there are good men among the Puritans;"
-and seeing her colour a little at his tone, he added, with a smile,
-"and good anglers too; but, in truth, you have hit me hard: for there
-are good men, who are no Puritans, who think that the sport of hunting
-is not seemly in a parson, especially in times like these."
-
-"Puritans or no Puritans," said Sir Oliver, "I hope you don't mind the
-muddy race that croak these black lessons of duty. I do not know
-whether they be fools or knaves; but they would preach us into walking
-tomb-stones, each showing its _memento mori_."
-
-"Beyond all question," replied Juxon, "they are wrong in many things;
-and push their severity against things innocent and pernicious with
-little or no distinction, with a strained application of Scripture
-prohibitions, and with a profound ignorance of human nature; and they
-seem only to discern God in clouds, and to hear him in the thunder.
-But there are men of great and stern virtues among them; and, it may
-be, of gentler hearts and gentler views than we give them credit for."
-
-"I don't believe a word of it. They are fanatics in religion, and
-knavish traitors in their politics: you think of them with more
-charity than I do, and it is a false charity, Master Juxon. There was
-one of my own name and kin among them: he turned republican, forsooth;
-old England, forsooth, had no liberty; our good church was a harlot,
-and all the rest of it; and he would seek true freedom in the forests
-and swamps of New England; and away he went with wife and daughters,
-and a son, whom he had made as great a fool as himself. A youth, sir,
-that bearded me with his treason at my own table. I sent him packing
-at midnight, sir, and would not let him sleep the night under my roof;
-and, in good truth, he was as ready to go as I to bid him; and now he
-and his father are felling trees in America for aught I know, or care,
-indeed."
-
-Katharine Heywood proposed to her aunt and the Lamberts that they
-should go into the Lime Walk, and Juxon would have turned the
-conversation; but Sir Oliver, with the images of his absent cousins
-before him, went on venting his feelings, as if in soliloquy. "The son
-of a clergyman, too, sir, a younger brother of mine, long dead, and he
-himself having been the faithful servant of a king, well accounted of
-for valour and discretion in the camp of the great Gustavus, where he
-commanded a regiment of musketeers. He to turn against kings and good
-order! He that punished a fault against discipline like a sin against
-Heaven, and taught his son that obedience was the first duty of a
-soldier, to come home, with his brave boy to his own country, and
-teach him to flout at the majesty of the crown! Troth, sir, the king
-was quit of bad subjects, and I of troublesome relations, when they
-took ship for the Plantations. I wish all that are as fantastic in
-their notions would follow them." At the close of this burst, the old
-gentleman took a cup of wine with an eagerness that sought relief, and
-a trembling hand, that betrayed how deeply he was agitated by angry
-feelings.
-
-Juxon, very unwilling to hear him further on so painful a subject,
-asked permission of the knight to go and visit Cuthbert Noble for half
-an hour, and promised to join him afterwards in the bowling green for
-their customary rubber. As he passed out of the hall, a serving man
-was coming in with Sir Oliver's pipe and tobacco-box; and leaving the
-strange weed to perform its calming office, Juxon, happy to escape,
-ran up stairs to the chamber of Cuthbert.
-
-The surgeon was seated by his side; and from the conversation, which,
-although they concealed not the subject or the tenour of it at the
-entrance of Juxon, they soon dropped, it was evident to him that they
-had a mutual understanding in matters of religion and politics, and
-were both of them friendly to the cause of the parliament. It had so
-chanced that, during the whole of his confinement, Cuthbert had, in
-the person of the surgeon who attended him, been daily in contact with
-a mind very deeply imbued with serious and severe principles. By this
-man Cuthbert's heart had been probed to the quick; and, under his
-influence, combining with a strong predisposition in itself, was made
-sad and heavy.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. IX.
-
-    Passions are likened best to floods and streames;
-    The shallow murmur, but the deepe are dumb.
-                                             RALEIGH.
-
-
-When, at the proposal of Mistress Katharine, the ladies left the hall,
-they proceeded to the Lime Walk: here they separated, Aunt Alice
-taking Sophia Lambert aside to show her a late addition to her aviary,
-and Katharine leading forward Jane towards the fish-pond, where, upon
-a low bench, placed under the broad arm of a noble cedar, they sat
-down quietly in the shade.
-
-Under all the disadvantages of a most neglected education, and a
-rusticity of manner very near to rudeness, Jane Lambert had some rare
-and valuable qualities, which greatly endeared her to those who took
-the pains to discover them. This Katharine had done. As for the last
-three years she had been thrown much into the society of the
-Lamberts, owing to their residence at Bolton Grange, and the frequent,
-but yet unavoidable, visits of Sir Charles, she had studied all their
-characters thoroughly; and the result of her observation satisfied
-her, that in Jane there was at the bottom a fund of sterling worth,
-high courage, and genuine affection. Her attainments were few and very
-imperfect; but she had a vigorous and a healthy intellect, which
-digested well the best and most generous sentiments of the few books
-which she was careful to read. Not a tenant or cotter upon the estate
-of her brother but had a look of honest love for Mistress Jane; and
-the falconers and foresters were proud of a bright lady who knew their
-craft so well, and had so true an eye for the slot of a deer or for
-the dim-seen quarry. If any poor man had a favour to ask of Sir
-Charles, it was through her, as the ready advocate of all who needed
-help or implored mercy, that the petition was preferred. Her
-admiration and love for Katharine Heywood were unbounded: she looked
-up to her as a model of exalted excellence, and with that affection
-which partakes of reverence; not that this was of a nature to check
-or chill the natural display of fondness in their ordinary
-intercourse; but at times the power of the loftier sentiment over her
-was so great, that her exuberant and unguarded levity would be in a
-moment abashed and driven away by one look from Katharine. Thus it had
-been to-day at table; and now, as they sat, she pressed her hand upon
-the shoulder of Katharine, and leaned her cheek upon it, and said
-feelingly,--
-
-"Dearest cousin Kate, why did you look so very sad and so very grave
-to-day? I was only joking; do not be angry with me, my sweet coz: I
-shall fret if I think you have been really angry." Katherine bent her
-face and kissed the presented cheek.
-
-"Was I ever angry with you, Jane?" she asked. "You know that I never
-was; but it is true that you often make me very anxious for you, and
-sometimes quite sad, by your ill-timed and thoughtless gaiety.
-Consider a little more the consequences of idle words, and their
-effect on strangers."
-
-"Well, my dear, I will: but there is no harm done, for I do not look
-upon Juxon as a stranger; and he is so sensible, and so good-tempered,
-that he will never take any speech by the wrong handle, and so honest
-and straightforward, that he will never look under it for a hidden
-meaning."
-
-"But yet, Jane, even Juxon will think it odd, that while the victim of
-your brother's passionate frenzy still lies on a couch helpless with
-his wound, and while your brother, who has narrowly escaped committing
-the heaviest of crimes, has absented himself for very shame, his
-sister should sport, as if nothing had happened, and be as playful in
-her words as a girl without care."
-
-"Do you think so? I should be sorry for that: but you know that I do
-not love my brother; and Cuthbert is safe from all danger, and out of
-all pain; and you are well, cousin, and not the sadder for this
-accident, if I know your heart as well as I love your happiness; and
-why then should I not appear cheerful, when, in truth, I am so. I
-should be vexed, indeed, if Juxon thought the worse of me; for he is
-one whose good opinion is worth having; but as for that of the world,
-I care not a jot about it."
-
-"There you are wrong, dear Jane: the opinion of the world may, and
-must be, in some things, despised, but the rule of its established
-proprieties and gentle observances can never be transgressed, without
-bringing some heavy penalty on the offender."
-
-"I do not love the world so well, dear Katharine, as to care for
-either its frowns or its favours; and I looked not for an advocate of
-its cold maxims and its deceitful forms in you--let it see me as I
-am."
-
-"There is your error, Jane: it cannot, it will not, it cares not to
-take the trouble to see you as you are; it looks only at your
-_seeming_; and though to be is better than to seem, and many seem fine
-gold that are but base metal, yet no one can despise the judgment of
-the world without rashness and without danger. They who place
-themselves above the opinion of the world, and the best rules of
-society, cast off a useful and an appointed restraint in the
-discipline of life."
-
-"Sweet coz, I love to hear you lecture, but you will never make me
-wise: I was born under a common star, and reared with foresters:--look
-as I like, and speak as I think."
-
-"Ah, dear Jane, you will some day learn to govern your bright looks,
-and to keep your sweetest thoughts locked closely in your heart.
-Wisdom herself, and, perhaps, though God forbid, sorrow will be your
-teacher."
-
-The serene eyes of the majestic Katharine were clouded, for a passing
-moment, with such a sadness as a compassionate angel might have worn;
-and she pressed Jane tenderly to her breast.
-
-"Promise me," she said, "dearest cousin, promise me faithfully that
-you never again hint even to any human being, the idle fancy that hung
-this morning on your lips, or the name you would have connected with
-it."
-
-"The promise has been already made in my own mind: your look was
-enough to make me wish the light word unspoken, and the tongue that
-uttered it blistered for a month to come. You are the only one at
-table who could have understood my allusion. I am certain that the
-most distant thought of my meaning could not enter the mind of your
-father or your aunt."
-
-"This, I believe, and it is well it should not: the bare suspicion,
-harboured in his mind, would make him miserable for life, and embitter
-his last moments with unworthy fears. I know his nature well: much as
-he loves me, and confides in me, to pacify his anger, and quiet his
-jealous apprehensions, would be, even for me, an impossible
-achievement; and yet he knows, or should know, that I am an English
-daughter."
-
-"How is it, Katharine, that you command all hearts? that not a man
-approaches you but he is at once, as by some sweet force, compelled to
-love you? and yet it is no wonder: there cannot be on earth another
-Katharine."
-
-"Cousin, this is idle and wicked talk; you must not use such vain and
-sinful words: would you could see me as I see myself, when, prostrate
-in weakness, I implore and find strength where alone it is to be
-obtained; but you cannot understand me yet."
-
-"Nay, Katharine, do not rebuke me so sharply for simple truths: why
-Charles himself is so tamed and altered for the day whenever he
-returns from Milverton, that I have sometimes been selfish enough to
-wish to see you his, in the hope that I might find a brother changed
-in nature; but no, dear Kate, I love you too well ever seriously to
-dwell on such a desire."
-
-"Jane, do not, prithee, do not pursue this foolish fancy further."
-
-"It is not fancy: can I not see? have I not eyes, and the perceptions
-and sympathies of woman? I tell you, the poor woe-begone scholar, that
-lies lonely on his couch above there, did look upon you as good men
-look up to the blue heavens."
-
-"Cousin, I will not stay another moment with you if your discourse is
-not changed to some better tone than these weak and unwomanly
-delusions of your idle brain do give it."
-
-"As you will, blessed coz, I say no more; but one need not be very
-deeply read in love-craft to prophesy that one of these fine days the
-worthy young rector of Old Beech will tell you that himself which I
-may not tell you for him."
-
-"Jane," said Katharine, as she slowly rose, and they moved back
-towards the Lime Walk, "you are not, my dear girl, serious, I hope, in
-this last surmise: you are not in earnest: it would greatly perplex
-and trouble me if I thought you were, and had good reason: about
-Cuthbert I am sure that you are altogether mistaken."
-
-"No, Katharine; I am a poor unfashioned creature, with little
-knowledge of the world, and little skill in books, or fair
-accomplishments: but this one gift I have,--I can read the human
-countenance, and see written thereon the thoughts of the heart, the
-play of the secret passions, the inclinations of the inner will, in
-characters plain to my faithful eye, and plainly I repeat my
-conviction that both these men do love you. The one will give you no
-trouble: his flame will burn within his melancholy heart, like a lamp
-glimmering in a tomb; but the other will make open avowal of what he
-is proud to feel, and will surely be courageous enough to confess: now
-do not look so pale and grave, but thank me for the timely caution.
-Kiss me, sweet coz; my sister is calling for me, and we must go." The
-tall and queen-like Katharine folded her young cousin to her heart;
-and Jane felt a tear fall heavy on her cheek as they embraced and
-parted.
-
-Katharine had one of those fine and stately forms which the sculptor
-of ancient times would have chosen to copy with his happiest skill, as
-the incarnation of wisdom. Her features were Roman; her dark hazel
-eyes were long and even, and there shone in them a soft, chaste fire;
-her mouth was pensive; but though the expression of her countenance
-was ever serious, yet was it human, gentle, and she would more fitly
-have represented the melancholy vestal, than the calm, passionless
-Minerva. She returned leisurely to her favourite cedar, and seated
-herself in that sad repose of the mind into which even the strongest
-and most virtuous will sometimes allow themselves to sink, as a short
-relief from the internal conflict. It was clear to her that Jane had
-penetrated that one secret, which she would hardly confess to herself,
-and which she could have wished had been altogether confined to her
-own bosom, and that one other, from which she felt resolutely and for
-ever divided. It was strange that the open-hearted girl had never
-mentioned it before; it was well that she had only now hinted it so
-vaguely as to leave it impenetrably veiled to others; it was well,
-too, that she had thus early arrested the danger of all further
-discovery, and obtained from the fond and faithful Jane that promise
-of secrecy, on which she could safely rely. Still it was disturbing to
-her pure and noble spirit, that even this sweet girl should be privy
-to her heart's great trial. However, Jane would understand her future
-silence on the subject, and well knew that those confidences, which
-the weaker order of women are ever ready to pour into the ear of the
-female friend, would never pass her lips. She held them too sacred,
-and she had that dignity of soul which in a sorrow of that peculiar
-nature is all-sufficient to itself. Could Cuthbert from his couch of
-patient suffering, or George Juxon from his solitary rides and walks,
-have looked in upon the heart of Katharine, and seen the image, which
-often rose before her mind's eye, and as often as it did so was felt
-to be a cherished one, the former would have striven against his weak
-idolatry yet more resolutely than he already did, and the manly Juxon
-would have given to the wind his vain hopes, and would have forborne
-to distress her with the language of a suitor.
-
-Katharine did not return to the mansion till long after all the guests
-had departed.
-
-It was the hour of supper; but she pleaded headache, retired to her
-chamber, and seated herself at the window to watch the dying day.
-There was a universal calm in nature; every leaf was still: there was
-a holy hush around; colours of a blessed hue streaked the far western
-sky; they grew faint, they faded, and the grey gloom of a summer's
-night rested upon all things. She was roused from a long reverie of
-sweet though solemn fancies by the entrance of her maid with a lamp,
-and in a few minutes afterwards she was joined by her aunt Alice.
-
-There was never in any nature more of the milk of human kindness than
-in Mistress Alice:--her own disappointments had subdued her vivacity,
-without souring her temper, or freezing her manners. Forgetful of
-herself, she lived for and in the happiness of others, and her niece
-Katharine was to her as a daughter;--not that she exercised any thing
-like a mother's control; Katharine had so ripe an understanding, and
-so mature a judgment, that Mistress Alice leaned upon her mind as
-though it were that of a sister or a bosom friend, to whose opinion
-she was pleased to defer her own.
-
-She loved Sir Oliver with a true affection, but she was not blind to
-the faults of his character. She knew him to be impatient of
-contradiction, full of strong prejudices, easy and indolent--the being
-of habit and of custom--but violent when thwarted, and selfish when
-opposed. Nevertheless a kind brother, a fond father, a liberal master,
-and a most loyal subject. It always deeply grieved her when she heard
-him speak harshly of her nephew Edward Heywood, and his son Francis,
-for they were the offspring of an unfortunate brother, to whom she had
-been very closely attached from her childhood.
-
-"This has been a trying day to me as well as to you, Katharine," she
-said when they were left together. "I think my poor brother allows
-himself to be more troubled about public matters than is good for him;
-and I wish that he would avoid the mention of your unhappy cousins in
-connection with those subjects--however wrong they may be, they have
-cares and troubles enough for pity, rather than hard words and ill
-wishes."
-
-Katharine looked steadily at her aunt when she began to speak, and was
-rather startled at her opening words; but as she proceeded, discerning
-clearly it was only a sympathy in common with her own that she
-invited, replied, quietly, that "it was indeed very painful to see the
-good temper of her dear father giving way so early in times like
-these, which were only the beginning of troubles; but consider,
-dearest aunt, he has passed all his life in pleasure and ease--my
-blessed mother made his peace her study; and, though she could never
-win him to her own happiest views of the only bliss, her whole life
-was a transcript of those gentle and charitable sentiments which were
-the secret springs of all her actions. He reposed upon her character,
-and found a tranquillity, of which he shared the comfort, but which
-lived not within his own breast."
-
-"Well, Katharine, I am sure you follow in your mother's path, and as
-far as daughter may, you supply her vacant place in his esteem and
-reverence. He loves you not as parent loves a child. You are his
-daughter, but you are also, in all seemly matters, his cherished
-adviser:--I have often noted it, my dear, with joy."
-
-"Do not humble me so sadly--my mother's path!--alas! I am far from
-it--far out of the way, when I think of her exalted hopes, her
-self-denying life, and her settled peace; and when I look within, I am
-ashamed, and may well tremble at the comparison:--but yet I cherish
-the memory of her bright example; and the words you have just spoken
-shall rouse me to do all by my father, which if her sainted spirit
-could look down upon us she would herself approve. I know the duty of
-a daughter, and I know how much the happiness and the honour of a
-father may be promoted by her due performance of it. You have well
-shown me the better way. For my father, and to my father, I will
-devote my life, and cast self and all softer wishes behind me. When
-the first rough steps of difficulty are passed, the noble qualities of
-my father will all be seen:--bless you, Aunt Alice, for your sweet
-counsel."
-
-"My dear Katharine, you are not wont to be thus excited: your calmness
-and your even dignity have ever been beyond your age: I meant simply
-what I said, and designed not, by any hint, to stimulate you to any
-course of conduct beyond that which I have always observed you to
-pursue:--you are not well--you think too much of what may
-happen--troubles are fast travellers, and need not be met half
-way--you are not well."
-
-"I believe you are right--I cannot be well--the day has been
-oppressively hot--and my temples throb with pain."
-
-Mistress Alice taking from the dressing table a curious shaped bottle
-of eastern porcelain, which contained elder-flower water, sat down
-tenderly by Katharine, and bathed her temples with gentle care. The
-noble girl leaned back upon her chair, silent, passive, grateful:--no
-sob escaped her; no nervous tears were allowed to fall; but to a
-keener eye than that of her benevolent aunt a slight quiver on the
-lip, and a heaving of the folds above her bosom, quicker than the
-wont, might have told that very deep and painful emotions were
-struggling in her full heart.
-
-Mistress Alice would not leave her till she saw her quietly put to
-bed, when, giving her the kiss of peace and good night as her pale
-cheek lay upon the pillow, she took her lamp, and went softly out of
-the chamber.
-
-Restored to solitude and silence, Katharine sent her sweet thoughts
-and prayerful wishes to that distant land, where, upon the narrow
-clearing of some tall and ancient forest, in their canvass booth or
-rude hut, after a day of new and unaccustomed toils, her self-exiled
-but heroic cousins reposed: the picture of their labours was to her
-mind primitive and sacred--and all the images presented to her fancy
-were peaceful.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. X.
-
-    Can warres, and jarres, and fierce contention,
-    Swoln hatred, and consuming envie, spring
-    From piety?
-                                       HENRY MORE.
-
-
-The good parson of Cheddar was never informed of the severe misfortune
-of his son till all danger was long past, and his convalescence was
-advanced to such a point that he could assure his parents he should
-soon be perfectly restored to health and to his wonted activity and
-strength.
-
-Noble and his wife were both deeply affected at the thought of all
-which Cuthbert must have suffered, and at the considerate care which
-he had manifested for their feelings. His letter was brief, and his
-relation of the conduct of Sir Charles Lambert was given in such a
-calm and quiet tone that it was plain he had learned the hard lesson
-to forgive an enemy. Yet it contained some expressions which troubled
-his father with the too sure presage of that course which Cuthbert was
-about to follow.
-
-He intended, it said, to leave Milverton at Michaelmas, and should
-recommend that Arthur, who was sufficiently forward in his studies,
-should be then entered at the University. "I shall not," it added,
-"accompany the dear boy to Oxford; indeed, with my sentiments, it
-would be alike unjust to Sir Oliver and to the youth himself to retain
-my present office in this family. Where a tutor is called upon to
-conceal his opinions and suppress his feelings (on the most important
-and the most sublime subjects which affect the present interests of
-society and the everlasting happiness of man), in his daily
-intercourse with his pupil, both parties are very seriously injured."
-
-It was particularly remarked by his mother that, in this letter, while
-Cuthbert acknowledged, in general terms of warmth, the kindness with
-which he had been treated throughout his illness by the whole family
-at Milverton, and while he mentioned the friendliness of Juxon, of
-whom they had never previously heard, and dwelt still more on his deep
-obligations to Master Randal, the surgeon, he never even named
-Mistress Katharine, of whom he had spoken with such a romantic warmth
-in his former correspondence.
-
-"My dear," said Noble, "Cuthbert has been on the brink of the grave,
-and his mind is full of all that has been solemn and awakening in that
-awful experience; but it is not a good sign that he has avoided all
-detail of that experience to us. I doubt not that his piety has been
-deepened, but I am not without a fear that his head is taken up with
-new notions, both of doctrine and of duty, and that he was unwilling
-to open them out to us. However, if by any path he has advanced to a
-nearer and more affecting view of his Redeemer than that to which he
-has hitherto attained, let us rejoice and thank God. He has all along
-been deficient in that simplicity of view which begets humility,
-peace, and joy:--he refines too much on every subject which is
-presented to his mind; muses when he should act; speculates when he
-should pray; and is lost in the cold and unsubstantial clouds which
-veil the mountain, when he might stand upon the serene summit in the
-warm light of the Sun of righteousness.
-
-"It was ever thus with him. In childhood we neglected to subdue his
-will, and we shall suffer, and he himself will suffer for our fond but
-mistaken indulgence."
-
-"I am sure, dear, that he was always affectionate and dutiful, and
-always will be."
-
-"Nay, Constance, that does not follow. He will always love us, I am
-well persuaded; but whether he will remain obedient to our wishes in
-those trying scenes which may sooner or later be presented to our eyes
-is very doubtful."
-
-"Well, Noble, it will be time enough to think of that when the trial
-comes:--happen what may, I feel certain that all will be safe and
-happy where you are. God ever takes good care of his own; and I always
-feel that there is a blessing and a guard round about our dwelling,
-for your dear sake."
-
-"Wife, how can you talk so weakly. What is there in two worms of the
-earth, like you and me, that should procure for us an exemption from
-calamity?--but this is unprofitable talking--sufficient unto the day
-is the evil thereof--to enjoy is to obey--and the voice of
-thanksgiving is melody. Let us bless God for past mercies, and bless
-him by trust for all future goodness."
-
-Their conversation was here interrupted by the entrance of Peter, to
-say that Master Daws, the sour precisian, who, it may be remembered,
-would have before prevented the customary sports and pleasures on the
-festival of the Mayday, was at the gate, and wanted to see Parson
-Noble, for a few minutes, on very urgent business.
-
-To rise and go out and ask him into his study with all courtesy was,
-of course, the duty of Noble, both as a brother minister and a
-Christian gentleman; but it was with no doubt as to the nature and
-object of his visit that he did so, and with a desire to bring their
-interview to as early a close as might consist with common civility.
-
-The contrast of the two parsons as they entered the study, and as
-Master Daws seated himself in the tall chair which Noble drew forward
-for him with a quick and rather, indeed, an impatient motion, was
-comic in the extreme, and would have greatly diverted any of Noble's
-old college cronies, as it would, of a truth, the good vicar himself,
-could he have looked on, and been spared the vexation of playing as a
-principal in the dull performance.
-
-Master Daws was a tall, gaunt, bony personage, of a stature exceeding
-six feet by nearly two inches: he presented a rigid outline of sharp
-angles from his cheek bones to his pointed and protuberant ankles. His
-features were coarse; his complexion muddy; his eyes round and dull;
-his forehead low; and there was an expression of bad temper about the
-corners of his mouth. His black hair was cut close, and he had thin
-weak eye-brows.
-
-He seated himself with a slow solemnity of manner; placed his tall
-greasy cane erect between his knees, and folded his clumsy hands upon
-the top of it; turned up the whites of his eyes in a pretended
-ejaculation; and in a drawling tone delivered himself of his
-hypocritical errand as follows:--
-
-"My dear brother in the Lord--thou art esteemed a master in
-Israel--thou hast a name to live. I would fain hope that thou art not
-a willing partaker of the sins of thy people; but verily they stink in
-the nostrils of all true Christians, who are thy neighbours. We have
-conferred together--we are sore grieved--we are ashamed for thy
-sake--and I am come to reason with thee alone concerning the
-abominations which are daily committed in thy parish, lest thou perish
-and thy people with thee."
-
-The good parson listened to this strange address without anger,
-without wonder, and without reply. The graceful ease of his composed
-attitude of attention,--the clear light of his kind intelligent
-eyes,--his high pale intellectual forehead,--his frame slender, and a
-little bent with the weight of advancing years, and the thin white
-hairs scattered on his temples,--would have made the sincere but
-deluded fanatic hesitate to proceed, or would have melted his
-remonstrance into all that was gentle and affectionate in expression.
-On the conscious, the interested, and the incensed hypocrite, however,
-his calmness had the opposite effect; and Master Daws, with a most
-stern tyranny of tongue, in language clumsily misquoted from the
-sacred books of the prophets, and grossly misapplied, went forward to
-denounce the wrath of Heaven against the poor rustics of Cheddar and
-their aged pastor. This speech we would rather leave to the
-imagination of such readers as may be familiar with the incongruous
-and disgusting jargon in which the sour zealots and the gloomy
-sectarians, who were then daily extending their severe notions,
-uttered their iron anathemas against the innocent gaieties of life. At
-the close of his very offensive harangue, he drew forth from his
-pocket a small volume in black letter, and presented it to the good
-vicar with these words:--
-
-"Brother, I have been perhaps too warm; but the fire burned within me,
-and it is accounted the first duty of a servant to be faithful. It is
-my zeal for the Lord;--and herewith, in love and compassion to thy
-poor blinded people, and in pity to thy soul, I do present to thee for
-thy private reading, and for the instruction of thy benighted mind,
-this book, which is _The Anatomie of Abuses: containing a Discoverie
-or briefe Summarie of such notable Vices and Corruptions as now raigne
-in many Christian Countreyes of the Worlde: but especially in the
-Countrey of Ailgna: together with most fearfull Examples of God's
-Judgements executed upon the Wicked for the same, as well in Ailgna of
-late, as in other Places elsewhere. Very godly, to be read of all true
-Christians every where; but most chiefly to be regarded in England.
-Made Dialogue-wise by Phillip Stubbes._ This wordy title-page, placing
-his spectacles upon his nose, he read slowly with a nasal whine, which
-the compression of the ill constructed spectacles he wore not a little
-assisted."
-
-"Neighbour Daws," said Noble patiently, "I do not need thy service in
-this matter, seeing I have on my own shelves the book of Master
-Phillip Stubbes; and I deny not that it contains some godly maxims and
-sound precepts, and it may have done some good by its ridicule of
-many vanities, and its condemnation of many sins and abuses: but I
-think he distinguishes not between things innocent and hurtful, and
-tears up many pleasant flowers of God's giving, under the dark fancy
-that they are poisonous weeds;--for the rest that thou hast spoken
-thyself concerning the little flock and fold over which the providence
-of God hath made me the humble and willing shepherd, I will not call
-thee unmannerly and uncharitable. I have heard thee with pain, though
-with patience; and, while I give thee full credit for sincerity in thy
-opinions, desire not to hear them further, now or ever again."
-
-As thus he spoke, he rose, and indicated by that action his wish that
-the interview should not be prolonged. Daws also, with a horrible
-smile upon his hideous face, in which was to be discerned all the mad
-irritation of a mean person, who felt himself despised, and for the
-moment baffled in producing alarm, raised himself slowly from his
-seat, and answered,--"Satan, the prince of hell, is lord over thy
-village and thy people--and he has blinded thy aged eyes, and sealed
-thy dumb mouth:--verily the Lord shall visit for these things, and
-that speedily;"--so saying, he stalked out with uplifted eyes, and as
-he passed the threshold stamped the dust from his feet with a
-vindictive action, and departed. "I wish that Cuthbert could have
-witnessed this scene," said Noble, as he saw the ruthless and envious
-bigot pass forth out of the wicket, and stride angrily across the
-church-yard; "but the wish is vain."
-
-Upon inquiring of Peter, he learned that, on the preceding evening,
-this morose personage had found a dozen children playing round a small
-bonfire, in a glen about half a mile from the village, and
-celebrating, as a game of play, the festival of St. John's eve,--the
-observance of which had in the present reign been discontinued. The
-joyous urchins, alike innocent of pagan or popish idolatry, were
-dancing about the flames, and tossing flowers into the rivulet, which
-flowed past the spot where they had kindled them, when Daws, who had
-his secret designs in many a walk which he took to the neighbourhood
-of Cheddar, came suddenly upon them, and driving them off with
-execrations and blows, kicked the half burned sticks into the
-water:--the little fearless sinners, however, making a swift and
-active retreat up a rock, where they felt secure from pursuit,
-revenged themselves by shouts and laughter; and in this the little
-fellow who had witnessed the ludicrous fall and flight of this same
-Daws on May morning, and who had been again recognised by him this
-evening, led the merry chorus of impudent little rebels with
-conspicuous glee.
-
-Although Noble listened to this news with a smile, the severe and
-mischievous spirit evinced during his interview with Daws, both in
-language, tone, and manner, gave him more uneasiness than he chose to
-impart to his wife, to whom he related much of what had passed between
-them in a light and jocular vein. But, alone, he could not but be
-impressed with the conviction, that a curate of this harsh and
-malevolent character was a very uncomfortable and unsafe neighbour,
-and might hereafter prove dangerous.
-
-However, he had now plainly paid his last visit in the quality of
-brother clergyman; and, if he was ever to come in that of enemy and
-accuser, he could only do so under the restraining guidance of that
-mighty, merciful, and mysterious Providence, which ordereth all things
-wisely and well.
-
-The good pastor was ill qualified to counteract the intrigues, or to
-contend with the violence, of parties. He was a quietist, an optimist,
-a dweller at home, enjoying to-day, and taking little anxious thought
-for the morrow. His hours were divided between his parish, his study,
-and his garden.
-
-Old Blount, the most honest and hospitable of English franklins, was
-the only neighbour with whom he could associate upon a footing of
-mutual intercourse: but there was not a threshold in the village which
-he did not often cross with some friendly inquiry or cheerful words
-upon his lip; not a child, that would not rather run to than from him;
-and the cottage curs were too familiar with his step and voice to do
-more than raise and turn their heads as they lay watching at the
-doors, when Noble passed by.
-
-His chief recreation was the weekly visit to Wells. As regularly as
-the appointed day came round, the worthy parson mounted his old white
-mare, with her well stuffed saddle, rejoicing, in a seat covered with
-cloth of a pale sky blue, much faded, and he was carried at a
-meditative jogtrot to the fair and ancient city.
-
-Here, at the house of his friend, he would refresh his spirits by
-listening to (and sometimes joining in the rich performance of) the
-best madrigals of the never surpassed composers of that day, and
-taking his part in most pleasant and tuneful exercises on the viol and
-the lute.
-
-The troublous aspect of the times had of late somewhat altered the
-character of these meetings; and the two holyday hours were now for
-the most part, if not entirely, consumed in grave and anxious
-consultations on public affairs. The severe spirit of the church
-reformers of that period frowned upon every semblance of pleasure: to
-them the song of harvest, the dance of the village green, and the
-merry catch round the winter hearth, were things sinful and forbidden,
-and the peal of the solemn organ in the house of prayer and praise
-was hated as an abomination.
-
-Yet they might have read in Scripture, in the very words of holy men
-of God, that "the ear of the Lord listeneth to the song of the reaper,
-and the joy of harvest; and that he delights not to turn the dance of
-the vintage into mourning, nor to make the young cease from their
-music:" but because the good provisions of God are daily abused by the
-many, who consider not the gracious Giver of them, therefore they
-would have the bread of all steeped in tears, and eaten with the
-bitter herbs of mourning. Of a truth, in some degree every Christian
-man, and minister more especially, must be a mourner, and is: but the
-spirit would fail and faint if it might not also taste the rich
-consolations of a hallowed joy; and if, amid the labours, the toils,
-and the mean cares of the daily pilgrimage, man might not stoop to
-gather the flower at his feet, or pause to listen to the feathered
-choristers of God's own temple, it would be to refuse and put away,
-with a sullen unthankfulness, the comforts which the Father of mercies
-has provided.
-
-Of such enjoyments Noble was most fearlessly fond. To him the world of
-nature was a vast and richly illuminated volume; on the various
-pictures of which he could pore for ever, with all the wonder, and
-with all the rapture, of childhood:--"his Father made them all"--that
-was his feeling. The arrows of trouble and disappointment fell blunted
-from a bosom, the shield of which was a God seen, acknowledged, and
-felt, in all things visible, as the very essence of love.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XI.
-
-    He makes the infirmity of his temper pass for revelations.
-                                                       BUTLER.
-
-
-The summer months at Milverton rolled swiftly on, Cuthbert slowly, but
-perfectly, regained his strength; and, early in August, he was once
-more able to walk abroad and to take exercise on horseback; but his
-vivacity and animation did not return with his health: he was no
-longer the cheerful and entertaining companion at table, or in the
-intervals of leisure. Sir Oliver found him a dull restraint, and
-wearied of his presence: even his pupil, who was truly attached to
-him, and was still, in the hours of study, delighted with his
-preceptor, felt the sad and depressing change; and if it had not been
-for the frequent visits of George Juxon, would have been disappointed
-of many of those joyous and manly exercises which Juxon delighted to
-encourage, and in which he excelled. The only diversions by which
-Cuthbert could now be attracted were fencing, and the use of the broad
-sword: but he practised them without a smile; and there was an
-earnestness of attention and a seriousness of effort about him,
-whenever he took a lesson from Juxon, which drove away smiles and
-jokes. His stamp was angry; the glance of his eye rapid and piercing;
-and after six weeks of occasional practice, when Juxon told him he
-would soon be a strong and complete swordsman, the grave scholar, so
-quiet and gentle in all his ways and words on common occasions,
-hastily and vehemently exclaimed, "Thank God."
-
-"For what?" asked his good-tempered instructor, "for what do you thank
-God so warmly?"
-
-"It matters not, it matters not," replied Cuthbert, hastily; "time
-will show."
-
-Juxon put down his sword, and, looking him earnestly in the face,
-asked him if he was well?
-
-"What a strange question! quite well."
-
-"No, Master Cuthbert, it is not always that a man is well who calls
-himself so, or even who thinks himself to be so. We are alone; we are
-friends; tell me what has thus moved you; tell me what it is that has
-so changed and saddened you; what are the dark purposes which lie hid
-in your bosom?"
-
-"Methinks this question is yet more strange. I have no purposes that
-be not honest; none that will not bear the light of open day; but,
-yet, I may not care to trouble others or myself by babbling of them."
-
-"Does the blow still rankle in your bosom, Cuthbert? Have you
-retracted the pardon uttered on your bed? And do you mean to seek out
-Sir Charles, and make him do battle for your revenge?"
-
-"Master Juxon, that is not well asked: such purpose would be dark,
-indeed: was not my pardon spoken before God, and at the grave's mouth?
-No; I forgave him as I hope to be forgiven; nay, in that it was a stab
-which sought my life I forgave it more readily than I could have done
-a blow; that, indeed, such slaves we are of pride, that might have
-rankled still."
-
-"True--I had forgotten--and my words have wronged you; but, Cuthbert,
-whatever are your purposes, they do not make you happy. I met you the
-other day riding much faster than is your wont, and your countenance
-was clouded, and your teeth were set, as if in hottest anger, and you
-would not stop, but only muttered a good morrow as you passed swiftly
-by. What do all these things mean?"
-
-"They mean that I am sick at heart for England; sick for the meek
-man's wrongs. I had just then met an aged countryman, his furrowed
-cheek newly branded, for a churchyard brawl: I questioned him closely,
-and found him a sufferer for conscience' sake, falsely accused and
-persecuted by a godless parson of his parish."
-
-"Cuthbert, did the countryman tell truth? Did he name the parish and
-the parson?"
-
-"He did; I know them well: in Oxfordshire was this outrage done, and
-the crime is not three months old."
-
-"Well, here is a case of wrong to be made known and to be redressed.
-Scandals there must be, even in the most sacred offices, when they are
-held by mere men. Some are cruel, and some are wanton by nature, and
-to punish these we have our judges and our bishops."
-
-"Yes we have--and the same who ruled the decisions of the
-Star-chamber. The wrong redressed! it would be smiled at; and if it
-were punished, what then? There's nothing but the grave-worm can take
-away the brand from the old man's cheek: his grandchildren will put
-their little fingers on the mark and ask the story of it, and he will
-tell them what he told me, and more. It is a hard world, Juxon."
-
-"And always was, and always will be. Legislation is a coarse thing:
-some innocent will always suffer with the guilty."
-
-"The guilty! is liberty of conscience guilt? Look you, Master Juxon,
-there are good men and true ready to stand up for that liberty."
-
-"And for a little more, perhaps: your secret is out; so, instead of
-our sword-play being mere exercise for pastime, after college fashion,
-I have been teaching the noble science of defence to a stout
-Parliamentarian, to an enemy of mother church."
-
-"Nay; no enemy to any persons or any institutions, but to the
-oppressor every where, and to oppression every where, by whatever
-titles or names they may be disguised."
-
-"You confess, then, that you wish an appeal to the sword."
-
-"I say not so; but if it come, as it may, and as in my present
-judgment it surely will, I shall be well pleased that my fingers have
-been taught to fight; for I would not be wanting in the day of
-battle."
-
-"I have heard you, Cuthbert, speak words of Christ's religion since
-your late illness, which I have thought of so sweet and heavenly a
-temper, as might well engage all men to follow the truth in love.
-Surely the weapons of a Christian's warfare are not carnal."
-
-"I tell you, the fat heart of the oppressor is proof against all
-other, and they that govern with the headsman's axe must look to be
-wounded by the patriot's sword."
-
-"Stop, Cuthbert, we'll say no more on this subject--you are standing
-upon a precipice--the gulf beneath is treason."
-
-"Not against Heaven, Juxon; and it is a poor thing to me to be judged
-by my fellow man."
-
-"Yes, Cuthbert, against Heaven. Your father will say so."
-
-"Never; though it is true that my father is old and timid, and he
-would bear the errors of the crown in charity and in hope, rather than
-see them openly opposed by arms."
-
-"And you would punish them in the field of battle?"
-
-"And gain a victory over the crown for the greater honour and more
-golden purity of the crown itself!"
-
-"Are you so weak, Cuthbert, as to think that a crown, beaten from a
-king's head by the sword, and lying soiled by the dust of a fall, can
-ever be replaced on the same brows with honour?--No! but among the
-successful rebels, some stern spirit would be found to wipe it and put
-it on; whose sceptre would have no peaceful globe surmounted by a
-dove; but would rather be a naked sword crimsoned to the hilt with
-blood."
-
-"Never, never:--you, like many good and generous persons, are the
-creature of prejudice and of circumstance; you do not see, and you
-will not believe, that the temple of true freedom needs only to be
-opened, and all the virtuous and the holy will flock there to worship
-in peace, and they will guard it alike from the rude tyrant and from
-the slavish rabble."
-
-"Cuthbert, you dream, and will awake some day in bitterness of soul.
-But if these be your sentiments--if thoughts like these fill your mind
-and colour your gloomy fancies--no wonder that your looks are sad."
-
-"My fancies are not gloomy. They are solemn. I am not sad, but I am
-serious. In visions of the night, I have seen this earth
-regenerate--its people walking in peace--holiness on the bells of the
-horses. I have heard the voice of thanksgiving and the song of praise.
-I have listened for sighs, and looked for tears, but there were none.
-I have asked about their happiness, and they have told me, 'In this
-region there is no one to hurt or to destroy:--we do not teach every
-man his neighbour, for from the least to the greatest we all know
-God.' Such have been my revelations; and I have been called, and
-chosen by name, to join that sacred band, which is to awaken a
-slumbering and captive people, and lead them forward to prepare the
-way for that monarchy of truth and universal love which is even now
-about to descend and bless mankind. The spear shall be broken, the
-sword turned into a ploughshare, and the sovereign Lord of all shall
-stand a second time upon the earth, and proclaim his promised reign of
-holiness and peace."
-
-Juxon listened to this rhapsody with awe and pain; and not without an
-effort to shake the strong delusion, which was evidently taking a fast
-hold upon the mind of Cuthbert.
-
-"My dear friend," he said, laying his hand gently upon his arm, "I
-confess that you greatly alarm me. Consider that, for the first two
-months after your wound, you were very weak in body; you were often
-obliged to have recourse to opiates to procure rest; and you was not
-in a state to examine the impressions made on your mind, and to
-separate illusion from reality. There is nothing wonderful in these
-phantasma having floated past your mind's eye: it is with sounds as
-with sights; the music of a dream is often clear and ravishing to the
-mind's ear; and our name may be thus, to our sleeping fancy, very
-distinctly called and connected with some message or charge of solemn
-import spoken as by a voice from Heaven. Or, it may be, Cuthbert, that
-the enemy of your soul, knowing that you can only be led aside from
-the path of duty and peace by the fair semblance of true religion and
-freedom, hath assumed these angel shapes to lure you to your ruin.
-
-"I can understand the plain and manly language of a Hampden, but this
-I cannot. It is unhealthy; it is the false fire of the fanatic. Rouse
-your intellect, and turn away from these notions, or you will be
-entangled and overcome: strangle the serpent while you have strength
-to do so."
-
-Cuthbert replied only by the grave smile of one so firmly persuaded
-of the truth of his own convictions as rather to pity than resent the
-very unwelcome effort to disturb them. However, he now communicated to
-Juxon that, in another month (it being then the end of September), he
-should accompany his pupil to enter at Oxford, and should there leave
-him, and proceed himself to join a friend in London. This arrangement,
-he observed, would enable him to reach the capital about the time when
-the new parliament was to assemble; for it had been just resolved by
-the King, in his great council of peers held at York, that a
-parliament should be called to sit on the third of November following.
-
-George Juxon was truly concerned to find that Cuthbert was so far gone
-in his views, that to reclaim him seemed hopeless; but there were so
-many amiable and engaging points in his character, that he could not
-allow any one chance of recovering him from a course which he truly
-thought would distress his father and destroy his own peace of mind,
-altogether neglected.
-
-He was aware that Cuthbert maintained a scrupulous silence on the
-subjects on which he had just spoken in his intercourse with the
-family; but he had often observed that, whatever was the matter of
-discourse at table, or elsewhere, the opinion of Mistress Katharine
-had great weight with him. He determined, therefore, to make a full
-disclosure to her of the state of Cuthbert's mind, and to engage her
-good offices to dissipate, if possible, the cloud of illusions which
-obscured or dazzled his present judgment. He was, however, obliged to
-defer this step by the sudden arrival of Sophia and Jane Lambert; the
-latter of whom instantly joined Sir Oliver and the ladies in the
-gallery, to communicate the arrival of their brother at the Grange,
-and his intention of again presenting himself at Milverton that
-evening, to express his sorrow to Sir Oliver for what had passed in
-the spring, and to acknowledge duly the frank and Christian
-forgiveness of Cuthbert Noble.
-
-Juxon learned from Sophia Lambert that Sir Charles having met with Sir
-Philip Arundel at some place of public amusement, had demanded
-satisfaction of him for the insulting words which Sir Philip had
-addressed to him on the evening when they last parted at Milverton;
-that they had retired to an adjoining tavern with their friends; and
-Sir Philip having been wounded, the quarrel was amicably adjusted, and
-the parties shook hands.
-
-By this duel, Sir Charles at once succeeded in stopping the mouth of
-one who would have reported the occurrence at Milverton more to his
-disadvantage and shame than it was yet considered among his London
-acquaintance, and knew that he should in some degree recover his lost
-ground with Sir Oliver and his neighbours in Warwickshire. For the
-credit of their family the sisters were naturally desirous of this;
-and, therefore, they had preceded their brother with cheerfulness, and
-with an earnest anxiety to secure him a good reception. Jane, indeed,
-well knew the feelings of Katharine Heywood, and loved her happiness
-far before that of Sir Charles; but still he was a brother, and the
-head of their house; and though she secretly determined to divert his
-attentions and his hopes from Katharine, she wished that the two
-families should resume their old footing of neighbourhood and
-frequent intercourse.
-
-The various projects devised by the kind heart of Jane Lambert were
-always most readily aided by an acute and contriving mind.
-
-She had already rendered Katharine a most important service in the
-matter of George Juxon's suit, which she had put an end to before any
-declaration of it distressing to the fair and noble object of it had
-been made.
-
-The modesty, the good sense, and the manliness of Juxon, enabled him,
-with very little assistance from the delicate though playful
-management of Jane Lambert, to discern the painful truth. He plainly
-saw that Katharine Heywood was not at all disposed to favour, or even
-entertain, his pretensions as a lover; and he made a worthy and
-successful effort to stifle in his breast the sentiment, which she had
-inspired, that he might still enjoy the privilege of visiting at
-Milverton as an intimate, and might attain to the happy and soothing
-distinction of being her true and faithful friend:--this consolation
-was already granted to his manly heart. Katharine saw and valued his
-sterling qualities; and to no one in the whole circle of her
-acquaintance were her manners more open, cordial, and confiding than
-to George Juxon.
-
-It was a curious thing, that evening, to see with what a shy,
-embarrassed air the noble Cuthbert, noble even in his errors, received
-the silken, though forced and momentary, submission of the man, whose
-savage anger had well nigh deprived him of life. No looker on,
-ignorant of their peculiar relation to each other, at the first
-interview, could have remotely guessed it from the manner or bearing
-of either.
-
-The cheek of Sir Charles was indeed coloured by a deep, though
-transient, stain of crimson, as he made his obeisance to Mistress
-Katharine, and took her slowly extended hand,--but with Sir Oliver he
-was quite at his ease immediately; not so, however, with Juxon, whose
-presence a little disconcerted him throughout the evening.
-
-As the weather was, for the season, very open and mild, and as there
-was a fine moon, it was soon arranged by Sir Oliver, that the party
-from the Grange should sup at Milverton, and ride home by moonlight.
-To Sir Oliver the reconciliation was most satisfactory; and as he saw
-Cuthbert sitting at the table, as strong and healthy as before the
-misfortune, and as he considered the name of Sir Charles completely
-white-washed in society, by his duel with Sir Philip Arundel, he
-dismissed all further thought about the ferocious crime which he
-committed. It was now passed without the sad consequences which might
-have followed--it was forgiven--it was already dwindling into very
-insignificant proportions--and was soon to be altogether forgotten.
-
-After the pleasant customs of that time, when supper was ended, the
-music books were introduced--the viol and lute were brought;--and an
-hour, or more, was delightfully spent to the health and refreshment of
-mind and body, in that familiar concert, where each person was
-expected to sing the appointed part at first sight. Among the
-permitted pleasures of our existence, those derived from the gift of
-sweet sounds, and from the divine art of musical composition, may be
-classed among the purest and most refined.
-
-They sung a few of the best madrigals of Orlando Gibbons, and Bird's
-rich harmony--"My Mind to me a Kingdom is;"--and they closed with a
-flowing glee for five voices, from Gibbons, entitled "The Silver
-Swan." The summer parlour in which they sung had been found so warm
-that the casements were half open, and the moonlight streamed in,
-scarcely overpowered by the lamp, which stood upon the table, and but
-dimly illuminated the oaken wainscot and ceiling. Except a whispered
-word, to the one sitting next, on the richness of Bird's harmonies, or
-on the delicate and sweet style of Orlando Gibbons, a long and silent
-pause followed the evening's performance, and they seemed to be
-enjoying again in memory what they had just made vocal. Suddenly there
-stole upon them from among the trees, at a short distance, a simple
-and soft melody of a most tender expression. It was the music of a
-pipe or reed, but such as none of the party had ever heard before. The
-tones were various,--now full and clear; now faint and exquisite; now
-died away into a charmed stillness; now, again, they were heard slow,
-chaste, and solemn, as if the burden of the air were some sacred hymn.
-At last, after ravishing the ears of the astonished party, who stood
-at the window, or leaned upon their chairs with mute attention, by
-breathing forth airs of strange harmony, which none could distinctly
-recognise, the invisible minstrel closed the magical prelude, in
-heavenly and melancholy notes of surpassing sweetness, with the
-favourite air of "Now, O now," by the famous Dowland, the well known
-friend of the immortal William Shakspeare. Not one of the party
-observed the sudden paleness and deep agitation of Katharine, while
-the sweet notes of this beautiful air were sounding in their ravished
-ears. All were silent, and most of them absorbed in still attention;
-and Katharine sat back in the shadow of the apartment, so that her
-countenance was hid.
-
-"Methinks it is a spirit," said Jane Lambert, with a smile.
-
-"Nay, if it be," observed Mistress Alice, "it is a good one, and has
-been gently bred.--I am sure I felt quite sorry when the last air
-ceased; and as for poor Master Cuthbert, I never saw any man so
-affected by music before.--Do you not observe it, Katharine?"
-
-"I cannot wonder, because I know that Dowland is a great favourite
-with him; and that air, played as it was, might affect a person less
-easily moved than Master Cuthbert."
-
-"Well, Kate," said Sir Oliver, "after all, it is but some piping
-stroller, perhaps, that is trudging it to Coventry fair; but, what
-with moonshine and fancy, you are making an Orpheus of the
-vagabond,--and I dare to say he would be well pleased to pipe a good
-fat hen out of the fowl house."
-
-"Really, Sir Oliver," said Jane Lambert, "you old gentlemen are very
-provoking:--you have a way of knocking down all castles in the air
-with a crab-stick; and if we do now and then get lifted off plain
-ground, you bring us down again with a vengeance. Now, even I, who am
-not very romantic, was painting to myself some disconsolate bard of
-noble presence, wandering about in sad banishment from the lady of
-his love, and solacing his despair with the melody of this pipe, given
-him, I am sure, by a magician."
-
-"Whoever he is," said Juxon, who with young Arthur had leaped from the
-window and ran to the wood, coming to the open casement a few minutes
-after, "he has certainly got the ring of Gyges; for there is not man
-or animal in that open beechery; and if any one had run forth we must
-have seen them in the close behind."
-
-"It may be, Juxon, he is perched in a tree, like your true
-nightingale," said Sir Oliver.
-
-"Nay, we looked up into the branches carefully, but could discern
-nothing: the birds at roost, though, had raised their heads from
-beneath their wings, to listen to the strange chorister. In faith, he
-is no common shepherd in clouted shoon, but a rare minstrel, such as
-poets feign Apollo. Hush! listen again."
-
-Again, after a playful prelude, the invisible musician performed the
-sweet air to which the song of Ariel in the Tempest was always sung.
-
-"Marry, Master Juxon," said Jane, "the precious songster mocks your
-pains, and gives you fair challenge to renew your hunt; but I think
-you might gather the night dew till cock-crow before you would find
-him."
-
-Every one seemed spell-bound till the air was done, and Jane Lambert
-spoke; but Juxon and Arthur now ran again to the beechery, and in a
-few minutes returned without better success than before.
-
-"Well," said Jane Lambert, "we shall soon find out who it is that this
-dainty spirit is come to honour; for if it be Sophy or me, we shall
-have him flying with us on a bat's back all the way to the Grange; and
-if it be you, dear Kate, you will have more music than sleep
-to-night."
-
-Katharine was spared all reply by Sir Oliver gravely saying, "that he
-remembered when he was a boy that beechery was said to be haunted, and
-that whenever the white lady appeared it boded evil to the family at
-Milverton." This old Philip had already mentioned to the servants, who
-stood grouped at the gate of the court-yard on the right, but none of
-whom had dared to venture down to the spot whence the music came,
-though they had seen all which passed.
-
-Master Cuthbert ventured to observe, that the music was not like the
-wailing of a ghost, which came as a forerunner of grief; nor was it of
-such solemnity, that a spirit from heaven could take delight in it:
-and he doubted not that the minstrel was plain flesh and blood; that
-he had, probably, been arrested by the sounds of their little concert,
-had amused himself by responding to them with his own pleasant
-instrument, and had practised cleverly upon their curiosity by the
-nimbleness with which he had evaded their search. But Sir Oliver shook
-his head at this natural explanation of the mystery; and the Lamberts
-and Juxon, after putting their lips to a stirrup cup of spiced wine,
-took leave of their host, and the trampling of their horses soon died
-away in the distance.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XII.
-
-    Why, alas! and are you he?
-    Be not yet those fancies changed?
-                              SIDNEY.
-
-
-To Katharine there had been no mystery: she could not doubt that the
-invisible minstrel was her cousin Francis, and that he was again too
-near for her peace or his own.
-
-Yet such is the sweet treachery of a loving heart, that she could not
-be sad to know, that one so dearly, though so hopelessly, attached to
-her, was perhaps within sight of the very window of her apartment, and
-standing upon some spot where they had formerly walked together in
-joy. Though resolved not to grant him more than one interview, and to
-dissuade him from seeking any future opportunities of intercourse, she
-could not but admit a natural feeling of delight, that she should
-once more, though but for a few brief moments, look upon him, and
-listen to his well remembered voice. In the solitude of her chamber
-she found that relief and freedom of thought which her spirit needed:
-her wakeful night was passed in reviewing former, and in shaping out
-future scenes; but of this last exercise of the mind she soon grew
-weary, for doubt hung over all her future prospects. It was about two
-hours after midnight, and the house was quite still, when Katharine,
-in a frame of mind that ill agreed with sleep and peace, arose, and
-wrapped in her night robe leaned from the casement of her chamber, and
-gazed out upon the fields and woods, and caught the sheen of the river
-as it glided beneath the holy moon. The scene was calm, the air
-serene, and her anxious spirit was soothed by contemplation. She
-remained long at the window; and as she was retiring turned her eyes
-to the left, where, beyond the Lime Walk, she could see the black
-shade of her favourite cedar near the fish-pond. In the moonlight near
-it she discerned the figure of a man walking slowly upon the grass.
-Her heart beat quick in her bosom; she leaned her brow against the
-wall: that surely was Francis. A projection of the building threw such
-a shadow over her window, that her figure could not be seen, and
-therefore she again looked forth and cast her eyes towards the cedar.
-The figure near paced slowly backwards and forwards, occasionally
-pausing for a minute or more, as if gazing at the house. Certainly it
-was Francis. Forbidden all access to the mansion by the angry
-prejudices of Sir Oliver, he had recourse to music to tell her of his
-return. They had often watched the moonbeams together from the terrace
-below; they had often been sheltered together beneath the broad arms
-of that very cedar in the heats of noon, till, suddenly, as by
-surprise, they loved and after shunned each other, from the sad
-knowledge that the barriers to their union were many, were cold, and
-were impassable. As all these after-thoughts crossed her noble mind,
-she suffered herself to look upon her cousin where he kept his lonely
-vigil, with that deep interest which must ever be inseparable from
-that being in whose heart we know that our image is enshrined and
-cherished.
-
-When the morning star shone brightly out the figure of Francis
-suddenly disappeared. Katharine now withdrew from the casement; and,
-exhausted by the various emotions, which had filled and troubled her
-anxious bosom with apprehension and with delight, she threw herself on
-her bed without taking off her robe, and slept so very long and
-profoundly, that when she awoke she found Mistress Alice seated by her
-side, with a look of affectionate alarm upon her kind face, and her
-maid frightened and in tears. It was already high noon. Katharine,
-however, knew nothing of the lapse of time; and imagining she might be
-an hour later than usual, was raising herself up with some expression
-about her strange fit of sleepiness, when her aunt put her hand gently
-upon her, and bade her lie down again. "When Master Randal has seen
-you, my dear," she said, "you shall be undressed, and have your bed
-made, and be put to rest properly and with comfort. He is below, and
-has been here this half hour, but he wished that your slumber should
-not be broken."
-
-But the effort to rise had already shown Katharine the unwelcome
-truth--she was in a high fever:--her head ached, her lips were
-parched, her mouth was dry, her skin was burning.
-
-The good doctor was instantly summoned; and having examined her case
-with very careful attention, directed that she should be confined to
-her bed, and that her chamber should be kept dark and still.
-
-"It was a violent fever," he said, "which would probably, in another
-stage, take an intermittent form;" but evidently, from the doctor's
-manner, it was a case of danger, demanding great watchfulness and
-skilful treatment.
-
-Promising Mistress Alice that his visits should be as frequent as
-possible, he returned to Warwick at speed, accompanied by a servant,
-who was to bring back the medicines prescribed.
-
-The trouble of Sir Oliver almost amounted to terror. His mind was by
-no means superior to those fears which vulgar errors impose; and as,
-in addition to the strange music of the evening before, he had that
-very morning seen a hare cross the high road just before his horse's
-feet, he augured no less a calamity than a fatal end to the sudden
-illness of his beloved daughter.
-
-Cuthbert Noble, however, rose to the occasion; and though it is
-certain that no individual in the family felt a more tender affection
-and concern for Katharine Heywood than he did, yet he was enabled, by
-a wise sympathy, to compose the fears and animate the hopes of Sir
-Oliver, and indeed of an entire household; for a despondency fell upon
-all, which the most comfortable arguments of plain reason and sound
-religion did but imperfectly remove.
-
-For three days the life of Katharine Heywood was, in truth, in very
-imminent danger, and the fever was of that malignant nature which
-defied all ordinary treatment: but as the doctor was a man of great
-decision and boldness in his practice, and, at the same time, one who
-committed all events with humility and simplicity to the will of God,
-he fought bravely with the disease; and after the third night of
-patient watching and vigorous experiments, he subdued it so far that
-he could announce to Sir Oliver the safety of his daughter. The crisis
-was passed; but her weakness was great, and her recovery very gradual.
-For the first three days of her attack she was almost without
-consciousness; but though her head became light, and her mind was
-confused, she uttered nothing in her wanderings which attracted the
-particular notice of Mistress Alice, or any of her attendants, or in
-the least betrayed the secret of her heart.
-
-Meanwhile Francis Heywood, in ignorance of the sad condition of his
-cousin Katharine, endured all the agony of a suspicion that he was at
-once neglected and scorned by her who had been the vision of his
-lonely hours of labour in a remote plantation, and who, as the very
-star of his destiny, had led him back again to the land in which she
-dwelt, as a land of promise. Liberty was his watchword; and it is true
-that when letters spoke so confidently of a civil war as inevitable,
-he obtained his father's permission to return to England, that he
-might join his patriotic countrymen in their contention for the rights
-of civil and religious liberty. Nor was this a mere pretext for escape
-from the tame drudgery of colonial life,--the cause of freedom was
-sacred in his sight, and was precious to his heart. He came to draw
-the sword, and bare his bosom in the battle. He had a life to offer on
-the altar of duty, and he joyously brought the willing sacrifice; but
-yet there lay at the bottom of his heart one bright, one good hope. He
-might be lifted, by the fortunes of this war, to renown, to rank, to
-fortune; he might survive all its chances; he might see peace and
-happiness restored:--the present relations between himself and his
-wealthy uncle might be greatly altered; the old prejudices against him
-might at last give way, and the crowning reward of all his honours and
-his fortunes might be the hand of Katharine. This was his dream by
-day--this was his dream by night:--like some chaste and solemn star,
-seen brightly shining in solitary and calm glory at the extremity of a
-narrow and gloomy valley, darkened by the shadows of lofty mountains,
-so the majestic loveliness of his cousin Katharine, irradiated by all
-her virtues, shone out beyond the cloudy path of blood and peril, as
-the blissful end and rest of all his labours.
-
-He had not passed a night of such rapture since he last parted from
-his cousin as that on which he reached Milverton, and the whole of
-which he mused away within sight of the mansion that contained the
-noble object of his attachment.
-
-Although he was fully persuaded that he should be recognised by
-Katharine as the wandering musician, yet he was in doubt whether she
-would afford him an immediate opportunity of meeting her alone;
-therefore he prepared an earnest appeal to her, in characters which,
-though enigmatical to others, would, he well knew, be readily
-understood by herself. The moon shone that night with so clear a
-brightness, that he had no sort of difficulty in executing his design.
-He made a slight fancy sketch, on a small piece of paper, of a setting
-sun; he introduced the cedar in the fore-ground, and in one corner he
-wrote, in a small hand, the Italian word "implora:" on the back of
-this paper he faintly sketched a dial-plate, the shadow touching the
-figure of seven in the evening. He placed this between the leaves of a
-copy of Spenser's "Fairy Queen," which he found upon the seat, and
-which he remembered to have been the garden companion of his fair
-cousin in former days. When, on the following evening, the sun had
-set, and the silver light of the moon touched all objects with the
-hues of peace, Francis repaired to the appointed spot with eager
-steps, and in confident hope that he should once more behold her for
-whom he had all that tender reverence which angelic purity could alone
-inspire. He seated himself beneath the well-known tree, and saw with
-pleasure that the book had been taken away. Katharine, then, had
-received his "implora," and she would not--she could not--disappoint
-him, and deny his prayer. The long delay of her coming perplexed him;
-and, after an hour of anxious waiting, every succeeding minute was
-insupportably slow, and weighty with sadness. He left and resumed his
-seat with restless discomposure; he paced the neighbouring bank; he
-went into the Lime Walk, to watch for the first glimpse of her distant
-form; at last, as he was approaching the cedar tree, with his eyes
-bent on the ground, he for the first time observed a fragment of paper
-lying near the trunk:--he took it up--it was a part of his note; it
-had been torn in halves, and trodden in the dust; it was divided at
-the very word "implora." The change of his feeling was, for the
-moment, terrible. All that he had read or heard of the pride, the
-caprice, and inconstancy of woman, rushed upon his memory to
-strengthen his black suspicions, and inflame his sudden indignation.
-But this rage was very soon exhausted, and was succeeded by a sorrow
-weak as that of infants. He did not weep,--but a few hot tears slowly
-gathered at long intervals, and fell heavily on the earth. And then he
-railed upon himself, and defended her neglect of him.
-
-"It was that accursed music: she ever scorned such fanciful and
-romantic folly:--how dared I to expect that she, whose words and ways
-are open as the clear sunshine of noon, should come in the shadows of
-evening, with silent footsteps, to a secret meeting with such an
-outcast as me--one who may not ring the bell of his kinsman's gate
-with better hope than that of rude dismissal? It is all well,
-Katharine, and yet I loved you loyally, and still will love you: of
-that privilege none can rob me. Like yon planet above me, you are a
-common blessing, for which the comforted pilgrim in this thorny
-wilderness glances his eye upward to the bounteous heavens, and thanks
-his God."
-
-Another, but a gloomier, vigil in the grounds of Milverton was thus
-passed by Francis; and again, when the dawn approached, he withdrew,
-and retired to a small hostelry in the suburbs of Warwick, where for
-his better concealment he had taken up his lodging. Here, however,
-some relief, if such it could be called, was awaiting him; for as he
-lay reposing on his bed, tired, yet unable to sleep, he overheard the
-following dialogue between his hostess and a passer by:--
-
-"Hast thou heard the bad news from Milverton, dame?" said the latter.
-
-"No; I have not seen my girl a week come to-morrow."
-
-"Eh, dear, don't you be frighted for your Ruth, but they've got the
-fever there quite bad. Master Randal, the 'pothecary, was over there
-three times yesterday, and all last night."
-
-"Lord, goody, what shall I do? I must go: my poor dear child is so
-delicate for taking of fever, she will be sure to catch it. Who is it
-that ha got it? is it the old gentleman, or Mistress Alice?"
-
-"No, God be merciful to her, 't is that dear, kind, blessed young
-lady, Mistress Katharine; and they are all in a great take on about
-her; for they say that the very night before she was took bad, her
-poor dear mother's ghost was seen on the terrace by moonlight, and
-sung beautiful, and for all every body was so frighted, yet they say
-it was like as if an angel had come down out of heaven; and they say,
-it is a sure sign that Mistress Katharine will die, and go happy."
-
-There is nothing more strange than the peculiar character of the
-selfishness of love--but it is ever the same. Francis felt a deep, a
-true, an anxious concern for the illness of Katharine: he was keenly
-afflicted with self-reproach at the thought that she might perhaps
-have been so disturbed by his sudden and strange announcement of his
-return as to have been made nervous and unwell. But this sorrow, ay,
-and the very apprehension of her death, (which feeling, however, he
-did not share,) would have been more endurable than the thought that
-he was forgotten, neglected, and scorned by one whom his soul held
-dear. However, he was, in his own judgment, persuaded that her
-illness, and all the circumstances attending it, were much exaggerated
-by those superstitious fears of the household, for which he could
-himself so very easily account. Descending, therefore, from his
-chamber, while the old gossips were continuing their talk, he took
-occasion, as soon as her neighbour had passed on, to urge his hostess
-to lose no time in going to inquire after her daughter; observing that
-he had often heard of the family at Milverton, and could not but feel
-a hope that the lady of whom they spoke would soon recover.
-
-"Precious angel," said the old woman: "I don't know why we should wish
-it, I am sure, except it be for the sake of others; for there was
-never a body fitter for heaven than that dear young lady."
-
-It was with keen anguish that, upon the return of his poor hostess in
-the afternoon, he learned that the life of Katharine was really in
-danger. At sunset he took his cloak, and passed the night in a
-position near the wood, from whence he could command the curtained
-window of the sufferer, and watch the dim light within, and those
-gloomy shadows which, as nurse or attendant slowly crossed the
-chamber, occasionally obscured it.
-
-His was a mind in which hope was ever anticipating enjoyment, or fear
-meeting and realising the dreaded misfortune. Now, therefore, with the
-lamp of a sick room burning faint before him, and with scenery around
-all silvery and spiritual, lying hushed and calm in a silence solemn
-as the grave, and yet sweet and peaceful as that of heaven, he
-resigned himself to the belief that Katharine was dying, or, rather,
-was departing to the abode of blessed spirits. He grew reconciled to
-the thought. No clouds of terror darkened it; and, as her pale image
-arose distinctly before his mind's eye, he became elevated with the
-sentiment of her sure and celestial happiness; and there was a feeling
-of ecstasy in the idea that he might cherish his love for her, as a
-sacred thing, for ever.
-
-Again, on the following night, he lay enfolded in his cloak, or leaned
-against a distant tree, or paced like a sentinel his lonely round,
-with his eyes fixed on the light in Katharine's chamber, and his
-meditations were sweet. But how tenderly he had been rocked in the
-cradle of sorrow, and how willingly he had allowed the true state of
-his own heart to be hidden from himself by fancied consolations, was
-evident, when, on returning from his watch upon the third morning, he
-learned from his hostess that the doctor had come home very early,
-and said, that the dear lady was out of danger. He had just command
-enough over his feelings not to betray to her that he took a private
-and deep interest in her intelligence; but, rushing up to his room,
-his hopes, his fears, his grief, his joy, his gratitude, gushed forth
-from his pent-up bosom in a flood of silent tears. He wept upon his
-knees.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XIII.
-
-    What man was he talked with you?
-           _Much Ado about Nothing._
-
-
-It was not till the crisis of danger was already past that the illness
-of Katharine became known at Bolton Grange, or at Old Beech.
-
-Jane Lambert was no sooner apprised of it than she hastened to her
-friend, and insisted, with all the devotion and tenderness of a
-sister, on being permitted to divide with Mistress Alice the duties of
-her present charge.
-
-Katharine loved Jane, and was comforted to have her seated near her,
-and was soothed by her affection: it was evident, however, to the
-latter, that something weighed heavily upon the spirits of her friend,
-and that the feelings of hope and the clear promise of recovery, did
-not impart to her all the gratitude and cheerfulness which might be
-naturally expected in the pleasant dawn of convalescence.
-
-She had not been many days at Milverton when an incident occurred
-which discovered the cause of her anxiety.
-
-As Jane was looking from the window in the afternoon, and remarking to
-Katharine on the beautiful effect of the low autumn lights, she
-observed the figure of a man with folded arms leaning near a tree in
-the beechery, and she playfully exclaimed, "That must certainly be the
-musical ghost, which played so sweetly, and brought us all such bad
-luck, and frightened every body in Milverton House but your dear self,
-and the grave Master Cuthbert:--how I should like to have the
-treacherous creature caught."
-
-"Dear lady," said Katharine's maid, "how can you talk so boldly?--why
-nobody can catch a spirit. It is only air."
-
-"I have a notion, good lass," replied Jane, "that it is very proper
-flesh and blood, and if I were a man, and not a maid, would try my
-speed with it, and bring it to parley. I should like to hear the
-voice of it, or see its face, and tell it of all the mischief it has
-done."
-
-"Well-a-day! what a heart you have, lady! There is not one in the
-kitchen but stout Richard would venture that; and though he could not
-find any thing the other day when he followed it, he's obstinate as a
-mule, and says it's no ghost, but a young gallant that's under hiding
-at my mother's, in Warwick Liberties; but there is nobody thinks with
-him at Milverton."
-
-"Well, then, I am of Richard's way of thinking, in part:--it is a tall
-man; but whether young, and whether under hiding, I know not."
-
-"Why, there is a gentleman under hiding at my mother's, sure enough,
-and one that knows my lady, as she says, and was quite glad when he
-heard that she first began to mend."
-
-"Ruth," said Katharine, raising her head from the pillow, "if you will
-go and make me some fresh barley water, I think I shall like it better
-than this fever drink." The wish was no sooner expressed than her maid
-vanished to do her bidding, and Katharine and her friend Jane were
-left by themselves.
-
-"Jane," said the invalid, "come and sit by me: I have something to
-tell you, and I have to ask of you a very strange favour. I desired to
-relieve my heart of its burden, but have hitherto delayed it. You
-know, Jane, that I love you, and that I have confidence in your
-attachment to me; but if it were not for my present helplessness,
-which compels me to engage your service as a true friend, whose good
-sense and firm principles I can safely trust, the subject which I am
-about to speak of would never have passed my lips even to you. The
-gentleman of whom they speak is my cousin Francis. He it was who so
-perplexed and alarmed the family with his mysterious music, and who
-still, I fear, haunts the same spot in silence and anxiety."
-
-"Your cousin Francis!--why, dear Kate, I thought he was in America!"
-
-"And I myself thought so until the night when he made his return known
-to me in tones which I could not mistake, and the meaning of which I
-but too well understood."
-
-"I have been long aware, Katharine, that he loved you."
-
-"You have, I believe, already discerned it. Alas! it is true--fatally
-for his own happiness and for mine;--but, Jane, have you courage for
-the task which I would impose upon you?"
-
-"Yes, Kate: you can ask me nothing too hard for me, if I can only feel
-that I do what may comfort you."
-
-"Well, Jane, you must contrive to see my cousin Francis; to deliver to
-him a note from me with your own hands, and to urge his immediate
-departure from this neighbourhood. Now, love, bring me those small
-tablets and paper, and support me while I write the few words which I
-would say."
-
-It was a sight for pity to see that noble damsel, her back propped by
-pillows, and the arm of her young friend tenderly supporting her,
-trace in silence and with a nervous hand the few lines which were to
-banish from the neighbourhood of Milverton her worthy and devoted
-lover.
-
-The task was soon done; and with the care as of a mother Jane Lambert
-again arranged the pillows for the aching head of Katharine; and the
-pale sufferer sunk back exhausted into the recumbent posture, and
-heaved a sigh so sad, that the eyes of Jane filled with thick tears.
-She averted her head to wipe them away, that they might not distress
-her friend, and putting the unsealed billet in her bosom, left the
-chamber with a thoughtful step, to do her very delicate and difficult
-office. She went to her own room, and taking a dark mantle with a
-hood, such as was the common church-going and street costume of women
-of the respectable middle classes of that period, she threw it across
-her arm, and walked through the Lime Walk, and by the fish ponds, to a
-small gate at the farther end of the grounds, by which she could gain
-a footpath that led across the fields to Warwick. She had no sooner
-passed the gate than she put on her cloak, and passing the hood over
-her head, that she might muffle and conceal her features, if she met
-any one, she proceeded towards the city. It was about four o'clock in
-the afternoon, and the sky was lowering and cloudy. She was anxious
-about her strange mission, and settling in her mind what she should do
-when she reached the hostelry, whither she was now bending her steps,
-and how she should contrive the interview with Francis, when the sound
-of steps very closely following suddenly startled her: the very object
-of her search had overtaken her, and was already at her side. At
-first, however, she was not aware of this, although the circumstance
-of this passenger being muffled, as closely as herself, awakened her
-suspicions of the truth, and forbade the alarm she would otherwise
-have felt at finding herself in a very lonely part of the pathway in
-such company. He did not stop when he overtook her, but went a few
-steps onward, as if to re-assure her before he ventured to speak. He
-crossed a stile and walked some paces without turning his head, till
-she had also crossed it; when loitering a little, till she was close
-to him, he stepped aside from the path, and gently put a question that
-very directly introduced them to each other, and gave Jane the ready
-opportunity of delivering her note, and fulfilling the further wishes
-of her dear Katharine.
-
-"You are from Milverton House, as I think, damsel?"
-
-"Even so, master," replied Jane.
-
-"Is the noble young mistress better to-day?"
-
-"I thank God she is; but it will be long ere she be quite well again."
-
-"She is out of all pain, I hope?"
-
-"Yes, she hath no bodily pain, save that which arises from weakness;
-and for such pain of mind as disquiets her it may be, in great part,
-removed by yourself, Master Francis."
-
-Thus saying, she threw back her hood, and Francis, who had before
-discovered his own features, recognised those of Jane Lambert. "I bear
-you a note from your cousin Katharine," she added, as he started at
-her utterance of his name. She drew it forth from her bosom, and
-placed it in his hand. He turned from her that he might read it
-without observation; but Jane could see by his action that he kissed
-it, and pressed it to his heart. With a glance it was perused, and
-then again and again; and with a bent head and staggering step he
-moved a few paces from Jane, and spoke in tones of anguish to himself
-words which she could not distinguish. At last, collecting himself, he
-returned towards the fair messenger of his Katharine, with a manly
-composure, and said, "Tell my beloved cousin that I will obey; that
-her wish is as a law to me: how could she dream that I would suffer
-the words of any one to outweigh her own?--but, she tells me that you
-are her devoted and faithful friend, and that to you I may safely
-intrust the object of my return, and the news of my father. There is,
-indeed, one subject on which she forbids me to speak even to herself;
-therefore my answer may be brief enough. My father is well:--all her
-kinsfolk in the Plantations are well, and free, and happy. For the
-object of my sudden return--it is the love of my country--a love that
-will not accept a divided heart; and yet the other love that lay
-enshrined beside it, was pure, was noble, was worthy such alliance,
-has filled my thoughts by day, has blessed the visions of my lonely
-nights. Tell Katharine she hath used me hardly--no, no, do not tell
-her that--not hardly--say that she bids me do something I cannot do--I
-am not of her order--forget her I never can--she is with me wherever I
-go--in all things that I do I think of her--and still must, if I
-would have fair and noble thoughts to bear me company."
-
-"Such things, Master Francis, I may not carry to her ear. There is
-about her a reserve so maidenly and grave, she would chide her own
-messenger for proving so unfaithful;--but I may tell her that your
-father is well; that loyalty hath brought you home; and that you will
-quit these parts instantly--for that it is, methinks, she most
-earnestly requests of you."
-
-"Even so: on that she is most urgent--cruel Katharine."
-
-"Say, rather, wise, dutiful, loyal Katharine."
-
-"Loyal, loyal!--that is a word of many imports. I, too, am loyal, and
-will learn to love the word:--mind you tell her that I am loyal."
-
-"Can I truly tell her so?"
-
-"Yes, truly:--but enough of this, fair girl,--go back to her who sent
-thee--wait, you are her friend--you nurse her--come, let me look into
-thine eyes--give me thy hand--on my knees I kiss it--her cheek is
-pale--I know it is--it must be--go touch it with thy hand, and offer
-there the chaste cold homage of my sorrow. You see that I am sad,
-lady--go--bless you--you are weeping:--how is this, girl?--be not so
-childish--a friend of Katharine's should not be weak--I, you see, am
-calm and strong--my hand does not tremble--and these eyes are
-dry--methinks my heart is frozen--tell her so."
-
-Jane Lambert stood fixed as a statue while he thus spoke; and as she
-watched him walking fast away, she felt, for the first time in her
-life, what it must be to have a lover, and to be the supreme object of
-such a man's affection. Her cheek was stained with tears--her face
-flushed with agitation--her whole air disordered and absent. She
-followed with her eyes the tall figure of Francis, till a turn in the
-pathway hid him from her view, and then walked slowly back to
-Milverton.
-
-In the very first field she met George Juxon, and it was evident to
-her, from his manner, as he stopped and spoke to her, that he must
-have witnessed, at least, the close of her interview with Francis.
-There was a surprise in his look, and something of embarrassment, as
-he shook her by the hand, and asked if she was well; but he did not
-seem to expect any particular reply, nor indeed did he offer to return
-with her to the house, though she was but too conscious that her
-faintness and discomposure might have naturally invited such an
-attention. Observing, coldly, that he had some business at a builder's
-yard in Warwick, but that he should return to sup and sleep at
-Milverton, he leisurely pursued his path to the city.
-
-Jane's heart gave way to the multitude of troublous and perplexing
-thoughts which now beset her; and leaning near a friendly tree, she
-found a momentary relief in a passionate flood of warm tears.
-
-Her trial was strange. The feelings which had been excited were
-altogether new to her; and the effect of the interview with
-Katharine's devoted cousin, combined with the cross and perplexing
-incident of her meeting with Juxon so immediately after, as to make it
-certain that he had seen her part from Francis Heywood, had very
-naturally overcome the ordinary courage and the cheerful composure of
-her character.
-
-She had witnessed, in the agitated Francis, the emotions of love. The
-sentiment, which thus shook him, she had never yet inspired--she had
-never felt for any one. Such love had been to her the poet's fable;
-but it would never again be so deemed of by her;--and something that
-made her heart throb and ache within her told truly the want of that
-heart, and unsealed a fountain of affection ready to overflow upon any
-being in whom she might be fortunate enough to find the noble
-qualities of a manly heart, and the gentle ways and genuine fervours
-of an ardent lover.
-
-It was a cruel thought that she must now be subject to suspicions, if
-not of lightness, yet of a secret attachment and stolen interviews
-with the object of it. Nor was the oppression of this thought at all
-weakened by the reflection that George Juxon, the very man whose good
-opinion she most valued, had seen her in a situation, and under
-circumstances, which he could not by any possibility interpret truly,
-and which her duty to Katharine forbade her to explain, however
-deeply her own character or happiness might suffer. In one short hour
-she had gathered an experience that filled her with wonder, and had
-incurred a suspicion that subjected her to censure and threatened her
-with misery. The consciousness of innocence could not restore to her
-the respect of Juxon, nor exempt her from the severe penalties with
-which the levity and imprudence of the thoughtless of her own sex are
-ever silently visited by the other, when some painful discovery of a
-woman's guile chills and revolts them.
-
-However in her case, the judgment of Juxon had not been harsh; but, of
-course, when he saw a man upon his knees before her--when he
-considered the loneliness of their place of interview--the cloaks
-evidently worn for disguise--and the agitated and discomposed
-appearance of Jane Lambert--he, at once, decided that she was
-betrothed to a lover, whom for fear or for shame she dared not openly
-avow.
-
-He had truly liked Jane, for her spirit, her sense, and, above all,
-for her devotion to Katharine Heywood; and his liking might soon have
-grown to a manly love,--but the flow of his admiration was now
-suddenly checked and frozen, and he whistled "Woman's a Riddle" all
-the way to Warwick and back again.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XIV.
-
-    O how full of briars is this working-day world!
-                                  _As you Like it._
-
-
-As soon as the affectionate Jane had entirely recovered her
-self-possession, she left her chamber, and repaired to Katharine. It
-was the dark evening hour of autumn, and there was no light in the
-room of the invalid but that emitted from the glowing embers on the
-hearth. Jane seated herself by the bedside, and, taking the hand of
-Katharine, gently pressed it, and said,--
-
-"My dear Kate, I have done all that you wished; and I have sped well."
-
-"You have, then, seen Francis?"
-
-"Yes; I put your note into his own hands. He was much affected; but he
-promised obedience to your wishes at once."
-
-Katharine gave a sigh, and turned her face to the wall. There was a
-short pause of silence before Jane proceeded:--
-
-"He bade me tell you that his father and your kinsfolk in America are
-well; and that the immediate object of his return is the love of his
-country."
-
-"Ah, Jane! I know what that means. I remember too well all the warm
-and bitter words that passed between my father and his on that
-subject. Would he had stayed in the peaceful Plantations! The ocean
-between us was not a wider separation than the gulf that divides party
-from party at home; besides, Jane, he is deluded: they will play upon
-his generous nature,--they will make a traitor of him. Rebellion is as
-the sin of witchcraft. Would he had stayed abroad!"
-
-"I must not forget, Katharine, to tell you that he strictly charged me
-to say that he was loyal. 'It is a word,' said he, 'of many
-imports:'--mind you tell her that I am loyal.'--No, dear Katharine,
-his is no traitor's heart: he may be on the wrong side of the
-quarrel, but he is the King's true subject at the bottom."
-
-"Hush! Jane; whisper not these dangerous words,--there is deceit in
-them. The soul's enemy finds each of us treacherous enough in will,
-and crooked enough in judgment, without the weak and indulgent folly
-of our friends. Be true to me,--be English, Jane:--I love you passing
-well."
-
-Jane kissed her pale cheek; and there was another pause. At last
-Katharine said, in a very low voice,--
-
-"How was Cousin Francis looking? Is he in health?"
-
-"His complexion is more brown, and he has less colour than formerly;
-his countenance, too, is very grave--almost sad; yet there is a steady
-fire in his eyes; and he is as graceful and as strong as ever. But for
-his late care and watching, I should say he was better in health than
-when he left Milverton for America."
-
-"He was not hurt at my note, I hope,--was he, Jane? Speak truly."
-
-"Not hurt; but disappointed, certainly. However, he is noble and
-sensible, and saw that it was right."
-
-"You think so."
-
-"I am sure of it, by his manner."
-
-"Do you think he will go away directly?"
-
-"Yes; perhaps he is already gone. I could see in the firm and resolute
-step with which he walked away from me that his decision was taken."
-
-"Then it was not at the hostelry that you saw him? Where did you meet
-him?"
-
-Jane now detailed, in part, the circumstances of their interview, as
-already related; suppressing all mention of the passionate words and
-gestures of Francis, and any notice of her having been seen in his
-company by Juxon. It had been the first intention of Jane to proceed
-to the house of Ruth's mother, on whose protection she could depend,
-and to wait there till Francis, who she doubted not was the lodger
-spoken of, should return thither; for, before Jane left Milverton
-House, Francis had already disappeared from the Beechery. It would be
-easy to invent some plausible excuse to Ruth's mother for her visit
-to Warwick; and, having contrived her interview with Francis as if by
-accident, to return to Milverton, if belated till dusk, under the old
-woman's escort. But this plan was rendered unnecessary by the
-circumstance of Francis overtaking Jane upon her way to the city.
-
-"My dear affectionate girl," said Katharine to her sweet friend, "how
-much, how very much, I thank you:--kiss me, dear, and leave me to
-compose myself, if I can, to sleep."
-
-But sleep was impossible in her frame of mind at that moment:--it was
-solitude she needed, that she might meditate and weep alone. However,
-there was a high sound principle ever at work in her bosom; so that a
-little solitary and prayerful reflection never failed to restore the
-calmness of her mind, and the strength of her resolutions.
-
-The spirit of Jane Lambert was of another sort; and, restored to the
-privacy of her own chamber, she gave a free vent to the sorrow and
-anxiety which she had so courageously suppressed before Katharine.
-
-When she descended to the hall to supper, and all the party were
-assembled, she remarked or fancied that George Juxon expressly avoided
-seating himself near her; and, after asking her one or two questions
-about the progress of Katharine's recovery, he addressed her no more.
-
-Her pride was a little wounded to observe that he was in high and
-careless spirits, and became quite the life of the table. Cuthbert,
-too, was, for him, unusually cheerful. Sir Oliver seemed in great good
-humour; and the boy Arthur was radiant with delightful and joyous
-anticipations of the new world, which an entrance at Oxford would open
-before him. Literary and characteristic anecdotes of distinguished and
-eccentric scholars of both universities, in times past as well as
-present, enlivened the social meal; and though but a very thin
-partition separated the subjects of university discipline from those
-of church polity and state government, neither were introduced that
-evening.
-
-Jane thought that she had never before discerned so clearly the fine
-qualities of Juxon;--his sound but charitable judgment, his accurate
-memory, the kindliness of his nature, and the playfulness of his
-stories, at once charmed and depressed her. She wished to leave the
-table; yet still she lingered on, listening and irresolute; and the
-proposal to retire was first made by Mistress Alice.
-
-An avowed contempt for the opinion of the many is not inconsistent
-with a very earnest and anxious regard for the judgment of the few
-whom we chance to admire and esteem. The dear, high-spirited girl, who
-thought herself above the censure of the world, and indifferent to its
-voice, was now, though clear from the slightest reproach of
-conscience, agonised with apprehensions lest she should have forfeited
-the respect of George Juxon. When, at a later hour, the household was
-assembled for the evening service, and the prayers were reverently
-read by Juxon, her heart beat in her bosom so quick and loud as to be
-audible to Cuthbert Noble, who kneeled near her. As soon as they rose,
-he regarded her with a look of such compassionate inquiry, that Jane,
-fearing he was about to question her concerning her health, and not
-daring to trust herself with a reply, abruptly left the apartment.
-
-Juxon had himself observed her flushed cheek and her disturbed
-manners, and began to entertain very serious alarm for her. How far
-his duty as a friend, and, above all, as a Christian minister,
-authorised him to seek acquaintance with the nature and extent of
-those secret engagements of Jane Lambert, which he could not but fear,
-from her evident agitation, were at variance with plain principle and
-prudence, it was not easy for him to resolve. He truly liked her
-frank, generous, and inartificial character. He knew full well that in
-her brother she had neither a kind, a careful, or a wise guardian. It
-was surely wrong to stand upon the brink of a whirlpool, and see any
-one drawn down to ruin, whom it was in our power, if not to save, at
-least to admonish of the danger. His mind instantly reverted to the
-noble Katharine as the proper channel through which his manly and
-benevolent warnings might be safely conveyed with delicacy and
-effect. But many days might yet elapse ere the opportunity of a
-conversation with Katharine might occur; for she was confined not only
-to her chamber, but to her bed. Should he venture to hint his fears to
-herself? Yes: if she was the character he yet hoped to find her, it
-would be taken well; if not, it would matter very little in what light
-she viewed his disinterested service.
-
-On the following morning, soon after breakfast, he saw Jane Lambert by
-herself in the Lime Walk, and he joined her.
-
-She looked surprised and embarrassed; and he was not without a fear
-that his presence at that moment was inconvenient and irksome, and
-very possibly prevented her going forth to an interview with her lover
-in the very same fields where he had met her the evening before.
-
-However, from the very fear he took courage; and, after the common
-salutations and usual words about the garden and the weather had
-passed, he broke the subject thus:--
-
-"Mistress Jane, you are too little acquainted with the world for your
-own happiness, or rather, for your security,--may a friend say this
-without offending you?"
-
-"A friend may say any thing to me, Master Juxon, that a damsel may not
-blush to hear."
-
-"I understand you--I must say no more--and yet I meant you well."
-
-"But good intentions do often tread upon the foot just where it is
-most tender."
-
-"Well, lady, enough: I will spare your maiden blushes; only remember,
-of our sex, that he doth always act most openly who is most loyal."
-
-"Loyal! Master Juxon, what mean you? Did you then so far forget
-yourself as to follow and trace out the gentleman whom you last
-evening stood watching as he parted from me?--I do not understand
-you."
-
-"Mistress Jane, you should have known me better;--so far from watching
-your interview with the strange gentleman with whom I saw you, it was
-to avoid intrusion that I waited in the adjoining close till you
-parted from him, and would have gone back again altogether, but for
-the great circuit and the business which I had in Warwick."
-
-"You saw us part, then?"
-
-"Yes, to my wonder, and to my sorrow that my eyes had caught an action
-meant only for your own. Lady, forgive the word; but at lovers' oaths
-forget not that Cupid laughs:--may Jane Lambert never be won by any
-suitor who does not openly woo her!"
-
-"Amen to your kind wish, Master Juxon--so be it:--I know what you
-think, and am sorry, but I cannot help it;--however, you are not my
-father confessor, nor do I ever wish to have one."
-
-"True, lady; but though not your confessor, I am your friend, your
-true and bold friend, or I should never have dared to utter what I
-have done. I can have no object in these hints but your best and
-highest interest: that which I have noticed to yourself I shall never
-mention to any other, except, perhaps, to Katharine Heywood, from
-whose lips whatever falls is wise and noble."
-
-"O! not to her--name not this idle matter to her. Promise me, Juxon,
-that you will not breathe a syllable about it to her. I shall be more
-unhappy if you do than I am already."
-
-"Alas! you are then unhappy, and would shun the best help and
-consolation which friendship would provide for you. No, this I cannot
-promise; on the contrary, I am only confirmed in the propriety of my
-intention."
-
-"Well, I implore you again, and earnestly, not to speak upon this
-subject to Katharine. As you value my peace of mind, be silent upon it
-to all: there is a mystery about it I may not unfold. I know that
-appearances are against me: I am sorry for your hard thoughts, but I
-must bear them. I could wish to explain these cross circumstances to
-you, but am not free to do so without violating a sacred duty. Promise
-me that you will meet my wish." Thus saying, she put her hand upon his
-arm, and looked into his face with wet and beseeching eyes. "Juxon,
-you have always been plain and true, and friendly to me; and though I
-and my perplexities ill deserve your interest or care, promise me
-that you will not name them to dear Katharine."
-
-For a moment Juxon was affected by the wild earnestness of her manner;
-and he thought he had never seen more heart or feeling in the
-expression of a human countenance than in the flushed face of Jane
-Lambert.
-
-"Well, Mistress Jane, you are so urgent, that I must promise to obey
-your will; but it grieves me to see you thus sadly troubled. May God
-help you, and guide you, and guard you, and keep you from evil, that
-it may not grieve you! Your secret is safe with me."
-
-"And shall I lose your friendship?"
-
-"No, lady, never: would only that it may have worth sufficient in your
-eyes to be used aright!"
-
-"Believe me, I shall never forget it, and I will never do aught to
-forfeit such a treasure;"--so saying, she hurried away, with tears in
-her eyes, and left him absorbed in a state of feeling which cannot be
-described.
-
-The more he thought of what he had witnessed the evening before, and
-the more he considered the conversation which had just passed, the
-more satisfied he was that Jane Lambert was secretly betrothed to some
-one whom she dared not openly acknowledge as her lover. It was also
-plain, that, for some powerful reason, she had not confided the secret
-of this attachment even to Katharine, who was her bosom friend. He had
-comfort in remembering that nothing could be more respectful than the
-action of the stranger, when he kissed her hand at parting; and
-combining this with her own honest looks and proud though mysterious
-expressions, he was satisfied that, up to the present moment, she had
-taken no irrevocable step. There was, moreover, a warm strength in her
-last words, that assured him his friendly cautions were not thrown
-away, and that his motives were not misinterpreted. Upon the whole, he
-was justified, to his own mind, in what he had done; and his thoughts
-rested upon the character of Jane with greater interest than it had
-ever before excited in him.
-
-"How very generous and devoted would be the love of such a girl,"
-said he to himself: "what a proud spirit, what an affectionate heart,
-she has; what a fire there is in her fine eyes--I never before saw her
-look half so beautiful:--it is clear that they have been lighted up by
-love:--well, God grant that the man of her choice may be worthy of
-it!"
-
-He now sauntered slowly back to the house; and entering the library,
-found Cuthbert Noble sitting alone, and making extracts from an old
-folio volume.
-
-"You see," said the young tutor, "I am making preparations for my
-departure from Milverton; but thus I may innocently suck honey from
-the hives of Sir Oliver, without robbing him, or those who come after
-him, of the smallest portion of such sweets as they contain."
-
-"And what may be your study?" said Juxon, as he came up to the table,
-and looked over him.
-
-"A curious work," replied Cuthbert, "containing the most remarkable
-pieces of John Huss, together with his life--imprinted in the last
-century at Augsburg."
-
-"Friend Cuthbert, you are too constant in these serious and solemn
-studies and speculations."
-
-"Master Juxon," answered the pale youth, "they are every thing or they
-are nothing."
-
-"Verily, for my part I think divine truth is as clear and glorious as
-the sun in the firmament; and to warm ourselves, and to walk in the
-light of it, is better wisdom than to read so many commentaries and
-discourses upon it."
-
-"May we not sometimes lie indolently warming ourselves by a fire of
-our own, and fancy it as comfortable as basking in the sun? Walking in
-the light is no such easy matter; and in my case I find that the
-words, and, above all, the examples, of those who have earnestly
-contended for the truth, as so many outstretched and helping hands to
-assist me in climbing the hill."
-
-"What hill?"
-
-"The high hill, Master Juxon, where the reformers and martyrs of past
-times have left the print of their blessed footsteps."
-
-"Cuthbert, I see that you are in earnest, that you are sincere; but
-you are on a road beset by enemies, to the full as dangerous as those
-on any other. Pride may be waiting to assail you,--spiritual pride,
-the worst of all enemies: you want to do something; you would unlock
-heaven's gates by some great performance:--remember its arches are so
-low that none can enter them who crawl not on their knees:--the little
-child's is the appointed stature for all believers."
-
-"That, indeed, is true--it is a solemn truth; but there are beasts to
-be fought with, Juxon, and the stern combat is at hand. It is upon
-this I think by day, on this I dream by night."
-
-"So much the worse: you are commanded, in many senses, to 'take no
-thought for the morrow;' and in none is it more your duty to obey the
-precept than in waiting the events of the coming day in quietness and
-in confidence: you conjure up shadows that you may fight with them."
-
-"Nay, but you wrong my judgment:--to you they may so seem; but my eye
-can see the black and dismal realities beyond, which reflect these
-shadows."
-
-"Well, Cuthbert, it is vain to talk with you on these subjects:--on
-all others you are so clear and reasonable, that I shall always
-remember our intercourse with pleasure. I hear that there is a new
-arrangement, and that you do not wait to accompany Arthur to Oxford;
-but that you leave Milverton next week, therefore, very probably, I
-shall not see you again till your departure. Farewell, friend: my best
-and warmest wishes for your happiness will always accompany you. I
-shall ever be happy to hear of or from you, and be delighted to meet
-you again."
-
-With these words he put out his hand to Cuthbert, who grasped it
-eagerly, and struggled for a reply in vain.
-
-The parting had taken him totally by surprise:--the thought of all
-Juxon's friendly and kind services, of all his frank and endearing
-qualities, came up, with a rush before his fancy, and choked his
-utterance. The strong pressure of Cuthbert's hand, and the slowness
-with which he released that of Juxon, told the latter all that he
-would have said; and, as the door closed behind his departing friend,
-Cuthbert sank back into his seat, and, resting his head with hidden
-face upon the table, remained for several minutes silent and
-motionless.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XV.
-
-    Religious contention is the devil's harvest.
-
-     _Old Proverb._
-
-
-To every member of the family at Milverton House Cuthbert had said
-farewell, when he retired to his chamber on the night before the
-morning fixed for his departure. He had taken leave of Mistress
-Katharine, in the presence of her aunt Alice and Jane Lambert, with a
-grave self-command which had surprised himself; and, as he left her
-room, he lifted his heart to Heaven in thanksgiving for the help of
-that strength which he had so earnestly implored in the privacy of his
-closet.
-
-But when he was alone for the last wakeful vigil in the apartment in
-which he had passed so many a sleepless night the image of Katharine
-looked in upon his solitude, and, for a time, re-asserted all its
-power over his heart.
-
-He had just parted, and, probably for ever, with her who had been to
-him, for many months, the angel of the scene. These months, though now
-short as hours to look back upon, had gathered into their brief and
-silvery revolutions much of that soft and essential happiness of his
-affections which he knew could never return again. Nevertheless, it
-was not in the power of separation or of hopelessness to destroy the
-memory of that sweet season of his youth; and he was content to accept
-that as all the bliss of its kind which the fortunes of his life and
-the new aims of his being, would permit him to enjoy.
-
-"Here, and for ever," said Cuthbert, speaking to himself aloud, "I
-forswear the weaknesses of love: life has rugged paths that are better
-trod by single men;--such a path is now shaping for me and for many.
-In the labour of establishing a people's rights I shall find a sense
-of peace; and when the call of duty is obeyed, contentment is the
-golden fruit with which conscience herself presents us."
-
-There is no process of the mind more common than that by which a man,
-while sore at heart by the thought of some desirable but unattainable
-good, turns away from the painful consideration of his own sorrows,
-and erects himself into the zealous friend of suffering humanity, and
-the ardent reformer of social evils.
-
-What curious springs in the world's clockwork are sorrow and
-disappointment! How many wheels are set in motion by their secret
-action, and what different results from those at which men aim are
-produced by their conduct! Here they strike for freedom, and elevate a
-despot--there they trample for the oppressor, and, lo! a seed of armed
-patriots is sown beneath their horse's feet.
-
-The idea of seeking the society of those among his friends whose minds
-were full of the stirring themes now daily suggested by political
-events was hailed as a relief and a consolation.
-
-Absorbed in musings, Cuthbert watched away the night, and obtained
-only a short and broken slumber towards the morning.
-
-It has been before observed, that to the language of love from the
-lips of Cuthbert Mistress Katharine never would have listened, and
-could not have responded.
-
-Katharine Heywood had only done what thousands have done before her,
-and are continually doing in the intercourse of life. She had
-manifested her own sweet nature in a ready and gentle appreciation of
-those qualities in the shy and humble student, which, wherever they
-are found, are worthy of regard.
-
-Indeed, during the residence of Cuthbert at Milverton, as the tutor to
-her cousin, she had largely shared the benefit of his instructions. He
-had imparted new pleasures to her mind, had purified her taste,
-enlarged her conceptions, and elevated her thoughts.
-
-These services she had repaid, in the character of mistress of her
-father's mansion, by studiously throwing the grace of her protection
-over the retiring scholar; but the smile of a queenly woman is a
-perilous shelter, and does oftentimes blight the happiness of those
-whom it was most innocently designed to cheer and to defend.
-
-It had been arranged that Cuthbert should depart before eight in the
-morning. By that hour his horse was already saddled in the stable,
-and the boy Arthur was in the stable-yard watching minutely all the
-preparations for the journey. The strapping on of the vallise, and of
-the holsters especially moved him on the present occasion, although he
-had seen the very same thing done a hundred times for others without
-curiosity or disquiet. What from the liveliness of his fancy, and the
-affectionateness of his disposition, the images of lonely ways and
-evil robbers made him fetch his breath quicker than usual. The good
-tempered groom, perceiving this by the youth's questions, began to
-allay his fears by saying, that "nobody would ever let or hinder a
-poor scholar like Master Cuthbert, and, besides that, God took care of
-all good persons; so there was no ill chance for such an one, but that
-he would go and come as safe as the King's own majesty;" which was the
-simple groom's notion of the most perfect security on earth.
-
-Meanwhile Cuthbert himself was taking a last melancholy gaze at the
-gallery, the hall, the summer and winter parlour, and the various
-objects of interest which they contained. The pictures, the books, the
-organ, the virginals, the lute, were all most intimately associated in
-his mind with her, whom to have seen and known was of itself a
-blessing.
-
-In vain the grey-haired butler, Philip, pressed him to partake of
-breakfast, and cautioned him against a weary way and an empty stomach.
-He pecked like a sick bird at the substantial venison pasty, and
-sipped at the warm tankard with a word the while now to the old
-domestic, and now to young Arthur, who had come in, and sat opposite
-him, in that vacant and natural sorrow which belongs to the broken
-moments of such a parting.
-
-At last Cuthbert descended the hall steps, which were full of the
-warm-hearted servants; and, pressing the hand of his affectionate
-pupil, mounted his horse and rode away.
-
-The day was cold and wet: nothing could be more gloomy or comfortless
-than his long and lonely ride. He met only one train of pack-horses,
-and a few single travellers on horseback, throughout the day. He
-baited his animal at a wayside alehouse, where he found nobody but a
-cross old woman and a deaf hostler; and it was not till the dusk of
-evening that he reached the town of Aylesbury, where he proposed
-sleeping.
-
-Within five miles of this place he was overtaken by a gentleman on
-horseback, who fell into conversation with him; and who, being like
-himself on a journey to town, offered to join company with him that
-night at the inn.
-
-Although it would have been far more agreeable to Cuthbert to have
-proceeded alone, yet the appearance of the stranger was so
-prepossessing, and his manners were so frank and courteous, that it
-was not possible to shake off his company without rudeness. Moreover,
-his speech had already shown him to be a man of gentle breeding, and
-that Cambridge had once reckoned him among her students,--so they rode
-forward together.
-
-At the entrance of the town, hard by one of the first houses in the
-street, sat a cobbler working and singing in his hutch. The companion
-of Cuthbert here pulled his bridle; and, turning his beast's nose
-almost into it, called out, in a loud jolly tone, "Ho, Crispin! canst
-tell me the way to the church?"
-
-"No," said the cobbler, throwing up an indifferent glance, and then
-stooping again over his last.
-
-"Art deaf, or hast lost thy wits, old surly?" said the traveller: "you
-know what a church is, don't you?"
-
-"I know what it is not," replied the old cobbler bluntly, without
-looking off his work.
-
-"What is it not, sirrah?"
-
-"It is not a great stone building standing alone in the middle of a
-town," said the cobbler raising his head, and looking his interrogator
-full in the face.
-
-"Thou hast more wit than good humour, knave," said our Cavalier.
-
-"And thou words than good breeding," retorted the sturdy artisan.
-
-"I see the stocks of this place are little used, or you should try how
-they fitted. You have not much fear, methinks, of the wooden collar.
-Didst ever see a pillory?"
-
-"I have, and a godly man in it; and I shall not soon forget the
-sight. Are you answered, my court bird?"
-
-"You are a prick-eared knave; and, if I were not tired and hungry, you
-should smart for your saucy answers."
-
-By this time a neighbour or two stood forth from the adjoining houses;
-and the horseman, turning to the nearest, said, "Prithee, friend,
-canst thou tell me the way to the Boar's Head, which is next to the
-church, as I think?"
-
-"It is so, true enough," answered the man, "and well placed, to my
-thought; for thou wilt be sure to find the parson on the bench of it,
-or it may be in the skittle yard wrangling with cheating Bob, and
-staggering at his own cast:--ride straight on--you can't miss it."
-
-"A pretty nest of godly rogues I have got into," said the traveller:
-"there will be an iron gag for your foul mouths soon." With this he
-struck spurs into his steed: the beast broke into a smart
-canter,--that of Cuthbert started in like manner; and they were
-instantly carried beyond the jeers and the loud laughter of the
-humorous old cobbler and his neighbours. Of this little scene
-Cuthbert had been the silent spectator; indeed the dialogue was so
-short, and so rapidly spoken, that there was no room for any question
-or remark of his;--and his companion having observed a silver crest
-upon the holsters of Cuthbert, did not doubt that he was a church and
-king man,--especially as there had not dropped from him a single
-expression which savoured of the Puritan.
-
-Mine host of the Boar's Head, a big and portly personage with bloated
-cheeks, received our weary guests with a cheerful welcome; and led the
-way to a large travellers' parlour, where, in an ample fire-place,
-huge logs were blazing on the hearth. The seats on either side were
-already occupied by guests, before whom, on small three-legged tables,
-their repasts were smoking.
-
-At one of these sat two persons, whose appearance was that of military
-men:--the younger of the two was very handsome, and of a commanding
-figure. No sooner did the gentleman in Cuthbert's company approach the
-fire than this martial youth rose, and addressing him by the name of
-Fleming, shook him cordially by the hand. The ear of Cuthbert did not
-catch the name by which, promptly responding to the recognition,
-Fleming replied, nor did he learn it throughout the evening. However,
-another small table was immediately drawn near, and covered. Eggs,
-sausages, and broiled bones were served up hastily; and, after
-Cuthbert and his companion had satisfied the keen appetites which they
-had gotten by a long journey in cold rain and on miry roads, a large
-jug of burnt claret was placed before them; and the following
-conversation between the two acquaintances was listened to by Cuthbert
-in silent astonishment:--
-
-"Well, Frank, you have not forgotten old times, I hope. I trust that
-we shall teach the volunteer gentry how to handle a sword after the
-fashion of the old Swedish troopers before long:--they made sorry work
-of it in the north last year; and for my part I was half ashamed to
-ride among such a rabble!"
-
-"What made you go at all then?" said the youthful soldier.
-
-"Why, to say truth, Frank, I found my life in the country very dull,
-and my old father's hunting companions as heavy as lead; and I
-heartily wished myself back in Germany, where I might hear a trumpet
-once more:--so when I heard that the King was going against the Scots
-away I posted to court, and waited upon his Majesty, and got a
-commission."
-
-"I hope, Fleming, you made yourself master of the quarrel before you
-offered your services."
-
-"Look you, Frank, I remember you was always as grave as a judge about
-war, and examined sides, and would know the rights of all that was
-done. That was never my way. I left Cambridge at nineteen, and went to
-the camp of Gustavus, as eager and as blind as a young colt; and so
-again now:--wherever the King's standard flies all must be right;
-besides, I hate these pricked-eared Puritans, and yon Scotch psalm
-singers that wo'n't use the Prayer Book."
-
-"It seems, however, that they can use the broad sword, and with good
-effect, if accounts speak true."
-
-"There you have me," rejoined the cheerful and light-hearted
-campaigner,--"there you have me. I never felt shame as a soldier till
-this Scotch campaign. Our tall fellows always turned their backs
-first, and retreated true runaway fashion:--you could never make them
-fire their pistols, and wheel off orderly; and it was well for them
-that they had raw Scots troopers at their tails instead of
-Pappenheim's cuirassiers."
-
-"It is clear enough that you must have run too," said the young
-soldier, laughing, "or you would not be here to tell the story."
-
-"To be sure I did,--but not without leaving the mark of my sword in
-the cheek of a stout Scotsman that pressed me a little too close and
-unmannerly. However, live and learn is a wise saying. When the King
-fairly raises a proper army, instead of a set of footmen and servants,
-commanded by courtiers and parsons, there will be warmer sport than we
-had in the north."
-
-"It will be sorry and grave sport, methinks, comrade, when Englishmen
-stand up against Englishmen, and little pleasure to see an old
-fellow-soldier in the ranks opposite."
-
-"Odd's life, I shall never see you enact rebel."
-
-"Rebel is a rough word:--suppose we change the subject."
-
-The conversation was now continued on various indifferent matters till
-the hour for rest. Cuthbert himself made but few observations, and was
-strangely exercised in his mind by contemplating the characters before
-him. In addition to those already named, there was one other traveller
-at a table by himself, who had partaken of no better fare than a bowl
-of oatmeal porridge, and who sat intent over a small closely printed
-book, without once opening his lips, and seldom even raising his eyes.
-The companion of Cuthbert often looked contemptuously askance at him,
-and indulged in many a fling against the Puritans; but the silent
-stranger either did not or would not hear these rude jests, and, as
-they met with no encouragement from any one present, they fell flat
-and powerless. At length the time of going to bed came; and the host
-appeared to conduct his guests to their chambers. Our host, having a
-quick eye to the quality of the parties, placed the Cavalier captain
-in his best chamber; the two military-looking men in the next; and the
-pale stranger in a small cold garret with Cuthbert.
-
-As soon as the door was closed behind them, and the foot of the
-landlord was heard descending the stairs, the stranger approached
-Cuthbert and invited him to join in prayer.
-
-"To me," said the stranger, with a face of the most earnest gravity,
-"to me is committed that rare and precious gift, the discerning of
-spirits: I see thou art a God-fearing youth:--as soon as thou didst
-enter the parlour I smelled the perfume of the angelic nature; even as
-also the sulphur and the brimstone of Tophet in the three sons of
-Belial, who are gone to lie down under the power of Beelzebub, and to
-sleep with evil spirits for company."
-
-"Friend," said Cuthbert, "I do not understand you: it is not my custom
-to join in prayer with an unknown stranger; there is thy bed, and
-here is mine:--let us lie down upon them in peace, and commune with
-our own hearts and be still."
-
-"Verily," rejoined the stranger, "thou art afraid:--it is no
-wonder:--thou art but a mere babe of grace, and thine eyes do see but
-dimly the glories of my high calling;--but I tell thee thou art a
-chosen vessel of the Lord,--and even now I feel my bowels moved
-towards thee, and the spirit of prayer is upon me, and I must wrestle
-with the powers of darkness to deliver thy poor soul from the snare of
-the fowler. This is my command,--and even now I am appointed unto thee
-for an angel of defence, and the fight is begun."
-
-The stranger now threw himself upon his knees, and poured forth a
-long, rambling and blasphemous petition,--the words of which made
-Cuthbert shudder.
-
-However, as he had been already told that there was no other chamber
-or bed vacant, and as he was greatly fatigued, he lay down to sleep,
-silently commending himself to the care of God, and endeavouring to
-substitute a feeling of pity for the deep disgust with which this
-crazy chamber-fellow inspired him.
-
-The last sounds of which he was conscious before his heavy eyes became
-sealed in forgetfulness were groanings from the adjoining bed--nor did
-he awake in the morning till it was broad daylight. He looked
-around--the chamber was empty;--at this he felt thankful: and,
-supposing that his last odd companion had travelled forward at an
-earlier hour, he arose, and proceeded to dress himself; but he
-instantly discovered that his purse was gone. He went forth on the
-stairs, and called loudly for the landlord. It was some time before he
-made his appearance; and when he did so, he listened to the tale with
-hard indifference, and coarse incredulity.
-
-"Ah! that's an old story, my devil's scholar, but it wo'n't go down
-with me:--you shan't budge from the Boar's Head till you pay your
-shot, I can tell you; and your nag shall go to the market cross before
-I let you ride off without paying for provender."
-
-Cuthbert's fury was roused to the uttermost; but his hot words were
-only laughed at by the rosy Boniface, who soon left him. He slipped on
-his clothes with all haste, and came down into the guest parlour,
-where the Cavalier and the two military men were already seated at
-breakfast by a cheerful fire. He stated his case before them all with
-the warm earnestness of truth. The Cavalier picked his teeth and
-whistled; but the younger of the other two seemed very much to
-sympathise in the embarrassment of Cuthbert, which in fact was more
-serious than he himself apprehended; for mine host came presently into
-the parlour to say, that his horse and his vallise were taken away by
-his chamber-fellow before dawn.
-
-"It was all a made up thing," said the landlord in a storm of passion.
-"I saw they were a couple of hypocritical rogues, and packed 'em
-together for safety's sake--'twould only be thief rob thief, I
-knew:--but it's my belief they take the horse turn by turn, and steal
-in company; for yon old one has left half a bottle of strong waters
-and the leg of a cold goose at his bed-foot:--come, young knave," he
-added, attempting to take Francis by the collar, "come with me afore
-the justice. He'll find thee a lodging in our cage."
-
-With a force to which indignation gave strength, Cuthbert threw back
-the fat bully against the wall, and turning to the Cavalier, who had
-rode with him part of his yesterday's journey,--
-
-"You may remember, sir," he said, "that when you joined me, I told you
-that I came from the neighbourhood of Warwick, and was on my journey
-to London. I told you, moreover, that I was a member of the University
-of Cambridge:--the silver crest on my holsters was the crest of Sir
-Oliver Heywood of Milverton, in whose house I have resided for this
-year past, as tutor to his nephew's son. The animal, in fact, is Sir
-Oliver's property, and was kindly lent me for the journey:--if you
-will answer for me to this landlord, and give me a crown piece to
-travel on with, I will faithfully repay you when I reach town. My
-name, sir, is Cuthbert Noble, son of Mr. Noble, rector of Cheddar, in
-Somerset."
-
-"A pack of stuff, good master," said the angry landlord to the
-Cavalier,--"don't you be made a fool of; don't be bamboozled by a
-smooth trumped up cock and a bull story like this: if the horse is Sir
-Oliver Heywood's, they have stolen it, and change riders on the road
-to Smithfield, where they will turn it into a purse of nobles before
-night. Marry, I'll go for constables, and, as you are honest gentlemen
-and true, hold the knave fast in your keeping till I come back again."
-Before, however, he could leave the room, as much to his astonishment
-and shame as to the surprise and relief of Cuthbert, the younger of
-the two travellers, whom his companion the Cavalier had last night
-claimed acquaintance with, came forward in a very open and cordial
-manner, and assured Cuthbert of his readiness to assist him.
-
-"I am connected," said the noble looking youth, "with the family at
-Milverton, nor is the name of Master Cuthbert Noble unknown to me. My
-purse is at your service; and I shall be glad of your company on the
-road. Though I have no horse to offer you, post-horses can be easily
-procured at every stage."
-
-Thus was Cuthbert at once released from a perplexity, and introduced
-to the friendship of Francis Heywood.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XVI.
-
-    The great vicissitude of things amongst men is the vicissitude
-    of sects and religions; for those orbs rule in men's minds most.
-                                                              BACON.
-
-
-On the third of November, 1640, the fatal Long Parliament began. On
-the 12th, the Earl of Strafford was impeached of treason, and
-committed to the Black Rod. The Lords denied him bail and council; and
-he was, in a few days more, commanded into close imprisonment in the
-Tower. One hundred thousand pounds were now voted to the Scots, and
-borrowed of the city of London. Ship money was soon questioned by the
-Parliament, and voted an illegal tax; and, in fine, all grievances and
-abuses were loudly proclaimed, and resolutely brought forward, by
-intrepid and patriotic men; of whom the best and noblest did certainly
-never contemplate, at that time, the sad and humiliating close of the
-labours and the authority of that memorable and august assembly.
-August, of a truth, that assembly may be called, in which a Hampden
-and a Falkland stood, at after moments, opposed in debate; and in
-which, in the following year, the grand remonstrance of the Commons
-was the subject of grave deliberation for thirty hours, and was only
-carried, at last, by a majority of nine voices.
-
-But to return to our story. It may be supposed that Cuthbert Noble was
-no indifferent or unmoved spectator of the great public events which
-every day brought forth in the winter of 1640. With his serious and
-peculiar notions, the questions that affected liberty of conscience
-and church reform were those which most deeply interested him; and
-when, upon the morning of the 23d of November, Prynne and Burton
-entered triumphantly into Westminster, followed by many thousands of
-the people, Cuthbert was foremost in the crowd; and not a zealot among
-them was more wildly excited than himself.
-
-Laughter and tears succeeded to each other, as those around expressed
-their rude sympathy;--now in remarks quaint and comical--now in pious
-commiseration, or in the stern tones of indignant and just anger.
-
-"Which is old Prynne?" said one.--"That's he," said his neighbour,
-"with his black head clipped close, looking, for all the world, like a
-skull-cap."--"See how the old boy grins."--"He's no beauty."--"Hurrah!
-hurrah!"--"Can you hear, old boy?"--"I wonder if a man can hear
-without his ears."--"To be sure a' can, all the better."--"Well, he
-can't have the ear-ache no more."--"Don't talk so unfeeling."--"Look,
-poor dear good man, he is as white as a sheet."--"That is prison and
-hunger."--"This is your bishops' work--od rot 'em--their turn shall
-come."
-
-With such vulgarities were mixed the solemn tones and pious
-expressions of many a sincere Christian, giving utterance to praise
-and thanksgiving for the deliverance of these persecuted men; while,
-here and there, a strong voice would be heard, above the crowd,
-denouncing the tyranny of the church and the crown in coarse language,
-in which the Establishment was likened to the whore of Babylon,--and
-the Archbishop of Canterbury was pointed out to the vengeance of the
-rabble.
-
-Such language would, in a moment of calm reflection, have been utterly
-revolting to the feelings of Cuthbert. He would have shut his ears to
-the base and bloody cry, and hurried away from the wretches who gave
-it utterance, as from the company of sinners, whose feet were already
-planted in the paths of wickedness, and were swift to shed blood. But
-now, though such fierce cries gave a jar to his better dispositions
-and nobler nature, they were regarded as the natural ebullitions of an
-irritated mob; and he stood among them as a partaker of their guilt by
-the sanction of his presence.
-
-Nothing is so blind--nothing is so deaf--nothing can stoop so low--as
-party spirit;--and at no period of English history was this more fully
-exemplified than at that of which we are now speaking. The Cavaliers,
-on their side, were not without the support of a rabble of their own;
-and by these, the slang of the tavern, the bear garden, and the
-brothel, was exhausted to furnish epithets of scorn, contempt, and
-ridicule, by which they might insult their fanatical opponents.
-
-To the mental eye of Cuthbert the two victims of a severe and
-intolerant hierarchy stood out in large and disproportionate
-grandeur,--filling all the foreground of the picture upon which he now
-gazed to the exclusion of all other objects.
-
-He saw them bearing the evident marks of torture and degradation on
-their mutilated forms. They had been thus treated, according to his
-notion, for a mere error in judgment--they were sufferers for
-conscience-sake:--his heart grew hot within him,--and he would have
-called down fire from heaven on the heads of their oppressors.
-
-He accompanied the crowd all through Westminster; and, in the
-eagerness of his excited mood, pressed in once close to the horse of
-Prynne, that he might utter a "God save you, master!" to the stern
-Puritan, face to face.
-
-There was a keen twinkle of triumph in the little eyes of the sour
-precisian, which showed that he felt his day of revenge would soon
-come, and that it would be his turn to play inquisitor towards his
-late haughty oppressor.
-
-However, he would have been more than human had he been superior to
-such an infirmity, after sustaining injuries so great.
-
-It happened on the day of this public entry of Prynne and Burton that
-Cuthbert was alone in the quarter of Westminster; and having remained
-a long time gazing on the show, he went into a tavern in a narrow
-street behind the Abbey to refresh.
-
-After satisfying his hunger over a fine joint of roast beef in company
-with a grave looking lawyer, who sat opposite him at the same table,
-with a roll of parchments and papers by his side, the man of law
-proposed a cup of canary to the health of Masters Prynne and Burton,
-in which he was readily seconded by Cuthbert.
-
-"Ah," said the stranger bitterly, "this is a different kind of
-procession to the fool's mummery which they made us play seven years
-ago, before the wanton queen and her dancing French gentlemen."
-
-"What! you mean the mask of the inns of court, on Candlemas-day, seven
-years ago?" asked Cuthbert.
-
-"Just so: that was got up to tickle the court party, and trample down
-Prynne and his book; but tables are turning."
-
-"Well, though I think they were very tyrannical about Prynne, I did
-not like his book; and never saw any harm in a mask or an interlude."
-
-"Why, to judge by your looks, you could only have been a boy when that
-mask was given, and perhaps you did not see it."
-
-"That is true; but I read the account of it that was printed, and
-surely it was a brave and glorious show; and, methinks, there were
-some witty hints given his Majesty in the anti-masks, which he might
-be the wiser for."
-
-"The man Charles Stuart," said the stranger, "will never be the better
-for hints."
-
-It was the first time that Cuthbert had ever heard from any lips so
-irreverent a mention of the King, and he coloured and was silent.
-
-"I say he will never be the better for hints,--though it is true that
-some of them were broad enough, and too humorous for offence; but you
-have forgotten that there was one anti-mask got up by the serviles to
-insult the poor. If it may not have a sneer of ridicule for poverty
-and misfortune, the pleasure of the proud wanteth its best relish."
-
-"I do not understand you," said Cuthbert; "of what speak you, master?"
-
-"Of that which has been played in joke, and shall come to pass in
-earnest. Little they thought, with their gibes and their mockery, that
-they were but foreshowing events, which the turn of the wheel is even
-now bringing to pass. I do remember all their gilded chariots and rich
-apparel, and gay liveries; and in the midst of that costly show, there
-rode an anti-mask of cripples and beggars, clothed in rags, and
-mounted on sorry lean jades, gotten out of dust carts, with dirty
-urchins snapping tongs and shovels before them for music,--and thus
-was the noble music, and thus were the gallant horses, and the velvets
-and silks and spangled habits, made more pleasing to the painted court
-Jezebels by the pitiful contrast. Shall not the Lord visit for these
-things?" he added, raising his voice, and changing the tone of it to a
-solemn sternness: "Yea, verily, he shall visit:--in his hand there is
-a cup,--and the dregs thereof shall be drunk out by the
-oppressors,--and the sword shall go through the land, and it shall be
-drunk with blood."
-
-The severe inference thus forced by the speaker from a trifling
-circumstance, of which the joyous projectors of the interlude thought
-perhaps very differently, and which might have been so turned by a
-playful mind, as a caricature against the foreign musicians, then so
-much about court; or, again, by a thoughtful mind, as a memento of
-those dark realities of human misery which invite and demand
-compassion. This inference was at once received by Cuthbert as just.
-It touched a chord in his heart that immediately responded, and he was
-played upon as a lute by his companion; till, at last, the latter
-opening a roll of parchment requested him to put down his name as a
-subscriber to the necessities of a few godly and persecuted men now
-suffering imprisonment for the great cause of liberty of conscience,
-and whose families were quite destitute.
-
-From his slender purse Cuthbert instantly took the few crowns it
-contained, and only reserving sufficient money to pay for his dinner,
-shook his new acquaintance heartily by the hand, and set forth on his
-way to the city, where he lodged, with a heart glowing with the love
-of God, of his country, and of mankind. His evil angel had only to
-appear clothed like an angel of light, and Cuthbert would follow,
-nothing doubting, whithersoever he was led. The false fire, which
-glimmered over the dangerous quagmire of gloomy fanaticism, was
-mistaken by Cuthbert for light from Heaven; and by the frequent
-perusal of controversies on religion, and a constant attendance on the
-private ministries of those fierce zealots, who were urging forward
-the overthrow of the Established Church, he became at length totally
-bewildered. It was in vain that Francis Heywood exposed to him the
-hypocrisy and inconsistency of some of those wolves in sheep's
-clothing by whom he was now continually surrounded, to the neglect of
-Heywood's own society and that of the higher and better order of the
-Parliamentarian supporters. He listened with pity to remonstrances
-which he considered as proceeding from a man of the world, and a
-deceived soul wandering in darkness; nevertheless his affectionate
-disposition survived the strength of his reason. He looked up to and
-loved Francis Heywood as a model of what the natural man might attain
-to; and as in their political views they were altogether agreed, they
-very often met. The ardent Francis might indeed have well doubted of
-the soundness of a political creed which numbered among its supporters
-such diversified and crazy characters as those whom he saw daily
-embrace it: but although he was not able to endure their sanctimonious
-professions, and morose manners, he viewed them as instruments
-necessary to the present warfare of principles; and, having returned
-from America on purpose to stand up for the popular rights, he
-remained steadfastly at his post, watching with intense interest the
-proceedings of parliament, and eager for the moment when those
-services, which he came to offer, might be required in the field.
-
-In one particular the lives of Francis Heywood and of Cuthbert Noble
-during the two following years corresponded well. Never were those
-hard duties which self-denial enjoins, practised with a more resolute
-and cheerful virtue. The means of both were slender; and they
-supported themselves by the exercise of their respective talents with
-credit and success.
-
-Cuthbert attended daily in the families of two or three merchants of
-the Puritan party as classical tutor to their boys; while Francis
-Heywood, reserving with great care the sum necessary to purchase a
-good charger, and military equipments, whenever he might need them,
-maintained his current expenses by the drawing of maps, plans, and
-views illustrative of the late campaigns of Gustavus Adolphus, and of
-the actual warfare in Germany which was then carrying on. These
-drawings found a sufficient sale, among the curious in such matters,
-to remunerate the light labour of producing them; and though the
-printseller, who purchased them from Francis, told him that gentlemen,
-very capable of advancing his interests, had made inquiries after him,
-yet he was forbidden by Francis to disclose his residence, or to
-answer any questions about him. His leisure from this easy occupation
-was employed in useful studies or in manly exercises. He daily
-frequented a school of arms, not for instruction, indeed, for he was a
-master of all weapons, but for health and diversion; and for the same
-end he went often to the grand manege in the quarter of the court;
-where he was so great a favourite with the chevalier, who taught the
-graces of horsemanship, that he was asked as a kindness to exercise
-the most spirited and beautiful animals of his stud in the open
-country:--an offer which, from the delight he took in the amusement of
-schooling a young and high bred horse, he very often accepted.
-
-Francis Heywood was not unknown to many families with whom his father
-had been intimate; and by some of them, notwithstanding his fortunes
-and his politics, and by others on account of them, he was invited to
-several houses, where he might have enjoyed all the pleasures and the
-refinements of social life; but he very rarely accepted their
-invitations, not merely from mistaken pride, but from a disrelish of
-scenes which would always so strongly and painfully suggest to him the
-happy intercourse he had once enjoyed in that domestic circle, of
-which his adored Katharine was at once the charm and the idol.
-
-Upon this sweet memory, in lonely hours of leisure, his mind would
-feed, and he would discourse of it, not indeed in words, but in the
-soft breathings of his lute; till, suddenly, by the strong effort of a
-manly will, he would tear himself from the dangerous indulgence, and
-sit closely down to his writing desk, that he might complete the
-minute journal of public events which he kept for his father, and
-despatched, as opportunities offered, to New England.
-
-To the review of these grave subjects he brought a generous spirit;
-and it was not without an occasional pang that he related the progress
-and triumph of the cause to which he was sincerely attached.
-
-He could not but exult to see the principles of government openly
-examined, and the just rights and liberties of the people clearly
-defined.
-
-He looked with veneration upon the labours of the Commons; and he
-watched with jealousy the advisers of the crown, and the sycophants
-about the court. He saw many abuses rectified, many grievances
-redressed. He saw the iniquitous Star Chamber and the High Commission
-Court abolished,--and a noble security against a return of
-misgovernment and tyranny in the famous bill for a triennial
-parliament.
-
-This last measure, the main pillar of the new constitution, was
-received by the whole nation with rejoicings; and when it passed
-solemn thanks were presented to his Majesty by both houses of
-parliament. But the sincerity of the court party and the moderation of
-the reformers were alike suspicious. The passions, the prejudices,
-and the interests of conflicting parties had been too rudely aroused
-by discussion to subside without an explosive collision; and it was
-evident to Francis that the struggle between the prerogatives of the
-crown and the privileges of parliament would never terminate without
-an appeal to arms.
-
-He shuddered to see the scaffold stained with the blood of Strafford;
-and though he was among those who clamoured against the minister, he
-profoundly commiserated the man, as the abandoned victim of his
-party,--and in his heart he despised Charles for signing the
-death-warrant of his favourite.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XVII.
-
-    There let the pealing organ blow,
-    To the full-voiced quire below,
-    In service high and anthems clear,
-    As may with sweetness through mine ear
-    Dissolve me into ecstasies,
-    And bring all heaven before mine eyes.
-                                   MILTON.
-
-
-The affliction of the good parson of Cheddar at the strange and
-painful conduct of his son Cuthbert was heavy to bear. However, from a
-sense of duty to his weaker partner, he made great efforts to preserve
-his wonted serenity and composure in her presence; but when alone he
-was bowed down in the dust.
-
-Nothing could possibly present a greater contrast to the tone of
-religious profession which was, at this period, obtaining a wide
-reception among men than that in which old Noble lay prostrate in his
-closet before his God.
-
-He had ever been a meek and cheerful Christian; but there were depths
-of humiliation which he had not as yet fathomed; and he would have
-fainted at the waves of trouble, which his prescient eye saw rolling
-onward, if he had not felt the hand, which led him down into the deep,
-was that of a heavenly Father, if he had not heard a voice that
-whispered in his ear, "_It is I, be not afraid_."
-
-In vain did he exhaust his heart in sound, pious, and affectionate
-remonstrances, meditated and penned in the spirit of prayer, that he
-might recall his dear and wandering child to the bosom of the church,
-or, at all events, so far recover him from gross delusions as to see
-him join that upright and devout portion of the community, which,
-though differing from the discipline of the church, maintained a pure
-and practical doctrine.
-
-In vain did he press the return of Cuthbert to Cheddar, by every
-argument which parental love could suggest.
-
-The letters of Noble and his wife were replied to in the words of
-love; but the fruit of his new persuasion was an obstinate self-will;
-and while he implored them, at great length, to consider his views,
-and urged the danger of despising them, he evinced to others, what was
-not perhaps suspected by himself, a degree of spiritual pride only to
-be exceeded by the strength of his delusion.
-
-He had adopted the notions of those fanatics who were styled
-Fifth-monarchy Men, and who ranged themselves where, indeed, any sect,
-however extravagant, might have found a place, under the banner of the
-Independents.
-
-It was some consolation to these troubled parents to hear from the
-Philips's, their relations, and also from other friends, that the life
-and the conduct of Cuthbert were, as regarded all moral and social
-duties, a credit to any theory, and such as became the pure precepts
-of the Gospel.
-
-His intellect was clear upon every other subject, except on that
-which, if it be rashly touched, seems to be guarded by invisible
-angels, who put forth their hands and smite the daring intruder with
-madness. "Oppression," saith the preacher, "will make a wise man
-mad;"--a truth abundantly proved by the events, which, leading first
-to a secret and salutary reform, ended at last in a bloody revolution
-and an iron rule.
-
-It may be added, that he who seeketh to meddle with the hidden
-mysteries of unfulfilled prophecy is often smitten with blindness and
-confusion for his presumption. Thus it was with Cuthbert:--sensible,
-amiable, and affectionate in all the relations of life, he was now the
-subject of a monomania, and turned a deaf ear to the voice of truth
-and wisdom, though it spoke with all the authority and all the
-earnestness of a father.
-
-These were not times in which a minister could leave his parish for a
-distant journey, nor, indeed, was it at all likely that the presence
-of his parents would have effected that change in the sentiments or
-the course of Cuthbert, which their admirable and Christian letters
-had failed to produce.
-
-Time wore on gloomily enough, even in the peaceful parsonage at
-Cheddar. Many a time as old Noble paced his garden amid sunbeams and
-flowers, praising that "mercy which endureth for ever," his
-thanksgivings ended in tears and lamentations, not for his domestic
-troubles, but for the great evils which he feared and expected would
-befall the church and the nation.
-
-Laud was already paying the penalty of his mistaken, but certainly
-conscientious, severity, in a prison, from whence it might be plainly
-foretold he would at length be conducted to the block. The bishops'
-votes in parliament were taken away, and the deans and chapters were
-already voted against in the Commons, although their spoliation had
-not yet taken place, neither were the cathedral services as yet
-discontinued. As regularly, therefore, as the Thursday came round,
-Noble, if not prevented by a special call of duty at home, made his
-weekly visit to the fair city of Wells; where he in the first instance
-always bent his steps to the cathedral, and joined the congregation
-assembled for morning service.
-
-It was on a saint's day, in the summer of 1641, that, as usual, he
-proceeded to that venerable and glorious temple, and took his seat in
-the vacant stall which it was his wont to occupy. Directly opposite he
-observed a tall uncouth man of harsh features and a sour countenance,
-sitting very upright, and glancing a severe and restless eye at the
-organ, the first tones of which were pealing through the long aisles,
-as the dean, the prebends, and other officers of the choir, preceded
-by the vergers with their maces, slowly entered, and reverently took
-their seats.
-
-The service began, and was conducted with that solemn decency, and
-with those clear fine chants, which dispose most hearts to a subdued
-feeling of intense devotion.
-
-There is a something in sacred music which does wonderfully compose
-the mind, and cleanse it of all earthly-rooted cares. Upon the
-stranger above mentioned, however, it produced no such effect. He sat
-erect, cold, and contemptuous: he put aside the Book of Common Prayer
-with a rude thrust; and taking a small volume from his pocket opened
-it with ostentatious gravity, and, not joining in the worship that he
-witnessed, either by response, gesture, or any conformity of posture
-with those around him, sat, now casting his eyes on the page of his
-book, now severely around, and now raising them to Heaven after a
-manner that left nothing but the jaundiced whites visible.
-
-This strange conduct disturbed, irritated, or amused the observers,
-according to the impression that was made upon them. Some of the
-prebends and vicars choral looked red and angry. The dean was greatly
-distressed, and knew not what to do. At first he called the verger,
-with a design to remove the intruder; but, upon second thoughts, he
-feared that a yet greater interruption and indecency might take place
-if such a course was attempted, he therefore commanded his feelings
-with as much dignity as he could. But his grave frowns were totally
-without power upon the youthful choristers, whose laughter would have
-been loud and audible, but for the thick folds of the surplice with
-which they stuffed their rebellious and aching jaws.
-
-Noble himself was mournfully agitated, and prayed in the spirit with
-that deep and melancholy fervour which hath no outward expression but
-the abased eyes.
-
-By degrees, the congregation recovered their composure, and never was
-an anthem performed with more earnest solemnity, or a sweetness more
-touching to the inmost soul, than the "_Ne Irascaris_," the "Be not
-Wroth," or "Bow thine Ear" of the famous composer Bird. At the words
-"Sion, thy Sion is wasted and brought low," which are set to a tender
-and solemn passage, and are sung very soft and slow, the effect was
-sublime. Moved by the deep pathos of the expression, the cheeks of
-Noble, as of a few others present, were bathed in tears.
-
-But the stranger remained in his seat without rising, and perused his
-book with a kind of resolved and insulting inattention to it all.
-
-The service was not permitted to close without this mysterious
-personage marking his contempt of it yet farther, by rising suddenly,
-while all the congregation were on their knees, and stalking slowly
-down the middle of the aisle with a loud and measured stamp of his
-great thick boots.
-
-He wore by his side a long heavy-looking sword, and had certainly the
-air of a man who could use it, if he chose, with little fear and no
-favour.
-
-Noble joined the clergy in the chapter-room directly after the morning
-prayers were ended, and there learned that there had been a riot the
-night before in the streets, excited by some mischievous emissary from
-London; and that some of the rabble had burned a bishop in effigy, in
-the close just under the windows of the dean. It seemed, however, that
-this outrage had been committed by a band of low persons, who had come
-up from Bristol to attend a fair, and had brought with them sundry
-printed papers and ribald songs to distribute in the lanes and alleys
-of the city: the object of which was to bring the church and clergy
-into public contempt.
-
-However, it so happens that, for the most part, the inhabitants of a
-cathedral town take a great pride in the edifice itself, whatever may
-be their indifference to religion. Those magnificent structures are
-the first wonders upon which the eyes of the human beings, born and
-suckled beneath their shadow, are taught to gaze. They are noble and
-solemn features in the scene of early life; and are printed so
-indelibly on the mind, that, let the native of a cathedral city wander
-where he will, the recollection of the venerable temple goes with him,
-associated, in his memory, with his birthplace, his holydays, his
-truant hours, with the merry music of festival bells, with the pride
-of having often seen strangers and travellers, both of high and low
-degree, walk about its walls, and linger in its spacious aisles, with
-pleasure and admiration.
-
-Therefore a party among the common people was easily roused to take up
-sticks and stones against the insulting mischief-makers, who were thus
-at last driven away from the city with great tumult.
-
-It was the very day following this riot that the offensive adventure
-in the cathedral, which we have just related, occurred. As no doubt
-existed in the minds of the clergy assembled in the chapter-room that
-the extraordinary person, who had just committed so gross and indecent
-an outrage in a place of public worship, was, in some measure,
-connected with the disturbance of the preceding day, they resolved to
-make an immediate complaint to the Mayor of Wells, that the obnoxious
-individual might be taken up, and committed to prison, or otherwise
-punished for his offence.
-
-Some little time had been lost in their consultations; and they came
-forth from the cathedral in a body, with the intention of despatching
-two of the prebends, already deputed for that purpose, to wait upon
-the mayor, when, to their surprise and mortification, they saw the
-object of their anger approaching them on horseback. As he drew near,
-it was evident that the opportunity of arresting him was already lost.
-He rode a very powerful young horse of generous breed and fine
-action--and he sat upon him as on a throne.
-
-"Look ye," said he, as he drew up close to the astonished
-group,--"Look ye, Scribes and Pharisees! hypocrites!--ye love
-greetings in the market-place--take mine:--the time is come to set
-your houses in order--even now the decree is gone forth--the sword is
-now sharpening that shall pass through the land:--it glitters, look
-ye." So saying, with a grim smile he drew the blade of his own half
-out of the scabbard, and let it fall again with a forcible rattle.
-
-The dean, who was a bold and athletic man, disregarding this fierce
-action, made an active effort to seize the bridle of the Puritan's
-steed; but the wary rider with a jerk of the reins threw up the
-animal's head, and at the same moment touching his flank with the spur
-made him give a plunge forward that scattered the frightened priests a
-few yards on either side. Nevertheless, the dean remonstrated in very
-angry terms against his insulting abuse; as did others, who were, like
-himself, courageous. They did not, however, succeed either in stopping
-the fanatic or in driving him away:--a small mob was gathering in the
-cathedral yard, and the fiery zealot continued his address.
-
-"What mean ye, ye priests of Baal, by your silks, and your satins, and
-your hoods, and your scarfs, and your square caps, and your surplices,
-and all your fooleries? what mean your boy choristers that bleat like
-young kids, and your men choristers that bellow like oxen? what means
-your grunting organ? Is it thus you worship God, as though he were an
-idol and an abomination, and his temple like that of the heathen? It
-should be a house of prayer, and ye have made it a den of thieves, and
-all its services vain and lewd mummeries. I cry, Fie upon you!--Wo,
-wo, wo!--Ye shall see me again when the blast of the trumpet soundeth,
-and mine eye shall not pity. I will smite, I will not spare you. Have
-ye not preached blasphemies? have ye not broken and polluted the holy
-Sabbath with your sports and your harlotries? have ye not shed the
-blood of God-fearing men? yea, verily. Now hear my warning:--come out
-of her, come out of her, my people. There are among you, even among
-your priests, some whom the Lord hath chosen:--yet again I call to
-you, Come out of her, come out of Babylon, that ye perish not with
-her. To me is appointed this cry:--every where I must lift up my voice
-thus, till the day of vengeance come. Wo shall be the portion of those
-who hear me not!"
-
-An insane delight gleamed in his dark eyes, a convulsive energy
-distorted his features, and seemed to affect and agitate his whole
-form. The crowd drew closer to him: the resolute dean beckoning them
-forward, again advanced with the intention of seizing him, when he
-suddenly gave his horse the head; and touching the high spirited beast
-with both spurs, he was borne out of their sight at a few rapid
-bounds, and was very soon beyond all danger of pursuit.
-
-Several of the mob ran round the corner after him jeering and
-cheering; but the clergy went their ways, by twos and threes, and
-talked over the uncomfortable though diseased words of the fanatic
-with much gravity and discomposure.
-
-Many painful extravagancies of a fanatic character had been already
-committed in various parts of the country; and in London many
-scandalous scenes had been enacted, expressive of a contempt for the
-Established Church and her ministers.
-
-The prelates and dignitaries were the especial marks of popular
-hatred; but, hitherto, nothing approaching to the indecency and
-outrage above recorded had occurred in the neighbourhood and under the
-eye of Noble.
-
-Again he could have wished Cuthbert to have been present, as he had
-formerly wished that he could have witnessed the unmannerly and
-unchristian bearing of Master Daws, the morose and designing curate,
-whose interview with Noble we have in a former part of this story
-related.
-
-"Surely," thought the mild man of peace,--"Surely such things would
-open his eyes to the spirit that is abroad, and to the aim and end of
-these violent men, who would purify our venerable church as with fire,
-and wash away her few stains with the blood and the tears of her
-faithful children."
-
-After partaking of a dinner, with little appetite, in the house of his
-friend, where the party assembled formed but a sad society, and where
-the time passed in the discussion of more grave and anxious matters
-than those upon which they were commonly engaged in these innocent
-weekly meetings, the worthy parson mounted his old mare, and rode back
-slowly to Cheddar. His thoughts were so profoundly and mournfully
-absorbed by reflections on the very startling occurrences of the
-morning, that he saw not the clouds which were gathering overhead,
-until he was awakened to observe them by a sudden and loud clap of
-thunder. The sunshine was suddenly obscured by a deep gloom. A few
-heavy rain drops fell upon him, and were soon followed by a thick and
-rushing deluge of such rain as falls in summer tempests. The sky was
-covered with a mass of clouds black as a funeral pall. Every moment
-flashes of angry lightning passed across it in vivid and arrowy forms;
-while thunder followed, peal after peal rolling in quick and troubled
-succession. Noble had just entered the defile or pass by which Cheddar
-is approached; and as the narrow road lies in the bottom of a chasm,
-on either side of which the rocks rise many hundred feet with a
-terrific grandeur, the horrid gloom--the lurid and ghastly
-lights--and the prolonged echoes with which the roar of the thunder
-was borne from crag to crag--gave a tenfold awfulness to the storm,
-and sublimely shadowed forth the power of Jehovah.
-
-Amid this war of elements the meek parson felt almost happy:--his
-frightened beast had stopped beneath a rock that inclined somewhat
-over the road, though not sufficiently to afford any shelter from the
-rain. He was drenched to the skin himself, and as he could not urge
-his animal forward he dismounted; but the wet and the delay were
-forgotten, were disregarded. There are moments of communion with the
-Deity, which, when they are accorded to his feeble children, cause
-their spirits to be rapt in seraphic love. The adoration that is born
-of a faith trembling yet holding fast is the sublimest human
-worship:--"the firmest thing in this inferior world is a believing
-soul." And he that can lift up his voice with the Psalmist, and, amid
-the horrors of a tempest, can say, "Praise the Lord, O my soul; and
-all that is within me praise his holy name," hath, as it were, a
-sublime foretaste of that great and terrible day of the Lord, when the
-Christian shall witness the final and everlasting triumph of his
-Redeemer over sin and death,--and shall behold his salvation draw
-nigh.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XVIII.
-
-    With that the mighty thunder dropt away
-    From God's unwary arm, now milder grown,
-    And melted into tears.
-                             GILES FLETCHER.
-
-
-In such a spirit Noble endured the pelting of the storm, and listened
-to the rolling of the thunder, and gazed upon the dread illumination
-which flashed at intervals on the desolate and dreary rocks around
-him. The fury of this summer tempest was soon exhausted:--the
-exceeding blackness of the clouds gave place to a lighter, though a
-sunless, sky; the claps of thunder were few and distant, and the
-lightning became a faint and harmless coruscation. The rain was thin
-and transparent; and Noble continued his way on foot, followed by his
-old mare, whose docility was that of an aged dog. They had not
-proceeded above two hundred yards when the mare gave a sudden start,
-and ran up a heap of loose stones on the right of the road. On the
-left of it, at the foot of a tremendous precipice, Noble descried the
-object which had alarmed her, and which, but for her fright, he should
-have passed without notice. A man lay upon the ground bleeding. Noble
-immediately crossed to the spot, and stooping down, he recognised the
-person of the stern fanatic, whose conduct at Wells has been related
-in the foregoing chapter. He was insensible, but did not, upon
-examination, appear to have sustained any injury more serious than a
-severe and stunning bruise; as well as a cut on the forehead from a
-sharp flint. From the prints of his horse's feet, it seemed evident,
-at first, that he had been thrown where he then lay, and had fainted;
-but on looking again, Noble observed that his pockets were turned
-inside out, and that his sword and cartridge belt were gone; for he
-remembered in the morning to have remarked his arms very particularly,
-and to have been struck by the circumstance of a man of his rigid
-ungraceful figure sitting so admirably on horseback, and managing the
-young animal which he rode with such a light and easy hand. Moreover,
-he now saw that the impressions of the horse's hoofs had been made
-before the rain had fallen. His first care was to endeavour to restore
-the sufferer from his swoon. This he soon effected by chafing the body
-to restore circulation, and by applying to the nostrils a pungent
-preparation, which he always carried about with him, as a preservative
-from infection, when his duties called him to visit the sick beds of
-those who were afflicted with any disease considered pestilential.
-When Noble had satisfied himself that the unfortunate man was a little
-recovered by the returning consciousness in his eyes, and the
-regularity of his breathing, he went after his mare. She had not
-strayed far, and he soon brought her back, and after a while he had
-the satisfaction to observe that the wounded traveller was able to
-move and sit up. He now persuaded and assisted him to get upon the
-patient beast, and supporting him in the saddle with his hand, moved
-off slowly towards Cheddar. Half a mile on they met plain Peter, who
-had come out to look for his master, and was wondering and
-uncomfortable at the unusual lateness of his return.
-
-The sight explained itself; and the honest domestic expressing some
-sorrow for the sufferer, but more for his master, took his place on
-the other side of the mare, and aided Noble in the task of supporting
-the stranger, who was so weak and exhausted that he could hardly be
-held upon the saddle by their joint exertions for the rest of the
-road.
-
-Although not a syllable had been uttered by the object of their care,
-that was intelligible to either, and although Noble had not mentioned
-a word about having seen him at Wells, still Peter had an instinctive
-dislike to the man's features and his dress--from both of which he
-pronounced him a Puritan. He went so far as to provoke an angry rebuke
-from his master for opposing the benevolent resolution of the latter
-to take him to his own house.
-
-"Surely," said Peter, "a pallet at the Jolly Woodman will serve his
-turn:--he'll be well enough taken care of by Dame Crowther: why bring
-him home to trouble and frighten my good mistress, and to make a fuss,
-and a dirt, and a sick house of the parsonage?"
-
-"Peter," said Noble, "how would you like to be dealt by if you had
-fallen among thieves, and lay bruised and bleeding, and without a
-friend or a penny?"
-
-"Why, I should think an inn good enough for me; and so it is writ in
-the Bible."
-
-"Peter you are hard--and know not what spirit you are of--and speak
-foolishly."
-
-"Ah! well I mind what you said once about that parable, and how you
-told us that had the good Samaritan's house been over against the inn
-he would have taken him in at his own gate;--but somehow I don't like
-this fancy of yours--it will be a bad job:--when his saintship is
-warmed by your fire, mayhap he will turn out a serpent."
-
-"Never use that word lightly, Peter. I have often forbade you to
-trifle with it--duties are ours, events are God's. I shall certainly
-take this man in." Having thus decided, they went forward to the
-parsonage in silence. Mistress Noble came out eagerly as soon as they
-appeared. Her mind was soon quieted on the surprise which the sight of
-the wounded stranger caused her, and her kind and hospitable heart
-acquiesced instantly to the proposal of her good husband.
-
-The sufferer was at once carefully put to bed; and Noble, as by his
-own bright fire he put on the warm dry vestments which he found ready
-for him in his study, revolved the singular incidents of the eventful
-day with wonder, gratitude, and a calm confiding faith.
-
-He could not but reflect thankfully on his own escape from the
-misfortune which had befallen the temporary inmate of his dwelling.
-For want of a better booty, doubtless he would have been assaulted
-himself by the robbers who had fallen upon the Puritan; and, had he
-not been preceded by this traveller on the road, or had he left Wells
-at an earlier hour, he might have suffered in his room, or shared his
-fate.
-
-Again, how strange that a daring enthusiast, who had that very morning
-violated the sanctity of the cathedral, and had insulted the
-ministers of the church in their decent performance of public and
-solemn worship, should, before the setting of the sun which had
-witnessed his impiety, be laid in the dust, and left dependent upon
-one who had been revolted by his fierce conduct for the mercies of
-help and protection.
-
-"To-morrow," said Noble to his wife, as he related to her all the
-circumstances which had taken place at Wells, "when our guest is in a
-reasonable and repenting mood, I may, perhaps, speak a word in season
-that shall serve to deliver him from the chains of that cruel and
-bigoted spirit of persecution by which he is held. God preserve our
-Cuthbert from the hateful errors of men like these! It has been well
-observed, that though the fanatic cannot be seduced by the love of any
-sinful pleasures, yet that he can be readily persuaded to walk in
-blood by the lust of a power which he deceives himself in thinking he
-should assuredly use to the glory of the King of heaven, and the
-benefit of the faithful people of God. When will Christians learn
-that the kingdom of the Messiah is not of this world?"
-
-They had not retired for the night, when their worthy neighbour
-Blount, the franklin, who had but just returned from Glastonbury, came
-in to learn the particulars of what had occurred at Wells, and to tell
-the bad news which he had heard at Glastonbury that morning.
-
-"The devil is busy enough, Master Noble," said the old man as he
-entered: "there is a little party of vinegar-faced rogues coming to
-the Bald Raven at Axbridge to-morrow, who call themselves 'a
-Corresponding Committee for informing and aiding the Grand Committee
-of Religion and that for scandalous Ministers;' and they tell me that
-that sour hypocrite Daws is as busy as a bee among them already. But
-what is this I hear about one of these godly rogues having been half
-murdered under the cliff and lying in your house?"
-
-Noble told him all the circumstances; and Peter, who had lingered a
-little at the parlour door, said, "Ay, I can see by Master Blount's
-eyebrows he don't think it were a wise job to take this round-headed
-madman in here. Why he's talking a pack of wild stuff enough to
-frighten the maidens out of their wits."
-
-On hearing this, Noble, accompanied by Blount, went up stairs to the
-chamber of their inmate, and found him sitting upright in his bed, and
-parleying with some visionary appearance, after a wild but most
-earnest manner.
-
-As soon as they entered the room, he turned towards them and sniffed
-repeatedly, then gravely said, "Two good spirits and one bad--verily I
-am not forsaken--two to one against thee, Beelzebub--look gentle
-spirits--look upon the wall--there goes a coach drawn by lions and
-tigers--there goes Everard the conjurer in boots and spurs--here is
-the great fiery dragon--who hath taken away my trusty sword?--where is
-my horse?--a horse is a vain thing to save a man--see how it
-grows--the dragon--the great red dragon--taller--taller--it fills the
-room--save Lord, or I perish."
-
-To these wild, incoherent expressions, produced by the strange images
-which flitted before his troubled fancy, succeeded a profuse
-perspiration, and they persuaded him to lie down under the blankets,
-that he might obtain the full benefit of such a relief.
-
-He did so, and they could now only hear whispered murmurs, and humble
-tones, as of a person praying with tears. Noble himself was not
-unaffected by this scene; and even Blount admitted, that, if it were
-not for the mischief they did, some of these enthusiasts were rather
-to be pitied than punished. "Now here," said he, "is a case, where
-they should shave the head and lock up the poor creature in an
-hospital; but the worst matter is, they go about like mad dogs, biting
-all the folk they meet--and so they must e'en be dealt with in like
-manner."
-
-"You are not far wrong, neighbour, in judging many of them crazy; but
-there are cunning men behind to urge them on: and there certainly are
-many excellent and pious persons, who, as they stand on the same side
-in this sad quarrel, give a credit to the cause of these levellers in
-church and state which they otherwise would want; and, notwithstanding
-the actions and utterances of the unknown individual before us, I
-cannot look upon him without interest and pity."
-
-An umph from old Peter, with a request that his master would go to bed
-himself, and leave him to take care of the stranger, ended the
-conversation: Blount went away,--and Noble to his own chamber.
-
-At an early hour on the following morning two odd-looking servants, in
-sad-coloured suits, mounted and armed, presented themselves at the
-gate of the vicarage, and inquired "if their master was not there, as
-from what they had heard at the blacksmith's shed they thought that
-the gentleman, who had been robbed and wounded beneath the rocks, and
-was now lying sick in that house, could be no other."
-
-"I don't think you are far wrong," said Peter, as he cocked his eye
-askew at their long lean faces and their plain liveries of a colour
-like the cinders in the ash heap. "Like master like man, they say;
-though it's little I thought that the poor crazy body up stairs had a
-serving-man to truss up his points for him.--What do ye call your
-master?"
-
-"The right worshipful and godly Sir Roger Zouch, an approved voice, a
-faithful witness, a preacher of the truth, a trier of spirits, a man
-of war--bold as a lion for his God."
-
-"Why, then, by my troth," said Peter, "thy master is here for a
-certainty, and lieth with a cracked skull in our blue room; and is now
-telling my good master how he fought last night with beasts from
-Ephesus, who is listening to him, poor simple kind soul as he is, with
-as much patience as if it was all sense and gospel."
-
-"Out upon thee, thou vile churl! talkest thou so of one of Zion's
-champions? None of thy gibes and jeers, or it may be thine own crown
-will feel the weight of my cudgel." So saying, the elder of the two
-domestics alighted, and not waiting to be conducted, strode past Peter
-with a rude thrust, and entered the house.
-
-"A plague o' thee!" grumbled Peter: "two can play at quarter staff, as
-I'll show thee;" and following him into the passage, he slammed the
-door behind him, and left the other servant alone with the two horses
-before the wicket. This last, however, tarrying for no invitation,
-proceeded deliberately to the stable, and finding it open, introduced
-his tired beasts to the astonished old mare; took off bridles and
-saddles; and, plentifully supplying the rack and manger with hay and
-oats, entered the parson's kitchen, and taking a seat by the dresser
-demanded of the frightened maids the creature comforts of breakfast.
-
-Old Peter, who had just been witnessing the meeting of master and man
-above stairs, and whose cross temper had given way to a humour that
-had been tickled by the quaint scene and the ludicrous speeches, came
-shaking with laughter into the kitchen; but the tired and hungry groom
-was in no laughing mood, and soon upset this grinning philosophy by a
-smart stroke of his whip across his shoulders.
-
-In a moment the old man caught up a broomstick to return the blow;
-and, though very unequal, either in strength or youth, was standing up
-manfully against the assault, when the cook, whose spirit was roused
-by Peter's danger, dipped her mop in a pail of foul water, and
-thrusting it into the groom's face, drove him into the yard with dirty
-cheeks and blinded eyes. The cry of "murder" having been in the mean
-time screamed forth at the top of her voice by the other maiden, the
-kitchen was instantly filled with every person in the house; for even
-Sir Roger Zouch himself, albeit in no seemly garb for appearing in
-public, descended close after Noble, and stood up in the midst of them
-rather like a ghost newly risen from the grave than true flesh and
-blood,--though the stain of the last was indeed sufficiently visible
-beneath the folds of the bandage about his head.
-
-"How now!" said Sir Roger, in a voice rather more stentorian than
-might have been expected from the plight in which he had been put to
-bed the night before, and in a tone of authority as if he had been in
-his own mansion and with only his own household--"How now! brawlings
-and fightings: who is the striker, Gabriel Goldworthy?" but before
-this slow elder had screwed his mouth up to reply, Peter answered in
-his own blunt fashion, and the cook, in a shrill voice, chanted an
-echo to his complaint. Meantime the culprit groom, with a foul face,
-stood at the yard door as white as a stone with passion, while Sir
-Roger thus rejoined:--
-
-"Verily, thou art a trouble to me, Abel, and makest me a reproach
-among the people wheresoever I go: it was only last week, at the
-hostel of the Pied Bull in Tewksbury, thou didst raise a brawl about
-thy victuals at the buttery hatch: thou makest a god of thy belly.
-Remember that man liveth not by bread alone:--a good soldier must
-endure hardness, and never strike but in battle, and then home. I fear
-that thou art sensual, and it were not for thy godly grand-mother, and
-this, thy God-fearing uncle Gabriel, the man of my right hand, I would
-send thee back to thy ditching and delving."
-
-Abel muttered out that the children of Belial were making a mock of
-his master, and that he struck Peter in pure zeal for Sir Roger's
-honour; this Gabriel affirmed of his own knowledge to be true, and Sir
-Roger was pacified: but an opportunity of preaching, so favourable as
-it seemed to his weak judgment, was not to be neglected; he therefore
-proceeded to deliver a long rambling discourse on prophecy; and
-directed his looks and words with all the persuasive expression that
-he could possibly command towards the distressed parson and his good
-wife. He flattered himself that he had brought salvation to that
-house, and that all which had befallen him was in the order of
-Providence to that end. He had taken for his text, "Come out of her,
-my people;" and these words were repeated at the close of every
-passage, with all the varieties of intonation that his voice admitted.
-All efforts to induce him to stop or return up stairs till he had
-finished this wearisome preachment were vain. He stood half an hour
-with naked feet upon the kitchen stones, and was listened to even by
-Peter with a wonder so great, and with so painful a sense of his
-craziness, as forbade even a smile. He closed by so earnestly invoking
-peace on that house, and enjoining the exhibition of a quiet and an
-orderly spirit so forcibly upon the offending Abel, that during the
-rest of the day nothing disturbed the household.
-
-The hardy old Puritan nothing the worse for this exercise of his
-lungs, and very little so for the bruise and cut in his encounter with
-the robbers the evening before, took his seat at Noble's dinner table
-at noon, and seemed very sensible of the truly Christian hospitality
-of his host.
-
-As arguments or any appeals to reason would so evidently be thrown
-away upon a man under the prejudices and delusions of Sir Roger Zouch,
-Noble dexterously avoided inflaming the mind of his guest with a
-discussion on grave matters, and led him to speak on other topics. He
-found that he had travelled a great deal, and had in his youth served
-in the Low Countries. Upon these subjects he conversed rationally and
-pleasantly enough; and, as they walked after their meal into the
-garden, he showed an acquaintance with plants and flowers, and a
-knowledge of the various methods of laying out a garden, which in so
-stern a fanatic would seem strange; but what is there so variable, so
-inconstant, as man?--he is "some twenty several men in every hour;"
-not that either the dinner or the walk in the garden passed over
-without sundry efforts to spiritualise and improve the subjects which
-those occasions offered. In the garden especially, after talking a
-while like any other rational and well informed gentleman, he suddenly
-broke out in a rhapsody about the approaching millennium, and the
-personal reign of the Messiah upon this earth. His politics were
-violent; but in this they differed not from many able and patriotic
-men of the time. Against the church, however, his wrath evidently
-burned, and he affected to disbelieve the possibility of so pious a
-minister, as Noble plainly was, being sincerely resolved to remain in
-her communion. Upon this point, however, Noble was too bold and too
-honest to conceal his resolutions.
-
-It so happened that the next morning, before Sir Roger Zouch left the
-parsonage of Cheddar, there came to Noble a summons to attend the
-Committee of Inquiry into Church Matters, of which old Blount had
-warned the worthy parson on the evening of his return from Wells. Of
-this Noble informed his guest, and asked him if, as he saw the name of
-Zouch among the commissioners, it was any relation of his? The knight
-replied in the affirmative, and told Noble not to trouble himself to
-attend; for that as he was himself going to Axbridge he would make
-known to the committee his wish that no molestation might be given
-him. To this Noble would by no means consent, till he had received a
-solemn promise from Sir Roger that he would not represent him as less
-opposed to their proceedings against the church than he truly was, or
-less attached to that sacred institution which they sought to destroy.
-
-Thus was the trial of Noble for another brief season deferred, and the
-malicious designs and interested hopes of the meddling and
-hypocritical Daws were for the present disappointed. However, the gold
-was yet to be put into the fire at the appointed time.
-
-All these circumstances were related by Noble in a letter to his son
-Cuthbert, exactly as they occurred, with very little comment, and
-thus, as he rightly judged, they would make a forcible impression on
-his mind. They did so: a due consideration of them delivered him from
-some of his own delusions, and opened his eyes to those of a few of
-his companions; and though he was not at all more separated from the
-Non-conformists, yet he attached himself to the most sober among
-them.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XIX.
-
-    In thee, faire mansion, let it rest,
-    Yet know, with what thou art possest;
-    Thou entertaining in thy brest
-    But such a mind, mak'st God thy guest.
-                               BEN JONSON.
-
-
-What time the primroses were beginning to spread palely over the green
-and sunny banks in the neighbourhood of Milverton House, in the spring
-of 1642, the grimed armourers of England were busy in their smoky
-workshops; and there was no hall in the land, whether private or
-civic, in which the arms were not taken down from the walls and put in
-order. Every where notes of preparation were heard, and eyes of
-settled resolve might be seen.
-
-The House of Commons had petitioned the King for the militia, and they
-were already active in raising men. Sir Oliver Heywood, refusing to
-act in this matter, resigned his office of magistrate and justice of
-the peace, and took a decided part for the King. But although he had
-good will to the royal cause, and spoke his sentiments loudly and
-bitterly, although he was ready to make some personal exertions and
-some pecuniary sacrifices for his party, he was, as has been observed
-before, an indolent, self-indulgent old gentleman, a lover of ease and
-of his own way; methodical in all his habits, and obstinate in all his
-prejudices. The frequent visits of those hard and active men of
-business, who were employed to forward the royal cause by negotiating
-with all the Cavalier gentry for supplies of men and money, before the
-commission of array was actually issued, disturbed him sadly, and his
-temper became very irritable. Sir Charles Lambert had been long
-re-established in his good graces, and to the deep sorrow of Katharine
-had become once more a constant guest at Milverton. It is true that a
-great improvement had apparently taken place in his outward conduct,
-but Katharine disliked, mistrusted, feared him. She saw that he again
-entertained hopes of accomplishing his purposes upon her weak father,
-and of thus obtaining possession of her hand in marriage. It was an
-inconceivable mystery to her that any human being should desire to be
-united to another, when aware that his very touch was evaded with a
-shudder, and that from his gaze the face was averted with loathing.
-
-Some changes had taken place at the Hall within the last year, which
-had glided away with the swiftness of a shadow. In the January
-immediately preceding the season of which we are now writing, Mistress
-Alice had been summoned by that call, which, sooner or later, all must
-obey, and laid in a peaceful grave:--the snows that fell upon it were
-not more pure and spotless than had been her kind and innocent life,
-and her dissolution had been as gentle and as soft as their quick and
-silent melting.
-
-The family and household were still in their mourning for her; and had
-any stranger gazed upon Katharine Heywood, as in her sad robes of
-black she paced the terrace alone with slow and thoughtful steps, he
-would have wept for sympathy, and deemed her one of those silent
-mourners for the dead who refuse to be comforted, and cherish the
-sweet memory of a vanished image; but it was far otherwise,--her
-griefs were those of doubt and apprehension about the living. If ever
-a glance of the mind looked after the departed Alice, it did so with
-affection and complacency; with a calm joy that she was taken from the
-evil to come, and with an envy of her quiet tomb. But such movements
-of impatience at the difficulties of her path and the dreariness of
-that waste which lay before her in her appointed pilgrimage were never
-of any long continuance. She knew them to be wicked, and she knew them
-to be vain: she wore divine and secret armour, and she neither fled
-nor fainted in her hours of trial. The occasional, though less
-frequent, visits of George Juxon were a great relief to her,--and Jane
-Lambert continued to be her constant friend and beloved companion.
-Over the character of Jane there had come a change, which, though at
-times it was viewed with serious anxiety by Katharine, did upon the
-whole suit far better with those habits of her own soul which care
-had begotten.
-
-Jane Lambert's eyes, which were used to be lighted up with bright and
-joyous expression, and a certain lively and winning archness, did now
-often fill with unbidden tears, or were fixed gravely upon vacancy.
-
-One day, as the friends were walking together in a silent mood, the
-hand of Katharine resting gently upon the shoulder of Jane, and their
-steps slow as those of vestals in their groves, Juxon came suddenly
-upon them in their path; and so deep was the abstraction of both, that
-he was not seen of either till they met closely.
-
-"I am sorry," he observed, "to break the spell by which you are both
-bound, but I could not turn back, for I have business with Sir Oliver;
-however, it was to all seeming a spell so black and melancholy that
-perhaps it is better broken."
-
-"It is a good omen for us that it is broken by you, Master Juxon, for
-you are always a prophet of good, and misfortune never makes choice of
-such a messenger," said Katharine, with an effort at cheerfulness.
-Jane, too, suddenly recollecting herself, endeavoured to put on a
-careless smile, of welcome, but the effort failed her, and she burst
-into a flood of tears.
-
-Juxon, distressed and affected by the sight, made no reply to
-Katharine, but stood rivetted to the spot, hesitating whether he
-should proceed towards the house, and leave Jane to recover herself
-under the care of her friend, or whether he should remain to render
-what service he could, by diverting and calming a sorrow, the secret
-cause of which he fancied that he knew.
-
-Meanwhile, Katharine pressed Jane to her heart, and, covering her from
-observation, as though she were a child, said, "This is the natural
-effect of a night without sleep, and a nervous headache: it will do
-her good; you need not stay with us; we shall do very well, and Jane
-will be all the brighter for it at supper. You will find my father in
-the vineyard."
-
-Jane, however, in part relieved by these tears, quickly raised her
-head, and, with one of her most natural smiles dimpling her wet
-cheeks, said, "Pray do not let me drive you away: this is just
-nothing at all but what my old nurse used to call the mopes and the
-megrims: there, it is all over; that's one advantage we women have
-over you lords of the creation; that is, such of us as are not
-heroines, which I shall never be for one: we may now and then have a
-good cry; and, take my word for it, it is a fine cure for all
-nonsenses,--another favourite noun plural of my dear old nurse when I
-was little and naughty." This flash of affected gaiety did only light
-up her features, however, for a passing moment, and ere her few words
-were uttered an air of extreme depression returned upon her.
-
-"Nay, Mistress Jane," said Juxon, "these are no child's tears, neither
-are they fantastical like the melancholy of your fine lady: the
-fountain of them is deeper than any of these; you are unhappy. Here,
-before your noble friend, I must say that I have seen this for a long
-time: for more than a year I have witnessed with deep pain your
-altered manners and your failing health. Tell her the sad cause of
-your trouble; pour out your heart to her; she will safely advise and
-surely comfort you."
-
-"Really, Master Juxon," replied Jane, "you are a very strange person;
-and when you take a fancy into your head you are like good Sir Oliver,
-and truth would not drive it out again, though spoken by an angel,
-therefore a poor silly girl like me may not make the attempt."
-
-"For that matter, lady, you can look and speak persuasively as ever
-angel did: where do you hide your wings?"
-
-"Wings!--well, really now, if I were a court lady instead of a rustic,
-and had that magic mirror that hides all freckles, and gives every
-body that looks into it the face of a beauty, that fine compliment
-would win my heart; but as it is, I must e'en be content to walk the
-earth on two serviceable feet; on which I shall very soon run from
-your words and looks, if you do not speak about a more entertaining
-subject than me and my megrims."
-
-The gravity of her eyes contradicted the gaiety of her lips, as she
-thus spoke; and the unuttered wish in the deep recesses of her heart
-was, "Oh that I had the wings of a dove, that I might flee away, and
-be at rest!"
-
-Juxon looked upon her, for a moment, with a tender manly expression of
-countenance, in which were blended respectful pity and warm
-admiration; then turning to Katharine, he changed the subject, and
-diverted all further attention from Jane by telling the former upon
-what matter he was seeking Sir Oliver.
-
-"I have just received a letter," said he, "from Oxford, from that fine
-youth Arthur: it is both conceived and expressed in a spirit worthy
-the days of chivalry and of a man of mature age. He desires me to urge
-upon Sir Oliver his brave request, which is, that he may be permitted
-to come down instantly and take the field with whatever men Sir Oliver
-can raise for the King's service. He says that it is useless to compel
-him to remain at the University and pursue his studies in the present
-distracted state of public affairs, and that his age is not younger
-than that at which many a person renowned in history has appeared in
-arms for his country. The reason, it seems, of his preferring this
-request through me is, that he has been sharply reprimanded by Sir
-Oliver for even thinking of it; for he has already decided to place
-all the horsemen which he can raise under Sir Charles Lambert. Arthur
-truly observes, that as the infirmities of Sir Oliver now forbid his
-going to camp himself, it is right that a representative of his name
-should ride at the head of his tenants and yeomen; and that, although
-too young for a responsible charge, he can at least share their
-danger, and set a good example of devotion to the King's service. That
-he is quite willing to be under the command of Sir Charles Lambert;
-but that, if his present wish is refused, he will, at the risk of the
-worthy knight's displeasure, join the banner of the lords Falkland or
-Carnarvon as a simple volunteer."
-
-To this statement Katharine listened with a generous admiration of the
-gallant boy, and a hearty approval of his conduct; moreover, she felt
-that, by this arrangement, she should have a young protector, not only
-for the family, but whom she could depend upon as a shield from the
-dreaded importunities of Sir Charles, and whose presence would take
-away one of her father's excuses for urging upon her an abhorred
-connection. Of Arthur's conduct and character she felt sure: he looked
-up to her with the reverence of a son and the affection of a brother;
-and though her heart beat with a regretted fondness for another
-Heywood, a cousin separated from her by fate and fortune, towards this
-youth Arthur she entertained the composed and quiet affection of a
-young mother or an elder sister; therefore she rejoiced at the
-prospect of his return to Milverton, and promised to say every thing
-to her father which could move him to consent to this proposal.
-
-Juxon now left the ladies, and walked on at a faster pace towards the
-house.
-
-As soon as he was out of hearing, Katharine took Jane by the hand, and
-looking steadfastly into her face, said,--
-
-"My dear, dear friend, it is the privilege of friendship, and it is
-the enjoined duty of Christians, to weep with those that weep:--Juxon
-is right--you are unhappy--some secret sorrow is devouring your
-inward peace--reveal it to me."
-
-"Nay, Katharine, urge me not:--every heart knoweth its own
-bitterness--to every one is appointed some inward cross, which is
-better borne in silence."
-
-"Yet the sympathy of a friend is as a balm to the wounded spirit--a
-balm, Jane, which you have often poured gently and sweetly into mine,
-to the refreshment of my soul and the comfort of my aching
-heart;--besides, Jane, we must not let our private and inward griefs
-prey upon and consume our vital strength at a period like the
-present:--great trials are coming upon us, and severe duties will soon
-demand all our energies."
-
-"I know it, beloved Katharine,--and by your side I can meet them all.
-You are to me, all things: I have nothing on earth but you to whom I
-can cling: the stream of my heart would run to waste if it might not
-flow forth on you."
-
-"Hush! beloved,--hush!--these words are vain,"--and pointing to the
-blue sky and the fleecy clouds above them, Katharine silently
-conveyed to Jane her soft reproof and gentle admonition.
-
-"I know all that you would say to me," answered the mournful girl;
-"but, when all is said, how much of our present being must ever remain
-a mystery--sunbeams shine upon our heads, and violets spring beneath
-our feet--and yet, Kate, the world which this God of love hath created
-is a scene of misery--you know it is. What have you ever done that
-your brow should be clouded with sorrow, and your cheek blanched by
-care----"
-
-"Stop, Jane; for your life, not another word like this:--'they build
-too low who build below the sky:'--a curse is on this earth--a
-recorded curse--we may not, must not, cannot make a heaven of it:--it
-is our school, our place of discipline--the infancy of our
-existence:--what have any of us done, or what can any of us do, that
-so many countless blessings should be poured upon us? that we should
-be invited and taught to acquaint ourselves with that Holy One, by
-whom came truth, pardon, and peace--through whom we may win an
-entrance to that heavenly city, where 'all tears shall be wiped from
-all faces?'"
-
-A light of hope beamed in her serious eyes as thus she spoke, and Jane
-beheld it with reverence. The friends walked slowly back towards the
-house--there was a long pause in their discourse. It was broken by
-Jane asking, "You surely admit, dear cousin, that there is a vast
-difference in the fortunes and the trials of mankind?"
-
-"The seeming difference is vast, but not perhaps the real:--we see
-only the outward aspect of suffering and of prosperity--but the cup of
-life is mixed."
-
-"Surely to many, who are prosperous and happy, few trials are
-appointed:--they are pleasant in their lives, and honoured in their
-deaths; they appear even upon earth to be the favourites of Heaven."
-
-"If truly such, my love, their portion in this life will be little
-thought of; for they will know that in the bosom of Abraham the
-Lazarus of this world has his high place of honour as of comfort, and
-that the fashion of this world passeth away; nay, before the great
-change comes, one turn of the wheel may bring the loftiest fortunes to
-the dust, and crush them beneath it; even now, do we not see and hear
-the preparations of war?"
-
-"There, again, Katharine,--how can we reconcile with the power of a
-God of love the existence of so dark and terrible a curse as war?"
-
-"It is but one of many forms of death."
-
-"But the miseries in its violent and bloody path----"
-
-"Are not so great as those of pestilence, or famine, or the
-hurricane."
-
-"Well, Katharine, why pestilence, or famine, or hurricane?--_why
-death?_--and _whence sin?_"
-
-"Jane, we know not now--we shall know hereafter; let us not perplex
-ourselves with doubts and inquiries which none can solve; the origin
-of evil lies hidden from our eyes; it is a deep thing--enough for us
-that the Divine champion hath triumphed over sin--hath plucked the
-sting from death--and victory from the grave:--in and through him we
-may all be conquerors."
-
-"And can they so conquer if they be not followers of the Lamb?--and
-may the followers of the Lamb fight and shed each other's blood in
-battle?"
-
-"It is sad, very sad," rejoined Katharine, with a shudder of her whole
-frame: "it seems a stern necessity in the condition of all the
-kingdoms of this world that they should be defended by the sword. Good
-men, great men, the holiest servants of Heaven have wielded earthly
-arms, and the weapons of death:--with his sword and with his bow the
-father of the faithful led his own household to the combat,--and the
-virtues of the warrior are the chosen illustrations of those required
-in the secret conflicts of the Christian."
-
-"I know it, Katharine--and that to the spirit of Christian children
-there must be joined the courage of sacred warriors. Alas! for me--my
-heart faints within me--my mind is confused:--I wish I were a man, for
-then, in the excitement of these struggles, I could escape those of
-the closet."
-
-"To suffer, Jane, requires a more enduring courage than to act; and in
-patient suffering the high constancy of woman's mind hath ever shone
-most purely:--for the wives of England bitter trials are coming--ours
-will be light to theirs; and yours, dear girl, as you well know, less
-heavy than even mine."
-
-"Katharine, you do not know my trial, or you would not speak
-thus:--not a faithful and suffering wife in all England but I shall
-envy her the sweetness of her sufferings: it is in storms that we
-cling most closely to what we love."
-
-"True, fond girl, but remember that they may also divide us from what
-we love. Still there is a sweet truth in your melancholy words: I
-think you would be happy united to such a man as Juxon. He is
-evidently much attached to you; and I think you are not indifferent to
-him."
-
-"Cousin, he is worthy of a better fortune. He never can be mine."
-
-"What is the meaning of that strong emphasis? Is, then, the secret of
-your sorrow a concealed attachment to another?"
-
-"Katharine, you see not clearly in this matter; I am pitied by Juxon,
-not loved."
-
-"I know not, dear Jane, for what he should pity you; but pity is akin
-to love."
-
-"And also to contempt:--Juxon despises me: yes, the pity of one so
-generous and noble hearted is heavy to bear."
-
-"Impossible! he knows your sterling worth; he knows that you could not
-do what was wrong: you utter many things that are idle; but I have
-heard him warmly express his regard for your frank character; his
-faith in your high principles, and his fear that you judged others by
-yourself, and might in the trials of life prove too confiding towards
-others."
-
-"Have you, indeed, Kate? what, lately?"
-
-"Yes; not many days ago."
-
-"Well, this is comfort; for I love him passing well:--keep my secret,
-Katharine; you know not how faithfully I have kept yours." As Jane
-Lambert thus spoke, she took the hand of her fair cousin and pressed
-it against her beating heart. Katharine drew it away with a sudden
-agitation, and placing it on her pale forehead seemed to muse awhile:
-her eyes wore the expression of one that was wildly busy over the
-mysterious tablets of her memory; at last, fixing them on Jane with a
-troubled gaze, "I have it," she said: "a light flashes on me; the
-interview with Francis: it was observed by some one; it was known to
-Juxon, and you have borne----"
-
-"Nothing that I would not bear again for the love of Katharine, and
-for her peace of mind."
-
-"Noblest of beings, alas! how am I punished for having thus employed
-you! why did you not tell me all? May God forgive me! I never can
-forgive myself."
-
-"Talk not thus," said Jane, rushing into her arms. "This moment richly
-repays whatever I have suffered: that which I may now safely relate to
-you you could not have borne at the time, nor should I tell it even
-now, if it were not that I know you will be seeking some explanations
-from Juxon."
-
-The generous girl now gave a minute narration of all that had passed
-between herself and Francis at their interview. She told how very
-deeply she had been affected by the devotion with which he spoke of
-Katharine, and by those looks and gestures which revealed the
-constancy and the ardour of his love: the action so passionate towards
-her, upon whom his mind's eye was inwardly resting, with which Francis
-had parted from herself, was not forgotten. The circumstance of her
-immediately after meeting with Juxon, and the scene which passed
-between them, were described with the like fidelity.
-
-A paleness as of marble overspread the face of Katharine; her eyes
-assumed a vacant regard; her hand became cold, and from her moving
-lips no sound was audible. She stood a while like one suddenly turned
-to stone; and Jane, expecting her every instant to swoon away,
-supported her in trembling terror. It seemed an age of agony to Jane,
-though the trance did not last more than three awful minutes. The
-eyelids of Katharine closed; tears glittered on the long dark lashes;
-warmth and consciousness returned. She slowly opened her eyes; and,
-fixing them on Jane with an affection no words could convey, suffered
-herself to be led back in unbroken silence to the mansion.
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XX.
-
-    'Tis _jest_ to tell a people that they're free:
-    _Who_ or _how many_ shall their _masters_ be
-    Is the sole doubt.
-                                            COWLEY.
-
-
-Before the walls of Hull, in Yorkshire, King Charles was first made
-sensible that the powers and the prerogatives of the crown were
-already usurped by the Parliament. Sir John Hotham shut the gates of
-the city, and refused to admit the small force by which the King was
-attended.
-
-The governor stood upon the wall, and the King, who had appointed him
-to that office of trust, sat upon his horse beneath, and heard a
-sickening protestation of loyalty to his person, while the guards, to
-whom he intrusted its defence, were treated as the enemies of his
-throne and kingdom. Here began that artful distinction, whereby the
-Parliamentarians professed to keep garrisons and raise soldiers in
-the name of the King, while they opposed his wishes and resisted his
-authority.
-
-They had already taken from the King the power of the militia; and
-having compelled him to throw himself on the support of the private
-gentry, the flame of civil war was soon kindled.
-
-At the time when his Majesty was thus repulsed by Sir John Hotham, he
-was surrounded by a small company of gallant gentlemen, who had formed
-themselves into a body guard; and he found himself, in a province
-remote from his capital, without a regiment, without money to raise
-one, and without a single garrison or company of soldiers in all
-England receiving his pay or acknowledging the royal orders: the navy,
-the ordnance, stores, magazines, and the revenue, were in the keeping
-of the Parliament. His sole dependence was on the loyalty, the
-courage, and the resources of the country gentlemen of England.
-
-The midland counties were for the most part subjected to the influence
-of the Parliament, and lay too near the city of London to resist or
-even dispute the commands of that powerful assembly.
-
-This body was no sooner apprised of the conduct of Hotham, and
-informed that he had been proclaimed a traitor by the King, than they
-openly justified the conduct of that governor, and soon after publicly
-voted "that the King intended to levy war against the Parliament."
-This declaration was followed by active preparations for war on both
-sides; but the advantages for commencing it were greatly on the side
-of the Parliament; and the gentry in the west, and more especially in
-the northern counties, were, at first, disheartened by the evident
-distraction of the King's counsel, and the gloomy aspect of his
-affairs.
-
-Therefore, in Yorkshire, though many promises were given, few troops
-were raised; and if Shropshire and Wales had not been animated by a
-more lively hope, and a warmer zeal, no royal army could ever have
-appeared in the field.
-
-Meanwhile the levies for the Parliament were very successful, and men
-came in as fast as they could be received and armed. In addition to
-these volunteers, the rustics drawn for the militia were compelled to
-join their corps, and were put under the training of such officers as
-could be found.
-
-In July, the Parliament voted the Earl of Essex their general of foot,
-and appointed the Earl of Bedford the commander of their horse; and
-early in August declared themselves necessitated to take arms and to
-commence hostilities.
-
-These vigorous measures inspired their partisans throughout the
-kingdom with a resolute spirit, and in London not a voice was openly
-lifted up for the King.
-
-As early as the month of May, Francis Heywood had procured his
-services to be accepted as captain of a troop of horse under Sir John
-Balfour, and was by him immediately appointed an instructor or
-sergeant-major[A] of cavalry.
-
-    [A] The titles of Sergeant-Major, and Sergeant-Major-General, at
-    that period, correspond with Adjutant-Major and Adjutant-General
-    of our times.
-
-At such a moment, the zeal of Cuthbert Noble would not suffer him to
-remain behind, while so many were taking arms for the great, and, as
-he thought, holy cause, of liberty. He did not find it difficult,
-through the favour of a friend, to obtain the grade of lieutenant in a
-company of foot; and he set forth on a fine morning in June to join a
-regiment then assembled in quarters at the town of St. Albans, in
-Hertfordshire, for training.
-
-His finances did not admit of more than a very humble
-equipment,--accordingly he was mounted on a low shambling pony, across
-which he had also placed the saddle bags containing his better gear,
-his Bible, and two or three violent pamphlets of the day against
-prelacy and the divine right of kings.
-
-Notwithstanding the heat of his opinions, and his hearty concurrence
-in the measures of the Parliament, Cuthbert, in his lonely hours, was
-of that serious and solemn temper of mind, that he could not but
-reflect on the step he was now taking with more than his wonted
-gravity.
-
-That his present course would be distressing to his father he well
-knew; but he silenced this whisper of his better angel with the
-consideration that his father was old, timid, and averse to change,
-rather from early prejudices and associations than from the light of
-conscience and the use of right reason.
-
-Again, with that obliquity of mind with which men who are in fact
-taking their own way wish to think it that appointed by Providence, he
-ran over all the texts of Scripture then in the mouths of the
-Roundheads, as justifying their appeal to arms, and silenced all the
-lingering remonstrances that yet struggled in his bosom with those
-inapplicable words of Holy Writ, "He that loveth father or mother more
-than me is not worthy of me."
-
-Having thus, by forcibly wresting a quotation from Scripture, served
-his immediate purpose, and given freedom and tranquillity to his
-spirit, he suffered his imagination to dress out the duties of
-military life in all their most sacred glory. The language of the Old
-Testament, and that of the profane authors with which he was familiar,
-were called up in a strange confusion to gild the prospect before
-him,--and now a song of triumph from his Bible, now a quotation from
-Homer, was sounding on his lips, and ere he was aware was kindling a
-vain and unholy ambition:--a secret and impious persuasion of the
-favour and approval of Heaven filled him with a swelling anticipation
-of coming victories and high rewards. He resolved that the virtues of
-the Spartan or the Roman soldier should in his person be combined with
-the ardour and the holiness of the most chosen warriors of Israel.
-
-He saw not the lean and sorry nag beneath him; he thought not of those
-weary marches which he should have to make afoot, when the miserable
-jade on which he was now sitting astride his saddle bags should be
-stumbling along stony or miry ways in a train of baggage horses; but
-he pictured out a future in which he should ride among the princes of
-the people, and in marches of triumph.
-
-From this dream of his fancy he was suddenly and very effectually
-awakened by feeling the animal, which he was riding, sink under him
-with an uneasy motion; and, before he could possibly prevent it, he
-found the water of a considerable stream, which he was then fording,
-above his knees, and his saddle bags thoroughly soaked through. The
-beast had his own notions of enjoyment as well as his dreamy rider;
-and, as the day was hot, the road was dusty, and his burden
-sufficiently oppressive, had taken this very seasonable refreshment.
-
-Nature suddenly asserted her power over the precise young Puritan;
-and, to the scandal of all his late professions, he gave vent to his
-wrath in certain violent and unseemly phrases which would not have
-disgraced the most accomplished swearer among the wild Cavaliers of
-that time. These oaths were but the accompaniments of sundry hard
-blows with a cudgel, kickings with the heel, and jerks of the rein, by
-dint of which the nag, unable to rebuke him for his injustice, was
-compelled to rise and go forward. The accident was in itself
-sufficiently provoking; and the irritation of Cuthbert was increased
-by encountering on the bank an old beggar with a wooden leg, who,
-tossing his staff pike fashion, loudly asked his alms for an old
-crippled soldier done up in the wars; and, thrusting his tongue in
-his cheek, eyed his foolish plight with a merry satisfaction, which he
-could not conceal.
-
-"Out upon thee!" said Cuthbert, "for an old drunken impostor:--such
-fellows as you tippling bawlers of ballads are the curse of the
-land;--go scrape your cracked fiddle for sots on the ale bench, and
-don't trouble honest men on their road."
-
-"The lie in thy throat, thou prick-eared canting Roundhead!" replied
-the old soldier:--"thou foul-mouthed hypocrite! is it for thou to rate
-sinners after rattling out oaths like a shameless brawler in a bear
-garden? I am a cleaner spoken man than thou, blessings on him who
-taught me, and more honest than to play traitor to my king:--God bless
-his gracious Majesty! I wish him no better luck than that all the
-Roundheads, militia, and train-bands, horse and foot, were just such a
-set of raw awkward spoonies as yourself."
-
-While he was yet speaking, Cuthbert's jade, as if moved by the very
-spirit of mischief, shook her ears and was down in the middle of the
-loose dusty road, without better warning than before; for the
-attention of Cuthbert being quite taken up by his anger with the old
-soldier, he was again too late to prevent it. The dust plentifully
-adhered to his legs, thighs, and saddle bags. He instantly dismounted
-in a rage, kicked the beast up again, drove it forward, and, turning
-short round upon the old man, in a fury, said,--
-
-"If it were not for your age and grey hairs, you insolent old
-vagabond, I would rap your pate smartly with my cudgel."
-
-"That were easier spoken than done," rejoined the old man, holding his
-quarter staff lightly in a defensive posture.
-
-A little dog, which accompanied the old man, perceiving by these
-actions, and by the loudness of their speech, that the stranger was
-quarrelling with his master, flew at Cuthbert with a sharp and angry
-bark, than which perhaps nothing does more inflame the rising choler;
-he, therefore, struck at the little animal furiously, and the end of
-his cudgel inflicted on it a sharp stroke, which sent it howling and
-yelping behind its master.
-
-The old soldier, without a moment's loss of time, resented this injury
-by so heavy and well placed a blow on the head of Cuthbert, that his
-steeple-crowned hat was knocked off; and had it not been defended
-within by the strong bars of iron with which it had been recently
-fitted for the wars, he would have gotten a severe bruise.
-
-"He that touches my dog touches me," said the old man: "I am sorry
-that I did not make thee feel it." The quarter staff of the beggar
-had, by his stumbling and over-reaching himself, flown out of his
-hand, and his old rabbit-skin cap had fallen upon the ground:--a fine
-polished head thinly strewn with grey hairs lay bare and
-exposed.--"There, you may crack it if you will now," he added, raising
-the ineffectual defence of his arm.
-
-"I am a man," said Cuthbert, "and not a brute: I would not strike thee
-for all my hot words; but I have been beside myself with passion. May
-God forgive me for my great offence against him--and do you forgive
-me for the hard things I said to you, and the stroke I gave your dog."
-
-So speaking, he picked up the old man's quarter staff and his cap, and
-gave them into his hands; at the same time taking a piece of silver
-out of his pocket, he tendered it with a look of good will--but the
-soldier would not take it.
-
-"It would do me no good," said he: "I should have no luck with it, and
-could never relish the bread or beer it bought me."
-
-"Then lay it out in dog's meat, friend: thy poor cur will have
-forgotten my rude blow before thou hast forgiven my uncomfortable
-words:--you wo'n't go to sleep in ill will with me, I hope."
-
-"No, I shan't do that," rejoined the aged beggar,--"the good old
-parson of Cheddar taught me better than that,--and I minds what he
-said as if it were yesterday--God bless him!--church and king for
-ever, say I.--I wo'n't have your money."
-
-Surprized and startled by this strange and unexpected mention of his
-father, Cuthbert drew from the old man the whole story of his
-adventure at Cheddar, and his interview with Noble.
-
-He listened with deep emotion to the narrative, and recognised in all
-the circumstances the internal evidence of its truth, from its exact
-correspondence with the character of his father's mind and heart, and
-those large and tolerant notions which he had always taught and
-carried out into practice.
-
-"I know that good parson well," said Cuthbert, "and love him like a
-father."
-
-"Do you indeed?--then I'll take your money, and give you hearty thanks
-for it.--But I say, young master, if you knows the parson of Cheddar
-so well, it's my belief your taking the wrong road:--a man can't serve
-two masters--without you do call God and the king two; and he that
-serves God first, and king the next after, must always be right, as I
-have heard say from the time I was the height of this quarter staff."
-
-Cuthbert gave him two pieces, and walked on in a humbled and in no
-satisfied frame of mind.
-
-His poor beast, like a patient packhorse, was quietly browsing by the
-road-side at no great distance, and Cuthbert drove it before him, not
-caring to mount again till the sun and air had dried his wet breeches
-and hose.
-
-The pettiness of the mortification which had moved him to such
-ungovernable anger was now lost in the most gloomy reflections on the
-sin of having so greatly dishonoured the commandments of God by
-cursing and swearing. Though naturally of a warm temper, he had never
-been at all addicted to the odious use of vulgar oaths, and for awhile
-he began to doubt the sincerity of his faith, and to imagine that the
-whole work of religion must be entered upon as a new thing.
-
-Again, the very strange circumstance of his father's image being
-brought before him in a manner so unexpected, by a way-side beggar,
-and the lesson of charity, and the solemn monition to turn back from
-the party which he had chosen, conveyed by so lowly an instrument,
-perplexed his reason and staggered his resolution.
-
-But the die was cast, the step was taken, and it was impossible for
-him, even if willing, to recede without disgrace. He ran over in his
-mind all the wrongs and the oppressions which had been committed in
-the name and with the sanction of the King. He recalled the sufferings
-of Prynne and his companions. He remembered the tyrannical imposition
-of ship money; the noble resistance to that measure by Hampden, now
-himself in arms; the violence towards the Scots; the articles
-exhibited against the five members; and, more than all, he considered
-that, if the King should conquer in the impending struggle, the
-despotic rule of the crown would be established more firmly than ever;
-the hateful tribunal of the Star Chamber would be again erected;
-prelacy, armed with new powers, would rear its mitre on the ruins of
-religious liberty; and all those abuses in church and state, which had
-called forth the famous Remonstrance of the Commons, and the Petition
-of Rights founded on it, would most certainly be restored.
-
-As these considerations passed through the mind of Cuthbert, he felt
-shame that he could for a moment have doubted the righteousness of the
-cause in which he had embarked. What was the little incident, which
-had so discomposed and ruffled him, when it was stripped naked? His
-nag had lain down in the water, and he had got a wetting. He should
-have laughed it off, and so he would have done but for wounded pride.
-He was conscious of the poverty of his equipment, and yet more so of
-his unmilitary appearance;--that the witness of his accident should
-mock him, and be an old soldier to boot, was more than he could bear.
-He finally resolved all that had passed into a hellish temptation of
-the evil one to divert him from the path of Christian duty; and thus
-comforting himself, and speaking peace to his heart, with a very
-slight repentance for his plain transgression of God's law, he
-recovered his serenity. He now mounted his nag, and cheerfully pursued
-his way till the fine massive tower of St. Alban's Abbey reminded him
-that he was near the place of his destination. He stopped under a
-shady tree a little off the road; brushed off the marks of his foolish
-misadventure; adjusted his dress; buckled the belt of his rapier more
-tightly, and rode into the town with a wish that he might escape
-present observation, and get soon housed. But it so chanced that in
-the narrow entrance of the very first street in St. Alban's Cuthbert
-met the whole garrison marching forth to exercise. The leading rank of
-musketeers, forming the advanced guard, filled the width of the street
-from house to house on either side of the way; therefore he was forced
-to stop, and placing his pony close to the wall that he might prove as
-small an obstacle as possible, saw the whole force pass him, and
-attracted the attention of them all. At any other time, and under
-other circumstances, he would have gazed upon the military show with a
-natural pleasure, and as it was, he looked upon them with much
-curiosity; but his position was very uncomfortable; and he felt small
-as they filed by with a strong and measured tread, keeping time to a
-few loud drums and piercing fifes.
-
-Several divisions of foot, composed of musketeers and pikemen in equal
-proportions, and each led by a mounted officer, and with their
-appointed number of captains, lieutenants, and sergeants, followed
-each other in succession; but there was a great difference in their
-equipment and bearing.
-
-The three leading divisions, amounting to nearly nine hundred
-effective men, were a fine sample of the very best infantry which had
-as yet been formed under the orders of the Parliament. Their clothing
-was of a coarse red cloth: the belts and bandaliers of those who were
-armed with muskets were of buff leather; and a girdle of double buff,
-eight inches broad, was worn under the skirts of the doublet. The
-musketeers also wore black steeple-crowned hats, with small but strong
-bars of iron fastened under the felt. In addition to their muskets and
-rests, they were all provided with a good stiff tuck, not very long,
-so fixed in the belt as not to swing or incommode them.
-
-The pikemen were furnished with good pikes, eighteen feet in length,
-with small steel heads, and good stiff tucks like those of the
-musketeers. They had also for defensive armour iron head pieces, with
-back and breast pieces of the same quality, pistol-proof, and each man
-was provided with a good long buff glove for the left hand; they also
-wore the broad buff girdle; the musketeers had bands about their hats
-of a considerable width, finished in front with a rose of orange
-cloth, but they had no feathers or plumes; and there was a steadiness
-and severity in their whole aspect which commanded admiration. It was
-one of the first regiments embodied, composed principally of a better
-order of volunteers, and commanded by a very strict and experienced
-officer. From these men Cuthbert had nothing to suffer: they were
-silent in their ranks; and merely glanced at him as they passed with
-looks of gloomy or proud indifference; but the regiment that followed
-was a raw levy of militiamen just raised: they had arms, indeed, and
-were divided already into musketeers and pikemen, like those who
-preceded them; but their clothing and equipment was very incomplete,
-and few of the pikemen had either back or breast pieces. Of these,
-numbers had been drawn, reluctantly, from the neighbouring villages,
-to supply the quota of men required by the militia act, and were
-enrolled with the mockery of an oath, by which they were sworn in, to
-fight "_for the King against the King_,"--a distinction which of
-course the greater part of them could not understand. They only wanted
-to be left alone, and suffered to follow their ploughs in peace. Most
-of them had some excuse to offer in the Shire Hall, and some story to
-tell why they should not go for soldiers. This man had aged parents to
-support; another had a family of children; and that man had just
-married a wife. Others, who were not provided with such good excuses,
-feigned deafness, bad eyes, lame shoulders, weak ankle bones, fits,
-rheumatic pains, or some other disqualification, to escape the irksome
-duties of praying and fighting under Puritan commanders. Many kissed
-their own thumbs instead of the Bible when they took their oaths of
-service, meaning to desert the first opportunity that offered; still
-there were numbers of idle rustics who came when they were called out,
-and did as they were bid, without further question; and these, in
-spite of their officers and sergeants, and Puritan comrades, contrived
-their own amusements, and laughed at the grave preachments which
-forbade them.
-
-As a file of these young swains passed Cuthbert, one struck the end of
-a lighted match under his pony's tail; and to the astonishment of
-Cuthbert, and the disturbance of the whole division following, the
-poor animal, hitherto as lazy and patient as a laden donkey, began
-kicking with such sudden activity and vigour, that the rider had some
-difficulty in keeping his seat. However, though inwardly vexed,
-Cuthbert stuck close to the saddle, and putting a good face on the
-vexatious incident disarmed the laughter which was at first generally
-excited by joining in it himself, till a humane sergeant plucked away
-the burning cause of the animal's pain and terror,--and the frightened
-beast stood still, trembling and in a bath of sweat. Until this
-moment Cuthbert was at a loss to know what had so alarmed his pony;
-but he now alighted and made a complaint about what had been done to
-an officer that was passing.
-
-The grave personage whom he addressed said, with a sly
-smile,--"Verily, friend, thy little garron was in the way, and I
-counsel thee to patience in this matter:--there is no harm done, and
-verily thou didst stick to thy saddle like a sergeant-major of
-cavalry."
-
-Without waiting for any rejoinder, the officer marched on; and no
-sooner had the infantry defiled, than the shrill tones of a few
-trumpets announced the advance of four troops of horse. As these fine
-men walked their powerful animals along the street, they cast down
-looks of contempt upon poor Cuthbert and his little hack; and he could
-not but feel that he had never as yet rightly conceived what were the
-naked realities of soldiership. There were far more unpleasant and
-painful experiences to come than the petty mortifications of this his
-first contact with troops. However, he had a wise, generous, and noble
-friend to instruct and arm his mind in the path on which he had
-entered; and his spirit was now in its first moment of weakness and
-need sustained and comforted by his appearance.
-
-Immediately in the rear of this body of horse rode an officer
-admirably mounted and equipped, and beneath his polished helmet
-Cuthbert instantly recognised Francis Heywood. By this old campaigner
-his position was seen and understood at a glance. He stopped, shook
-hands with him heartily, and desiring him to find out his quarter at
-the house of a brewer in the next street, bade him give his baggage
-pony in charge to his batman, and occupy his apartment till the
-exercise should be over.
-
-This was so great a lift and recovery to the sinking spirits of
-Cuthbert that he had no sooner put up his pony than he turned back and
-followed the troops to the plain where they were drawn out.
-
-It was a fine sight to the unaccustomed eye to watch the evolutions of
-the musketeers and the pikemen, as the former advanced to skirmish and
-cover the movements of the more solid body, and again as they rapidly
-retired, and, kneeling down in front of the close array of pikemen,
-awaited under the protection of their long pikes to receive the charge
-of cavalry, and repulse it with a close and steady fire.
-
-The sunbeams glittered on the steel heads of the tall pikes, and were
-reflected in a blaze from the breast and back pieces and the iron head
-pieces of the dragoons and the pikemen. The rolling of the drums, and
-the blasts of trumpets, gave animation to the movements of the various
-divisions; and as the dragoons and musketeers were furnished with a
-few rounds of blank or practice cartridge in their bandaliers, the
-mimic show of battle or the rehearsal of a scene of death was with the
-more select divisions very complete.
-
-The words of command were given and repeated in loud firm tones; and
-there was no lack with some of these stout Puritan commanders of
-oaths, peculiar, indeed, to themselves, but as earnest and as
-blasphemous as those of any profane swearer in the royal army. For
-instance, to the dismay of Cuthbert, he heard a voice of thunder
-directed against a dull but godly lieutenant of the very regiment
-which he was come to join with such a mild rebuke as, "The Lord
-deliver thee to Satan, Master Whitefoot, for a blockhead: dost thou
-not know thy right hand from thy left?"--"Face to the left, man," was
-the concluding roar, "and slope thy partisan."
-
-However, though our young Puritan lieutenant was a little astounded at
-the chance of being soon subject to such rude addresses, he had good
-sense enough to feel that men ought to know their right hands from
-their left, and that it must be very provoking to a commanding
-officer, and very perplexing and dangerous for others as well as
-themselves, if they did not; but he was, nevertheless, a little
-startled and shocked at so violent and sinful a misapplication of
-Scripture.
-
-However, he considered that the repulsive infirmities of the few ought
-not to outweigh the solid piety and the devoted patriotism of the
-great leaders of the Parliamentarian levies; and wisely resolving
-always to remember his right hand from his left, he joined Francis
-after the exercise of the day was over, and passed an evening in his
-society with a more deep and rational delight in it than he had ever
-before experienced during their previous intercourse.
-
-Francis gave him so much sensible advice in trifles, as well as in
-matters of moment, at his entrance on this new and strange course of
-life, that when Cuthbert lay down to rest all his difficulties seemed
-to have vanished. He had been introduced by Francis to the commander
-of the regiment he was to join, and to several other officers of horse
-as well as foot; and he soon discerned that there was as great a
-variety of character and of manners in this host of the Lord as in
-armies assuming a less presumptuous title.
-
-
-                       END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
-
-
-                               LONDON:
-                     Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODE,
-                         New-Street-Square.
-
-
-
-
-
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