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diff --git a/6006.txt b/6006.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b3a207 --- /dev/null +++ b/6006.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7518 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Under the Storm, by Charlotte M. Yonge + +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: Under the Storm + Steadfast's Charge + +Author: Charlotte M. Yonge + +Release Date: July, 2004 +Posting Date: September 30, 2009 [EBook #6006] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER THE STORM *** + + + + +Produced by Sandra Laythorpe + + + + + +UNDER THE STORM + +or + +STEADFAST'S CHARGE + + +By Charlotte M. Yonge + +Author of "The Heir of Redclyffe," &c. + + +[Illustration: Cover] + + +CONTENTS. + +Chapter I.--The Trust + + " II.--The Stragglers + + " III.--Kirk Rapine + + " IV.--The Good Cause + + " V.--Desolation + + " VI.--Left to Themselves + + " VII.--The Hermit's Gulley + + " VIII.--Stead in Possession + + " IX.--Wintry Times + + " X.--A Terrible Harvest Day + + " XI.--The Fortunes of War + + " XII.--Farewell to the Cavaliers + + " XIII.--Godly Venn's Troop + + " XIV.--The Question + + " XV.--A Table of Love in the Wilderness + + " XVI.--A Fair Offer + + " XVII.--The Groom in Grey + + " XVIII.--Jeph's Good Fortune + + " XIX.--Patience + + " XX.--Emlyn's Service + + " XXI.--The Assault of the Cavern + + " XXII.--Emlyn's Troth + + " XXIII.--Fulfilment + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + Farewell to the Cavaliers + The Hiding of the Casket + Stead Stirring the Porridge + Finding of Emlyn + Stead before the Roundheads + Emlyn at Market + + + +UNDER THE STORM: + +OR + +STEADFAST'S CHARGE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. THE TRUST. + + + + "I brought them here as to a sanctuary." + SOUTHEY. + + +Most of us have heard of the sad times in the middle of the seventeenth +century, when Englishmen were at war with one another and quiet villages +became battlefields. + +We hear a great deal about King and Parliament, great lords and able +generals, Cavaliers and Roundheads, but this story is to help us to +think how it must have gone in those times with quiet folk in cottages +and farmhouses. + +There had been peace in England for a great many years, ever since the +end of the wars of the Roses. So the towns did not want fortifications +to keep out the enemy, and their houses spread out beyond the old walls; +and the country houses had windows and doors large and wide open, with +no thought of keeping out foes, and farms and cottages were freely +spread about everywhere, with their fields round them. + +The farms were very small, mostly held by men who did all the work +themselves with the help of their families. + +Such a farm belonged to John Kenton of Elmwood. It lay at the head of a +long green lane, where the bushes overhead almost touched one another +in the summer, and the mud and mire were very deep in winter; but that +mattered the less as nothing on wheels went up or down it but the hay +or harvest carts, creaking under their load, and drawn by the old mare, +with a cow to help her. + +Beyond lay a few small fields, and then a bit of open ground scattered +with gorse and thorn bushes, and much broken by ups and downs. There, +one afternoon on a big stone was seated Steadfast Kenton, a boy of +fourteen, sturdy, perhaps loutish, with an honest ruddy face under his +leathern cap, a coarse smock frock and stout gaiters. He was watching +the fifteen sheep and lambs, the old goose and gander and their nine +children, the three cows, eight pigs, and the old donkey which got their +living there. + +From the top of the hill, beyond the cleft of the river Avon, he could +see the smoke and the church towers of the town of Bristol, and beyond +it, the slime of the water of the Bristol Channel; and nearer, on one +side, the spire of Elmwood Church looked up, and, on the other, the +woods round Elmwood House, and these ran out as it were, lengthening and +narrowing into a wooded cleft or gulley, Hermit's Gulley, which broke +the side of the hill just below where Steadfast stood, and had a little +clear stream running along the bottom. + +Steadfast's little herd knew the time of day as well as if they all had +watches in their pockets, and they never failed to go down and have a +drink at the brook before going back to the farmyard. + +They did not need to be driven, but gathered into the rude steep path +that they and their kind had worn in the side of the ravine. Steadfast +followed, looking about him to judge how soon the nuts would be ripe, +while his little rough stiff-haired dog Toby poked about in search of +rabbits or hedgehogs, or the like sport. + +Steadfast liked that pathway home beside the stream, as boys do love +running water. Good stones could be got there, water rats might be +chased, there were strawberries on the banks which he gathered and +threaded on stalks of grass for his sisters, Patience and Jerusha. They +used to come with him and have pleasant games, but it was a long time +since Patience had been able to come out, for in the winter, a grievous +trouble had come on the family. The good mother had died, leaving a +little baby of six weeks old, and Patience, who was only thirteen, had +to attend to everything at home, and take care of poor little sickly +Benoni with no one to help her but her little seven years old sister. + +The children's lives had been much less bright since that sad day; and +Steadfast seldom had much time for play. He knew he must get home as +fast as he could to help Patience in milking the cows, feeding the pigs +and poultry, and getting the supper, or some of the other things that +his elder brother Jephthah called wench-work and would not do. + +He could not, however, help looking up at the hole in the side of the +steep cliff, where one might climb up to such a delightful cave, in +which he and Patience had so often played on hot days. It had been their +secret, and a kind of palace to them. They had sat there as king and +queen, had paved it with stones from the brook, and had had many plans +for the sports they would have there this summer, little thinking that +Patience would have been turned into a grave, busy little housewife, +instead of a merry, playful child. + +Toby looked up too, and began to bark. There was a rustling in the +bushes below the cave, and Steadfast, at first in dismay to see his +secret delight invaded, beheld between the mountain ash boughs and ivy, +to his great surprise, a square cap and black cassock tucked up, and +then a bit of brown leathern coat, which he knew full well. It was the +Vicar, Master Holworth, and his father John Kenton was Churchwarden, +so it was no wonder to see him and the Parson together, but what could +bring them here--into Steadfast's cave? and with a dark lantern too! +They seemed as surprised, perhaps as vexed as he was, at the sight of +him, but his father said, "'Tis my lad, Steadfast, I'll answer for him." + +"And so will I," returned the clergyman. "Is anyone with you, my boy?" + +"No, your reverence, no one save the beasts." + +"Then come up here," said his father. "Someone has been playing here, I +see." + +"Patience and I, father, last summer." + +"No one else?" + +"No, no one. We put those stones and those sticks when we made a fire +there last year, and no one has meddled with them since." + +"Thou and Patience," said Mr. Holworth thoughtfully. "Not Jephthah nor +the little maid?" + +"No, sir," replied Steadfast, "we would not let them know, because we +wanted a place to ourselves." + +For in truth the quiet ways and little arrangements of these two had +often been much disturbed by the rough elder brother who teased and +laughed at them, and by the troublesome little sister, who put her +fingers into everything. + +The Vicar and the Churchwarden looked at one another, and John Kenton +muttered, "True as steel." + +"Your father answers for you, my boy," said the Vicar. "So we will e'en +let you know what we are about. I was told this morn by a sure hand that +the Parliament men, who now hold Bristol Castle, are coming to deal with +the village churches even as they have dealt with the minster and with +St. Mary's, Redcliffe." + +"A murrain on them!" muttered Kenton. + +"I wot that in their ignorance they do it," gently quoted the Vicar. +"But we would fain save from their hands the holy Chalice and paten +which came down to our Church from the ancient times--and which bearing +on them, as they do, the figure of the Crucifixion of our blessed Lord, +would assuredly provoke the zeal of the destroyers. Therefore have we +placed them in this casket, and your father devised hiding them within +this cave, which he thought was unknown to any save himself--" + +"Yea," said John, "my poor brother Will and I were wont to play there +when we herded the cattle on the hill. It was climbing yon ash tree that +stands out above that he got the fall that was the death of him at +last. I've never gone nigh the place with mine own good will since that +day--nor knew the children had done so--but methought 'twas a lonesome +place and on mine own land, where we might safest store the holy things +till better times come round." + +"And so I hope they will," said Mr. Holworth. + +"I hear good news of the King's cause in the north." + +Then they began to consult where to place the precious casket. They had +brought tinder and matches, and Steadfast, who knew the secrets of the +cave even better than his father, showed them a little hollow, far back, +which would just hold the chest, and being closed in front with a big +stone, fast wedged in, was never likely to be discovered readily. + +[Illustration: The Hiding Of The Casket] + +"This has been a hiding place already." + +"Methinks this has once been a chapel," said the clergyman presently, +pointing to some rude carvings--one something like a cross, and a large +stone that might have served as an altar. + +"Belike," said Kenton, "there's an old stone pile, a mere hovel, down +below, where my grandfather said he remembered an old monk, a hermit, or +some such gear--a Papist--as lived in hiding. He did no hurt, and was +a man from these parts, so none meddled with him, or gave notice to the +Queen's officers, and our folk at the farm sold his baskets at the town, +and brought him a barley loaf twice a week till he died, all alone in +his hut. Very like he said his mass here." + +John wondered to find that the minister thought this made the place +more suitable. The whole cavern was so low that the two men could hardly +stand upright in it, though it ran about twelve yards back. There were +white limestone drops like icicles hanging above from the roof; and +bats, disturbed by the light, came flying about the heads of their +visitors, while streamers of ivy and old man's beard hung over the +mouth, and were displaced by the heads of the men. + +"None is like to find the spot," said John Kenton, as he tried to +replace the tangled branches that had been pushed aside. + +"God grant us happier days for bringing it forth," said the clergyman. + +All three bared their heads, and Mr. Holworth uttered a few words of +prayer and blessing; then let John help him down the steep scramble +and descent, and looked up to see whether any sign of the cave could be +detected from the edge of the brook. Kenton shook his head reassuringly. + +"Ah!" said Mr. Holworth, "it minds me that none ever found again the +holy Ark of the Covenant that King Josiah and the Prophet Jeremiah hid +in a cavern within Mount Pisgah! and our sins be many that have provoked +this judgment! Mayhap the boy will be the only one of us who will see +these blessed vessels restored to their Altar once more! He may +have been sent hither to that very end. Now, look you, Steadfast +Kenton--Steadfast thou hast ever been, so far as I have known thee, in +nature as well as in name. Give me thy word that thou wilt never give up +the secret of yonder cavern to any save a lawfully ordained minister of +the church." + +"No doubt poor old Clerk North will be in distress about the loss," said +Kenton. + +"True, but he had best not be told. His mind is fast going, and he +cannot safely be trusted with such a mighty secret." + +"Patience knows the cavern," murmured Steadfast to his father. + +"Best have no womenfolk, nor young maids in such a matter," said the +Vicar. + +"My wench takes after her good mother," said John, "and I ever found my +secrets were safer in her breast than in mine own. Not that I would have +her told without need. But she might take little Rusha there, or make +the place known to others an she be not warned." + +"Steadfast must do as he sees occasion, with your counsel, Master +Kenton," said the Vicar. "It is a great trust we place in you, my son, +to be as it were in charge of the vessels of the sanctuary, and I would +have thy hand and word." + +"And," said his father, "though he be slower in speech than some, your +reverence may trust him." + +Steadfast gave his brown red hand, and with head bare said, "I promise, +after the minister and before God, never to give up that which lies +within the cave to any man, save a lawfully ordained minister of the +Church." + + + + +CHAPTER II. THE STRAGGLERS. + + + + "Trust me, I am exceedingly weary." + SHAKESPEARE. + + +John Kenton, though a Churchwarden, was, as has been said, a very small +farmer, and the homestead was no more than a substantial cottage, built +of the greystone of the country, with the upper story projecting a +little, and reached by an outside stair of stone. The farm yard, with +the cowsheds, barn, and hay stack were close in front, with only a +narrow strip of garden between, for there was not much heed paid to +flowers, and few kitchen vegetables were grown in those days, only a few +potherbs round the door, and a sweet-brier bush by the window. + +The cows had made their way home of their own accord, and Patience was +milking one of them already, while little Rusha held the baby, which was +swaddled up as tightly as a mummy, with only his arms free. He stretched +them out with a cry of gladness as he saw his father, and Kenton +took the little creature tenderly in his arms and held him up, while +Steadfast hurried off to fetch the milking stool and begin upon the +other cow. + +"Is Jeph come home?" asked the father, and Rusha answered "No, daddy, +though he went ever so long ago, and said he would bring me a cake." + +Upon this Master Kenton handed little Benoni back to Rusha, not without +some sounds of fretfulness from the baby, but the pigs had to be shut up +and fed, and the other evening work of the farmyard done; and it was +not till all this was over, and Patience had disposed of the milk in the +cool cellars, that the father could take him again. + +Meantime Steadfast had brought up a bucket of water from the spring, +and after washing his own hands and face, set out the table with a very +clean, though coarse cloth, five brown bowls, three horn spoons and two +wooden ones, one drinking horn, a couple of red earthen cups and two +small hooped ones of wood, a brown pitcher of small ale, a big barley +loaf, and a red crock, lined with yellow glazing, into which Patience +presently proceeded to pour from a cauldron, where it had been simmering +over the fire, a mess of broth thickened with meal. This does not sound +like good living, but the Kentons were fairly well-to-do smock-frock +farmers, and though in some houses there might be greater plenty, +there was not much more comfort beneath the ranks of the gentry in the +country. + +As for seats, the father's big wooden chair stood by the fire, and there +was a long settle, but only stools were used at the table, two being the +same that had served the milkers. Just as Rusha, at her father's sign, +had uttered a short Grace, there stood in the doorway a tall, stout, +well-made lad of seventeen, with a high-crowned wide-brimmed felt hat, +a dark jerkin with sleeves, that, like his breeches and gaiters, were of +leather, and a belt across his shoulder with a knife stuck in it. + +"Ha! Jeph," said Kenton, "always in time for meat, whatever else you +miss." + +"I could not help it, father," said Jephthah, "the red coats were at +their exercise!" + +"And thou couldst not get away from the gape-seed, eh! Come, sit down, +boy, and have at thy supper." + +"I wish I was one of them," said Jeph as he sat down. + +"And thou'dst soon wish thyself back again!" returned his father. + +"How much did you get for the fowls and eggs?" demanded Patience. + +Jephthah replied by producing a leathern bag, while Rusha cried out for +her cake, and from another pocket came, wrapped in his handkerchief, two +or three saffron buns which were greeted with such joy that his father +had not the heart to say much about wasting pence, though it appeared +that the baker woman had given them as part of her bargain for a couple +of dozen of eggs, which Patience declared ought to have brought two +pence instead of only three halfpence. + +Jephthah, however, had far too much news to tell to heed her +disappointment as she counted the money. He declared that the price +of eggs and butter would go up gallantly, for more soldiers were daily +expected to defend Bristol, and he had further to tell of one of the +captains preaching in the Minster, and the market people flocking in to +hear him. Jeph had been outside, for there was no room within, but he +had scrambled upon an old tombstone with a couple of other lads, and +through the broken window had seen the gentleman holding forth in his +hat and feather, buff coat and crimson scarf, and heard him call on all +around to be strong and hew down all their enemies, even dragging the +false and treacherous woman and her idols out to the horse gate and +there smiting them even to the death. + +"Who was the false woman?" asked Steadfast. + +"I wot not! There was something about Aholah, or some such name, but +just then a mischievous little jackanapes pulled me down by the leg, +and I had to thrash him for it, and by the time I had done, Dick, the +butcher's lad, had got my place and I heard no more." + +Whether the Captain meant Aholah or Athaliah, or alluded to Queen +Henrietta Maria, or to the English Church, Jeph's auditors never knew. +The baby began to cry, and Patience to feed him with the milk and water +that had been warmed at the fire; his father and the boys went out to +finish the work for the night, little Rusha running after them. + +Presently, she gave a cry and darted up to her father "The soldiers! +the soldiers!" and in fact three men with steel caps, buff coats, and +musquets slung by broad belts were coming into the yard. + +Kenton took up his little girl in his arms and went forward to meet +them, but he soon saw they did not look dangerous, they were dragging +along as if very tired and footsore and as if their weapons were a heavy +weight. + +"It's the goodman," said the foremost, a red-faced, good-natured looking +fellow more like a hostler than a soldier, "have you seen Captain +Lundy's men pass this way?" + +"Not I!" said Kenton, "we lie out of the high road, you see." + +"But I saw them, a couple of hours agone, marching into Bristol," said +Jephthah coming forward. + +"There now," said the man, "we did but stop at the sign of the 'Crab' +the drinking of a pottle, and to bathe Jack's foot near there, and we +have never been able to catch them up again! How far off be Bristol?" + +"A matter of four mile across the ferry. You may see it from the hill +above." + +He looked stout enough though he gave a heavy sigh of weariness, and the +other two, who were mere youths, not much older than Jeph, seemed quite +spent, and heard of the additional four miles with dismay. + +"Heart alive, lads," said their comrade, "ye'll soon be in good +quarters, and mayhap the goodman here will give you a drink to carry ye +on a bit further for the Cause." + +"You are welcome to a draught for civility's sake," said Kenton, making +a sign to his sons, who ran off to the house, "but I'm a plain man, and +know nought about the Cause." + +"Well, Master," said the straggler, as he leant his back against the +barn, and his two companions sat down on the ground in the shelter, +"I have heard a lot about the Cause, but all I know is that my Lord +of Essex sent to call out five-and-twenty men from our parish, and the +squire, he was in a proper rage with being rated to pay ship money, +so--as I had fallen out with my master, mine host of the 'Griffin,' more +fool I--I went with the young gentleman, and a proper ass I was to do +so." + +"Father said 'twas rank popery railing in the Communion table, when it +was so handy to sit on or to put one's hat on," added one of the youths +looking up. "So he was willing for me to go, and I thought I'd like to +see the world, but I'd fain be at home again." + +"So would not I," muttered the other lad. + +"No," said the ex-tapster humorously, "for thou knowst the stocks be +gaping for thee, Dick." + +By this time Jeph and Stead had returned with a jug of small beer, a +horn cup, and three hunches of the barley loaf. The men ate and drank, +and then the tapster returning hearty thanks, called the others on, +observing that if they did not make the best speed, they might miss +their billet, and have to sleep in the streets, if not become acquainted +with the lash. + +On then unwillingly they dragged, as if one foot would hardly come after +the other. + +"Poor lads!" said Kenton, as he looked after them, "methinks that's +enough to take the taste for soldiering out of thy mouth, son Jeph." + +"A set of poor-spirited rogues," returned Jeph contemptuously, as he +nevertheless sauntered on so as to watch them down the lane. + +"Be they on the right side or the wrong, father?" asked Steadfast, as he +picked up the pitcher and the horn. + +"They be dead against our parson, lad," returned Kenton, "and he says +they be against the Church and the King, though they do take the King's +name, it don't look like the right side to be knocking out church +windows, eh?" + +"Nay!" said Steadfast, "but there's them as says the windows be popish +idols." + +"Never you mind 'em, lad, ye don't bow down to the glass, nor worship +it. Thy blessed mother would have put it to you better than I can, and +she knew the Bible from end to end, but says she 'God would have His +worship for glory and for beauty in the old times, why not now?'" + +John Kenton had an immense reverence for his late wife. She had been far +more educated than he, having been born and bred up in the household +of one of those gentlemen who held it as their duty to provide for the +religious instruction of their servants. + +She had been serving-woman to the lady, who in widowhood went to reside +at Bristol, and there during her marketings, honest John Kenton had won +her by his sterling qualities. + +Puritanism did not mean nonconformity in her days, and in fact everyone +who was earnest and scrupulous was apt to be termed a Puritan. Goodwife +Kenton was one of those pious and simple souls who drink in whatever is +good in their surroundings; and though the chaplain who had taught her +in her youth would have differed in controversy with Mr. Holworth, she +never discovered their diversity, nor saw more than that Elmwood +Church had more decoration than the Castle Chapel. Whatever was done by +authority she thought was right, and she found good reason for it in +the Bible and Prayer-book her good lady had given her. She had named her +children after the prevailing custom of Puritans because she had heard +the chaplain object to what he considered unhallowed heathenish names, +but she had been heartily glad that they should be taught and catechised +by the good vicar. Happily for her, in her country home, she did not +live to see the strife brought into her own life. + +She had taught her children as much as she could. Her husband was +willing, but his old mother disapproved of learning in that station of +life, and aided and abetted her eldest grandson in his resistance, so +that though she had died when he was only eleven or twelve years old, +Jephthah could do no more than just make out the meaning of a printed +sentence, whereas Steadfast and Patience could both read easily, and did +read whatever came in their way, though that was only a broadside ballad +now and then besides their mother's Bible and Prayer-book, and one or +two little black books. + +The three eldest had been confirmed, when the Bishop of Bath and Wells +had been in the neighbourhood. That was only a fortnight after their +mother died, and even Jeph was sad and subdued. + +Since that sad day when the good mother had blessed them for the last +time, there had been little time for anything. Patience had to be the +busy little housewife, and what she would have done without Steadfast +she could not tell. Jeph would never put a hand to what he called maids' +work, but Stead would sweep, or beat the butter, or draw the water, +or chop wood, or hold the baby, and was always ready to help her, even +though it hindered him from ever going out to fish, or play at base +ball, or any of the other sports the village boys loved. + +His quiet, thoughtful ways had earned his father's trust, though he was +much slower of speech and less ready than his elder brother, and looked +heavy both in countenance and figure beside Jeph, who was tall, slim, +and full of activity and animation. He had often made his mother uneasy +by wild talk about going to sea, and by consorting with the sailors at +Bristol, which was their nearest town, though on the other side of the +Avon, and in a different county. + +It was there that the Elmwood people did their marketing, often leaving +their donkeys hobbled on their own side of the river, being ferried over +and carrying the goods themselves the latter part of the way. + + + + +CHAPTER III. KIRK RAPINE. + + + + "When impious men held sway and wasted Church and shrine." + LORD SELBORNE. + + +Patience, in her tight little white cap, sat spinning by the door, +rocking the cradle with her foot, while Rusha sometimes built what she +called houses with stones, sometimes trotted to look down the lane to +see whether father and the lads were coming home from market. + +Presently she brought word, "Stead is coming. He is leading Whitefoot, +but I don't see father and Jeph." + +Patience jumped up to put her wheel out of the way, and soon she saw +that it was only Steadfast leading the old mare with the large crooks or +panniers on either side. She ran to meet him, and saw he looked rather +pale and dazed. + +"What is it, Stead? Where's daddy?" + +"Gone up to Elmwood! They told us in town that some of the soldiers and +the folk of that sort were gone out to rabble cur church and our parson, +and father is Churchwarden, you know. So he said he must go to see what +was doing. And he bade me take Whitefoot home and give you the money," +said Steadfast, producing a bag which Patience took to keep for her +father. + +She watched very anxiously, and so did Stead, while relieving Whitefoot +of her panniers and giving her a rub down before turning her out to get +her supper. + +It was not long however before Kenton and Jeph both appeared, the one +looking sad, the other sulky. "Too late," Jeph muttered, "and father +won't let me go to see the sport." + +"Sport, d'ye call it?" said Kenton. "Aye, Stead, you may well gape at +what we have seen--our good parson with his feet tied to his stirrups on +a sorry nag, being hauled off to town like a common thief!" + +"Oh!" broke from the children, and Patience ventured to ask, "But what +for, father?" + +"They best know who did it," said the Churchwarden. "Something they said +of a scandalous minister, as though his had not ever been a godly life +and preaching. These be strange times, children, and for the life of me, +I know not what it all means. How now, Jeph, what art idling there +for? There's the waggon to be loaded for to-morrow with the faggots I +promised Mistress Lightfoot." + +Jeph moved away, murmuring something about fetching up the cows, to +which his father replied, "That was Steadfast's work, and it was not +time yet." + +In fact Jeph was very curious to know what was going on in the village. +If there was any kind of uproar, why should not he have his part in +it? It was just like father to hinder him, and he had a great mind to +neglect the faggots and go off to the village. He was rather surprised, +and a good deal vexed to see his father walking along on the way to the +pasture with Steadfast. + +It was for the sake of saying "Aye, boy, best not go near the sorry +sight! They would not let good Master Holworth speak with me; but I +saw he meant to warn me to keep aloof lest Tim Green or the like should +remember as how I'm Churchwarden." + +"Did they ask after those things?" inquired Steadfast in a lowered +voice. + +"I can't say. But on your life, lad, not a word of them!" + +After work was done for the evening, Jeph and Stead were too eager +to know what had happened to stay at home. They ran across the bit of +moorland to the village street and the grey church, whose odd-shaped +steeple stood up among the trees. Already they could see that the great +west window was broken, all the glass which bore the picture of the Last +Judgment, and the Archangel Michael weighing souls in the balance was +gone! + +"Yes," said Tom Oates, leaping over two or three tombstones to get to +them. "'Twas rare sport, Jeph Kenton. Why were you not there too?" + +"At Bristol with father," replied Jeph. + +"Worse luck for you. The red coat shot the big angel right in the eye, +and shivered him through, and we did the rest with stones. I sent one +that knocked the wing of him right off. You should have seen me, Stead! +And old Clerk North was running about crying all the time like a baby. +He'll never whack us over the head again!" + +"What was the good?" said Steadfast. + +"You never saw better sport," said the boys. + +And indeed, since, when once begun, destruction and mischief are apt to +be only too delightful to boys, they had thoroughly and thoughtlessly +delighted in knocking down the things they had been taught to respect. A +figure of a knight in a ruff kneeling on a tomb had had its head +knocked off, and one of the lads heaved the bits up to throw at the last +fragment of glass in the window. + +"What do you do that for?" asked Stead. + +"'Tis worshipping of idols," said a somewhat graver lad. "'Break down +their idols,' the man in the black gown said, 'and burn their graven +images in the fire.'" + +"But we never worshipped them," said Stead. + +"Pious preacher said so," returned the youth, "and mighty angered was +he with the rails." (Jeph and Will were sparring with two fragments of +them.) "'Down with them,' he cried out, so as it would have done your +heart good to hear him." + +"And the parson is gone! There will be no hearing the catechism on +Sundays!" cried Ralph Wilkes, making a leap over the broken font. + +"Good luck for you, Ralph," cried the others. "You, that never could +tell how many commandments there be." + +"Put on your hat, Stead," called out another lad. "We've done with all +that now, and the parson is gone to prison for it." + +"No, no," shouted Tom Oates, "'twas for making away with the Communion +things." + +"I heard the red coat say they had a warrant against scandalous +ministers," declared Ralph Wilkes. + +"I heard the man with the pen and ink-horn ask for the popish vessels, +as he called them, and not a word would the parson say," said Oates. + +"I'd take my oath he has hid them somewheres," replied Jack Beard, an +ill-looking lad. + +"What a windfall they would be for him as found them!" observed Wilkes. + +"I'd like to look over the parsonage house," said Jeph. + +"No use. Old dame housekeeper has locked herself in, as savage as a bear +with a sore head." + +"Besides, they did turn over all the parson's things and made a bonfire +of all his popish books. The little ones be dancing their rounds about +it still!" + +Stead had heard quite enough to make him very uneasy, and wish to get +home with his tidings to his father. There was a girl standing by with a +baby in her arms, and she asked: + +"What will they do to our minister?" + +"Put him in Little Ease for a scandalous minister," was the ready +answer. "But he _is_ a good man. He gave us all broth when father had +the fever!" + +"And who will give granny and me our Sunday dinner?" said a little boy. + +"But there'll be no more catechising. Hurrah!" cried Oates, "hurrah!" + +"'Tis rank superstition, said the red coat, Hurrah!" and up went their +caps. "Halloa, Stead Kenton, not a word to say?" + +"He likes being catechised, standing as he does like a stuck pig, and +answering never a word," cried Jack. + +"I do," said Steadfast, "and why not?" + +"Parson's darling! Parson's darling!" shouted the boys. "A malignant! +Off with him." They had begun to hustle him, when Jeph threw himself +between and cried: + +"Hit Steadfast, and you must hit me first." + +"A match, a match!" they cried, "Jeph and Jack." + +Stead had no fears about Jeph conquering, but while the others stood +round to watch the boxing, he slipped away, with his heart perplexed and +sad. He had loved his minister, and he never guessed how much he cared +for his church till he saw it lying desolate, and these rude lads +rejoicing in the havoc; while the words rang in his ears, "And now they +break down all the carved work thereof with axes and with hammers." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE GOOD CAUSE. + + + + "And their Psalter mourneth with them + O'er the carvings and the grace, + Which axe and hammer ruin + In the fair and holy place." + Bp. CLEVELAND COXE. + + +When next John Kenton went into Bristol to market he tried to discover +what had become of Mr. Holworth, but could only make out something about +his being sent up to London with others of his sort to answer for being +Baal worshippers! Which, as he observed, he could not understand. + +There seemed likely to be no service at the church on Sunday, but John +thought himself bound to walk thither with his sons to see what was +going on, and they heard such a noise that they looked at each other +in amazement. It was not preaching, but shouting, laughing, screaming, +stamping, and running. The rude village children were playing at +hide-and-seek, and Jenny Oates was hidden in the pulpit. But at Master +Kenton's loud "How now, youngsters" they all were frightened, some ran +out headlong, some sneaked out at the little north door, and the +place was quiet, but in sad confusion and desolation, the altar-table +overthrown, the glass of the windows lying in fragments on the pavement, +the benches kicked over. + +Kenton, with his boys' help, put what he could straight again, and +then somewhat to their surprise knelt down with bowed head, and said +a prayer, for they saw his lips moving. Then he locked up the church +doors, for the keys had been left in them, and slowly and sadly went +away. + +"Thy mother would be sad to see this work," he said to Steadfast, as +he stopped by her grave. "They say 'tis done for religion's sake, but I +know not what to make of it." + +The old Parish Clerk, North, had had a stroke the night after the +plunder of the church, and lay a-dying and insensible. His wife gave +his keys to Master Kenton, and on the following Sunday there was a +hue-and-cry for them, and Oates the father, the cobbler, a meddling +fellow, came down with a whole rabble of boys after him to the farm to +demand them. "A preacher had come out from Bristol," he said, "a captain +in the army, and he was calling for the keys to get into the church and +give them a godly discourse. It would be the worse for Master Kenton if +he did not give them up." + +John had just sat down in the porch in his clean Sunday smock with the +baby on his knee, and Rusha clinging about him waiting till Stead had +cleaned himself up, and was ready to read to them from the mother's +books. + +When he understood Gates' message he slowly said, "I be in charge of the +keys for this here parish." + +"Come, come, Master Kenton, this wont do, give 'un up or you'll be made +to. Times are changed, and we don't want no parsons nor churchwardens +now, nor no such popery!" + +"I'm accountable to the vestry for the church," gravely said Kenton. +"I will come and see what is doing, and open the church if so be as the +parish require it." + +"Don't you see! The parish does--" + +"I don't call you the parish, Master Gates, nor them boys neither," said +Kenton, getting up however, and placing the little one in the cradle, as +he called out to Patience to keep back the dinner till his return. The +two boys and Rusha followed him to see what would happen. + +Long before they reached the churchyard they heard the sound of a +powerful voice, and presently they could see all the men and women of +the parish as it seemed, gathered about the lych gate, where, on the +large stone on which coffins were wont to be rested, stood a tall thin +man, in a heavy broad-brimmed hat, large bands, crimson scarf, and buff +coat, who was in fiery and eager words calling on all those around to +awaken from the sleep of sloth and sin, break their bonds and fight for +freedom and truth. He waved his long sword as he spoke and dared the +armies of Satan to come on, and it was hard to tell which he really +meant, the forces of sin, or the armies of men whom he believed to be +fighting on the wrong side. + +Someone told him that the keys of the church were brought, but he heeded +not the interruption, except to thunder forth "What care I for your +steeple house! The Church of God is in the souls of the faithful. Is +it not written 'The kingdom of heaven is within you?' What, can ye not +worship save between four walls?" And then he went on with the utmost +fervour and vehemence, calling on all around to set themselves free from +the chains that held them and to strive even to the death. + +He meant all he said. He really believed he was teaching the only way of +righteousness, and so his words had a force that went home to people's +hearts as earnestness always does, and Jephthah, with tears in his eyes, +began begging and praying his father to let him go and fight for the +good Cause. + +"Aye, aye," said Kenton, "against the world, the flesh, and the devil, +and welcome, my son." + +"Then I'll go and enlist under Captain Venn," cried Jeph. + +"Not so fast, my lad. What I gave you leave for was to fight with the +devil." + +"You said the good Cause!" + +"And can you tell me which be the good Cause?" + +"Why, this here, of course. Did not you hear the Captain's good words, +and see his long sword, and didn't they give five marks for Croppie's +bull calf?" + +"Fine words butter no parsnips," slowly responded Kenton. + +"But," put in Steadfast, "butter is risen twopence the pound." + +"Very like," said Kenton, "but how can that be the good Cause that +strips the Churches and claps godly ministers into jail?" + +Jephthah thought he had an answer, but fathers in those times did not +permit themselves to be argued with. + +Prices began going up still higher, for the Cavaliers were reported +to be on their way to besiege Bristol, and the garrison wanted all the +provisions they could lay in, and paid well for them. When Kenton +and his boys went down to market, they found the old walls being +strengthened with earth and stones, and sentries watching at the gates, +but as they brought in provisions, and were by this time well known, no +difficulty was made about admitting them. + +One day, however, as they were returning, they saw a cloud of dust in +the distance, and heard the sounds of drums and fifes playing a joyous +tune. Kenton drew the old mare behind the bank of a high hedge, and the +boys watched eagerly through the hawthorns. + +Presently they saw the Royal Standard of England, though indeed that did +not prove much, for both sides used it alike, but there were many lesser +banners and pennons of lords and knights, waving on the breeze, and as +the Kentons peeped down into the lane below they saw plumed hats, +and shining corslets, and silken scarves, and handsome horses, whose +jingling accoutrements chimed in with the tramp of their hoofs, and the +notes of the music in front, while cheerful voices and laughter could be +heard all around. + +"Oh, father! these be gallant fellows," exclaimed Jephthah. "Will you +let me go with these?" + +Kenton laughed a little to himself. "Which is the good Cause, eh, son +Jeph?" + +He was, however, not at all easy about the state of things. "There is +like to be fighting," he said to Steadfast, as they were busy together +getting hay into the stable, "and that makes trouble even for quiet +folks that only want to be let alone. Now, look you here," and he +pulled out a canvas bag from the corner of the bin. "This has got pretty +tolerably weighty of late, and I doubt me if this be the safest place +for it." + +Stead opened his eyes. The family all knew that the stable was used as +the deposit for money, though none of the young folks had been allowed +to know exactly where it was kept. There were no banks in those days, +and careful people had no choice but either to hoard and hide, or to +lend their money to someone in business. + +The farmer poured out a heap of the money, all silver and copper, but he +did not dare to wait to count it lest he should be interrupted. He tied +up one handful, chiefly of pence, in the same bag, and put the rest into +a bit of old sacking, saying, "You can get to the brook side, to the +place you wot of, better than I can, Stead. Take you this with you and +put it along with the other things, and then you will have something +to fall back on in case of need. We'll put the rest back where it was +before, for it may come handy." + +So Steadfast, much gratified, as well he might be, at the confidence +bestowed on him by his father, took the bag with him under his smock +when he went out with the cows, and bestowed it in a cranny not far from +that in which that more precious trust resided. + + + + +CHAPTER V. DESOLATION. + + + "They shot him dead at the Nine Stonerig, + Beside the headless Cross; + And they left him lying in his blood, + Upon the moor and moss." + SURTEES. + + +More and more soldiers might be seen coming down the roads towards the +town, not by any means always looking as gay as that first troop. +Some of the feathers were as draggled as the old cock's tail after +a thunderstorm, some reduced even to the quill, the coats looked +threadbare, the scarves stained and frayed, the horses lean and bony. + +There was no getting into the town now, and the growling thunder of a +cannon might now and then be heard. Jeph would have liked to spend all +his time on the hill-side where he could see the tents round the town, +and watch bodies of troops come out, looking as small as toy soldiers, +and see the clouds of smoke, sometimes the flashes, a moment or two +before the report. + +He longed to go down and see the camp, taking a load of butter and +eggs, but the neighbours told his father that these troops were bad +paymasters, and that there were idle fellows lurking about who might +take his wares without so much as asking the price. + +However, Jeph grew suddenly eager to herd the cattle, because thus he +had the best chance of watching the long lines of soldiers drawn out +from the camp, and seeing the smoke of the guns, whose sound made poor +Patience stay and tremble at home, and hardly like to have her father +out of her sight. + +There was worse coming. Jeph had been warned to keep his cattle well out +of sight from any of the roads, but when he could see the troops moving +about he could not recollect anything else, and one afternoon Croppie +strayed into the lane where the grass grew thick and rank, and the +others followed her. Jeph had turned her back and was close to the +farmstead when he heard shouts and the clattering of trappings. +Half-a-dozen lean, hungry-looking troopers were clanking down the lane, +and one called out, "Ha! good luck! Just what we want! Beef and forage. +Turn about, young bumpkin, I say. Drive your cattle into camp. For the +King's service." + +"They are father's," sturdily replied Jeph, and called aloud for +"Father." + +He was answered with a rude shout of derision, and poor Croppie was +pricked with the sword's point to turn her away. Jeph was wild with +passion, and struck back the sword with his stick so unexpectedly that +it flew out of the trooper's hand. Of course, more than one stout man +instantly seized the boy, amid howls of rage; and one heavy blow had +fallen on him, when Kenton dashed forward, thrusting himself between his +son, and the uplifted arm, and had begun to speak, when, with the words +"You will, you rebel dog?" a pistol shot was fired. + +Jeph saw his father fall, but felt the grasp upon himself relax, and +heard a voice shouting, "How now, my men, what's this?" + +"He resisted the King's requisition, your Grace," said one of the +troopers, as a handsome lad galloped up. + +"King's requisition! Your own robbery. What have you done to the poor +man, you Schelm? See here, Rupert," he added, as another young man rode +hastily up. + +"Rascals! How often am I to tell you that this is not to be made a place +for your plunder and slaughter," thundered the new comer, rising in his +stirrups, and striking at the troopers with the flat of his sword, so +that they fell back with growls about "soldiers must live," and "curs of +peasants." + +The younger brother had leapt from his horse, and was trying to help +Jephthah raise poor Kenton's head, but it fell back helplessly, deaf +to the screams of "Father, father," with which Patience and Rusha had +darted out, as a cloud of smoke began to rise from the straw yard. Poor +children, they screamed again at what was before them. Rusha ran wildly +away at sight of the soldiers, but Patience, with the baby in her arms, +came up. She did not see her father at first, and only cried aloud to +the gentlemen. + +"O sir, don't let them do it. If they take our cows, the babe will die. +He has no mother!" + +"They shall not, the villains! Brother, can nothing be done?" cried +the youth, with a face of grief and horror. And then there was a great +confusion. + +The two young officers were vehemently angry at sight of the fire, and +shouted fierce orders to the guard of soldiers who had accompanied them +to endeavour to extinguish it, themselves doing their best, and making +the men release Steadfast, whom they had seized upon as he was trying to +trample out the flame, kindled by a match from one of the soldiers +who had scattered themselves about the yard during the struggle with +Jephthah. + +But either the fire was too strong, or the men did not exert themselves; +it was soon plain that the house could not be saved, and the elder +remounted, saying in German, "'Tis of no use, Maurice, we must not +linger here." + +"And can nothing be done?" again asked Prince Maurice. "This is as bad +as in Germany itself." + +"You are new to the trade, Maurice. You will see many such sights, +I fear, ere we have done; though I hoped the English nature was more +kindly." + +Then using the word of command, sending his aides-de-camp, and with much +shouting and calling, Prince Rupert got the troop together again, very +sulky at being baulked of their plunder. They were all made to go out of +the farm yard, and ride away before him, and then the two princes halted +where the poor children, scarce knowing that their home was burning +behind them, were gathered round their father, Patience stroking his +face, Steadfast chafing his hands, Jephthah standing with folded arms, +and a terrible look of grief and wrath on his face. + +"Is there no hope?" asked Prince Maurice, sorrowfully. + +"He is dead. That's all," muttered Jeph between his clenched teeth. + +"Mark," said Prince Rupert, "this mischance is by no command of the +King or mine. The fellow shall be brought to justice if you can swear to +him." + +"I would have hindered it, if I could," said the other prince, in much +slower, and more imperfect English. "It grieves me much. My purse has +little, but here it is." + +He dropped it on the ground while setting spurs to his horse to follow +his brother. + +And thus the poor children were left at first in a sort of numb dismay +after the shock, not even feeling that a heavy shower had begun to fall, +till the baby, whom Patience had laid on the grass, set up a shriek. + +Then she snatched him up, and burst into a bitter cry herself--wailing +"father was dead, and he would die," in broken words. Steadfast then +laid a hand on her, and said "He won't die, Patience, I see Croppie +there, I'll get some milk. Take him." + +There were only smoking walls, but the fire was burning down under the +rain, and had not touched the stable, the wind being the other way. +"Take him there," the boy said. + +"But father--we can't leave him." + +Without more words Jephthah and Steadfast took the still form between +them and bore it into the stable, the baby screaming with hunger all the +time, so that Jephthah hotly said-- + +"Stop that! I can't bear it." + +Steadfast then said he would milk the cow if Jeph would run to the next +cottage and get help. People would come when they knew the soldiers were +gone. + +There was nothing but Steadfast's leathern cap to hold the milk, and +he felt as if his fingers had no strength to draw it; but when he had +brought his sister enough to quiet little Ben, she recollected Rusha, +and besought him to find her. She could hardly sit still and feed the +little one while she heard his voice shouting in vain for the child, +and all the time she was starting with the fancy that she saw her father +move, or heard a rustling in the straw where her brothers had laid him. + +And when little Ben was satisfied, she was almost rent asunder between +her unwillingness to leave unwatched all that was left of her father, +still with that vain hopeless hope that he might revive, all could not +have been over in such a moment, and her terrible anxiety about her +little sister. Could she have run back into the burning house? Or could +those dreadful soldiers have killed her too? + +Steadfast presently came back, having found some of the startled cattle +and driven them in, but no Rusha. Patience was sure she could find her, +and giving the baby to Steadfast ran out in the rain and smouldering +smoke calling her; all in vain. Then she heard voices and feet, and in a +fresh fright was about to turn again, when she knew Jephthah's call. He +had the child in his arms. He had been coming back from the village with +some neighbours, when they saw the poor little thing, crouched like a +hare in her form under a bush. No sooner did she hear them, than like a +hare, she started up to run away; but stumbling over the root of a tree, +she fell and lay, too much frightened even to scream till her brother +picked her up. + +Kind motherly arms were about the poor girls. Old Goody Grace, who had +been with them through their mother's illness, had hobbled up on hearing +the terrible news. She looked like a witch, with a tall hat, short +cloak, and nose and chin nearly meeting, but all Elmwood loved and +trusted her, and the feeling of utter terror and helplessness almost +vanished when she kissed and grieved over the orphans, and took the +direction of things. She straightened and composed poor John Kenton's +limbs, and gave what comfort she could by assuring the children that the +passage must have been well nigh without pain. "And if ever there was +a good man fit to be taken suddenly, it was he," she added. "He be in +a happier place than this has been to him since your good mother was +took." + +Several of the men had accompanied her, and after some consultation, it +was decided that the burial had better take place that very night, even +though there was no time to make a coffin. + +"Many an honest man will be in that same case," said Harry Blane, the +smith, "if they come to blows down there." + +"And He to Whom he is gone will not ask whether he lies in a coffin, or +has the prayers said over him," added Goody, "though 'tis pity on him +too, for he always was a man for churches and parsons and prayers." + +"Vain husks, said the pious captain," put in Oates. + +"Well," said Harry Blane, "those could hardly be vain husks that made +John Kenton what he was. Would that the good old times were back again; +when a sackless man could not be shot down at his own door for nothing +at all." + +Reverently and carefully John Kenton's body was borne to the churchyard, +where he was laid in the grave beside his much loved wife. No knell was +rung: Elmwood, lying far away over the hill side in the narrow wooded +valley with the river between it and the camp, had not yet been visited +by any of the Royalist army, but a midnight toll might have attracted +the attention of some of the lawless stragglers. Nor did anyone feel +capable of uttering a prayer aloud, and thus the only sound at that +strange sad funeral was the low boom of a midnight gun fired in the +beleaguered city. + +Then Patience with Rusha and the baby were taken home by kind old Goody +Grace, while the smith called the two lads into his house. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. LEFT TO THEMSELVES. + + + "One look he cast upon the bier, + Dashed from his eye the gathering tear, + Then, like the high bred colt when freed + First he essays his fire and speed, + He vanished---" + SCOTT. + + +Steadfast was worn and wearied out with grief and slept heavily, knowing +at first that his brother was tossing about a good deal, but soon losing +all perception, and not waking till on that summer morning the sun had +made some progress in the sky. + +Then he came to the sad recollection of the last dreadful day, and knew +that he was lying on Master Blane's kitchen floor. He picked himself up, +and at the same moment heard Jephthah calling him from the outside. + +"Stead," he said, "I am going!" + +"Going!" said poor Stead, half asleep. + +"Yes. I shall never rest till I have had a shot at those barbarous +German princes and the rest of the villains. My father's blood cries to +me from the ground for vengeance." + +"Would father have said like that?" said the boy, bewildered, but +conscious of something defective, though these were Bible words. + +"That's not the point! Captain Venn called every man to take the sword +and hew down the wicked, and slay the ungodly and the murderers. I +will!" cried Jeph, "none shall withhold me." + +He had caught more phrases from these fiery preachers than he himself +knew, and they broke forth in this time of excitement. + +"But, Jeph, what is to become of us? The girls, and the little one! You +are the only one of us who can do a man's work." + +"I could not keep you together!" said Jeph. "Our house burnt by those +accursed sons of Belial, all broken up, and only a lubber like you to +help! No, Goody Grace or some one will take in the girls for what's left +of the stock, and you can soon find a place--a strong fellow like you; +Master Blane might take you and make a smith of you, if you be not too +slow and clumsy." + +"But Jeph--" + +"Withhold me not. Is it not written--" + +"I wish you would not say is it not written," broke in Stead, "I know it +is, but you don't say it right." + +"Because you are yet in darkness," said Jeph, contemptuously. "Hold your +tongue. I must be off at once. Market folk can get into the town by the +low lane out there, away from the camp of the spoilers, early in the +morning, and I must hasten to enlist under Captain Venn. No, don't call +the wenches, they would but strive to daunt my spirit in the holy work +of vengeance on the bloodthirsty, and I can't abide tears and whining. +See here, I found this in the corn bin. I'm poor father's heir. You +won't want money, and I shall; so I shall take it, but I'll come back +and make all your fortunes when I am a captain or a colonel. I wonder +this is not more. We got a heap of late. Maybe father hid it somewhere +else, but 'tis no use seeking now. If you light upon it you are welcome +to do what you will with it. Fare thee well, Steadfast. Do the best you +can for the wenches, but a call is laid on me! I have vowed to avenge +the blood that was shed." + +He strode off into the steep woodland path that clothed the hill side, +and Steadfast looked after him, and felt more utterly deserted than +before. Then he looked up to the sky, and tried to remember what was +the promise to the fatherless children. That made him wonder whether +the Bible and Prayer-book had been burnt, and then his morning's duty of +providing milk for the little ones' breakfast pressed upon him. He took +up a pail of Mrs. Blane's which he thought he might borrow and went off +in search of the cows. So, murmuring the Lord's Prayer as he walked, +and making the resolution not to be dragged away from his trust in the +cavern, nor to forsake his little sister--he heard the lowing of the +cows as he went over the hill, and found them standing at the gate of +the fold yard, waiting to be eased of their milk. Poor creatures, they +seemed so glad to welcome him that it was the first thing that brought +tears to his eyes, and they came with such a rush that he had much ado +to keep them from dropping into the pail as he leant his head against +Croppie's ruddy side. + +There was a little smouldering smoke; but the rain had checked the fire, +and though the roof of the house was gone and it looked frightfully +dreary and wretched, the walls were still standing and the pigs were +grunting about the place. However, Steadfast did not stop to see what +was left within, as he knew Ben would be crying for food, but he carried +his foaming pail back to Goody Grace's as fast as he could, after +turning out the cows on the common, not even stopping to count the sheep +that were straggling about. + +His sisters were watching anxiously from the door of Goody Grace's +hovel, and eagerly cried out "Where's Jeph?" + +Then he had to tell them that Jeph was gone for a soldier, to have his +revenge for his father's death. + +"Jeph gone too!" said poor Patience, looking pale. "Oh, what shall we +ever do?" + +"He did not think of that, I'll warrant, the selfish fellow," said Goody +Grace. "That's the way with lads, nought but themselves." + +"It was because of what they did to poor father," replied Stead. + +"And if he, or the folks he is gone to, call that the Christian +religion, 'tis more than I do!" rejoined the old woman. "I wish I had +met him, I'd have given him a bit of my mind about going off to his +revenge, as he calls it, without ever a thought what was to become of +his own flesh and blood here." + +"He did say I might go to service (not that I shall), and that some one +would take you in for the cattle's sake." + +"O don't do that, Stead," cried Patience, "don't let us part!" He had +only just time to answer, "No such thing," for people were coming about +them by this time, one after another emerging from the cottages that +stood around the village green. The women were all hotly angry with Jeph +for going off and leaving his young brothers and sisters to shift for +themselves. + +"He was ever an idle fellow," said one, "always running after the +soldiers and only wanting an excuse." + +"Best thing he could do for himself or them," growled old Green. + +"Eh! What, Gaffer Green! To go off without a word or saying by your +leave to his poor little sister before his good father be cold in his +grave," exclaimed a whole clamour of voices. + +"Belike he knew what a clack of women's tongues there would be, and +would fain be out of it," replied the old man shrewdly. + +It was a clamour that oppressed poor Patience and made her feel sick +with sorrow and noise. Everybody meant to be very kind and pitiful, but +there was a great deal too much of it, and they felt quite bewildered +by the offers made them. Farmer Mill's wife, of Elmwood Cross, two miles +off, was reported by her sister to want a stout girl to help her, but +there was no chance of her taking Rusha or the baby as well as Patience. +Goody Grace could not undertake the care of Ben unless she could have +Patience, because she was so often called away from home, nor could she +support them without the cows. Smith Blane might have taken Stead, but +his wife would not hear of being troubled with Rusha. And Dame Oates +might endure Rusha for the sake of a useful girl like Patience, but +certainly not the baby. It was an utter Babel and confusion, and in the +midst of it all, Patience crept up to her brother who stood all the +time like a stock, and said "Oh! Stead, I cannot give up Ben to anyone. +Cannot we all keep together?" + +"Hush, Patty! That's what I mean to do, if you will stand by me," he +whispered, "wait till all the clack is over." + +And there he waited with Patience by his side while the parish seemed +to be endlessly striving over them. If one woman seemed about to make a +proposal, half-a-dozen more fell on her and vowed that the poor orphans +would be starved and overworked; till she turned on the foremost with +"And hadn't your poor prentice lad to go before the justices to shew the +weals on his back?" "Aye, Joan Stubbs, and what are you speaking up +for but to get the poor children's sheep? Hey, you now, Stead +Kenton--Lack-a-day, where be they?" + +For while the dispute was at its loudest and hottest, Stead had taken +Rusha by the hand, made a sign to Patience, and the four deserted +children had quietly gone away together into the copsewood that led +to the little glen where the brook ran, and where was the cave that +Steadfast looked on as his special charge. Rusha, frightened by the loud +voices and angry gestures, had begun to cry, and beg she might not be +given to anyone, but stay with her Patty and Stead. + +"And so you shall, my pretty," said Steadfast, sitting down on the stump +of a tree, and taking her on his knee, while Toby nuzzled up to them. + +"Then you think we can go on keeping ourselves, and not letting them +part us," said Patience, earnestly. "If I have done the house work all +this time, and we have the fields, and all the beasts. We have only lost +the house, and I could never bear to live there again," she added, with +a shudder. + +"No," said Steadfast, "it is too near the road while these savage +fellows are about. Besides--" and there he checked himself and added, +"I'll tell you, Patty. Do you remember the old stone cot down there in +the wood?" + +"Where the old hermit lived in the blind Popish times?" + +"Aye. We'll live there. No soldiers will ever find us out there, Patty." + +"Oh! oh! that is good," said Patience. "We shall like that, shan't we, +Rusha?" + +"And," added Steadfast, "there is an old cowshed against the rock +down there, where we could harbour the beasts, for 'tis them that the +soldiers are most after." + +"Let us go down to it at once," cried the girl, joyfully. + +But Steadfast thought it would be wiser to go first to the ruins of +their home; before, as he said, anyone else did so, to see what could be +saved therefrom. + +Patience shrank from the spectacle, and Rusha hung upon her, saying the +soldiers would be there, and beginning to cry. At that moment, however, +Tom Gates' voice came near shouting for "Stead! Stead Kenton!" + +"Come on, Stead. You'll be prentice-lad to Dick Stiggins the tailor, if +so be you bring Whitefoot and the geese for your fee; and Goodman Bold +will have the big wench; and Goody Grace will make shift with the little +ones, provided she has the kine!" + +"We don't mean to be beholden to none of them," said Steadfast, +sturdily, with his hands in his pockets. "We mean to keep what belongs +to us, and work for ourselves." + +"And God will help us," Patience added softly. + +"Ho, ho!" cried Tom, and proud of having found them, he ran before them +back to the village green, and roared out, "Here they be! And they say +as how they don't want none of you, but will keep themselves. Ha! ha!" + +Anyone who saw those four young orphans would not have thought their +trying to keep themselves a laughing matter; and the village folk, who +had been just before so unwilling to undertake them, now began scolding +and blaming them for their folly and ingratitude. + +Nothing indeed makes people so angry as when a kindness which has cost +them a great effort turns out not to be wanted. + +"Look for nothing from us," cried Dame Bold. "I'd have made a good +housewife of you, you ungrateful hussy, and now you may thank yourself, +if you come to begging, I shall have nothing for you." + +"Beggary and rags," repeated the tailor. "Aye, aye; 'tis all very fine +strolling about after the sheep with your hands in your pockets in +summer weather, but you'll sing another song in winter time, and be +sorry you did not know when you had a good offer." + +"The babe will die as sure as 'tis born," added Jean Oates. + +"If they be not all slain by the mad Prince's troopers up in that place +by the roadside," said another. + +Blacksmith Blane and Goody Grace were in the meantime asking the +children what they meant to do, and Stead told them in a few words. +Goody Grace shook her head over little Ben, but Blane declared that +after all it might be the best thing they could do to keep their land +and beasts together. Ten to one that foolish lad Jephthah would come +back with his tail between his legs, and though it would serve him +right, what would they do if all were broken up? Then he slapped Stead +on the back, called him a sensible, steady lad, and promised always to +be his friend. + +Moreover he gave up his morning's work to come with the children to +their homestead, and see what could be saved. It was a real kindness, +not only because his protection made Patience much less afraid to go +near the place, and his strong arm would be a great help to them, but +because he was parish constable and had authority to drive away the +rough lads whom they found already hanging about the ruins, and who had +frightened Patience's poor cat up into the ash tree. + +The boys and two curs were dancing round the tree, and one boy was +stripping off his smock to climb up and throw poor pussy down among them +when Master Blane's angry shout and flourished staff put them all to +flight, and Patience and Rusha began to coax the cat to come down to +them. + +Hunting her had had one good effect, it had occupied the boys and +prevented them from carrying anything off. The stable was safe. What had +been burnt was the hay rick, whence the flames had climbed to the house. +The roof had fallen in, and the walls and chimney stood up blackened and +dismal, but there was a good deal of stone about the house, the roof was +of shingle, and the heavy fall, together with the pouring rain, had +done much to choke the fire, so that when Blane began to throw aside the +charred bits of beams and of the upper floor, more proved to be unburnt, +or at least only singed, than could have been expected. + +The great black iron pot still hung in the chimney with the very meal +and kail broth that Patience had been boiling in it, and Rusha's little +stool stood by the hearth. Then the great chest, or ark as Patience +called it, where all the Sunday clothes were kept, had been crushed +in and the upper things singed, but all below was safe. The beds and +bedding were gone; but then the best bed had been only a box in the wall +with an open side, and the others only chaff or straw stuffed into a +sack. + +Patience's crocks, trenchers, and cups were gone too, all except one +horn mug; but two knives and some spoons were extracted from the ashes. +Furniture was much more scanty everywhere than now. There was not much +to lose, and of that they had lost less than they had feared. + +"And see here, Stead," said Patience joyfully holding up a lesser box +kept within the other. + +It contained her mother's Bible and Prayer-book. The covers were turned +up, a little warped by the heat, and some of the corners of the leaves +were browned, but otherwise they were unhurt. + +"I was in hopes 'twas the money box," said Blane. + +"Jeph has got the bag," said Patience. + +"More shame for him," growled their friend. Steadfast did not think it +necessary to say that was not all the hoard. + +Another thing about which Patience was very anxious was the meal chest. +With much difficulty they reached it. It had been broken in by the fall +of the roof, and some of the contents were scattered, but enough was +gathered up in a pail fetched from the stable to last for some little +time. There were some eggs likewise in the nests, and altogether Goodman +Blane allowed that, if the young Kentons could take care of themselves, +and keep things together, they had decided for the best; if they could, +that was to say. And he helped them to carry their heavier things to +the glen. He wanted to see if it were fit for their habitation, but +Steadfast was almost sorry to show anyone the way, in spite of his trust +and gratitude to the blacksmith. + +However, of course, it was not possible to keep this strange +hiding-place a secret, so he led the way by the path the cattle had +trodden out through the brushwood to the open space where they drank, +and where stood the hermit's hut, a dreary looking den built of big +stones, and with rough slates covering it. There was a kind of hole for +the doorway, and another for the smoke to get out at. Blane whistled +with dismay at the sight of it, and told Stead he could not take the +children to such a place. + +"We will get it better," said Stead. + +"That we will," returned Patience, who felt anything better than being +separated from her brother. + +"It is weather-tight," added Stead, "and when it is cleaned out you will +see!" + +"And the soldiers will never find it," added Patience. + +"There is something in that," said Blane. "But at any rate, though it be +summer, you can never sleep there to-night." + +"The girls cannot," said Stead, "but I shall, to look after things." + +These were long days, and by the evening many of the remnants of +household stuff had been brought, the cows and Whitefoot had been +tied up in their dilapidated shed, with all the hay Stead could gather +together to make them feel at home. There was a hollow under the rock +where he hoped to keep the pigs, but neither they nor the sheep could +be brought in at present. They must take their chance, the sheep on the +moor, the pigs grubbing about the ruins of the farmyard. The soldiers +must be too busy for marauding, to judge by the constant firing that had +gone on all day, the sharp rattle of the musquets, and now and then the +grave roll of a cannon. + +Stead had been too busy to attend, but half the village had been +watching from the height, which accounted perhaps for the move from the +farm having been so uninterrupted after the first. + +It was not yet dark, when, tired out by his day's hard work, Stead +sat himself down at the opening of his hut with Toby by his side. The +evening gold of the sky could hardly be seen through the hazel and +mountain-ash bushes that clothed the steep opposite bank of the glen and +gave him a feeling of security. The brook rippled along below, plainly +to be heard since all other sounds had ceased except the purring of a +night-jar and the cows chewing their cud. There was a little green glade +of short grass sloping down to the stream from the hut where the rabbits +were at play, but on each side the trees and brushwood were thick, with +only a small path through, much overgrown, and behind the rock rose like +a wall, overhung with ivy and traveller's joy. Only one who knew the +place could have found the shed among the thicket where the cows were +fastened, far less the cavern half-way up the side of the rock where +lay the treasures for which Steadfast was a watchman. He thought for a +moment of seeing if all were safe, but then decided, like a wise boy, +that to disturb the creepers, and wear a path to the place, was the +worst thing he could do if he wished for concealment. He had had his +supper at the village, and had no more to do, and after the long day +of going to and fro, even Toby was too much tired to worry the rabbits, +though he had had no heavy weights to carry. Perhaps, indeed, the poor +dog had no spirits to interfere with their sports, as they sat upright, +jumped over one another, and flashed their little white tails. He missed +his old master, and knew perfectly well that his young master was in +trouble and distress, as he crept close up to the boy's breast, and +looked up in his face. Stead's hand patted the rough, wiry hair, and +there was a sort of comfort in the creature's love. But how hard it was +to believe that only yesterday he had a father and a home, and that now +his elder brother was gone, and he had the great charge on him of being +the mainstay of the three younger ones, as well as of protecting that +treasure in the cavern which his father had so solemnly entrusted to +him. + +The boy knelt down to say his prayers, and as he did so, all alone in +the darkening wood, the words "Father of the fatherless, Helper of the +helpless," came to his aid. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE HERMIT'S GULLEY. + + + "O Bessie Bell and Mary Grey, + They were twa bonnie lasses-- + They digged a bower on yonder brae, + And theek'd it o'er wi' rashes." BALLAD. + + +Steadfast slept soundly on the straw with Toby curled up by his side +till the morning light was finding its way in through all the chinks of +his rude little hovel. + +When he had gathered his recollections he knew how much there was to be +done. He sprang to his feet, showing himself still his good mother's own +boy by kneeling down to his short prayer, then taking off the clothes in +which he had slept, and giving himself a good bath in the pool under the +bush of wax-berried guelder rose, and as good a wash as he could without +soap. + +Then he milked the cows, for happily his own buckets had been at the +stable and thus were safe. He had just released Croppie and seen her +begin her breakfast on the grass, when Patience in her little red hood +came tripping through the glen with a broom over her shoulder, and +without the other children. Goody Grace had undertaken to keep them for +the day, whilst Patience worked with her brother, and had further lent +her the broom till she could make another, for all the country brooms +of that time were home-made with the heather and the birch. She had +likewise brought a barley cake, on which and on the milk the pair made +their breakfast, Goody providing for the little ones. + +"We must use it up," said Patience, "for we have got no churn." + +"And we could not get into the town to sell the butter if we had," +returned her brother. "We had better take it up to some one in the +village who might give us something for it, bread or cheese maybe." + +"I would like to make my own butter," sighed Patience, whose mother's +cleanly habits had made her famous for it. + +"So you shall some day, Patty," said her brother, "but there's no +getting into Bristol to buy one or to sell butter now. Hark! they are +beginning again," as the growl of a heavy piece of cannon shook the +ground. + +"I wonder where our Jeph is," said the little girl sadly. "How could he +like to go among all those cruel fighting men? You won't go, Stead?" + +"No, indeed, I have got something else to do." + +The children were hard at work all the time. They cleared out the inside +of their hovel, which had a floor of what was called lime ash, trodden +hard, and not much cracked. Probably other hermits in earlier times +had made the place habitable before the expelled monk whom the +Kentons' great-grandfather recollected; for the cell, though rude, was +wonderfully strong, and the stone walls were very stout and thick, after +the fashion of the middle ages. There was a large flat stone to serve as +a hearth, and an opening at the top for smoke with a couple of big slaty +stones bent towards one another over it as a break to the force of the +rain. The children might have been worse off though there was no window, +and no door to close the opening. That mattered the less in the summer +weather, and before winter came, Stead thought he could close it with +a mat made of the bulrushes that stood up in the brook, lifting their +tall, black heads. + +Straw must serve for their beds till they could get some sacking to +stuff it into, and as some of the sheep would have to be killed and +salted for the winter, the skins would serve for warmth. Patience +arranged the bundles of straw with a neat bit of plaiting round them, +at one corner of the room for herself and Rusha, at the opposite one for +Stead. For the present they must sleep in their clothes. + +Life was always so rough, and, to present notions, comfortless, that +all this was not nearly so terrible to the farmer's daughter of two +centuries ago as it would be to a girl of the present day. Indeed, +save for the grief for the good father, the sense of which now and then +rushed on them like a horrible, too true dream, Steadfast and Patience +would almost have enjoyed the setting up for themselves and all their +contrivances. Some losses, however, besides that of the churn were +very great in their eyes. Patience's spinning wheel especially, and the +tools, scythe, hook, and spade, all of which had been so much damaged, +that Smith Blane had shaken his head over them as past mending. + +Perhaps, however, Stead might borrow and get these made for him. As to +the wheel, that must, like the churn, wait till the siege was over. + +"But will not those dreadful men burn the town down and not leave one +stone on another, if Jeph and the rest of them don't keep them out?" +asked Patience. + +"No," said Stead. "That is not the way in these days--at least not +always. So poor father said last time we went into Bristol, when he had +been talking to the butter-merchant's man. He said the townsfolk would +know the reason why, if the soldiers were for holding out long enough to +get them into trouble." + +"Then perhaps there will not be much fighting and they will not hurt +Jeph," said Patience, to whom Jeph was the whole war. + +"There's no firing to-day. Maybe they are making it up," said Steadfast. + +"I never heeded," said Patience, "we have been so busy! But Stead, how +shall we get the things? We have no money. Shall we sell a sheep or a +pig?" + +Stead looked very knowing, and she exclaimed "Have you any, Stead? I +thought Jeph took it all away." + +Then Stead told her how his father had entrusted him with the bulk of +the savings, in case of need, and had made it over to the use of the +younger ones. + +"It was well you did not know, Patty," he added. "You told no lie, and +Jeph might have taken it all." + +"O! he would not have been so cruel," cried Patience. "He would not want +Rusha and Ben to have nothing." + +Stead did not feel sure, and when Patience asked him where the hoard +was, he shook his head, looked wise, and would not tell her. And then he +warned her, with all his might and main against giving a hint to anyone +that they had any such fund in reserve. She was a little vexed and hurt +at first, but presently she promised. + +"Indeed Stead, I won't say one word about it, and you don't think I +would ever touch it without telling you." + +"No, Patty, you wouldn't, but don't you see, if you know nothing, you +can't tell if people ask you." + +In truth, Stead was less anxious about the money than about the other +treasure, and when presently Patience proposed that the cave where they +used to play should serve for the poultry, so as to save them from the +foxes and polecats, he looked very grave and said "No, no, Patty, don't +you ever tell anyone of that hole, nor let Rusha see it." + +"Oh! I know then!" cried Patience, with a little laugh, "I know what's +there then." + +"There's more than that, sister," and therewith Stead told in her ear of +the precious deposit. + +She looked very grave, and said "Why then it is just like church! O no, +Stead, I'll never tell till good Mr. Holworth comes back. Could not we +say our prayers there on Sundays?" + +Stead liked the thought but shook his head. + +"We must not wear a path up to the place," he said, "nor show the little +ones the way." + +"I shall say mine as near as I can," said Patience. "And I shall ask God +to help us keep it safe." + +Then the children became absorbed in seeking for a place where their +fowls could find safe shelter from the enemies that lurked in the wood, +and ended by an attempt of Stead's to put up some perches across the +beam above the cow-shed. + +Things were forward enough for Rusha and Ben to be fetched down to their +new home that night; when Patience went to fetch them, she heard that +the cessation of firing had really been because the troops within the +town were going to surrender to the King's soldiers outside. + +"Then there will be no more fighting," she anxiously asked of Master +Blane. + +"No man can tell," he answered. + +"And will Jeph come back?" + +But that he could tell as little, and indeed someone else spoke to him, +and he paid the child no more attention. + +Rusha had had a merry day among the children of her own age in the +village; she fretted at coming away, and was frightened at turning +into so lonely a path through the hazel stems, trotting after Patience +because she was afraid to turn back alone, but making a low, peevish +moan all the time. + +[Illustration: Stead Stirring The Porridge.] + +Patience hoped she would be comforted when they came out on their little +glade, and she saw Stead stirring the milk porridge over the fire he had +lighted by the house. For he had found the flint and steel belonging +to the matchlock of his father's old gun, and there was plenty of dry +leaves and half-burnt wood to serve as tinder. The fire for cooking +would be outside, whenever warmth and weather served, to prevent indoor +smoke. And to Patience's eyes it really looked pleasant and comfortable, +with Toby sitting wisely by his young master's side, and the cat +comfortably perched at the door, and Whitefoot tied to a tree, and the +cows in their new abode. But Jerusha was tired and cross, she said it +was an ugly place, and she was afraid of the foxes and the polecats, she +wanted to go home, she wanted to go back to Goody Grace. + +Stead grew angry, and threatened that she should have no supper, and +that made her cry the louder, and shake her frock at him; but Patience, +who knew better how to deal with her, let her finish her cry, and come +creeping back, promising to be good, and glad to eat the supper, which +was wholesome enough, though very smoky: however, the children were used +to smoke, and did not mind it. + +They said their prayers together while the sun was touching the tops of +the trees, crept into their hut, curled themselves up upon their straw +and went to sleep, while Toby lay watchful at the door, and the cat +prowled about in quest of a rabbit or some other evening wanderer for +her supper. + +The next day Patience spent in trying to get things into somewhat better +order, and Steadfast in trying to gather together his live stock, which +he had been forced to leave to take care of themselves. Horse, donkey, +and cows were all safe round their hut; but he could find only three of +the young pigs and the old sow at the farmyard, and it plainly was +not safe to leave them there, though how to pen them up in their new +quarters he did not know. + +The sheep were out on the moor, and only one of them seemed to be +missing. The goat and the geese had likewise taken care of themselves +and seemed glad to see him. He drove them down to their new home, and +fed them there with some of the injured meal. "But what can we do with +the pigs? There's no place they can't get out of but this," said Stead, +looking doubtfully. + +"Do you think I would have pigs in here? No, I am not come to that!" + +It ended in Stead's going to consult Master Blane, who advised that the +younger pigs should be either sold, or killed and salted, and nothing +left but the sow, who was a cunning old animal, and could pretty well +take care of herself, besides that she was so tough and lean that one +must be very hungry indeed to be greatly tempted by her bristles. + +But how sell the pigs or buy the salt in such days as these? There was, +indeed, no firing. + +There was a belief that treaties were going on, but leisure only left +the besiegers more free to go wandering about in search of plunder; and +Stead found all trouble saved him as to disposing of his pigs. They were +quite gone next time he looked for them, and the poor old sow had been +lamed by a shot; but did not seem seriously hurt, and when with some +difficulty she had been persuaded to be driven into the glen, she seemed +likely to be willing to stay there in the corner of the cattle shed. + +The children were glad enough to be in their glen, with all its bareness +and discomfort, when they heard that a troop of horse had visited +Elmwood, and made a requisition there for hay and straw. They had used +no violence, but the farmers were compelled to take it into the camp +in their own waggons, getting nothing in payment but orders on the +treasury, which might as well be waste paper. And, indeed, they were +told by the soldiers that they might be thankful to get off with their +carts and horses. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. STEAD IN POSSESSION. + + + "At night returning, every labour sped, + He sits him down, the monarch of a shed." + GOLDSMITH. + + +Another day made it certain that the garrison of Bristol had surrendered +to the besiegers. A few shots were heard, but they were only fired in +rejoicing by the Royalists, and while Steadfast was studying his barley +field, already silvered over by its long beards, and wondering how soon +it would be ripe, and how he should get it cut and stacked, his name +was shouted out, and he saw Tom Oates and all the rest of the boys +scampering down the lane. + +"Come along, Stead Kenton, come on and see, the Parliament soldiers come +out and go by." + +Poor Steadfast had not much heart for watching soldiers, but it struck +him that he might see or hear something of Jephthah, so he came with the +other boys to the bank, where from behind a hedge they could look down +at the ranks of soldiers as they marched along, five abreast, the road +was not wide enough to hold more. They had been allowed to keep their +weapons, so the officers had their swords, and the men carried their +musquets. Most of them looked dull and dispirited, and the officers had +very gloomy, displeased faces. In fact, they were very angry with their +commander, Colonel Fiennes, for having surrendered so easily, and he was +afterwards brought to a court-martial for having done so. + +Stead did not understand this, he thought only of looking under each +steel cap or tall, slouching hat for Jephthah. Several times a youthful, +slender figure raised his hopes, and disappointed him, and he began to +wonder whether Jeph could have after all stayed behind in the town, or +if he could have been hurt and was ill there. + +By-and-by came a standard, bearing a Bible lying on a sword, and behind +it rode a grave looking officer, with long hair, and a red scarf, whom +the lads recognised as the same who had preached at Elmwood. His men +were in better order than some of the others, and as Steadfast eagerly +watched them, he was sure that he knew the turn of Jeph's head, in spite +of his being in an entirely new suit of clothes, and with a musquet over +his shoulder. + +Stead shook the ash stem he was leaning against, the men looked up, he +saw the well-known face, and called out "Jeph! Jeph!" But some of the +others laughed, Jeph frowned and shook his head, and marched on. Stead +was disappointed, but at any rate he could carry back the assurance to +Patience that Jeph was alive and well, though he seemed to have lost all +care for his brothers and sisters. Yet, perhaps, as a soldier he could +not help it, and it might not be safe to straggle from the ranks. + +There was no more fighting for the present in the neighbourhood. The +princes and their army departed, only leaving a garrison to keep the +city, and it was soon known in the village that the town was in its +usual state, and that it was safe to go in to market as in former times. +Stead accordingly carried in a basket of eggs, which was all he could +yet sell. He was ferried across the river, and made his way in. It was +strange to find the streets looking exactly as usual, and the citizens' +wives coming out with their baskets just as if nothing had happened. + +There was the good-natured face of Mistress Lightfoot, who kept a +baker's shop at the sign of the Wheatsheaf, and was their regular +customer. + +"Ha, little Kenton, be'st thou there? I'm right glad to see thee. They +said the mad fellows had burnt the farm and made an end of all of +you, but I find 'em civil enow, and I'm happy to see 'twas all +leasing-making." + +"It is true, mistress," said Stead, "that they burnt our house and shot +poor father." + +"Eh, you don't say so, my poor lad?" and she hurried her kind questions, +tears coming into her eyes, as she thought of the orphans deserted by +their brother. She was very anxious to have Patience butter-making again +and promised to come with Stead to give her assistance in choosing both +a churn and a spinning wheel if he would come in the next day, for he +had not ventured on bringing any money with him. She bought all his eggs +for her lodger, good Doctor Eales, who could hardly taste anything and +had been obliged to live cooped up in an inner chamber for fear of the +Parliament soldiers, who were misbehaved to Church ministers though +civil enough to women; while these new comers were just the other way, +hat in hand to a clergyman, but apt to be saucy to the lasses. But she +hoped the Doctor would cheer up again, now that the Cathedral was set in +order, so far as might be, and prayers were said there as in old times. +In fact the bells were ringing for morning prayer, and Stead was so glad +to hear them that he thought he might venture in and join in the brief +daily service. There were many others who had done so, for these anxious +days had quickened the devotion of many hearts, and people had felt what +it was to be robbed of their churches and forbidden the use of their +prayer-books. Moreover, some had sons or brothers or husbands fighting +on the one side or the other, and were glad to pray for them, so that +Stead found himself in the midst of quite a congregation, though the +choir had been too much dispersed and broken up for the musical service, +and indeed the organ had been torn to pieces by the Puritan soldiers, +who fancied it was Popish. + +But Stead found himself caring for the Psalms and Prayers in a manner he +had never done before, and which came of the sorrow he had felt and the +troubles that pressed upon him. He fancied all would come right now, and +that soon Mr. Holworth would be back, and he should be able to give up +his charge; and he went home, quite cheered up. + +When he came into the gulley he heard voices through the bushes, and +pressing forward anxiously he saw Blane and Oates before the hovel door, +Patience standing there crying, with the baby in her arms, and Rusha +holding her apron, and an elderly man whom Stead knew as old Lady +Elmwood's steward talking to the other men, who seemed to be persuading +him to something. + +As soon as Stead appeared, the other children ran up to him, and Rusha +hid herself behind him, while Patience said "O Stead, Stead, he has come +to turn us all out! Don't let him!" + +"Nay, nay, little wench, not so fast," said the steward, not unkindly. +"I am but come to look after my Lady's interests, seeing that we heard +your poor father was dead, God have mercy on his soul (touching his hat +reverently), and his son gone off to the wars, and nothing but a pack of +children left." + +"But 'tis all poor father's," muttered Stead, almost dumbfounded. + +"It is held under the manor of Elmwood," explained the steward, "on the +tenure of the delivery of the prime beast on the land on the demise of +lord or tenant, and three days' service in hay and harvest time." + +What this meant Steadfast and Patience knew as little as did Rusha or +Ben, but Goodman Blane explained. + +"The land here is all held under my Lady and Sir George, Stead--mine +just the same--no rent paid, but if there's a death--landlord or +tenant--one has to give the best beast as a fee, besides the work in +harvest." + +"And the question is," proceeded the steward, "who and what is there to +look to. The eldest son is but a lad, if he were here, and this one is a +mere child, and the house is burnt down, and here they be, crouching in +a hovel, and how is it to be with the land. I'm bound to look after the +land. I'm bound to look after my Lady's interest and Sir George's." + +"Be they ready to build up the place if you had another tenant?" asked +Blane, signing to Stead to hold his peace. + +"Well--hum--ha! It might not come handy just now, seeing that Sir George +is off with the King, and all the money and plate with him and most +of the able-bodied servants, but I'm the more bound to look after his +interests." + +That seemed to be Master Brown's one sentence. But Blane took him up, +"Look you here, Master Brown, I, that have been friend and gossip this +many years with poor John Kenton--rest his soul--can tell you that your +lady is like to be better served with this here Steadfast, boy though he +be, than if you had the other stripling with his head full of drums and +marches, guns and preachments, and what not, and who never had a good +day's work in him without his father's eye over him. This little fellow +has done half his share and his own to boot long ago. Now they are +content to dwell down here, out of the way of the soldiering, and don't +ask her ladyship to be at any cost for repairing the farm up there, but +will do the best they can for themselves. So, I say, Master Brown, it +will be a real good work of charity, without hurt to my Lady and Sir +George to let them be, poor things, to fight it out as they can." + +"Well, well, there's somewhat in what you say Goodman Blane, but I'm +bound to look after my Lady's interests and Sir George's." + +"I would come and work like a good one at my Lady's hay and harvest," +said Stead, "and I shall get stronger and bigger every year." + +"But the beast," said the steward, "my Lady's interests must come first, +you see." + +"O don't let him take Croppie," cried Patience. "O sir, not the cows, or +baby will die, and we can't make the butter." + +"You see, Master Brown," explained Blane, "it is butter as is their +chief stand-by. Poor Dame Kenton, as was took last spring, was the best +dairywoman in the parish, and this little maid takes after her. Their +kine are their main prop, but there's the mare, there's not much good +that she can do them." + +"Let us look!" said the steward. "A sorry jade enow! But I don't +know but she will serve our turn better than the cow. There was a +requisition, as they have the impudence to call it, from the Parliament +lot that took off all our horses, except old grey Dobbin and the colt, +and this beast may come in handy to draw the wood. So I'll take her, and +you may think yourself well off, and thank my Lady I'm so easy with you. +'Be not hard on the orphans,' she said. 'Heaven forbid, my Lady,' says +I, 'but I must look after your interests.'" + +The children hung round old Whitefoot, making much of her for the last +time, and Patience and Rusha both cried sadly when she was led away; +and it was hard to believe Master Blane, who told them it was best for +Whitefoot as well as for themselves, since they would find it a hard +matter to get food even for the more necessary animals in the winter, +and the poor beast would soon be skin and bone; while for themselves +the donkey could carry all they wanted to market; and it might be more +important than they understood to be thus regularly accepted as tenants +by the manor, so that no one could turn them out. + +And Stead, remembering the cavern, knew that he ought to be thankful, +while the two men went away, Brown observing, "One can scarce turn 'em +out, poor things, but such a mere lubber as that boy is can do no good! +If the elder one had thought fit to stay and mind his own business now!" + +"A good riddance, I say," returned Blane. "Stead's a good-hearted lad, +though clownish, and I'll do what I can for him." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. WINTRY TIMES. + + + "Thrice welcome may such seasons be, + But welcome too the common way, + The lowly duties of the day." + + +There was of course much to do. Steadfast visited his hoard and took +from thence enough to purchase churn, spinning wheel, and the few tools +that he most needed; but it was not soon that Patience could sit down to +spin. That must be for the winter, and their only chance of light was in +making candles. + +Rusha could gather the green rushes, though she could not peel them +without breaking them; and Patience had to take them out of her hands +and herself strip the white pith so that only one ribbon of green was +left to support it. + +The sheep, excepting a few old ewes, were always sold or killed before +the winter, and by Blane's advice, Stead kept only three. The butcher +Oates took some of the others, and helped Stead to dispose of four more +in the market. Two were killed at different intervals for home use, but +only a very small part was eaten fresh, as a wonderful Sunday treat, +the rest was either disposed of among the neighbours, who took it in +exchange for food of other kinds; or else was salted and dried for the +winter's fare, laid up in bran in two great crocks which Stead had been +forced to purchase, and which with planks from the half-burnt house laid +over them served by turns as tables or seats. The fat was melted up in +Patience's great kettle, and the rushes dipped in it over and over again +till they had such a coating of grease as would enable them to be burnt +in the old horn lantern which had fortunately been in the stable and +escaped the fire. + +Kind neighbours helped Stead to cut and stack his hay, and his little +field of barley. All the grass he could cut on the banks he also saved +for the animals' winter food, and a few turnips, but these were rare and +uncommon articles only used by the most advanced farmers, and his father +had only lately begun to grow them, nor had potatoes become known except +in the gardens of the curious. + +The vexation was that all the manor was called to give their three days' +labour to Lady Elmwood's crops just as all their own were cut, and as, +of course, Master Brown had chosen the finest weather, every one went +in fear and trembling for their own, and Oates and others grumbled so +bitterly at having to work without wage, that Blane asked if they called +their own houses and land nothing. + +There was fresh grumbling too that the food sent out to the labourers in +the field was not as it used to be, good beef and mutton, but only bread +and very hard cheese, and bowls of hasty pudding, with thin, sour small +beer to wash it down. Oates growled and vowed he would never come again +to be so scurvily used; and perhaps no one guessed that my lady was far +more impoverished than her tenants, and had a hard matter to supply even +such fare as this. + +Happily the weather lasted good long enough to save the Kentons' little +crop, though there was a sad remembrance of the old times, when the +church bell gave the signal at sunrise for all the harvesters to come to +church for the brief service, and then to start fair in their gleaning. +The bell did still ring, but there were no prayers. The vicar had never +come back, and it was reported that he had been sent to the plantations +in America. There was no service on Sunday nearer than Bristol. It +was the churchwardens' business to find a minister, and of these, poor +Kenton was dead, and the other, Master Cliffe, was not likely to do +anything that might put the parish to expense. + +Goodman Blane, and some of the other more seriously minded folk used to +walk into Bristol to church when the weather was tolerably fine. If it +were wet, the little stream used to flood the lower valley so that +it was not possible to get across. Steadfast was generally one of the +party. Patience could not go, as it was too far for Rusha to walk, or +for the baby to be carried. + +Once, seeing how much she wished to go again to church, Stead undertook +to mind the children, the cattle, and the dinner in her place; but +what work he found it! When he tried to slice the onions for the broth, +little Ben toddled off, and had to be caught lest he should tumble into +the river. Then Rusha got hold of the knife, cut her hand, and rolled it +up in her Sunday frock, and Steadfast, thinking he had got a small bit +of rag, tied it up in Patience's round cap, but that he did not know +till afterwards, only that baby had got out again, and after some search +was found asleep cuddled up close to the old sow. And so it went on, +till poor Steadfast felt as if he had never spent so long a day. As to +reading his Bible and Prayer-book, it was quite impossible, and he never +had so much respect for Patience before as when he found what she did +every day without seeming to think anything of it. + +She did not get home till after dark, but the Blanes had taken her to +rest at the friends with whom they spent the time between services, and +they had given her a good meal. + +"Somehow," said Patience, "everybody seems kinder than they used to be +before the fighting began--and the parsons said the prayers as if they +had more heart in them." + +Patience was quite right. These times of danger were making everyone +draw nearer together, and look up more heartily to Him in Whom was there +true help. + +But winter was coming on and bringing bad times for the poor children +in their narrow valley, so close to the water. It was not a very cold +season, but it was almost worse, for it was very wet. The little brook +swelled, turned muddy yellow, and came rushing and tumbling along, far +outside its banks, so that Patience wondered whether there could be any +danger of its coming up to their hut and perhaps drowning them. + +"I think there is no fear," said Steadfast. "You see this house has been +here from old times and never got washed away." + +"It wouldn't wash away very easily," said Patience, "I wish we were in +one of the holes up there." + +"If it looks like danger we might get up," said Steadfast, and to please +her he cleared a path to a freshly discovered cave a little lower down +the stream, but so high up on the rocky sides of the ravine as to be +safe from the water. + +Once Patience, left at home watching the rushing of the stream, became +so frightened that she actually took the children up there, and set +Rusha to hold the baby while she dragged up some sheepskins and some +food. + +Steadfast coming home asked what she was about and laughed at her, +showing her, by the marks on the trees, that the flood was already going +down. Such alarms came seldom, but the constant damp was worse. Happily +it was always possible to keep up a fire, wood and turf peat was +plentiful and could be had for the cutting and carrying, and though the +smoke made their eyes tingle, perhaps it hindered the damp from hurting +them, when all the walls wept, in spite of the reed mats which they had +woven and hung over them. And then it was so dark, Patience's rushes did +not give light enough to see to do anything by them even when they did +not get blown out, and when the sun had set there was nothing for it, +but as soon as the few cattle had been foddered in their shed and cave, +to draw the mat and sheepskins that made a curtain by way of door, +fasten it down with a stone, share with dog and cat the supper of broth, +or milk, or porridge which Patience had cooked, and then lie down on +the beds of dried leaves stuffed into sacking, drawing over them the +blankets and cloaks that had happily been saved in the chest, and +nestling on either side of the fire, which, if well managed, would +smoulder on for hours. There the two elder ones would teach Rusha her +catechism and tell old stories, and croon over old rhymes till both the +little ones were asleep, and then would hold counsel on their affairs, +settle how to husband their small stock of money, consider how soon it +would be expedient to finish their store of salted mutton and pork to +keep them from being spoilt by damp, and wonder when their hens would +begin to lay. + +It could hardly be a merry Christmas for the poor children, though they +did stick holly in every chink where it would go, but there were not +many berries that year, and as Rusha said, "there were only thorns." + +Steadfast walked to Bristol through slush and mire and rain, not even +Smith Blane went with him, deeming the weather too bad, and thinking, +perhaps, rather over much of the goose at home. + +Bristol people were keeping Christmas with all their might, making the +more noise and revelry because the Parliament had forbidden the feast to +be observed at all. It was easy to tell who was for the King and who for +the Parliament, for there were bushes of holly, mistletoe, and ivy, at +all the Royalist doors and windows, and from many came the savoury steam +of roast beef or goose, while the other houses were shut up as close as +possible and looked sad and grim. + +All the bells of all the churches were ringing, and everybody seemed to +be trooping into them. As Steadfast was borne along by the throng, there +was a pause, and a boy of his own age with a large hat and long feather, +beneath which could be seen curls of jet-black hair, walked at the head +of a party of gentlemen. Everyone in the crowd uncovered and there was +a vehement outcry of "God save the King! God save the Prince of Wales!" +Everyone thronged after him, and Steadfast had a hard struggle to +squeeze into the Cathedral, and then had to stand all the time with +his back against a pillar, for there was not even room to kneel down at +first. + +There was no organ, but the choir men and boys had rallied there, and +led the Psalms which went up very loudly and heartily. Then the Dean +went up into the pulpit and preached about peace and goodwill to men, +and how all ought to do all in their power to bring those blessed gifts +back again. A good many people dropped off during the sermon, and more +after it, but Steadfast remained. He had never been able to come to the +Communion feast since the evil times had begun, and he had thought much +about it on his lonely walk, and knew that it was the way to be helped +through the hard life he was living. + +When all was over he felt very peaceful, but so hungry and tired with +standing and kneeling so long after his walk, that he was glad to lean +against the wall and take out the piece of bread that Patience had put +in his wallet. + +Presently a step came near, and from under a round velvet skull-cap a +kind old face looked at him which he knew to be that of the Dean. + +"Is that all your Christmas meal, my good boy?" he asked. + +"I shall have something for supper, thank your reverence," replied +Steadfast, taking off his leathern cap. + +"Well, mayhap you could away with something more," said the Dean. "Come +with me." + +And as Steadfast obeyed, he asked farther, "What is your name, my child? +I know your face in church, but not in town." + +"No, sir, I do not live here. I am Steadfast Kenton, and I am from +Elmwood, but we have no prayers nor sermon there since they took the +parson away." + +"Ah! good Master Holworth! Alas! my child, I fear you will scarce see +him back again till the King be in London once more, which Heaven grant. +And, meantime, Sir George Elmwood being patron, none can be intruded +into his room. It is a sore case, and I fear me the case of many a +parish besides." + +Steadfast was so much moved by the good Dean's kindness as to begin to +consider whether it would be betraying the trust to consult him about +that strange treasure in the cave, but the lad was never quick of +thought, and before he could decide one of the canons joined the Dean, +and presently going up the steps to the great hall of the Deanery, +Steadfast saw long tables spread with snowy napkins, trenchers laid all +round, and benches on which a numerous throng were seating themselves, +mostly old people and little children, looking very poor and ragged. +Steadfast held himself to be a yeoman in a small way, and somewhat above +a Christmas feast with the poor, but the Dean's kindness was enough to +make him put away his pride, and then there was such a delicious steam +coming up from the buttery hatch as was enough to melt away all nonsense +of that sort from a hungry lad. + +Grand joints of beef came up in clouds of vapour, and plum puddings +smoked in their rear, to be eaten with them, after the fashion of these +days, when of summer vegetables there were few, and of winter vegetables +none. The choirmen and boys, indeed all the Cathedral clergy who were +unmarried, were dining there too, but the Dean and his wife waited on +the table where the poorest were. Horns of ale were served to everyone, +and then came big mince pies. Steadfast felt a great longing to take +his home to his sisters, but he was ashamed to do it, even though he saw +that it was permissible, they were such beggarly-looking folks who set +the example. + +However, the Dean's wife came up to him with a pleasant smile and asked +if he had no appetite or if he were thinking of someone at home, and +when he answered, she kindly undertook to lend him a basket, for which +he might call after evensong, and in the basket were also afterwards +found some slices of the beef and a fine large cake. + +Then the young Prince and his suite came in, and he stood at the end of +the hall, smiling and looking amused as everyone's cup was filled with +wine--such wine as the Roundhead captains had left, and the Dean at the +head of the table gave out the health of his most sacred Majesty King +Charles, might God bless him, and confound all his enemies! The Prince +bared his black shining locks and drank, and there was a deep Amen, +and then a hurrah enough to rend the old vaulted ceiling; and equally +enthusiastically was the Prince's health afterwards drunk. + +Stead heard the servants saying that such a meal had been a costly +matter, but that the good Dean would have it so in order that one more +true merry Christmas should be remembered in Bristol. + + + + +CHAPTER X. A TERRIBLE HARVEST DAY. + + + "There is a reaper, whose name is death." + LONGFELLOW. + + +Spring came at last, cold indeed but dry, and it brought calves, and +kids, and lambs, and little pigs, besides eggs and milk. The creatures +prospered for two reasons no doubt. One was that Stead and Patience +always prayed for a blessing on them, and the other was that they were +almost as tender and careful over the dumb things as they were over +little Ben, who could now run about and talk. All that year nothing +particular happened to the children. Patience's good butter and fresh +eggs had come to be known in Bristol, and besides, Stead and Rusha used +to find plovers' eggs on the common, for which the merchants' ladies +would pay them, or later for wild strawberries and for whortleberries. +Stead could also make rush baskets and mats, and they were very glad of +such earnings, some of which they spent on clothes, and on making their +hut more comfortable, while some was stored up in case of need in the +winter. + +For another year things went on much in the same manner, Bristol was +still kept by the King's troops; but when Steadfast went into the place +there was less cheerfulness among the loyal folk, and the Puritans began +to talk of victories of their cause, while in the Cathedral the canon's +voice trembled and grew choked in the prayer for the King, and the +sermons were generally about being true and faithful to King and church +whatever might betide. The Prince of Wales had long since moved away, +indeed there were reports that the plague was in some of the low, +crowded streets near the water, and Patience begged her brother to take +care of himself. + +There had been no Christmas feast at the Deanery, it was understood that +the Dean thought it better not to bring so many people together. + +Then as harvest time was coming on more soldiers came into the place. +They looked much shabbier than the troops of a year ago, their coats +were worn and soiled, and their feathers almost stumps, but they made up +for their poverty by swagger and noise, and Steadfast was thankful +that it was unlikely that any of them should find the way to his little +valley with what they called requisitions for the King's service, but +which meant what he knew too well. Some of the villagers formed into +bands, and agreed to meet at the sound of a cowhorn, to drive anyone off +on either side, who came to plunder, and they even had a flag with the +motto-- + + + "If you take our cattle + We will give you battle." + + +And they really did drive off some stragglers. Stead, however, accepted +the offer from Tom Gates of a young dog, considerably larger and +stronger than poor old Toby, yellow and somewhat brindled, and known as +Growler. He looked very terrible, but was very civil to those whom he +knew, and very soon became devoted to all the family, especially to +little Ben. However, most of the garrison and the poorer folk of the +town were taken up with mending the weak places in the walls, and +digging ditches with the earth of which they made steep banks, and there +were sentries at the gates, who were not always civil. Whatever the +country people brought into the town was eagerly bought up, and was paid +for, not often in the coin of the realm, but by tokens made of tin or +some such metal with odd stamps upon them, and though they could be used +as money they would not go nearly so far as the sums they were held to +represent--at least in anyone's hands but those of the officers. + +There were reports that the Parliament army was about to besiege the +town, and Prince Rupert was coming to defend it. Steadfast was very +anxious, and would not let his sisters stir out of the valley, keeping +the cattle there as much as possible. + +One day, when he had been sent for to help to gather in Lady Elmwood's +harvest, in the afternoon the reaping and binding were suddenly +interrupted by the distant rattle of musketry, such as had been heard +two years ago, in the time of the first siege but it was in quite +another direction from the town. Everyone left off work, and made what +speed they could to the top of the sloping field, whence they could see +what was going on. + +"There they be!" shouted Tom Gates. "I saw 'em first! Hurrah! They be at +Luck's mill." + +"Hush! you good-for-nothing," shrieked Bess Hart, throwing her apron +over her head. "When we shall all be killed and murdered." + +"Not just yet, dame," said Master Brown. "They be a long way off, and +they have enow to do with one another. I wonder if Sir George be there. +He writ to my lady that he hoped to see her ere long." + +"And my Roger," called out a woman. "He went with Sir George." + +"And our Jack," was the cry of another; while Steadfast thought of +Jephthah, but knew he must be on the opposite side. From the top of the +field, they could see a wide sweep of country dipping down less than two +miles from them where there was a bridge over a small river, a mill, and +one or two houses near. On the nearer side of the river could be seen +the flash of steel caps, and a close, dark body of men, on the further +side was another force, mostly of horsemen, with what seemed like +waggons and baggage horses in the rear. They had what by its +colours seemed to be the English banner, the others had several +undistinguishable standards. Puffs of smoke broke from the windows of +the mill. + +"Aye!" said Goodman Blane. "I would not be in Miller Luck's shoes just +now. I wonder where he is, poor rogue. Which side have got his mill, +think you, Master Brown?" + +"The round-headed rascals for certain," said Master Brown, "and the +bridge too, trying to hinder the King's men from crossing bag and +baggage to relieve the town." + +"See, there's a party drawing together. Is it to force the bridge?" + +"Aye, aye, and there's another troop galloping up stream. Be they +running off, the cowards?" + +"Not they. Depend on it some of our folks have told them of Colham ford. +Heaven be with them, brave lads." + +"Most like Sir George is there, I don't see 'em." + +"No, of course not, stupid, they'll be taking Colham Lane. See, see, +there's a lot of 'em drawn up to force the bridge. Good luck be with +them." + +More puffs of smoke from the mill, larger ones from the bank, and a +rattle and roll came up to the watchers. There was a moment's shock and +pause in the assault, then a rush forward, and the distant sound of a +cheer, which those on the hill could not help repeating. But from the +red coats on and behind the bridge, proceeded a perfect cloud of smoke, +which hid everything, and when it began to clear away on the wind, there +seemed to be a hand-to-hand struggle going on upon the bridge, smaller +puffs, as though pistols were being used, and forms falling over +the parapet, at which sight the men held their breath, and the women +shrieked and cried "God have mercy on their poor souls." And then the +dark-coated troops seemed to be driven back. + +"That was a feint, only a feint," cried Master Brown. "See there!" + +For the plumed troop of horsemen had indeed crossed, and came galloping +down the bank with such a jingling and clattering, and thundering of +hoofs as came up to the harvest men above, and Master Brown led the +cheer as they charged upon the compact mass of red coats behind the +bridge, and broke and rode them down by the vehemence of the shock. + +"Hurrah!" cried Blane. "Surely they will turn now and take the fellows +on the bridge in the rear. No. Ha! they are hunting them down on to +their baggage! Well done, brave fellows, hip! hip!--" + +But the hurrah died on his lips as a deep low hum--a Psalm tune sung by +hundreds of manly voices--ascended to his ears, to the accompaniment +of the heavy thud of horsehoofs, and from the London Road, between +the bridge and the Royalist horsemen, there emerged a compact body of +troopers, in steel caps and corslets. Forming in ranks of three abreast, +they charged over the bridge, and speedily cleared off the Royalists who +were struggling to obtain a footing there. + +There was small speech on the hill side, as the encounter was watched, +and the Ironsides forming on the other side, charged the already broken +troops before they had time to rally, and there was nothing to be +seen but an utter dispersion and scattering of men, looking from that +distance like ants when their nest has been broken into. + +It was only a skirmish, not to be heard of in history, but opening the +way for the besiegers to the walls of Bristol, and preventing any of +the supplies from reaching the garrison, or any of the intended +reinforcements, except some of the eager Cavaliers, who galloped on +thither, when they found it impossible to return and guard the bridge +for their companions. + +The struggle was over around the bridge in less than two hours, but no +more of Lady Elmwood's harvest was gathered in that evening. The people +watched as if they could not tear themselves from the contemplation +of the successful bands gathering together in their solid masses, and +marching onwards in the direction of Bristol, leaving, however, a strong +guard at the bridge, over which piled waggons and beasts of burthen +continued to pass, captured no doubt and prevented from relieving the +city. It began to draw towards evening, and Master Brown was beginning +to observe that he must go and report to my lady, poor soul; and as to +the corn, well, they had lost a day gaping at the fight, and they must +come up again to-morrow, he only hoped they were not carting it for the +round-headed rogues; when at that moment there was a sudden cry, first +of terror, then of recognition, "Roger, Hodge Fitter! how didst come +here?" + +For a weary, worn-out trooper, with stained buff coat, and heavy boots, +stood panting among them. "I thought 'twas our folks," he said. "Be +mother here?" + +"Hodge! My Hodge! Be'st hurt, my lad?" cried the mother, bursting +through the midst and throwing herself on him, while his father +contented himself with a sort of grunt. "All right, Hodge. How com'st +here?" + +"And where's my Jack?" exclaimed Goody Bent. + +"And where's our Harry?" was another cry from Widow Lakin. + +While Stead longed to ask, but could not be heard in the clamour, +whether his brother had been there. + +Hodge could tell little--seen less than the lookers on above. He had +been among those who had charged through the enemy, and ridden towards +Bristol, but his horse had been struck by a stray shot, and killed under +him. He had avoided the pursuers by scrambling through a hedge, and then +had thought it best to make his way through the fields to his own home, +until, seeing the party on the hill, he had joined them, expecting to +find his parents among them. + +Sir George he knew to be on before him, and probably almost at Bristol +by this time. Poor Jack had been left weeks ago on the field of Naseby, +though there had been no opportunity of letting his family know. "Ill +news travels fast enough!" And as to Harry, he had been shot down by a +trooper near about the bridge, but mayhap might be alive for all that. + +"And my brother, Jeph Kenton," Steadfast managed to say. "Was he there?" + +"Jeph Kenton! Why, he's a canting Roundhead. The only Elmwood man as is! +More shame for him." + +"But was he there?" demanded Stead. + +"There! Well, Captain Venn's horse were there, and he was in them! I +have seen him more than once on outpost duty, prating away as if he had +a beard on his chin. I'd a good mind to put a bullet through him to stop +his impudence, for a disgrace to the place." + +"Then he was in the fight?" reiterated Steadfast. + +"Aye, was he. And got his deserts, I'll be bound, for we went smack +smooth through Venn's horse, like a knife through a mouldy cheese, and +left 'em lying to the right and left. If the other fellows had but stuck +by us as well, we'd have made a clean sweep of the canting dogs." + +Hodge's eloquence was checked by the not unwelcome offer of a drink of +cider. + +"Seems quiet enough down there," said Nanny Lakin, peering wistfully +over the valley where the shadows of evening were spreading. "Mayhap if +I went down I might find out how it is with my poor lad." + +"Nay, I'll go, mother," said a big, loutish youth, hitherto silent; +"mayn't be so well for womenfolk down there." + +"What's that to me, Joe, when my poor Harry may be lying a bleeding his +dear life out down there?" + +"There's no fear," said Hodge. "To give them their due, the Roundheads +be always civil to country folk and women--leastways unless they take +'em for Irish--and thinking that, they did make bloody work with the +poor ladies at Naseby. But the dame there will be safe enough," he +added, as she was already on the move down hill. "Has no one a keg of +cider to give her? I know what 'tis to lie parching under a wound." + +Someone produced one, and as her son shouted "Have with you, mother," +Steadfast hastily asked Tom Oates to let Patience know that he was gone +to see after Jephthah, and joined Ned Lakin and his mother. + +Jeph had indeed left his brothers and sisters in a strange, wild way, +almost cruel in its thoughtlessness; but to Stead it had never seemed +more than that elder brotherly masterfulness that he took as a matter of +course, and there was no resting in the thought of his lying wounded and +helpless on the field--nay, the assurance that Hodge shouted out that +the rebel dogs took care of their own fell on unhearing or unheeding +ears, as Steadfast and Ned Lakin dragged the widow through a gap in the +hedge over another field, and then made their way down a deep stony lane +between high hedges. + +It was getting dark, in spite of the harvest moon, by the time they +came out on the open space below, and began to see that saddest of all +sights, a battlefield at night. + +A soldier used to war would perhaps have scorned to call this a battle, +but it was dreadful enough to these three when they heard the sobbing +panting, and saw the struggling of a poor horse not quite dead, and his +rider a little way from him, a fine stout young man, cold and stiff, as +Nanny turned up his face to see if it was her Harry's. + +A little farther on lay another figure on his back, but as Nanny stooped +over it, a lantern was flashed on her and a gruff voice called out, +"Villains, ungodly churls, be you robbing the dead?" and a tall man +stood darkly before them, pistol in hand. + +"No, sir; no, sir," sobbed out Nanny. "I am only a poor widow woman, +come down to see whether my poor lad be dead or alive and wanting his +mother." + +"What was his regiment?" demanded the soldier in a kinder voice. + +"Oh, sir, your honour, don't be hard on him--he couldn't help it--he +went with Sir George Elmwood." + +"That makes no odds, woman, when a man's down," said the soldier. +"Unless 'tis with the Fifth Monarchy sort, and I don't hold with them. I +have an uncle and a cousin or two among the malignants, as good fellows +as ever lived--no Amalekites and Canaanites--let Smite-them Derry say +what he will. Elmwood! let's see--that was the troop that forded higher +up, and came on Fisher's corps. This way, dame. If your son be down, +you'll find him here; that is, unless he be carried into the mill or one +of the houses. Most of the wounded lie there for the night, but the poor +lads that are killed must be buried to-morrow. Take care, dame," as poor +Nanny cried out in horror at having stumbled over a dead man's legs. He +held his lantern so that she could see the face while she groaned out, +"Poor soul." And thus they worked their sad way up to the buildings +about the water mill. There was a shed through the chinks of which light +could be seen, and at the door of which a soldier exclaimed-- + +"Have ye more wounded, Sam? There's no room for a dog in here. They lie +as thick as herrings in a barrel." + +"Nay, 'tis a poor country woman come to look for her son. What's his +name? Is there a malignant here of the name of Harry Lakin?" + +The question was repeated, and a cry of gladness, "Mother! mother!" +ended in a shriek of pain in the distance within. + +"Aye, get you in, mother, get you in. A woman here will be all the +better, be she who she may." + +The permission was not listened to. Nanny had already sprung into the +midst of the mass of suffering towards the bloody straw where her son +was lying. + +Steadfast, who had of course looked most anxiously at each of the still +forms on the way, now ventured to say:-- + +"So please you, sir, would you ask after one Jephthah Kenton? On your +own side, sir, in Captain Venn's troop? I am his brother." + +"Oh, ho! you are of the right sort, eh?" said the soldier. "Jephthah +Kenton. D'ye know aught of him, Joe?" + +"I heard him answer to the roll call before Venn's troop went off to +quarters," replied the other man. "He is safe and sound, my lad, and +Venn's own orderly." + +Steadfast's heart bounded up. He longed still to know whether poor Harry +Lakin was in very bad case, but it was impossible to get in to discover, +and he was pushed out of the way by a party carrying in another wounded +man, whose moans and cries were fearful to listen to. He thought it +would be wisest to make the best of his way home to Patience, and set +her likewise at rest, for who could tell what she might not have heard. + +The moon was shining brightly enough to make his way plain, but the +scene around was all the sadder and more ghastly in that pallid light, +which showed out the dark forms of man and horse, and what was worse the +white faces turned up, and those dark pools in which once or twice he +had slipped as he saw or fancied he saw movements that made him shudder, +while a poor dog on the other side of the stream howled piteously from +time to time. + +Presently, as he came near a hawthorn bush which cast a strangely shaped +shadow, he heard a sobbing--not like the panting moan of a wounded man, +but the worn out crying of a tired child. He thought some village little +one must have wandered there, and been hemmed in by the fight, and he +called out-- + +"Is anyone there?" + +The sobbing ceased for a moment and he called again, "Who is it? I won't +hurt you," for something white seemed to be squeezing closer into the +bush. + +"Who are you for?" piped out a weak little voice. + +"I'm no soldier," said Steadfast. "Come out, I'll take you home +by-and-by." + +"I have no home!" was the answer. "I want father." + +Steadfast was now under the tree, and could see that it was a little +girl who was sheltering there of about the same size as Rusha. He tried +to take her hand, but she backed against the tree, and he repeated "Come +along, I wouldn't hurt you for the world. Who is your father? Where +shall we find him?" + +"My father is Serjeant Gaythorn of Sir Harry Blythedale's troopers," +said the child, somewhat proudly, then starting again, "You are not a +rebel, are you?" + +"No, I am a country lad," said Steadfast; "I want to help you. Come, you +can't stay here." + +For the little hand she had yielded to him was cold and damp with the +September dews. His touch seemed to give her confidence, and when he +asked, "Can't I take you to your mother?" she answered-- + +"Mother's dead! The rascal Roundheads shot her over at Naseby." + +"Poor child! poor child!" said Steadfast. "And you came on with your +father." + +"Yes, he took me on his horse over the water, and told me to wait by the +bush till he came or sent for me, but he has not come, and the firing is +over and it is dark, and I'm so hungry." + +Steadfast thought the child had better come home with him, but she +declared that father would come back for her. He felt convinced that +her father, if alive, must be in Bristol, and that he could hardly come +through the enemy's outposts, and he explained to her this view. To +his surprise she understood in a moment, having evidently much more +experience of military matters than he had, and when he further told +her that Hodge was at Elmwood, and would no doubt rejoin his regiment +at Bristol the next day, she seemed satisfied, and with the prospect of +supper before her, trotted along, holding Steadfast's hand and munching +a crust which he had found in his pouch, the remains of the interrupted +meal, but though at first it seemed to revive her a good deal, the poor +little thing was evidently tired out, and she soon began to drag, and +fret, and moan. The three miles was a long way for her, and tired as he +was, Steadfast had to take her on his back, and when at last he reached +home, and would have set her down before his astonished sisters, she was +fast asleep with her head on his shoulder. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. THE FORTUNES OF WAR. + + + "Hear and improve, he pertly cries, + I come to make a nation wise." + GAY + + +Very early in the morning, before indeed anyone except Patience was +stirring, Steadfast set forth in search of Roger Fitter to consult him +about the poor child who was fast asleep beside Jerusha; and propose to +him to take her into Bristol to find her father. + +Hodge, who had celebrated his return by a hearty supper with his +friends, was still asleep, and his mother was very unwilling to call +him, or to think of his going back to the wars. However, he rolled down +the cottage stair at last, and the first thing he did was to observe-- + +"Well, mother, how be you? I felt like a boy again, waking up in the old +chamber. Where's my back and breast-piece? Have you a cup of ale, while +I rub it up?" + +"Now, Hodge, you be not going to put on that iron thing again, when +you be come back safe and sound from those bloody wars?" entreated his +mother. + +"Ho, ho! mother, would you have me desert? No, no! I must to my colours +again, or Sir George and my lady might make it too hot to hold you here. +Hollo, young one, Stead Kenton, eh? Didst find thy brother? No, I'll be +bound. The Roundhead rascals have all the luck." + +"I found something else," said Steadfast, and he proceeded to tell about +the child while Dame Fitter stood by with many a pitying "Dear heart!" +and "Good lack!" + +Hodge knew Serjeant Gaythorn, and knew that the poor man's wife had been +shot dead in the flight from Naseby; but he demurred at the notion +of encumbering himself with the child when he went into the town. He +suspected that he should have much ado to get in himself, and if he +could not find her father, what could he do with her? + +Moreover, he much doubted whether the serjeant was alive. He had been +among those on whom the sharpest attack had fallen, and not many of them +had got off alive. + +"What like was he?" said Steadfast. "We looked at a many of the poor +corpses that lay there. They'll never be out of my eyes again at night!" + +"A battlefield or two would cure that," grimly smiled Hodge. +"Gaythorn--he was a man to know again--had big black moustaches, and +had lost an eye, had a scar like a weal from a whip all down here from a +sword-cut at Long Marston." + +"Then I saw him," said Stead, in a low voice. "Did he wear a green +scarf?" + +"Aye, aye. Belonged to the Rangers, but they are pretty nigh all gone +now." + +"Under the rail of the miller's croft," added Stead. + +"Just so. That was where I saw them make a stand and go down like +skittles." + +"Poor little maid. What shall I tell her?" + +"Well, you can never be sure," said Hodge. "There was a man now I +thought as dead as a door nail at Newbury that charged by my side only +yesterday. You'd best tell the maid that if I find her father I'll send +him after her; and if not, when the place is quiet, you might look at +the mill and see if he is lying wounded there." + +Steadfast thought the advice good, and it saved him from what he had no +heart to do, though he could scarcely doubt that one of those ghastly +faces had been the serjeant's. + +When he approached his home he was surprised to hear, through the +copsewood, the sound of chattering, and when he came in sight of the +front of the hut, he beheld Patience making butter with the long handled +churn, little Ben toddling about on the grass, and two little girls +laughing and playing with all the poultry round them. + +One, of course, was stout, ruddy, grey-eyed Rusha, in her tight round +cap, and stout brown petticoat with the homespun apron over it; +the other was like a fairy by her side; slight and tiny, dressed in +something of mixed threads of white and crimson that shone in the +sun, with a velvet bodice, a green ribbon over it, and a gem over the +shoulder that flashed in the sun, a tiny scarlet hood from which such +a quantity of dark locks streamed as to give something the effect of a +goldfinch's crown, and the face was a brilliant little brown one, with +glowing cheeks, pretty little white teeth, and splendid dark eyes. + +Patience could have told that this bright array was so soiled, rumpled, +ragged, and begrimed, that she hardly liked to touch it, but to +Steadfast, who had only seen the child in the moonlight, she was a +wonderful vision in the morning sunshine, and his heart was struck with +a great pity at her clear, merry tones of laughter. + +As he appeared in the open space, Toby running before him, the little +girl looked up and rushed to him crying out-- + +"It's you. Be you the country fellow who took me home? Where's father?" + +Stead was so sorry for her that he took her up in his arms and said-- + +"Hodge Fitter is gone into town to look for him, my pretty. You must +wait here till he comes for you," and he would have kissed her, but she +turned her head away, pouted, and said, "I didn't give you leave to do +that, you lubber lad." + +Steadfast was much diverted. He was now a tall sturdy youth of sixteen, +in a short smock frock, long leathern gaiters, and a round straw hat +of Patience's manufacture, and he felt too clumsy for the dainty little +being, whom he hastened to set on her small feet--in once smart but very +dilapidated shoes. His sisters were somewhat shocked at her impertinence +and Rusha breathed out "Oh--!" + +"I am to wait here for Serjeant Gaythorn," observed the little damsel +somewhat consequentially. "Well! it is a strange little makeshift of a +place, but 'tis the fortune of war, and I have been in worse." + +"It is beautiful!" said Rusha, "now we have got a glass window--and +a real door--and beds--" all which recent stages in improvement she +enumerated with a gasp of triumph and admiration between each. + +"So you think," said little Mistress Gaythorn. "But I have lived in a +castle." + +She was quite ready to tell her history. Her name was Emlyn, and the +early part of the eight years of her life had been spent at Sir Harry +Blythedale's castle, where her father had been butler and her mother my +lady's woman. Sir Harry had gone away to the wars, and in his absence +my lady had held out the castle (perhaps it was only a fortified house) +against General Waller, hoping and hoping in vain for Lord Goring to +come to her relief. + +"That was worst of all," said Emlyn, "we had to hide in the cellars when +they fired at us--and broke all the windows, and a shot killed my +poor dear little kitten because she wouldn't stay down with me. And +we couldn't get any water, except by going out at night; young Master +George was wounded at the well. And they only gave us a tiny bit of +dry bread and salt meat every day, and it made little Ralph sick and he +died. And at last there was only enough for two days more--and a great +breach--that's a hole," she added condescendingly,--"big enough to drive +my lady's coach-and-six through in the court wall. So then my lady +sent out Master Steward with one of the best napkins on the end of a +stick--that was a flag of truce, you know--and all the rascal Roundheads +had to come in, and we had to go out, with only just what we could +carry. My lady went in her coach with Master George, because he was +hurt, and the young ladies, and some of the maids went home; but the +most of us kept with my lady, to guard her to go to his Honour and the +King at Oxford. Father rode big Severn, and mother was on a pillion +behind him, with baby in her arms, and I sat on a cushion in front." + +After that, it seemed that my lady had found a refuge among her kindred, +but that the butler had been enrolled in his master's troop of horse, +and there being no separate means of support for his wife and children, +they had followed the camp, a life that Emlyn had evidently enjoyed, +although the baby died of the exposure. She had been a great pet and +favourite with everybody, and no doubt well-cared for even after the sad +day when her mother had perished in the slaughter at Naseby. Patience +wondered what was to become of the poor child, if her father never +appeared to claim her; but it was no time to bring this forward, for +Steadfast, as soon as he had swallowed his porridge, had to go off to +finish his day's labour for the lady of the manor, warning his sisters +that they had better keep as close as they could in the wood, and not +let the cattle stray out of their valley. + +He had not gone far, however, before he met a party of his fellow +labourers running home. Their trouble had been saved them. The Roundhead +soldiers had taken possession of waggons, horses, corn and all, as the +property of a malignant, and were carrying them off to their camp before +the town. + +Getting up on a hedge, Stead could see these strange harvestmen loading +the waggons and driving them off. He also heard that Sir George had +come late in the evening, and taken old Lady Elmwood and several of the +servants into Bristol for greater safety. Then came the heavy boom of a +great gun in the distance. + +"The Parliament men are having their turn now--as the King's men had +before," said Gates. + +And all who had some leisure--or made it--went off to the church tower +to get a better view of the white tents being set up outside the city +walls, and the compact bodies of troops moving about as if impelled by +machinery, while others more scattered bustled like insects about the +camp. + +Steadfast, however, went home, very anxious about his own three cows, +and seven sheep with their lambs, as well as his small patches of corn, +which, when green, had already only escaped being made forage of by the +Royalist garrison, because he was a tenant of the loyal Elmwoods. These +fields were exposed, though the narrow wooded ravine might protect the +small homestead and the cattle. + +He found his new guest very happy cracking nuts, and expounding to Rusha +what kinds of firearms made the various sounds they heard. Patience had +made an attempt to get her to exchange her soiled finery for a sober +dress of Rusha's; but "What shall I do, Stead?" said the grave +elder sister, "I cannot get her to listen to me, she says she is +no prick-eared Puritan, but truly she is not fit to be seen." Stead +whistled. "Besides that she might bring herself and all of us into +danger with those gewgaws." + +"That's true," said Stead. "Look you here, little maid--none can say +whether some of the rebel folk may find their way here, and they don't +like butterflies of your sort, you know. If you look a sober little +brown bee like Rusha here, they will take no notice, but who knows what +they might do it they found you in your bravery." + +"Bravery," thought Patience, "filthy old rags, me seems," but she had +the prudence not to speak, and Emlyn nodded her head, saying, "I'll do +it for you, but not for her." + +And when all was done, and she was transformed into a little +russet-robed, white-capped being, nothing would serve her, but to +collect all the brightest cranesbill flowers she could find, and stick +them in her own bodice and Rusha's. + +Patience could not at all understand the instinct for bright colours, +but even little Ben shouted "Pretty, pretty." + +Perhaps it was well that the delicate pink blossoms were soon faded and +crushed, and that twilight veiled their colours, for just as the cattle +were being foddered for the night, there was a gay step on the narrow +path, and with a start of terror, Patience beheld a tall soldier, in +tall hat, buff coat, and high boots before her; while Growler made a +horrible noise, but Toby danced in a rapture of delight. + +"Ha! little Patience, is't thou?" + +"Jephthah," she cried, though the voice as well as the form were greatly +changed in these two years between boyhood and manhood. + +"Aye, Jephthah 'tis," he said, taking her hand, and letting her kiss +him. "My spirit was moved to come and see how it was with you all, and +to shew how Heaven had prospered me, so I asked leave of absence +after roll-call, and could better be spared, as that faithful man, +Hold-the-Faith Jenkins, will exhort the men this night. I came up by +Elmwood to learn tidings of you. Ha, Stead! Thou art grown, my lad. May +you be as much grown in grace." + +"You are grown, too," said Patience, almost timidly. "What a man you +are, Jeph! Here, Rusha, you mind Jeph, and here is little Benoni." + +"You have reared that child, then," said Jeph, as the boy clung to his +sister's skirts, "and you have kept things together, Stead, as I hardly +deemed you would do, when I had the call to the higher service." It was +an odd sort of call, but there was no need to go into that matter, and +Stead answered gravely, "Yes, I thank God. He has been very good to us, +and we have fared well. Come in, Jeph, and see, and have something to +eat! I am glad you are come home at last." + +Jephthah graciously consented to enter the low hut. He had to bend his +tall figure and take off his steeple-crowned hat before he could enter +at the low doorway, and then they saw his closely cropped head. + +Patience tarried a moment to ask Rusha what had become of Emlyn. + +"She is hiding in the cow shed," was the answer. "She ran off as soon as +she saw Jeph coming, and said he was a crop-eared villain." + +This was not bad news, and they all entered the hut, where the fire was +made up, and one of Patience's rush candles placed on the table with +a kind of screen of plaited rushes to protect it from the worst of the +draught. Jeph had grown quite into a man in the eyes of his brothers +and sisters. He looked plump and well fed, and his clothes were good and +fresh, and his armour bright, a contrast to Steadfast's smock, stained +with weather and soil, and his rough leathern leggings, although +Patience did her best, and his shirt was scrupulously clean every Sunday +morning. + +The soldier was evidently highly satisfied. "So, children, you have done +better than I could have hoped. This hovel is weather-tight and quite +fit to harbour you. You have done well to keep together, and it is well +said that he who leaves all in the hands of a good Providence shall have +his reward." + +Jeph's words were even more sacred than these, and considerably overawed +Patience, who, as he sat before her there in his buff coat and belt, +laying down the law in pious language, was almost persuaded to believe +that their present comfort and prosperity (such as it was) was owing to +the faith which he said had led to his desertion of his family, though +she had always thought it mere impatience of home work fired by revenge +for his father's death. + +No doubt he believed in this reward himself, in his relief at finding +his brothers and sisters all together and not starving, and considered +their condition a special blessing due to his own zeal, instead of to +Steadfast's patient exertion. + +He was much more disposed to talk of himself and the mercies he had +received, but which the tone of his voice showed him to consider as +truly his deserts. Captain Venn had, it seemed, always favoured him from +the time of his enlistment and nothing but his youth prevented him from +being a corporal. He had been in the two great battles of Marston Moor +and Naseby, and come off unhurt from each, and moreover grace had been +given him to interpret the Scriptures in a manner highly savoury and +inspiriting to the soldiery. + +Here Patience, in utter amaze, could not help crying out "Thou, Jeph! +Thou couldst not read without spelling, and never would." + +He waved his hand. "My sister, what has carnal learning to do with +grace?" And taking a little black Bible from within his breastplate, he +seemed about to give them a specimen, when Emlyn's impatience and hunger +no doubt getting the better of her prudence, she crept into the room, +and presently was seen standing by Steadfast's knee, holding out her +hand for some of the bread and cheese on the table. + +[Illustration: Finding of Emlyn] + +"And who is this little wench?" demanded Jeph, somewhat displeased +that his brother manifested a certain inattention to his exhortation +by signing to Patience to supply her wants. Stead made unusual haste to +reply to prevent her from speaking. + +"She is biding with us till she can join her father, or knows how it is +with him." + +"Humph! She hath not the look of one of the daughters of our people." + +"Nay," said Steadfast. "I went down last night to the mill, Jeph, to see +whether perchance you might be hurt and wanting help, and after I had +heard that all was well with you, I lighted on this poor little maid +crouching under a bush, and brought her home with me for pity's sake +till I could find her friends." + +"The child of a Midianitish woman!" exclaimed Jeph, "one of the Irish +idolaters of whom it is written, 'Thou shalt smite them, and spare +neither man, nor woman, infant, nor suckling.'" "But I am not Irish," +broke out Emlyn, "I am from Worcestershire. My father is Serjeant +Gaythorn, butler to Sir Harry Blythedale. Don't let him kill me," she +cried in an access of terror, throwing herself on Steadfast's breast. + +"No, no. He would not harm thee, on mine hearth. Fear not, little one, +he _shall_ not." + +"Nay," said Jephthah, who, to do him justice, had respected the rights +of hospitality enough not to touch his weapon even when he thought +her Irish, "we harm not women and babes save when they are even as the +Amalekites. Let my brother go, child. I touch thee not, though thou +be of an ungodly seed; and I counsel thee, Steadfast, touch not the +accursed thing, but rid thyself thereof, ere thou be defiled." + +"I shall go so soon as father comes," exclaimed Emlyn. "I am sure I +do not want to stay in this mean, smoky hovel a bit longer than I can +help." + +"Such are the thanks of the ungodly people," said Jeph, gravely rising. +"I must be on my way back. We are digging trenches about this great +city, assuredly believing that it shall be delivered into our hands." + +"Stay, Jeph," said Patience. "Our corn! Will your folk come and cart it +away as they have done my lady's?" + +"The spoil of the wicked is delivered over to the righteous," said Jeph. +"But seeing that the land is mine, a faithful servant of the good cause, +they may not meddle therewith." + +"How are they to know that?" said Steadfast, not stopping to dispute +what rather startled him, since though Jeph was the eldest son, the land +had been made over to himself. To save the crop was the point. + +"Look you here," said Jeph, "walk down with me to my good Captain's +quarters, and he will give you a protection which you may shew to any +man who dares to touch aught that is ours, be it corn or swine, ox or +ass." + +It was a long walk, but Steadfast was only too glad to take it for the +sake of such security, and besides, there was a real pleasure in being +with Jeph, little as he seemed like the same idle, easy-going brother, +except perhaps in those little touches of selfishness and boastfulness, +which, though Stead did not realise them, did recall the original Jeph. + +All through the moonlight walk Jeph expounded his singular mercies, +which apparently meant his achievements in killing Cavaliers, and the +commendations given to him. One of these mercies was the retention of +the home and land, though he kindly explained that his brothers and +sisters were welcome to get their livelihood there whilst he was serving +with the army, but some day he should come home "as one that divideth +the spoil," and build up the old house, unless, indeed, and he glanced +towards the sloping woods of Elmwood Manor, "the house and fields of the +malignants should be delivered to the faithful." + +"My lady's house," said Steadfast under his breath. + +"Wherefore not? Is it not written 'Goodly houses that ye builded not.' +Thou must hear worthy Corporal Hold-the-Faith expound the matter, my +brother." + +They crossed the ferry and reached the outposts at last, and Stead was +much startled when the barrel of a musquet gleamed in the moonlight, and +a gruff voice said "Stand." + +"The jawbone of an ass," promptly answered Jephthah. + +"Pass, jawbone of an ass," responded the sentry, "and all's well. But +who have you here, comrade!" + +Jeph explained, and they passed up the narrow lane, meeting at the end +of it another sentinel, with whom the like watchword was exchanged, and +then they came out on a large village green, completely changed from its +usual aspect by rows of tents, on which the moonlight shone, while Jeph +seemed to know his way through them as well as if he were in the valley +of Elmwood. Most of the men seemed to be asleep, for snores issued +from sundry tents. In others there were low murmurings, perhaps of +conversation, perhaps of prayer, for once Stead heard the hum of an +"Amen." One or two men were about, and Jeph enquired of one if the +Captain were still up, and heard that he was engaged in exercise with +the godly Colonel Benbow. + +Their quarters were in one of the best houses of the little village, +where light gleamed from the window, and an orderly stood within the +door, to whom Jeph spoke, and who replied that they were just in time. +In fact two officers in broad hats and cloaks were just coming out, +and Stead admired Jeph's military salute to them ere he entered the +farmhouse kitchen, where two more gentlemen sat at the table with a +rough plan of the town laid before them. + +"Back again, Kenton," said his captain in a friendly tone. "Hast heard +aught of thy brethren?" + +"Yes, sir, I have found them well and in good heart, and have brought +one with me." + +"A helper in the good cause? Heaven be gracious to thee, my son. Thou +art but young, yet strength is vouchsafed to the feeble hands." + +"Please, sir," said Steadfast, who was twisting his hat about, "I've got +to mind the others, and work for them." + +"Yea, sir," put in Jeph, "there be three younger at home whom he cannot +yet leave. I brought him, sir, to crave from you a protection for the +corn and cattle that are in a sort mine own, being my father's eldest +son. They are all the poor children have to live on." + +"Thou shalt have it," said the captain, drawing his writing materials +nearer to him. "There, my lad. It may be thou dost serve thy Maker as +well by the plough as by the sword." + +Steadfast pulled his forelock, thanked the captain, was reminded of the +word for the night, and safely reached home again. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. FAREWELL TO THE CAVALIERS. + +[Illustration: Farewell To The Cavaliers] + + + "If no more our banners shew + Battles won and banners taken, + Still in death, defeat, and woe, + Ours be loyalty unshaken." + SCOTT + + +The next day the whole family turned out to gather in the corn. Rusha +was making attempts at reaping, while Emlyn played with little Ben, who +toddled about, shouting and chasing her in and out among the shocks. Now +and again they paused at the low, thunderous growl of the great guns +in the distance, in strange contrast to their peaceful work, and once a +foraging party of troopers rode up to the gate of the little field, but +Steadfast met them there, and showed the officer Captain Venn's paper. + +"So you belong to Kenton of Venn's Valiants? It is well. A blessing on +your work!" said the stern dark-faced officer, and on he went, happily +not seeing Emlyn make an ugly face and clench her little fist behind +him. + +"How can you, Stead?" she cried. "I'd rather be cursed than blessed by +such as he!" + +Stead shook his head slowly. "A blessing is better than a curse any +way," said he, but his mind was a good deal confused between the piety +and good conduct of these Roundheads, in contrast with their utter +contempt of the Church, and rude dealing with all he had been taught to +hold sacred. + +His harvest was, however, the matter in hand, and the little patch of +corn was cut and bound between him and his sisters, without further +interruption. The sounds of guns had ceased early in the day, and a +neighbour who had ventured down to the camp to offer some apples for +sale leant over the gate to wonder at the safety of the crop, "though to +be sure the soldiers were very civil, if they would let alone preaching +at you;" adding that there was like to be no more fighting, for one of +the gentlemen inside had ridden out with a white flag, and it was said +the Prince was talking of giving in. + +"Give in!" cried Emlyn setting her teeth. "Never. The Prince will soon +make an end of the rebels, and then I shall ride-a-cock horse with our +regiment again! I shall laugh to see the canting rogues run!" + +But the first thing Steadfast heard the next day was that the royal +standard had come down from the Cathedral tower. He had gone up to +Elmwood to get some provisions, and Tom Oates, who spent most of his +time in gazing from the steeple, assured him that if he would come up, +he would see for himself that the flags were changed. Indeed some of the +foot soldiers who had been quartered in the village to guard the roads +had brought the certain tidings that the city had surrendered and that +the malignants, as they called the Royalists, were to march out that +afternoon, by the same road as that by which the parliamentary army had +gone out two years before. + +This would be the only chance for Emlyn to rejoin her father or to +learn his fate. The little thing was wild with excitement at the news. +Disdainfully she tore off what she called Rusha's Puritan rags, though +as that offended maiden answered "her own were _real_ rags in spite +of all the pains Patience had taken with them. Nothing would make them +tidy," and Rusha pointed to a hopeless stain and to the frayed edges +past mending. + +"I hate tidiness. Only Puritan rebels are tidy!" + +"We are not Puritans!" cried Rusha. + +Emlyn laughed. "Hark at your names," she said. "And what's that great +rebel rogue of a brother of yours?" + +"Oh! he is Jeph! He ran away to the wars! But Stead isn't a Puritan," +cried Rusha, growing more earnest. "He always goes to church--real +church down in Bristol. And poor father was churchmartin, and knew all +the parson's secrets." + +"Hush, Rusha," said Patience, not much liking this disclosure, however +Jerusha might have come by the knowledge, "you and Emlyn don't want to +quarrel when she is just going to say good-bye!" + +This touched the little girls. Rusha had been much enlivened by the +little fairy who had seen so much of the world, and had much more +playfulness than the hard-worked little woodland maid; and Emlyn, who +in spite of her airs, knew that she had been kindly treated, was drawn +towards a companion of her own age, was very fond of little Ben, and +still more so of Steadfast. + +Ben cried, "Em not go;" and Rusha held her hand and begged her not to +forget. + +"O no, I won't forget you," said Emlyn, "and when we come back with the +King and Prince, and drive the Roundhead ragamuffins out of Bristol, +then I'll bring Stead a protection for Croppie and Daisy and all, a +silver bodkin for you, and a Flanders lace collar for Patience, and a +gold chain for Stead, and--But oh! wasn't that a trumpet? Stead! Stead! +We must go, or we shall miss them." Then as she hugged and kissed them, +"I'll tell Sir Harry and my lady how good you have been to me, and get +my lady to make you a tirewoman, Rusha. And dear, dear little Ben shall +be a king's guard all in gold." + +Ben had her last smothering kiss, and Rusha began to cry and sob as the +gay little figure, capering by Stead's side, disappeared between +the stems of the trees making an attempt, which Steadfast instantly +quenched, at singing, + + "The king shall enjoy his own again." + +Patience did not feel disposed to cry. She liked the child, and was +grieved to think what an uncertain lot was before the merry little +being, but her presence had made Rusha and Ben more troublesome than +they had ever been in their lives before, and there was also the anxiety +lest her unguarded tongue should offend Jeph and his friends. + +Emlyn skipped along by Steadfast's side, making him magnificent +promises. They paused by the ruins of the farm where Stead still kept up +as much of the orchard and garden as he could with so little time and +so far from home, and Emlyn filled her skirt with rosy-cheeked apples, +saying in a pretty gentle manner, "they were such a treat to our poor +rogues on a dusty march," and Stead aided her by carrying as many as he +could. + +However, an occasional bugle note, clouds of dust on the road far below +in the valley, and a low, dull tramp warned them to come forward, and +station themselves in the hedge above the deep lane where Steadfast had +once watched for his brother. Only a few of the more adventurous village +lads were before them now, and when Stead explained that the little +wench wanted to watch for her father, they were kind in helping him to +perch her in the hollow of a broken old pollard, where she could see, +and not be seen. For the poor camp maiden knew the need of caution. She +drew Steadfast close to her, and bade him not show himself till she +told him, for some of the wilder sort would blaze away their pistols +at anything, especially when they had had any good ale, or were out of +sorts. + +Poor fellows, there was no doubt of their being out of sorts, as they +tramped along, half hidden in dust, even the officers, who rode before +them, with ragged plumes and slouched hats. The silken banners, which +they had been allowed to carry out, because of their prompt surrender, +hung limp and soiled, almost like tokens of a defeat, and if any one +of those spectators behind the hawthorns had been conversant with Roman +history, it would have seemed to them like the passing under the yoke, +so dejected, nay, ashamed was the demeanour of the gentlemen. Emlyn +whispered name after name as they went by, but even she was hushed and +overawed by the spectacle, as four abreast these sad remnants of the +royal army marched along the lane, one or two trying to whistle, a few +more talking in under tones, but all soon dying away, as if they were +too much out of heart to keep anything up. + +She scarcely stirred while the infantry, who were by far the most +numerous, were going by, only naming corps or officer to Stead, then +there came an interval, and the tread of horses and clank of their +trappings could be heard. Then she almost forgot her precautions in her +eagerness to crane forward. "They are coming!" she said. "All there are +of them will be a guard for the Prince." + +Stead felt a strange thrill of pain as he remembered the terrible scene +when he had last beheld that tall, slight young figure, and dark face, +now far sterner and sadder than in those early days, as Rupert went to +meet the bitterest hour of his life. + +Several gentlemen rode with him, whom Emlyn named as his staff, and +then came more troopers, not alike in dress, being, in fact, remnants of +shattered regiments. She was trembling all over with eagerness, standing +up, and so leaning forward, that she might have tumbled into the lane, +had not Steadfast held her. + +At last came a scream. "There's Sir Harry! There's Dick! There's +Staines! Oh! Dick, Dick, where's father?" + +There was a halt, and bronzed faces looked up. + +"Ha! Who's there?" + +"I! I! Emlyn. Oh! Dick, is father coming?" + +"Hollo, little one! Art thou safe after all?" + +"I am, I am. Father! father! Come! Where is he?" + +"It is poor Gaythorn's little wench," explained one of the soldiers, as +Sir Harry, a grey-haired man, looking worn and weary, turned back, while +Steadfast helped the child out on the bank with some difficulty, for +her extreme haste had nearly brought her down, and she stood curtseying, +holding out her arms, and quivering with hope that began to be fear. + +"Poor child!" were the old gentleman's first words. "And where were +you?" + +"Please your honour, father left me in the thorn brake," said Emlyn, +"and said he would come for me, but he did not; it got dark, and this +country lad found me, and took me home. Is father coming, your honour?" + +"Ah! my poor little maid, your father will never come again," said Sir +Harry, sadly. "He went down by the mill stream. I saw him fall. What is +to be done for her?" he added, turning to a younger gentleman, who rode +by him, as the child stood as it were stunned for a moment. "This is the +worst of it all. Heaven knows we freely sacrifice ourselves in the cause +of Church and King, but it is hard to sacrifice others. Here are these +faithful servants, their home broken up with ours, their children dying, +and themselves killed--she, by the brutes after Naseby, he, in this last +skirmish. 'Tis enough to break a man's heart. And what is to become of +this poor little maid?" + +"Oh! I'll go with your honour," cried Emlyn, stretching out her arms. +"I can ride behind Dick, and I'll give no one any trouble. Oh! take me, +sir." + +"It cannot be done, my poor child," said Sir Harry. "We have no women +with us now, and we have to make our way to Newark by forced marches to +His Majesty. I have no choice but to bestow you somewhere till better +times come. Hark you, my good lad, she says you found her, and have been +good to her. Would your mother take charge of her? I'll leave what I can +with you, and when matters are quiet, my wife, or the child's kindred, +will send after her. Will your father and mother keep her for the +present?" + +"I have none," said Steadfast. "My father was killed in his own yard by +some soldiers who wanted to drive our cows. Mother had died before, but +my sister and I made a shift to take care of the little ones in a poor +place of our own." + +"And can you take the child in? You seem a good lad." + +"We will do our best for her, sir." + +"What's your name?" and "Where do you live?" followed. And as Steadfast +replied the old Cavalier took out his tablets and noted them, adding, +"Then you and your sister will be good to her till we can send after +her." + +"We will treat her like our little sister, sir." + +"And here's something for her keep for the present, little enough I am +afraid, but we poor Cavaliers have not much left. The King's men +were well to do when I heard last of them, and they will make it up +by-and-by. Or if not, my boy, can you do this for the love of God?" + +"Yes, sir," said Steadfast, looking up with his honest eyes, and +touching his forelock at the holy Name. + +"Here, then," and Sir Harry held out two gold pieces, to which his +companion added one, and two or three of the troopers, saying something +about poor Gaythorn's little maid, added some small silver coins. There +was something in Steadfast's mind that would have preferred declining +all payment, but he was a little afraid of Patience's dismay at having +another mouth to provide for all the winter, and he thought too that +Jeph's anger at the adoption of the Canaanitish child might be averted +if it were a matter of business and payment, so he accepted the sum, +thanked Sir Harry and the rest, and renewed his promise to do the best +in his power for the little maiden. He rather wondered that no questions +were asked as to which side he held; but Sir Harry had no time to +inquire, and could only hope that the honest, open face, respectful +manner, clean dress, and the kindness which had rescued the child on +the battlefield were tokens that he might be trusted to take care of +the poor little orphan. Besides, many of the country people were too +ignorant to understand the difference between the sides, but only took +part with their squire, or if they loved their clergyman, clung to him. +So the knight would not ask any questions, and only further called out +"Fare thee well, then, poor little maid, we will send after thee when +we can," and then giving a sharp, quick order, all the little party +galloped off to overtake the rest. + +Emlyn had been bred up in too much awe of Sir Harry to make objections, +but as her friends rode off she gave a sharp shriek, screamed out one +name after another, and finally threw herself down on the road bank in a +wild passion of grief, anger, and despair, and when Steadfast would +have lifted her up and comforted her, she kicked and fought him away. +Presently he tried her again, begging her to come home. + +"I won't! I won't go to your vile, tumble-down, roundhead, crop-eared +hole!" she sobbed out. + +"But, Sir Harry--" + +"I won't! I say." + +He was at his wits' end, but after all, the sound of other steps coming +up startled her into composing herself and sitting up. + +"Hollo, Stead Kenton! Got this little puppet on your hands?" said young +Gates. "Hollo, mistress, you squeal like a whole litter of pigs." + +"I am to take charge of her till her friends can send for her," said +Stead, with protecting dignity. + +"And that will be a long day! Ho, little wench, where didst get that +sweet voice?" + +"Hush, Tom! the child has only just heard that her father is dead." + +This silenced the other lads, and Emlyn's desire to get away from them +accomplished what Steadfast wished, she put her hand into his and let +him lead her away, and as there were sounds of another troop of cavalry +coming up the lane, the boys did not attempt to follow her. She made no +more resistance, though she broke into fresh fits of moaning and crying +all the way home, such as went to Steadfast's heart, though he could not +find a word to comfort her. + +Patience was scarcely delighted when Rusha darted in, crying out that +Emlyn had come back again, but perhaps she was not surprised. She took +the poor worn-out little thing in her arms, and rocked her, saying kind, +tender little words, while Steadfast looked on, wondering at what girls +could do, but not speaking till, finding that Emlyn was fast asleep, +Patience laid her down on the bed without waking her, and then had time +to listen to Stead's account of the interview with Sir Harry Blythedale. + +"I could not help it, Patience," he said, "we couldn't leave the poor +fatherless child out on the hedge-side." + +"No," said Patience, "we can't but have her, as the gentleman said, for +the love of God. He has taken care of us, so we ought to take care of +the fatherless--like ourselves." + +"That's right, Patience," said Steadfast, much relieved in his mind, +"and see here!" + +"I wonder you took that, Stead, and the poor gentlemen so ill off +themselves." + +"Well, Patience, I thought if you would not have her, Goody Grace might +for the pay, but then who knows when any more may come?" + +"Aye," said Patience, "we must keep her, though she will be a handful. +Anyway, all this must be laid out for her, and the first chance I have, +some shall be in decent clothes. I can't a-bear to see her in those +dirty gewgaws." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. GODLY VENN'S TROOP. + + + "Ye abbeys and ye arches, + Ye old cathedrals dear, + The hearts that love you tremble, + And your enemies have cheer." + BP. CLEVELAND COXE. + + +"What would Jeph say?" was the thought of both Steadfast and Patience, +as Emlyn ran about with Rusha and Ben, making herself tolerably happy +and enlivening them all a good deal. After one fight she found that she +must obey Patience, though she made no secret that she liked the sober +young mistress of the hut much less than the others, and could even +sometimes get Steadfast to think her hardly used, but he seldom showed +that feeling, for he had plenty of sense, and could not bear to vex his +sister; besides, he saw there would be no peace if her authority was not +supported. It was a relief that there was no visit from Jeph for some +little time, though the fighting was all over, and people were going in +and out of Bristol as before. + +Stead took the donkey with the panniers full of apples and nuts on +market day, and a pile of fowls and ducks on its back, while he carried +a basket of eggs on his arm, and in his head certain instructions from +Patience about the grogram and linen he was to purchase for Emlyn, in +the hope of making her respectable before Jeph's eyes should rest upon +her. Stead's old customers were glad to see him again, especially Mrs. +Lightfoot, who had Dr. Eales once again in her back rooms, keeping +out of sight, while the good Dean was actually in prison for using the +Prayer-book. Three soldiers were quartered upon her at the Wheatsheaf, +and though, on the whole, they were more civil and much less riotous +than some of her Cavalier lodgers had been, she was always in dread of +their taking offence at the doctor and hauling him off to gaol. + +Steadfast confided to her Patience's commission, which she undertook +to execute herself. It included a spinning-wheel, for Patience was +determined to teach Emlyn to spin, an art of which no respectable woman +from the Queen downwards was ignorant in those days. As to finding his +brother, the best way would be to ask the soldiers who were smoking in +the kitchen where he was likely to be. + +They said that the faithful and valiant Jephthah Kenton of Venn's horse +would be found somewhere about the great steeple house, profanely +called the Cathedral, for there the troops were quartered; and thither +accordingly Stead betook himself, starting as he saw horses gearing or +being groomed on the sward in the close which had always been kept in +such perfect order. Having looked in vain outside for his brother, he +advanced into the building, but he had only just had a view of horses +stamping between the pillars, the floor littered down with straw, a +fire burning in one of the niches, and soldiers lying about, smoking or +eating, in all manner of easy, lounging attitudes, when suddenly there +was a shout of "Prelatist, Idolater, Baal-worshipper, Papist," and +to his horror he found it was all directed towards himself. They were +pointing to his head, and two of them had caught him by the shoulders, +when another voice rose "Ha! Let him alone. I say, Bill! Faithful! It's +my brother. He knows no better!" Then dashing up, Jeph rammed the great +hat down over Stead's brow, eyes and all, and called out, "Whoever +touches my brother must have at me first." + +"There," said one of the others, "the old Adam need not be so fierce in +thee, brother Jephthah! No one wants to hurt the lad, young prelatist +though he be, so he will make amends by burning their superstitious +books on the fire, even as Jehu burnt the worshippers of Baal." + +Steadfast felt somewhat as Christians of old may have felt when called +on to throw incense on the altar of Jupiter, as a handful of pages torn +from a Prayer-book was thrust into his hands. Words did not come +readily to him, but he shook his head and stood still, perhaps stolid in +resistance. + +"Come," said Jeph, laying hold of his shoulder to drag him along. + +"I cannot; 'tis Scripture," said Stead, as in his distress his eye fell +on the leaves in his hand, and he read aloud to prove it-- + +"Thy Word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my path." + +There was one moment's pause. Perhaps the men had absolutely forgotten +how much of their cherished Bible was integral in the hated Prayer-book; +at any rate they were enough taken aback to enable Jeph to pull his +brother out at the door, not without a fraternal cuff or two, as he +exclaimed: + +"Thou foolish fellow! ever running into danger for very dullness." + +"What have I done, Jeph?" asked poor Stead, still bewildered. + +"Done! Why, doffed thy hat, after the superstitious and idolatrous +custom of our fathers." + +"How can it be idolatrous? 'Twas God's house," said Stead. + +"Aye, there thou art in the gall of bitterness. Know'st thou not that no +house is more holy than another?" and Jeph would have gone on for +some time longer, but that he heard sounds which made him suspect +that someone had condemned the version of the Psalms as prelatical and +profane, and that his comrades might yet burst forth to visit their +wrath upon his young brother, whom he therefore proceeded to lead out +of sight as fast as possible into the Dean's garden, where he had the +entree as being orderly to Captain Venn, who, with other officers, abode +in the Deanery. + +There, controversy being dropped for the moment, Stead was able to tell +his brother of his expedition, and how he had been obliged to keep the +child, for very pity's sake, even if her late father's master had not +begged him to do so, and given an earnest of the payment. + +Jeph laughed a little scornfully at the notion of a wild Cavalier ever +paying, but he was not barbarous, and allowed that there was no choice +in the matter, as she could not be turned out to starve. When he heard +that Stead had come with market produce he was displeased at it not +having been brought up for the table of his officers, assuring Stead +that they were not to be confounded with the roistering, penniless +malignants, who robbed instead of paying. Stead said he always supplied +Mistress Lightfoot, but this was laughed to scorn. "The rulers of the +army of saints had a right to be served first, above all before one who +was believed to harbour the idolater, even the priest of the groves." + +Jeph directed that the next supply should come to the Deanery, as one +who had the right of ownership, and Stead submitted, only with the +secret resolve that Dr. Eales should not want his few eggs nor his pat +of fresh butter. + +Jeph was not unkind to Stead, and took him to dine with the other +attendants of the officers in the very stone hall where he had eaten +that Christmas dinner some twenty months before. There was a very +long grace pronounced extempore, and the guests were stout, resolute, +grave-looking men, who kept on their steeple-crowned hats all the +time and conversed in low, deep voices, chiefly, as far as Stead could +gather, on military matters, but they seemed to appreciate good beef and +ale quite as much as any Cavalier trooper could have done. One of them +noticing Stead asked whether he had come to take service with the saints +and enjoy their dominion, but Jeph answered for him that his call lay at +home among those of his own household, until his heart should be whole +with the cause. + +On the whole Stead was proud to see Jeph holding his own, though the +youngest among these determined-looking men. These two years had made +a man of the rough, idle, pleasure-loving boy, and a man after the +Ironsides' fashion, grave, self-contained, and self-depending. Stead had +been more like the elder than the younger brother in old times, but he +felt Jeph immeasurably his elder in the new, unfamiliar atmosphere; and +yet the boy had a strong sense that all was not right; that these were +interlopers in the kind old Dean's house; that the talk about Baal was +mere absurdity; and the profanation of the Cathedral would have been +utterly shocking to his good father. His mind, however, worked slowly, +and he would have had nothing to say even if he could have ventured to +speak; but he was very anxious to get away; and when Jeph would have +kept him to hear the serjeant expound a chapter of Revelation, he +pleaded the necessity of getting home in time to milk the cows, and made +his escape. + +On the whole it was a relief that Jeph was too much occupied with his +military duties to make visits to his home. It might not have been over +easy to keep the peace between him and Emlyn, fiery little Royalist as +she was, and too much used to being petted and fascinating everyone by +her saucy audacity to be likely to be afraid of him. + +If Patience crossed her she would have recourse to Stead, and he could +seldom resist her coaxing, or be entirely disabused of the notion that +his sister expected too much of her. And perhaps it was true. Patience +was scarcely likely to understand differences of character and +temperament, and not merely to recollect that Emlyn was only eighteen +months younger than she had been when she had been forced into the +position of the house mother. So, while Emlyn's wayward fancies were a +great trial, Steadfast's sympathy with them was a greater one. + +Stead continued to see Jeph when taking in the market produce, for which +he was always duly paid. Jeph also wished the whole family to come in +on Sunday to profit by the preaching of some of the great Independent +lights; but Stead, after trying it once, felt so sure that Patience +would be miserable at anything so unaccustomed, so thunderous, and, as +it seemed to him, so abusive, that he held to it that the distance was +too great, and that the cattle could not be left. The soldiery seemed to +him to spend their spare time in defacing the many churches of the city, +chiefly in order to do what they called purifying them from all idols, +in which term they included every sort of carving or picture, or even +figures on monuments. + +And in this work of destruction a chest containing church plate had been +come upon, making their work greedy instead of only mischievous. + +When all the churches in Bristol had been ransacked, they began to +extend their search to the parish churches in the neighbourhood, and +Stead began to be very anxious, though he hoped and believed that the +cave was a perfectly safe place. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. THE QUESTION. + + + "Dogged as does it."--TROLLOPE. + + +"Stead, Stead," cried Rusha, running up to him, as he was slowly digging +over his stubble field to prepare it for the next crop, "the soldiers +are in Elmwood." + +"Yes," said Emlyn, coming up at the same time, "they are knocking about +everything in the church and pulling up the floor." + +"Patience sent us to get some salt," explained Rusha, "and we saw them +from Dame Redman's door. She told us we had better be off and get home +as fast as we could." + +"But I thought we would come and tell you," added Emlyn, "and then +you could get out the long gun and shoot them as they come into the +valley--that is if you can take aim--but I would load and show you how, +and then they would think it was a whole ambush of honest men." + +"Aye, and kill us all--and serve us right," said Stead. "They don't +want to hurt us if we don't meddle with them. But there's a good wench, +Rusha, drive up the cows and sheep this way so that I can have an eye on +them, and shew Captain Venn's paper, if any of those fellows should take +a fancy to them." + +"They are digging all over old parson's garden," said Rusha, as she +obeyed. + +"Was Jeph there?" asked Stead. + +"I didn't see him," said the child. + +Steadfast was very uneasy. That turning up the parson's garden looked +as if they might be in search of the silver belonging to the Church, but +after all they were unlikely to connect him with it, and it was wiser +to go on with his regular work, and manifest no interest in the matter; +besides that, every spadeful he heaved up, every chop he gave the +stubble, seemed to be a comfort, while there was a prayer on his soul +all the time that he might be true to his trust. + +By-and-by he saw Tom Oates running and beckoning to him, "Stead, Stead +Kenton, you are to come." + +"What should I come for?" said Stead, gruffly. + +"The soldiers want you." + +"What call have they to me?" + +"They be come to cleanse the steeple house, they says, and take the +spoil thereof, and they've been routling over the floor and parson's +garden like so many hogs, and are mad because they can't find nothing, +and Thatcher Jerry says, says he, 'Poor John Kenton as was shot was +churchwarden and was very great with Parson. If anybody knows where the +things is 'tis Steadfast Kenton.' So the corporal says, 'Is this so, +Jephthah Kenton?' and Jeph, standing up in his big boots, says, 'Aye, +corporal, my father was yet in the darkness of prelacy, and was what in +their blindness they call a Churchwarden, but as to my brother, that's +neither here nor there, he were but a boy and not like to know more than +I did.' But the corporal said, 'That we will see. Is the lad here?' So +I ups and said nay, but I'd seen you digging your croft, and then they +bade me fetch you. So you must come, willy-nilly, or they may send worse +after you." + +Stead was a little consoled by hearing that his brother was there. He +suspected that Jeph would have consideration enough for his sisters and +for the property that he considered his own to be unwilling to show the +way to their valley; and he also reflected that it would be well that +whatever might happen to himself should be out of sight of his sisters. +Therefore he decided on following Oates, going through on the way the +whole question whether to deny all knowledge, and yet feeling that +the things belonging to God should not be shielded by untruth. His +resolution finally was to be silent, and let them make what they would +out of that, and Stead, though it was long since he had put it on, had a +certain sullen air of stupidity such as often belongs to such natures as +his, and which Jeph knew full well in him. + +They came in sight of the village green where the soldiers were +refreshing themselves at what once had been the Elmwood Arms, for though +not given to excess, total abstinence formed no part of the discipline +of the Puritans; and one of the men started forward, and seizing hold of +Steadfast by the shoulder exclaimed-- + +"As I live, 'tis the young prelatist who bowed himself down in the house +of Rimmon! Come on, thou seed of darkness, and answer for thyself." + +If he had only known it, he was making the part of dogged silence and +resistance infinitely easier to Steadfast by the rudeness and abuse, +which, even in a better cause, would have made it natural to him to act +as he was doing now, giving the soldier all the trouble of dragging him +onward and then standing with his hands in his pockets like an image of +obstinacy. + +"Speak," said the corporal, "and it shall be the better for thee. Hast +thou any knowledge where the priests of Baal have bestowed the vessels +of their mockery of worship." + +Stead moved not a muscle of his face. He had no acquaintance with +priests of Baal or their vessels, so that he was not in the least +bound to comprehend, and one of them exclaimed "The oaf knows not your +meaning, corporal. Speak plainer to his Somerset ears. He knows not the +tongue of the saints." + +"Ho, then, thou child of darkness. Know'st thou where the mass-mongering +silver and gold of this church be hidden from them of whom it is written +'haste to the spoil.' Come, speak out. A crown if thou dost speak--the +lash if thou wilt not answer, thou dumb dog." + +Stead was really not far removed from a dumb dog. All his faculties were +so entirely wrought up to resistance that he had hardly distinguished +the words. + +"Come, come, Stead," said Jeph, "thou art too old for thine old sulky +moods. Speak up, and tell if thou know'st aught of the Communion Cup and +dish, or it will be the worse for thee. Yes or no?" + +Stead made a move with his shoulder to push away his brother, and still +stood silent. + +"There," said Jeph, "it is all Faithful's fault for his rough handling. +His back is set up. It was always so from a boy, and you'll get nought +out of him." + +"Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction +shall drive it far from him," quoted the Corporal, taking up a +waggoner's whip which stood by the inn door, and the like of which had +no doubt once been a more familiar weapon to him than the sword. + +"Speak lad--or--" and as no speech came, the lash descended on Stead's +shoulders, not, however, hurting him much save where it grazed the skin +of his face. + +"Now? Not a word? Take off his leathern coat, Faithful, then shall he +feel the reward of sullenness." + +That Jeph did not interfere, while Faithful and another soldier tugged +off his leathern coat, buffeting and kicking him roughly as they did so, +brought additional hardness to Stead. He had been flogged in his time +before, and not without reason, and had taken a pride in not giving in, +or crying out for pain; and the ancient habit acquired in a worse cause, +came to his help. He scarcely recollected the cause of his resistance; +all his powers were concentrated in holding out, and when after another +"Now, vile prelatic spawn, is thy heart still hardened? Yes or no?" the +terrible whip came stinging and biting down on his shoulders and +back, only protected by his shirt, he was entirely bound up in the +determination to endure the pain without a groan or cry. + +But after blows enough had fallen to mark the shirt with streaks of +blood, Jeph could bear it no longer. + +"Hold!" he said. "You will never make him speak that way. Father and +mother never could. Strokes do but harden him." + +"The sure token of a fool," said the corporal, and prepared for another +lash. + +"'Tis plain he knows," said one of the others. "He would never stand +this if a word would save him." + +"Mere malice and obstinacy," said Faithful, "and wilfulness. He will +not utter a word. I would beat it out of him, as I was wont with our old +ass." + +Another stroke descended, worse than all the others after the brief +interval, but Jeph again spoke, "Look you, I know the lad of old and +you'll get no more that way than if you were flogging the sign-post +there. Whether he knows where the things are or not, the temper that is +in him will never answer while you beat him, were it to save his life. +Leave him to me, and I'll be bound to get an answer from him." + +"And I am constable, and I must say," said Blacksmith Blane, moving +forwards, with a bar of iron in his hand, and four or five stout men +behind him, "that to come and abuse and flog a hard-working, fatherless +lad, that never did you no harm, nor anyone else, is not what honest men +look for from soldiers that talk so big about Parliament and rights and +what not!" + +"'Twas for contumacy," began the corporal. + +"Contumacy forsooth, as though 'twas the will of the honest gentlemen in +Parliament that boys should be misused for nothing at all!" + +"If the young dog would have spoken," began the corporal, but somehow he +did not like the look of Blane's iron bar, and thought it best to look +up at the sun, and discover that it was time to depart if the party were +to be in time for roll-call. As it was a private marauding speculation, +it might not be well to have complaints made to Captain Venn, who never +sanctioned plunder nor unnecessary violence. Even Jeph had to march off, +and Steadfast, who had no mind to be pitied, nor asked by the neighbours +what was the real fact, had picked up his spade and jerkin, and was out +of sight while the villagers were watching the soldiers away. + +The first thing he did was to give thanks in heart that he had been +aided thus far not to betray his trust, and then to feel that Corporal +Dodd's flogging was a far severer matter than the worst chastisement he +had ever received from his father, even when he kept Jeph's secret about +the stolen apples. Putting on his coat was impossible, and he was so +stiff and sore that he could not hope to conceal his condition from +Patience. + +At home all were watching for him. They ran up in anxiety, for one +of the ever ready messengers of evil had rushed down the glen to tell +Patience that the soldiers were beating Stead shamefully, and Jeph +standing by not saying one word. Little Ben broke out with "Poor, poor!" +and Rusha burst into tears at sight of the blood, while Emlyn said "Just +what comes of going among the rascal Roundheads," and Patience looked up +at him and said "Was it--?" he nodded, and she quietly said "I'm glad." +He added, "Jeph's coming soon," and she knew that the trial was not +over. The brother and sister needed very few words to understand one +another, and they were afraid to say anything that the younger ones +could understand. Patience washed the weals with warm water and milk, +and wrapped a cloak round him, but even the next morning, he could not +use his arms without fresh bleeding, and the hindrance to the work +was serious. He could do nothing but herd the cattle, and he was much +inclined to drive them to the further end of the moorland where Jephthah +would hardly find him, but then he recollected that Patience would be +left to bear the brunt of the attack, so that he would not go far +off, never guessing, poor fellow, that in his dull, almost blundering +fashion, he was doing like the heroes and the martyrs, but only feeling +that he must keep his trust at all costs. Jeph, however, did not come +that day or the next, so that inwardly, the wound-up feeling had passed +into a weariness of expectation, and outwardly the stripes had healed +enough for Stead to go about his work as usual only a little stiffly. +He went into Bristol on market day as usual, and then it was, on his way +out that Jeph joined him, saying it was to bid Patience and the little +ones farewell, since the marching orders were for the morrow. He was +unusually kind and good-natured; he had a load of comfits for Rusha and +Ben, and a stout piece of woollen stuff for Patience which he said was +such as he was told godly maidens wore, and which possibly the terror of +his steel cap and corslet had cheapened at the mercer's; also he had +a large packet of tractates for Stead's own reading, and he enquired +whether they possessed a Bible. + +Stead wondered whether all this was out of regret at the treatment he +had undergone, or whether it was to put him off his guard, and this +occupied him when Jeph began to preach, as he did uninterruptedly for +the last mile, without any of the sense, if there were any, reaching the +mind of the auditor. + +They reached the hut, the gifts were displayed; and when the young ones, +who were all a little afraid of the elder brother, had gone off to feast +upon the sweets, Jeph began with enquiries after Steadfast's back, and +he replied that it was mending fast, while Patience exclaimed at the +cruelty and wickedness of so using him. + +"Why wouldn't he speak then?" said Jeph. "Yea or nay would have ended it +in a moment, but that's Stead's way. He looks like it now!" and he did, +elbows on knees, and chin on hands. + +"Come now, Stead, thou canst speak to me! Was it all because Faithful +hauled thee about?" + +"He did, and he had no call to," said Stead, surlily. + +"Well, that's true, but I'm not hauling thee. Tell me, Stead, I mind now +that thou wast out with father that last day ere the Parson was taken +to receive his deserts. I don't believe that even thy churlishness +would have stood such blows if thou hadst known naught of the idolatrous +vessels, and couldst have saved thy skin by saying so! No answer. Why, +what have these malignants done for thee that thou shouldst hold by +them? Slain thy father! Burnt thine house! No fault of theirs that thou +art alive this day! Canst not speak?" + +Jeph's temper giving way at the provocation, he forgot his conciliatory +intentions and seizing Stead by the collar shook him violently. Growler +almost broke his chain with rage, Patience screamed and flew to the +rescue, just as she had often done when they were all children together, +and Jeph threw his brother from him so that he fell on the root of a +tree, and lay for a moment or two still, then picked himself up again +evidently with pain, though he answered Patience cheerfully that it was +nought. + +"Thou art enough to drive a man mad with thy surly silence," exclaimed +Jeph, whom this tussle had rendered much more like his old self, "and +after all, knowing that even though thou art not one of the holy ones, +thou wilt not tell a lie, it comes to the same thing. I know thou +wottest where these things are, and it is only thy sullen scruples that +hinder thee from speaking. Nevertheless, I shall leave no stone unturned +till I find them! For what is written 'Thou shalt break down their +altars.'" + +"Jeph," said Stead, firmly. "You left home because of your grief and +rage at father's death. Would you have me break the solemn charge he +laid on me?" + +"Father was a good man after his light," said Jeph, a little staggered, +"but that light was but darkness, and we to whom the day itself is +vouchsafed are not bound by a charge laid on us in ignorance. Any +way, he laid no bonds on me, but I must needs leave thee alone in thy +foolishness of bondage! Come, Patience, wench, and aid me, I know +this rock is honeycombed with caves, like a rabbit warren, no place so +likely." + +"I help thee--no indeed'" cried Patience. "Would I aid thee to do what +would most grieve poor father, that thou once mad'st such a work about! +I should be afraid of his curse." + +Possibly if Jeph had not pledged himself to his comrades to overcome +his brother's resistance, and bring back the treasures, he might have +desisted; but what he did was to call to Rusha to bring him a lantern, +and show him the holes, promising her a tester if she would. She brought +the lantern, but she was a timid, little, unenterprising thing, and was +mortally afraid of the caverns, a fear that Patience had thought it well +not to combat. Emlyn who had already scrambled all over the face of the +slope, and peeped into all, could have told him a great deal more about +them; but she hated the sight of a rebel, and sat on the ground making +ugly faces and throwing little stones after him whenever his back was +turned. + +Stead, afraid to betray by his looks of anxiety, when Jeph came near the +spot, sat all the time with his elbows on his knees, and his hands +over his face, fully trusting to what all had agreed at the time of the +burial of the chest, that there was no sign to indicate its whereabouts. + +He felt rather than saw that Jeph, after tumbling out the straw and fern +that served for fodder in the lower caves, where the sheep and pigs +were sheltered in winter, had scrambled up to the hermit's chapel, when +suddenly there was a shout, but not at all of exultation, and down among +the bushes, lantern and all came the soldier, tumbling and crashing into +the midst of an enormous bramble, whence Stead pulled him out with the +lantern flattened under him, and his first breathless words were-- + +"Beelzebub himself!" Then adding, as he stood upright, "he made full at +me, and I saw his eyes glaring. I heard him groaning. It is an unholy +popish place. No wonder!" + +Patience and Rusha were considerably impressed, for it was astonishing +to see how horribly terrified and shaken was the warrior, who had been +in two pitched battles, and Ben screamed, and needed to be held in +Stead's arms to console him. + +Jeph had no mind to pursue his researches any further. He only tarried +long enough to let Patience pick out half-a-dozen thorns from his cheeks +and hands, and to declare that if he had not to march to-morrow, he +should bring that singular Christian man, Captain Venn, to exorcise the +haunt of Apollyon. Wherewith he bade them all farewell, with hopes that +by the time he saw them again, they would have come to the knowledge of +the truth. + +No sooner was he out of sight among the bushes than Emlyn seized on +Rusha, and whirled her round in a dance as well as her more substantial +proportions would permit, while Steadfast let his countenance expand +into the broad grin that he had all this time been stifling. + +"What _do_ you think it was?" asked Patience, still awestruck. + +"Why--the old owl--and his own bad conscience. He might talk big, but he +didn't half like going against poor father. Thank God! He has saved His +own, and that's over!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. A TABLE OF LOVE IN THE WILDERNESS. + + + "Yet along the Church's sky + Stars are scattered, pure and high; + Yet her wasted gardens bear + Autumn violets, sweet and rare, + Relics of a Spring-time clear, + Earnests of a bright New Year." KEBLE + + +No more was heard or seen of Jephthah, or of Captain Venn's troop. The +garrison within Bristol was small and unenterprising, and in point of +fact the war was over. News travelled slowly, but Stead picked up scraps +at Bristol, by which he understood that things looked very bad for the +King. Moreover, Sir George Elmwood died of his wounds; poor old Lady +Elmwood did not long survive him, and the estate, which had been left +to her for her life, was sequestrated by the Parliament, and redeemed +by the next heir after Sir George, so that there was an exchange of +the Lord of the Manor. The new squire was an elderly man, hearty and +good-natured, who did not seem at all disposed to interfere with any one +on the estate. He was a Presbyterian, and was shocked to find that +the church had been unused for three years. He had it cleaned from the +accumulation of dirt and rubbish, the broken windows mended with plain +glass, and the altar table put down in the nave, as it had been before +Mr. Holworth's time; and he presented to the living Mr. Woodley, a +scholarly-looking person, who wore a black gown and collar and bands. + +The Elmwood folk were pleased to have prayers and sermon again, and +Patience was glad that the children should not grow up like heathens; +but her first church going did not satisfy her entirely. + +"It is all strange," she said to Stead, who had stayed with the cattle. +"He had no book, and it was all out of his own head, not a bit like old +times." + +"Of course not," said Emlyn. "He had got no surplice, and I knew him for +a prick-eared Roundhead! I should have run off home if you had not held +me, Patience. I'll never go there again." + +"I am sure you made it a misery to me, trying to make Rusha and Ben as +idle and restless as yourself," said Patience. + +"They ought not to listen to a mere Roundhead sectary," said Emlyn, +tossing her head. "I couldn't have borne it if I had not had the young +ladies to look at. They had got silk hoods and curls and lace collars, +so as it was a shame a mere Puritan should wear." + +"O Emlyn, Emlyn, it is all for the outside," said Patience. "Now, I +did somehow like to hear good words, though they were not like the old +ones." + +"Good, indeed! from a trumpery Puritan." + +Stead went to church in the afternoon. He was eighteen now, and that +great struggle and effort had made him more of a man. He thought much +when he was working alone in the fields, and he had spent his time on +Sundays in reading his Bible and Prayer-book, and comparing them with +Jeph's tracts. Since Emlyn had come, he had made a corner of the cowshed +fit to sleep in, by stuffing the walls with dry heather, and the +sweet breath of the cows kept it sufficiently warm, and on the winter +evenings, he took a lantern there with one of Patience's rush lights, +learnt a text or two anew, and then repeated passages to himself and +thought over them. What would seem intolerably dull to a lad now, was +rest to one who had been rendered older than his age by sorrow and +responsibility, and the events that were passing led people to consider +religious questions a great deal. + +But Stead was puzzled. The minister was not like the soldiers whom he +had heard raving about the reign of the saints, and abusing the church. +He prayed for the King's having a good deliverance from his troubles, +and for the peace of the kingdom, and he gave out that there was to be +a week of fasting, preaching, and preparation for the Sacrament of the +Lord's Supper. + +The better sort of people in the village were very much pleased, nobody +except Goody Grace was dissatisfied, and people told her that was only +because she was old and given to grumbling at everything new. Blane the +Smith tapped Stead on the shoulder, and said, "Hark ye, my lad. If it +be true that thou wast in old Parson's secrets, now's the time for thou +know'st what." + +Stead's mouth was open, and his face blank, chiefly because he did not +know what to do, and was taken by surprise, and Blane took it for an +answer. + +"Oh! if you don't know, that's another thing, but then 'twas for nothing +that the troopers flogged you? Well," he muttered, as Stead walked +off, "that's a queer conditioned lad, to let himself be flogged, as I +wouldn't whip a dog, all out of temper, because he wouldn't answer a +question. But he's a good lad, and I'll not bring him into trouble by a +word to squire or minister." + +The children went off to gather cowslips, and Stead was able to talk it +over with Patience, who at first was eager to be rid of the dangerous +trust, and added, with a sigh, "That she had never taken the Sacrament +since the Easter before poor father was killed, and it must be nigh upon +Whitsuntide now." + +"That's true," said Stead, "but nobody makes any count of holy days now. +It don't seem right, Patience." + +"Not like what it used to be," said Patience. "And yet this minister is +surely a godly man." + +"Father and parson didn't say ought about a godly man. They made me take +my solemn promise that I'd only give the things to a lawfully ordained +minister." + +"He is a minister, and he comes by law," argued Patience. "Do be +satisfied, Stead. I'm always in fear now that folks guess we have +somewhat in charge; and Emlyn is such a child for prying and chattering. +And if they should come and beat thee again, or do worse. Oh, Stead! +surely you might give them up to a good man like that; Smith Blane says +you ought!" + +"I doubt me! I know that sort don't hold with Bishops, and, so far as +I can see, by father's old Prayer-book, a lawful minister must have a +Bishop to lay hands on him," said Stead, who had studied the subject +as far as his means would allow, and had good though slow brains of his +own, matured by responsibility. "I'll tell you what, Patience, I'll go +and see Dr. Eales about it. I wot he is a minister of the old sort, that +father would say I might trust to." + +Dr. Eales was still living in Mrs. Lightfoot's lodgings, at the sign of +the Wheatsheaf, or more properly starving, for he had only ten pounds a +year paid to him out of the benefice that had been taken away from him; +and though that went farther then than it would do now, it would not +have maintained him, but that his good hostess charged him as little as +she could afford, and he also had a few pupils among the gentry's sons, +but there were too many clergymen in the same straits for this to be a +very profitable undertaking. There were no soldiers in Mrs. Lightfoot's +house now, and the doctor lived more at large, but still cautiously, for +in the opposite house, named the "Ark," whose gable end nearly met the +Wheatsheaf's, dwelt a rival baker, a Brownist, whose great object seemed +to be to spy upon the clergyman, and have something to report against +him, nor was Mrs. Lightfoot's own man to be trusted. Stead lingered +about the open stall where the bread was sold till no customer was at +hand, and then mentioned under his breath to the good dame his desire to +speak with her lodger. + +"Certainly," she said, but the Doctor was now with his pupils at +Mistress Rivett's. He always left them at eleven of the clock, more +shame of Mrs. Rivett not to give the good man his dinner, which she +would never feel. Steadfast had better watch for him at the gate which +opened on the down, for there he could speak more privately and securely +than at home. + +He took the advice, and passed away the time as best he could, learning +on the way that a news letter had been received stating that the King +was with the Scottish army at Newcastle, and that it was expected that +on receiving their arrears of pay, the Scots would surrender him to the +Parliament, a proceeding which the folk in the market-place approved or +disapproved according to their politics. + +Mrs. Rivett's house stood a little apart from the town, with a court and +gates opening on the road over the down; and just as eleven strokes were +chiming from the town clock below, a somewhat bent, silver-haired man, +in a square cap and black gown, leaning on a stick, came out of it. +Stead, after the respectful fashion of his earlier days, put his knee to +the ground, doffed his steeple-crowned hat and craved a blessing, both +he and the Doctor casting a quick glance round so as to be sure there +was no one in sight. + +Dr. Eales gave it earnestly, as one to whom it was a rare joy to find a +country youth thus demanding it, and as he looked at the honest face he +said: + +"You are mine hostess' good purveyor, methinks, to whom I have often +owed a wholesome meal." + +"Steadfast Kenton, so please your reverence. There is a secret matter on +which I would fain have your counsel, and Mistress Lightfoot thought I +might speak to you here with greater safety." + +"She did well. Speak on, my good boy, if we walk up and down here we +shall be private. It does my heart good to commune with a faithful young +son of the Church." + +Steadfast told his story, at which the good old Canon was much affected. +His brother Holworth, as he called him, was not in prison but in the +Virginian plantations. He was still the only true minister of Elmwood, +and Mr. Woodley, though owned by the present so-called law of the land, +was not there rightly by the law of the Church, and, therefore, Stead +was certainly not bound to surrender the trust to him, but rather the +contrary. + +The Doctor could have gone into a long disquisition about Presbyterian +Orders, contradicting the arguments many good and devout people adduced +in favour of them, but there was little time, so he only confirmed with +authority Stead's belief that a Bishop's Ordination was indispensable +to a true pastor, "the only door by which to enter to the charge of the +fold." + +Then came the other question of attendance on his ministry, and whether +to attend the feast given out for the Sunday week, after the long-forced +abstinence: Patience's, ever since the break-up of the parish; +Steadfast's, since the siege of Bristol. Dr. Eales considered, "I cannot +bid you go to that in the efficacy of which neither you nor I believe, +my son," he said. "It would not be with faith. Here, indeed, I have +ministered privately to a few of the faithful in their own houses, but +the risk is over great for you and your sister to join us, espied as we +are. How is it with your home?" + +"O, sir, would you even come thither?" exclaimed Steadfast, joyfully, +and he described his ravine, which was of course known to the Elmwood +neighbours, but very seldom visited by them, never except in the +middle of the day, and where the thicket and the caverns afforded every +facility for concealment. + +Whitsun Day was coming, and Dr. Eales proposed to come over to the glen +and celebrate the Holy Feast in the very early morning before anyone was +astir. There were a few of his Bristol flock who would be thankful for +the opportunity of meeting more safely than they could do in the city, +since at Easter they had as nearly as possible been all arrested in a +pavilion in Mr. Rivett's garden which they had thought unsuspected. + +There would be one market day first, and on that Stead would come and +explain his preparations, and hear what the Doctor had arranged. And +so it was. The time was to be three o'clock, the very dawn of the long +summer day, the time when sleep is deepest. Dr. Eales and Mrs. Lightfoot +would come out the night before, he not returning after his lesson to +the Rivetts, and she making some excuse about going to see friends for +the Sunday. + +The Rivetts, living outside the gates where sentries still kept guard, +could start in the morning, and so could the four others who were to +form part of the congregation. Goody Grace was the only person near home +whom Patience wished to invite, for she too had grieved over the great +deprivation, and had too much heart for the Church to be satisfied with +Mr. Woodley's ministrations. Perhaps even she did not understand the +difference, but she could be trusted, and the young people knew how +happy it would make her. + +Little can we guess what such an opportunity was to the faithful +children of the Church in those sad days. Goody Grace folded her hands +and murmured, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace," when +Patience told her of the invitation, and Patience, though she had all +her ordinary work to do, went quietly about it, as if she had some great +thought of peace and awe upon her. + +"Why, Patience, you seem as if you were making ready for some guest, the +Prince of Wales at least!" said Emlyn, on Saturday night. + +Patience smiled a sweet little happy smile and in her heart she said +"And so I am, and for a greater far!" but she did say "Yes, Emlyn, Dr. +Eales is coming to sleep here to-night, and he will pray with us in the +early morning." + +It had been agreed that the Celebration should take place first, and +then after a short pause, the Morning Service. Jerusha was eleven years +old, and a very good girl, and since Confirmation was impossible, her +brother and sister would have asked for her admission to the Holy Feast +without it, but she could not be called up without the danger of awaking +Emlyn; and Patience was so sure that it was not safe to trust that +damsel with the full knowledge of the treasure that, though Steadfast +always thought his sister hard on her, he was forced to give way. The +children were to be admitted to Matins, for if any idea oozed out that +this latter service had been held, no great danger was likely to come +of it. Dr. Eales arrived in the evening, Steadfast meeting him to act +as guide, and Patience set before him of her best. A fowl, which she had +been forced to broil for want of other means of dressing it; bread baked +in a tin with a fire of leaves and small sticks heaped over it; roasted +eggs, excellent butter and milk. She apologised for not having dared +to fetch any ale for fear of exciting suspicion, but the doctor set her +quite at ease by his manifest enjoyment of her little feast, declaring +that he had not made so good a meal since Bristol was taken. + +Then he catechised the children. Little Ben could say the Lord's Prayer, +the Belief, and some of the shorter Commandments, and the doctor patted +his little round white cap, and gave him two Turkey figs as a reward. + +Jerusha, when she got over her desperate fright enough to speak above a +whisper, was quite perfect from her name down to "charity with all men," +but Emlyn stumbled horribly over even the first answers, and utterly +broke down in the Fourth Commandment; but she smiled up in the doctor's +face in her pretty way, and blushed as she said "The chaplain at +Blythedale had taught us so far, your reverence." + +"And have you learnt no further?" + +"If you were here to teach me, sir, I would soon learn it," said the +little witch, but she did not come over him as she did with most people. + +"You have as good an instructor as I for your needs, in this discreet +maiden," said Dr. Eales, and as something of a pout descended on +the sparkling little face, "when you know all the answers, perchance +Steadfast here may bring you to my lodgings and I will hear you." + +"I could learn them myself if I had the book," said Emlyn. + +The fact being that the Catechism was taught by Patience from memory +in those winter evenings when all went to bed to save candle light, but +that when Steadfast retired to the cow-house, Emlyn either insisted +on playing with the others or pretended to go to sleep; and twitted +Patience with being a Puritan. However, the hopes of going into Bristol +might be an incentive, though she indulged in a grumble to Rusha, and +declared that she liked a jolly chaplain, and this old doctor was not a +bit better than a mere Puritan. + +Rusha opened her big eyes. She never did understand Emlyn, and perhaps +that young maiden took delight in shocking her. They were ordered off to +bed much sooner than they approved on that fair summer night, when the +half-moon was high and the nightingales were singing all round--not that +they cared for that, but there was a sense about them that something +mysterious was going on, and Emlyn was wild with curiosity and vexation +at being kept out of it. + +She would have kept watch and crept out; but that Patience came in, and +lay down, so close to the door that it was impossible to get out without +waking her, and besides if Emlyn did but stir, she asked what was the +matter. + +"They mean something!" said Emlyn to herself, "and I'll know what it +is. They have no right to keep me out of the plot; I am not like +stupid little Rusha! I have been in a siege, and four battles, besides +skirmishes! I'll watch till they think I'm asleep, if I pull all the +hulls out of my bed! Then they will begin." + +But nothing moved that Emlyn could hear or see. She woke and slept, but +was quite aware when Patience rose up after a brief doze, and found the +first streaks of dawn in the sky, a cuckoo calling as if for very life +in the nearest tree, and Steadfast quietly sweeping the dew from the +grass in a little open space shut in by rocks, trees, and bushes, close +to the bank of the brook. + +A chest which he kept in the cow-shed, and which bore traces of the fire +in the old house, had been brought down to serve as an Altar, and it was +laid over, for want of anything better, with one of poor Mrs. Kenton's +best table-cloths, which Patience had always thought too good for use. + +The next thing was to meet the rest of the scanty congregation at the +entrances of the wood, and guide them to the spot. This was safely done, +Goody Grace knew the way, and had guided one of the old Elmwood maid +servants whom she had managed to shelter for the night. Mrs. Lightfoot +was there with Mrs. Rivett, her daughter, elder son, and a grave-looking +man servant, Mr. Henshaw, a Barbados merchant, with his wife, and a very +worn battered shabby personage, but unmistakably a gentleman of quality, +and wounded in the wars, for he was so lame that the merchant had to +help him over the rough paths. + +It was a wonderful Whitsun-day morning that none of the little party +could ever forget. The sunrise could not be seen in that deep, narrow +place, but the sky was of a strange pale shining blue, and the tender +young green of the trees overhead was touched with gold, the glades +of the wood were intensely blue with hyacinths, and with all sorts of +delicate greens twined above in the bushes over them. A wild cherry, all +silver white, was behind their Altar, the green floor was marbled with +cuckoo flowers and buttercups, and the clear little stream whose voice +murmured by was fringed with kingcups and forget-me-nots. The scents +were of the most delicious dewy freshness; and as to the sounds! Larks +sang high up in the sky, wood pigeons cooed around, nightingales, +thrushes, every bird of the wood seemed to be trying to make music and +melody. + +And in the midst the grey-haired priest stood close to an ivy-covered +rock, with the white covered Altar, and the bright golden vessels which +he had carefully looked to in the night, and the little congregation +knelt close round him on cloaks and mats, the women hooded, the old +Cavalier's long thin locks, the merchant's dark ones, and the close +cropped heads of the servant and of Steadfast bared to the morning +breeze in its pure, dewy, soft freshness, fit emblem of the Comforter. +No book was produced, all was repeated from memory. They durst not raise +their voices, but the birds were their choir, and as they murmured +their _Gloria in Excelsis_, the sweet notes rang out in that unconscious +praise. + +When the blessing of peace had been given there was a long hush, and no +one rose till after the vessels had been replaced in their casket, and +Stead was climbing up with it again to the hiding place. Then there +was a move to the front of the hut, where Rusha was just awakening, and +Emlyn feigned to be still asleep. It was not yet four o'clock, but the +sweet freshness was still around everything. Young Mistress Alice Rivett +and her brother were enchanted to gather flowers, and ran after their +hosts to see the cows milked, and the goats, pigs, and poultry fed, +sights new to them; but the elder ladies shivered and were glad to warm +themselves at the little fire Patience hastily lighted, after cleaning +the hut as fast as she could, by rolling up the bedding, and fairly +carrying Ben out to finish his night's rest in the cow-house. + +The guests had brought their provisions, and insisted that their young +hosts should eat with them, accepting only the warm milk that Patience +brought in her pail, and they drank from the horn cups of the family. +Dr. Eales observed to the Cavalier that it was a true _Agape_ or +love-feast like those of the ancient Church, and the gentleman's +melancholy, weather-beaten face relaxed into a smile as he sighed and +hoped that the same endurance as that of the Christians of old would be +granted in this time of persecution. + +Emlyn was gratified at being a good deal noticed by the company as so +unlike the others. She was not shy and frightened like Rusha, who hung +her head and had not a word to say for herself, but chattered away to +the young Rivetts, showing them the kid, the calves, and the lambs, +taking Mistress Alice to the biggest cowslips and earliest wild roses, +and herself making a sweet posy for each of the ladies. The old Cavalier +himself, Colonel Harford, was even amused with the pretty little maid, +who, he told Dr. Eales, resembled Mirth as Master John Milton had +depicted her, ere he took up with General Cromwell and his crew; and was +a becoming figure for this early morn. + +On learning the child's history, he turned out to know Sir Harry +Blythedale, but not to have heard of him since they had parted at +Newark, he to guard the king to Oxford, Sir Harry to join Lord Astley, +and he much feared that the old knight had been killed at Stowe, in the +fight between Astley and Brereton. This would account for nothing having +been heard from him about Emlyn, but Colonel Harford promised, if any +opportunity should offer, to communicate with Lady Blythedale, whom he +believed to be living at Worcester; and he patted Emlyn on the head, +called her a little loyal veteran, accepted a tiny posy of forget-me-not +from her, and after fumbling in his pocket, gave her a crown piece. +Steadfast and Patience were afraid it was his last, and much wished +she had contrived not to take it, but she said she should keep it for a +remembrance. + +After this rest, the beautiful Whitsuntide Matins was said in the fair +forest church, and before six o'clock this strange and blessed festival +had ended, though not the peace and thankfulness in the hearts of the +little flock. + +Indeed, instead of a sermon, Dr. Eales's parting words were "And he went +in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. A FAIR OFFER. + + + "We be content," the keepers said, + "We three and you no less, + Then why should we of you be afraid, + As we never did transgress." + ROBIN HOOD BALLAD. + + +Steadfast was busy weeding the little patch of barley that lay near the +ruins of the old farm house with little Ben basking round him. The great +carefulness as to keeping the ground clear had been taught him by his +father, and was one reason why his fields, though so small, did not +often bear a bad crop. He heard his name called over the hedge, and +looking up saw the Squire, Mr. Elmwood, on horseback. + +He came up, respectfully taking off his hat and standing with it in his +hand as was then the custom when thus spoken to. "What is this I hear, +Kenton," said the squire, "that you have been having a prelatist service +on your ground?" + +Steadfast was dismayed, but did not speak, till Mr. Elmwood added, "Is +it true?" + +"Yes, sir," he answered resolutely. + +"Did you know it was against the law to use the Book of Common Prayer?" + +"There was no book, sir." + +"But you do not deny it was the same superstitious and Popish ceremony +and festival abolished by law." + +"No, sir," Stead allowed, though rather by gesture than word. + +"Now, look you here, young Kenton, I ask no questions. I do not want +to bring anyone into trouble, and you are a hard-working, honest lad +by what they tell me, who have a brother fighting in the good Cause +and have suffered from the lawless malignants yourself. Was it not +the Prince's troopers that wrought this ruin?" pointing towards the +blackened gable, "and shot down your father? Aye! The more shame you +should hold with them! I wish you no harm I say, nor the blinded folk +who must have abused your simplicity: but I am a justice of the peace, +and I will not have laws broken on my land. If this thing should happen +again, I shall remember that you have no regular or lawful tenure of +this holding, and put you forth from it." + +He waited, but a threat always made silent resistance easy to Steadfast, +and there was no answer. + +Mr. Elmwood, however, let that pass, for he was not a hard or a +fanatical man, and he knew that to hold such a service was not such an +easy matter that it was likely to be soon repeated. He looked round at +the well-mended fences, the clean ground, and the tokens of intelligent +industry around, and the clean homespun shirt sleeves that spoke of the +notable manager at home. "You are an industrious fellow, my good lad," +he said, "how long have you had this farm to yourself?" + +"Getting on for five years, your honour," said Steadfast. + +"And is that your brother?" + +"Yes, please your honour," picking Ben up in his arms to prevent the +barley from being pulled up by way of helping him. + +"How many of you are there?" + +"Five of us, sir, but my eldest brother is in Captain Venn's troop." + +"So I heard, and what is this about a child besides?" + +"An orphan, sir, I found after the skirmish at the mill stream, who was +left with us till her friends can send after her." + +"Well, well. You seem a worthy youth," said Mr. Elmwood, who was +certainly struck and touched by the silent uncomplaining resolution +of the mere stripling who had borne so heavy a burthen. "If you were +heartily one of us, I should be glad to make you woodward, instead of +old Tomkins, and build up yonder house for you, but I cannot do it for +one who is hankering after prelacy, and might use the place for I know +not what plots and conspiracies of the malignants." + +Again Steadfast took refuge in a little bow of acknowledgment, but kept +his lips shut, till again the squire demanded, "What do you think of it? +There's a fair offer. What have you to say for yourself?" + +He had collected himself and answered, "I thank you, sir. You are very +good. If you made me woodward, I would serve your honour faithfully, and +have no plots or the like there. But, your honour, I was bred up in the +Church and I cannot sell myself." + +"Why, you foolish, self-conceited boy, what do you know about it? Is not +what is good enough for better men than you fit to please you?" + +To this Stead again made no answer, having said a great deal for him. + +"Well," said Mr. Elmwood, angered at last, "if ever I saw a dogged +moon-calf, you are one! However, I let you go scot free this time, in +regard for your brother's good service, and the long family on your +hands, but mind, I shall put in an active woodward instead of old +Tomkins, who has been past his work these ten years, and if ever I hear +of seditious or prelatical doings in yonder gulley again, off you go." + +He rode off, leaving Steadfast with temper more determined, but mind +not more at ease. The appointment of a woodward was bad news, for the +copsewood and the game had been left to their fate for the last few +years, and what were the rights of the landlord over them Stead did not +know, so that there might be many causes of trouble, especially if the +said woodward considered him a person to be specially watched. Indeed, +the existence of such a person would make a renewal of what Mr. Elmwood +called the prelatist assembly impossible, and with a good deal of sorrow +he announced the fact on the next market day to Mrs. Lightfoot. He could +not see Dr. Eales, but when next he came in, she gave him a paper on +which was simply marked "Ps. xxxvii, 7." He looked out the reference and +found "Hold thee still in the Lord and abide patiently upon Him." Stead +hoped that Patience and the rest would never know what an offer had been +made to him, but Master Brown, who had recommended him, and who did not +at all like the prospect of a strange woodward, came to expostulate with +him for throwing away such a chance for a mere whim, telling Patience +she was a sensible wench and ought to persuade her brother to see what +was for his own good and the good of all, holding up himself as an +example. + +"I never missed my church and had the parson's good word all along, +and yet you see I am ready to put up with this good man without setting +myself up to know more than my elders and betters! Eh! Hast not a +word to say for thyself? Then I'll tell the squire, who is a good and +friendly gentleman to all the old servants, that you have thought better +of it, and will thankfully take his kindness, and do your best." + +"I cannot go against father," said Steadfast. + +"And what would he have done, good man, but obey them that have the +rule, and let wiser folk think for thee. But all the young ones are +pig-headed as mules now-a-days, and must think for themselves, one +running off to the Independents, and one to the Quakers and Shakers, and +one to the Fifth Monarchy men, and you, Steadfast Kenton, that I thought +better things of, talking of the Church and offending the squire with +thy prelatic doings, that have been forbidden by Act of Parliament. +What say you to that, my lad? Come, out with it," for Stead had more +difficulty in answering Master Brown, who had been a great authority +throughout his life, than even the Squire himself. + +"Parson said there was higher law than Parliament." + +"Eh! What, the King? He is a prisoner, bless him, but they will never +let him go till they have bent him to their will, and what will you do +then?" + +"Not the King," muttered Steadfast. + +"Eh! what! If you have come to pretending to know the law of God better +than your elders, you are like the rest of them, and I have done with +you." And away tramped the steward in great displeasure, while Patience +put her apron over her head and cried bitterly. + +She supposed Stead might be right, but what would it not have been to +have the old house built up, and all decent about them as it was in +mother's time, and fit places to sleep in, now that the wenches were +growing bigger? + +"But you know, Patty, we are saving for that." + +"Aye, and how long will it take? And now this pestilent woodward will be +always finding fault--killing the fowls and ducks, and seizing the swine +and sheep, and very like slaughtering the dogs and getting us turned out +of house and home; for now you have offended the squire, he will believe +anything against us." + +"Come, Patty, you know I could not help it. This is sorest of all, you +that have always stood by me and father's wish." + +"Yes, yes," sobbed Patience. "I wot you are right, Stead. I'll hold to +you, though I wish--I wish you would think like other folk." + +Yet Patience knew in her secret soul that then he would not be her own +Steadfast, and she persuaded him no more, though the discomforts and +deficiencies of their present home tried her more and more as the family +grew older. Stead had contrived a lean-to, with timbers from the old +house, and wattled sides stuffed with moss, where he and little Ben +slept in summer time, and they had bought or made some furniture--a +chair and table, some stools, bedding, and kitchen utensils, and she +toiled to keep things clean, but still it was a mere hovel, with the +door opening out into the glade. Foxes and polecats prowled, owls +hooted, and the big dog outside was a needful defender, even in summer +time, and in winter the cold was piteous, the wet even worse, and they +often lost some of their precious animals--chickens died of cold, +and once three lambs had been carried away in a sudden freshet. Yet +Patience, when she saw Steadfast convinced, made up her mind to stand by +him, and defended him when the younger girls murmured. + +Rusha was of a quiet, acquiescent, contented nature, and said little, as +Emlyn declared, "She knew nothing better;" but Emlyn was more and more +weary of the gulley, and as nothing was heard of her friends, and she +was completely one of the home, she struggled more with the dullness +and loneliness. She undertook all errands to the village for the sake of +such change as a chatter with the young folk there afforded her, or for +the chance of seeing the squire's lady or sons and daughters go by; and +she was wild to go on market days to Bristol. + +[Illustration: Emlyn at the Market] + +In spite of Puritan greyness, soldiers, sailors, gentlemen, ladies, and +even fashions, such as they were, could be seen there, and news picked +up, and Emlyn would fain have persuaded Steadfast that she should be +the most perfect market woman, if he would only let her ride in on the +donkey between the panniers, in a broad hat, with chickens and ducks +dangling round, eggs, butter, and fruit or nuts, and even posies, +according to the season, and sit on the steps of the market-place among +the other market women and girls. + +Steadfast would have been the last to declare that her laughing dark +eyes, and smiling lips, and arch countenance would not bring many a +customer, but he knew well that his mother would never have sent his +sister to be thus exposed, and he let her pout, or laughed away her +refusal by telling her that he was bound not to let a butler's daughter +demean herself to be stared at by all the common folk, who would cheapen +her wares. + +And when she did coax him to take her to Bristol on any errand she +could invent, to sell her yarns, or buy pins, or even a ribbon, he was +inexorable in leaving her under Mrs. Lightfoot's care, and she had to +submit, even though it sometimes involved saying her catechism to Dr. +Eales. Yet that always ended in the old man's petting her. It was only +from her chatter that the old clergyman ever knew of the proposal that +Stead had rejected for conscience's sake. It vexed the lad so much that +he really could not bear to think of it, and it would come over him now +and then, was it all for nothing? Would the Church ever lift up her head +again? or would Mr. Woodley be always in possession at Elmwood Church, +where everyone seemed to be content with him. The Kentons went thither. +It was hardly safe to abstain, for a fine upon absence was still the +law of the land, though seldom enforced; and Dr. Eales who considered +Presbyterianism by far the least unorthodox and most justifiable sect, +had advised Stead not to allow himself or the others altogether to lose +the habit of public worship, but to abstain from Communions which might +be an act of separation from the Church, and which could not be accepted +by her children as genuine. Such was the advice of most of the divines +of the English Church in this time of eclipse; and though Stead, and +still less Patience, did not altogether follow the reasoning, they +obeyed, while aware that they incurred suspicion from the squire by not +coming to "the table." + +The new woodward, Peter Pierce, was not one of the villagers as usual, +but had been a soldier in one of the regiments of the Earl of Essex, in +which Mr. Elmwood's eldest son had served. + +Instead of succeeding to old Tomkins's lodge in the great wood, he had +a new one built for him, so as to command the opening of Hermit's Gulley +towards the village, and one of the Bristol roads. Could this be for the +sake of watching over anything so insignificant as the Kentons? + +The copse on their side of the brook was their own, free to do what they +chose with except cutting down the timber trees, but the further side +was the landlord's, as they had now to remember; and as, when the brook +was at its lowest, their pigs and goats were by no means likely to +recollect; though Steadfast was extremely anxious to give no occasion +for the mistrust and ill-will with which Pierce regarded him, as a +squatter, trespasser, and poacher, almost as a matter of course, and +likewise a prelatist and plotter. + +Once he did find a kid on the wrong side, standing on a rock, browsing +a honeysuckle, and was about either to seize it or shoot it, as it went +off in three bounds, when Emlyn darted out, and threw herself between. +It was her darling kid, it should never trespass again, she would--she +would thank him ever more--if he would spare it this once. + +And Emlyn as usual had touched the soft place in the heart of even a +woodward. He told her not to cry, and contented himself with growling a +tremendous warning to Steadfast and Patience. + +There were several breezes about Growler, who was only too apt to use +his liberty in pursuing rabbits on the wrong side, and whom Peter more +than once condemned; but Emlyn and Ben begged him off, and he was kept +well chained up. At last, however, he won even the woodward's favour by +the slaughter of a terrible wild cat and her brood, after all Peter's +dogs had returned with bleeding faces from the combat. + +The woodward had another soft place in his heart. He had a pretty young +wife and a little son. Nanny Pierce was older in years, but far more +childish than Patience, and the life in this gulley seemed to her utter +solitude and desolation, and if Patience had been ten times a poacher +and a prelatist, she could not have helped making friends with the only +creature of her own kind within a mile. And when Patience's experience +with Ben and other older babes at rest in the churchyard, had aided the +poor little helpless woman through a convulsion fit of her baby's before +Goody Grace could arrive, Peter himself owned that "the Kenton wench +was good for somewhat," though he continued to think Steadfast's great +carefulness not to transgress, only a further proof that "he was a deep +one"--all the more because he refused to let anyone but himself have a +search for a vanished polecat in "them holes," which Peter was persuaded +contained some mystery, though Steadfast laid it, and not untruly, on +the health of the young stock he kept penned in the caves, which were +all, he hoped, of which Peter was aware. + +All this was harassing, but a greater trouble came in the second winter. +Good Dr. Eales was failing, and the tidings of the King's execution were +a blow that he never recovered. Mrs. Lightfoot had tears in her eyes +when Stead asked after him, week by week, and she could only say that he +was feebler, and spent all his days in prayer--often with tears. + +At last came peace. He lay still and calm, and sent a message that young +Kenton should be brought to him for a last farewell. + +And as Stead stood sorrowful and awed by his bed side, he bade the +youth never despair or fall away from his hope of the restoration of the +Church. + +"Remember," he said, "she is founded on a rock, and the gates of hell +shall never prevail against her. She shall stand forth for evermore as +the moon, which wanes but to wax again; and I have good hope that thou +wilt see it, my son. He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall +be saved." + +Then Dr. Eales pointed to a small parcel of books, which he had caused +Mrs. Lightfoot to put together, telling Steadfast that he had selected +them alike for devotion and for edification, and that if he studied +them, he would have no doubt when he might deliver up his trust to a +true priest of the Church. + +"And if none should return in my time?" asked Steadfast. + +"Have I not told thee never to despair of God's care for His Church? Yet +His time is not as our time, and it may be--that young as thou art--the +days of renewal may not be when thou shalt see them. Should it thus be, +my son, leave the secret with one whom thou canst securely trust. Better +the sacred vessels should lie hidden than that thou shouldst show thy +faith wanting by surrendering them to any, save according to the terms +of thy vow. See, Steadfast, among these books is a lighter one, a +romance of King Arthur, that I loved well in my boyhood, and which may +not only serve thee as fair pastime in the winter nights, but will mind +thee of thine high and holy charge, for it goeth deeper than the mere +outside." + +His voice was growing weak. Mrs. Lightfoot gave him a cordial, and Stead +knelt by his bedside, felt his hand on his head, and heard his blessing +for the last time. The next market day, when he called at the good +bakester's stall, she told him in floods of tears that the guest who had +brought a blessing on her house, was gone to his rest. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. THE GROOM IN GREY. + + + "Heroes and kings, in exile forced to roam, + Leave swelling phrase and seven-leagued words at home." + SCOTT. + + +Another summer and winter had gone by and harvest time had come again, +when Steadfast with little Ben, now seven years old, for company, took +two sacks of corn to be ground at the mill, where the skirmish had been +fought in which Emlyn's father had been killed. + +The sacks were laid across a packsaddle on a stout white horse, with +which, by diligent saving, Steadfast had contrived to replace Whitefoot, +Ben was promised a ride home when the sacks should have been emptied, +and trotted along in company with Growler by his brother's side, +talking more in an hour than Stead did in a week, and looking with great +interest to be shown the hawthorn bush where Emlyn had been found. +For Stead and Ben were alike in feeling the bright, merry, capricious, +laughing, teasing Emlyn the charm and delight of home. In trouble, or +for real aid, they went to Patience, but who was like Emlyn for drollery +and diversion? Who ever made Stead laugh as she could, or who so played +with Ben, and never, like Rusha, tried to be maidenly, discreet, nay, +dull? + +It was very inconvenient that just as they reached the famous thorn +bush, the white horse began to demonstrate that his shoe was loose. They +were very near the mill, and after disposing of the sacks, the brothers +led the horse on to a forge, about a furlong beyond. It was not a place +of which Stead was fond, as the smith was known to be strong for the +Covenant, and he could not help wishing that the shoe had come off +nearer to his good friend Smith Blane. + +Original-Sin Hopkins, which was the name of the blacksmith, was in great +excitement, as he talked of the crowning mercy vouchsafed at Worcester, +and how the son of the late man, Charles Stewart, had been utterly +defeated, and his people scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Three +or four neighbours were standing about, listening to the tidings he had +heard from a messenger on the way to Bristol. One was leaning on the +unglazed window frame, and a couple of old men basking, even in that +September day, in the glow of the fire, while a few women and children +loitered around, thinking it rather fine to hear Master Original-Sin +declaim on the backsliding of the Scots in upholding the son of the +oppressor. + +The shoeing of Stead Kenton's horse seemed a trivial matter beneath the +attention of such an orator; but he vouchsafed to bid his lad drive in a +few nails; and just as the task was commenced, there came to the forge +a lady in a camlet riding dress and black silk hood, walking beside +a stout horse, which a groom was leading with great care, for it had +evidently lost a shoe. And it had a saddle with a pillion on which they +had been riding double, after the usual fashion of travelling for young +and healthy gentlewomen in those days of bad roads. + +The lady, a quiet, self-possessed person, not in her first youth, came +forward, and in the first pause in the blacksmith's declamation, begged +that he would attend to her horse. + +He gave a nod as if intending her to wait till Steadfast's work was +done, and went on. "And has it not been already brought about that the +man of blood hath--" + +"So please you," interrupted the lady, "to shoe my horse at once. I +am on my way to Abbotsleigh, and my cousin, Mr. Norton, knows that my +business brooks no delay." + +Mr. Norton, though a Royalist, was still the chief personage in that +neighbourhood, and his name produced sufficient effect on Original-Sin +to make him come forward, look at the hoof, and select a shoe from those +hung on the walls of his forge. Little Ben looked on, highly delighted +to watch the proceedings, and Steadfast, as he waited, glanced towards +the servant, a well-made young man, in a trim, sober suit of grey cloth, +with a hat a good deal slouched over a dark swarthy face, that struck +Stead as having been seen by him before. + +After all, the lady's horse was the first finished. Hopkins looked at +all the other three shoes, tapped them with his hammer, and found +them secure, received the money from the lady, but gave very slight +salutations as the pair remounted, and rode away. + +Then he twisted up his features and observed, "Here is a dispensation! +As I am a living soul, this horse shoe was made at Worcester. I know the +make. My cousin was apprenticed there." + +"Well, outlandish work goes against one's stomach," said one of the +bystanders, "but what of that, man?" + +"Seest thou not, Jabez Holt? Is not the young man there one of them who +trouble Israel, and the lady is striving for his escape. Mr. Norton is +well known as a malignant at heart, and his man Pope hath been to and +fro these last days as though evil were being concerted. I would that +good Master Hatcham were here." + +"Poor lad. Let him alone. 'Tis hard he should not get off," said one of +the bystanders. + +"I tell thee he is one of the brood of Satan, who have endeavoured to +break up the godly peace of the saints, and fill this goodly land with +blood and fire. Is it not said 'Root them out that they be no more a +people?'" + +"Have after them, then," said another of the company. "We want no more +wars, to be taking our cows and killing our pigs. After them, I say!" + +"You haven't got no warrant, 'Riginal," said a more cautious old man. +"Best be on the safe side. Go after constable first, and raise the +hue-and-cry. You'll easy overtake them. Breakneck Hill be sore for +horseflesh." + +"I'd fain see Master Hatcham," said the smith, scratching his head. + +Stead had meantime been listening as he paid his pence. It flashed over +him now where he had beheld those intensely dark eyes, and the very +peculiar cut of features, though they had then been much more boyish. +It was when he had seen the Prince of Wales going to the Cathedral on +Christmas Day, in the midst of all his plumed generals, with their gay +scarfs, and rich lace collars. + +He had put little Ben on horseback, and turned away into the long, +dirty lane, or rather ditch, that led homeward, before, through his +consternation, there dawned on him what to do. A gap in the hedge lay +near, through which he dragged the horse into a pasture field, to the +great amazement of Ben, saying "See here, Ben, those folk want to take +yonder groom in grey. We will go and warn them." + +Ben heartily assented. + +"I like the groom," he said. "He jumped me five times off the +horseblock, and he patted Growler and called him a fine fellow, who +didn't deserve his name--worth his salt he was sure. We won't give +Growler salt, Stead, but don't let that ugly preaching man get the good +groom!" + +Steadfast was by this time on the horse behind his little brother, +pressing through the fields, which by ancient custom were all thrown +open from harvest time till Christmas; and coming out into the open bit +of common that the travellers had to pass before arriving at Breakneck +Hill, he was just in time to meet them as they trotted on. He hardly +knew what he said, as he doffed his hat, and exclaimed-- + +"Madam, you are pursued." + +"Pursued!" Both at once looked back. + +"There's time," said Steadfast; "but Smith Hopkins said one of the shoes +was Worcester make, and he is gone to fetch the constable and raise the +hue-and-cry." + +"And you are a loyal--I mean an honest lad--come to warn us," said the +groom. + +"Yes, sir. I think, if you will trust me, they can be put off the +track." + +"Trusty! Your face answers for you. Eh, fair Mistress Jane?" + +"Sir, it must be as you will." + +"This way then, sir," said Steadfast, who was off his own horse by this +time, and leading it into a rough track through a thicket whence some +timber had been drawn out in the summer. + +"They will see where we turned off," whispered the lady. + +"No, ma'am, not unless you get off the hard ground. Besides they will go +on the way to Breakneck Hill. Hark! I hear a hallooing. Not near--no--no +fear, madam." + +They were by this time actually hidden from the common by the copsewood, +and the distant shouts of the hue-and-cry kept all silent till they were +fairly out beyond it, not far from Stead's own fields. + +Happily they had hitherto met no one, but there was danger now of +encountering gleaners, and indeed Stead's white horse could be seen from +a distance, and might attract attention to his companions. + +"Hallo!" exclaimed the groom, as they halted under shelter of a pollard +willow. "I've heard tell that a white horse is the surest mark for a +bullet in a battle, and if that be Breakneck Hill, as you call it, your +beast may bring the sapient smith down on us. Had we not best part?" + +"Aye," said Steadfast. "I was thinking what was best. Whither were you +going?" + +He blurted it out, not knowing to whom to address himself, or how to +frame his speech. The lady hesitated, but her companion named Castle +Carey. + +"Then, please your honour," said Stead, impartially addressing both, +"methinks the best course would be, if this--" + +"Groom William," suggested that personage. + +"Would go down into yonder covert with my little brother here, where my +poor place is, and where my sister can show a safe hiding-place, in case +Master Hopkins suspects me, and follows; but I scarce think he will. +Then meanwhile, if the lady will trust herself to me--" + +"O! there is no danger for me," she said. + +"Go on, my Somerset Solomon," said the groom. + +"Then would I take the lady on for a short space to a good woman in +Elmwood there. And on the way this horse shall lose his Worcester shoe, +and I will get Smith Blane, who is an honest fellow, to put on another; +and when the chase is like to be over, I will come back for him and put +you on the cross lane for Castle Carey, which don't join with the road +you came by, till just ere you get into the town." + +"There's wit as well as cheese in Somerset. What say you, my guardian +angel?" said Groom William. + +"It sounds well," she reluctantly answered. "Does Mr. Norton know you, +young man?" + +"No, madam," said Stead, with much stumbling. "But I have seen him in +Bristol. My Lady Elmwood knew of me, and Sir George Elmwood too, and the +Dean could say I was honest." + +"Which the face of you says better than your tongue," said the groom. +"Have with you then, my bold little elf," he added, taking the bridle of +the horse on which Ben was still seated. "Or one moment more. You knew +me, my lad--are there any others like to do so?" + +"I had seen you, sir, at Bristol, and that is why I would not have you +shew yourself in Elmwood. But my sister has never seen you, and the only +neighbours who ever come in are the woodward and his wife. He served in +my Lord of Essex's army, but he has never seen you. Moreover, he was to +be at the squire's to-day helping to stack his corn. Ben, do you tell +Patience that _he_"--again taking refuge in a pronoun--"is a gentleman +in danger, and she must see to his safety for an hour or two till I come +back for him." + +"A gentleman in danger," repeated Ben, anxious to learn his lesson. + +"He and I will take care of that," said the grey-coated groom gaily, as +he turned the horse's head, and waved his hat in courtly fashion to the +lady so that Steadfast saw that his hair was cropped into black stubble. + +"Ah!" said the lady with a sigh, for the loss of a Cavalier's locks was +a dreadful thing. "You know him then." + +"I have seen him at Bristol," said Steadfast, with considerably less +embarrassment, though still in the clownish way he could not shake off. + +"And you know how great is the trust you--nay, we have undertaken. But, +as he says, he has learnt the true fidelity of a leathern jerkin." + +Then Jane Lane told Steadfast of the King's flight from Worcester, and +adventures at Boscobel with the Penderells, and how she had brought him +to Abbotsleigh, in hopes of finding a ship at Bristol, but that failing, +it was too perilous for him to remain there, so that she was helping him +as far as Castle Carey on his way to Trent. + +Before they were clear of the wood, Stead asked her to pause. He knocked +off the tell-tale shoe with the help of a stone, threw it away into the +middle of a bramble, and then after a little consultation, she decided +on herself encountering the smith, not perhaps having much confidence in +the readiness of speech or invention of her companion. + +When they arrived at the forge, where good-humoured, brawny Harry Blane +was no small contrast to his gaunt compeer Original-Sin Hopkins, she +averred that she was travelling from her relations, and having been +obliged to send her servant back for a packet that had been forgotten, +this good youth, who had come to her help when her horse had cast a +shoe, had undertaken to guide her to the smith's, and to take her +again to meet her man, if he did not come for her himself. Might she be +allowed in the meantime to sit with Master Blane's good housewife? + +Master Blane was only too happy, and Mistress Jane Lane was accordingly +introduced to the pleasant kitchen, with sanded floor, and big +oak table, open hearth, and beaupots in the oriel window where the +spinning-wheel stood, and where the neat and hospitable Dame Blane made +her kindly welcome. + +Steadfast, marvelling at her facility of speech, and glad the king's +safety did not depend on his uttering such a story, told Blane that he +must go after his cattle and should look after the groom on the way. + +As he walked through the wood, and drew near the glade, he was dismayed +to hear voices, and to see Peter Pierce leaning against the wall of the +house, but Rusha came running up to him exclaiming, "Oh! Stead, here is +this good stranger that you met, telling us all about brother Jeph." + +"Yes, my kind host," said the grey-coated guest, with a slight nasal +intonation, rising as Stead came near, "I find that you are the very lad +my friend and brother Jephthah Kenton, that singular Christian man, bade +me search out. 'If you go near Bristol, beloved,' quoth he,' search +me out my brothers Steadfast and Benoni, and my sisters, Patience and +Jerusha, and greet them well from me, and bear witness of me to them. +They dwell, said he, in a lonely hut in the wood side, and with them +a fair little maiden, sprung of the evil and idolatrous seed of the +malignants, but whom their pious nurture may yet bring to a knowledge of +the truth,' and by that token, I knew that it was the same." There was +an odd little twinkle towards Emlyn just then. + +"And Stead, Jeph is an officer," said Patience, who was busied in +setting before the visitor on a little round table, the best ale, bread, +cheese, and butter that her hut afforded, together with an onion, which, +he declared, was "what his good grandfather, a valiant man for the +godly, had ever loved best." + +"An officer! Aye is he. A captain of his Ironside troop, very like to be +Colonel ere long." + +Stead was absolutely bewildered, and could not find speech, beyond an +awkward "Where?" + +"Where was he when I last saw him? Charging down the main street of +Worcester, where the malignants and Charles Stewart made their last +stand. Smiting them hip and thigh with the sword of Gedaliah, nay, my +tongue tripped, 'twas Gideon I would say." + +"Aye," said the woodward, "Squire had the tidings two days back in a +news letter. It was a mighty victory of General Cromwell." + +"In sooth it was," returned the groom; "and I hear he hath ordered a +solemn thanksgiving therefore." + +"But Jephthah," put in Patience, "you are sure he was not hurt?" + +"The hand of Heaven protecteth the godly," again through his nose spoke +the guest. "He was well when I left him; being sent south by my master +to attend my mistress, and so being no more among them that divide the +spoil." + +"Where have you served, sir?" demanded the woodward. + +"I am last from Scotland," was the answer. "A godly land!" + +"Ah! I know nought of Scotland," said the woodward. "I was disbanded +when my Lord Essex gave up the command, more's the pity, for he was for +doing things soberly and reasonably, and ever in the name of the poor +King that is gone! You look too young to have seen fire at Edgehill or +Exeter, sir." + +"Did I not?" said the youth. "Aye, I was with my father, though only as +a boy apart on a hill." + +The reminiscences that were exchanged astonished Steadfast beyond +measure, and really made him doubt whether what had previously passed +had not been all a dream. The language was so like Jephthah's own too, +all except that one word "fair" applied to Emlyn; and Patience, Rusha, +and the Pierces were entirely without a suspicion, that their guest was +other than he seemed. How much must have been picked out of little Ben, +without the child's knowing it, to make such acting possible? + +And how was the woodward, who was so much delighted with the visitor, to +be shaken off? Stead stood silent, puzzled, anxious, and wondering +what to do next, a very heavy and awkward host, so that even Patience +wondered what made him so shy. + +Suddenly, however, a whistle, and the sharp yap of a dog was heard +across the stream. Nanny Pierce exclaimed, "There are those rascal lads +after the rabbits again!" and the gamekeeper's instinct awoke. Pierce +shook hands with his fellow soldier, regretted he could not see more of +him, and received his promise that if he came that way again, he would +share a pottle of ale at the lodge; and then tramped off after his +poachers over the stream. + +Groom William then kissed the young women (the usual mode of salutation +then), Nanny Pierce and all, thanked Patience, and looked about for the +goodly little malignant, as he called Emlyn, but she was nowhere to be +seen, and Stead hurried him off through the wood. + +"Ho! ho! sly rascal," said Charles, as they turned away. "You're +jealous! You would keep the game to yourself." + +Stead had no answer to make to this banter, the very notion of Emlyn as +aught but the orphan in his charge was new to him. + +They were not yet beyond the gulley when from between the hazel stems, +out sprang Emlyn, and kneeling on the ground caught the King's hand and +kissed it. + +"Fairy-haunted wood!" cried Charles, and indeed it was done with great +natural grace, and the little figure with the glowing cheeks, her hood +flying back so as to shew her brilliant eyes sparkling with delight and +enthusiasm, was a truly charming vision. "It is like one of the masques +of the merry days of old." And as he retained her hand and returned the +salute on her lips, "Queen Mab herself, for who else saw through thy +poor brother sovereign's mean disguise?" + +"I had seen your Majesty with the army," replied Emlyn, modestly +blushing a good deal. + +"Ah! The Fates have provided me with a countenance the very worst for +straits like mine. But that matters the less since it is only my worthy +subjects who see through the grey coat. I would lay my crown, if I had +it, to one of those crispy ringlets of yours, that Queen Mab was the +poacher who drew off the crop-eared keeper." + +"'Tis Robin Goodfellow, please your Majesty, who leads clowns astray," +said Emlyn in the same tone. + +"Sometimes a horse I'll be, sometimes a hound," quoted the King. + +Stead could only listen in amazement without a word to say for himself. +Near the confines of the wood, he had to leave Emlyn to guide the King +over a field-path while he fetched Mrs. Jane Lane and the horse to meet +them beyond, as it was wiser for the King not to shew himself in the +village. Again Charles jested on his supposed jealousy of leaving the +fair Queen Mab alone in such company, and on his blunt answer, "I only +feared the saucy child might be troublesome, sir." + +At which the King laughed the more, and even Emlyn smiled a little. + +All was safely accomplished, and when Steadfast had brought Mrs. Lane to +the deep lane, they found the King and Emlyn standing by the stile, and +could hear the laughter of both as they approached. + +"He can always thus while away his cares," said Jane Lane in quite a +motherly tone. "And well it is that he is of so joyous a nature." + +Perhaps it was said as a kind of excuse for the levity of one in so much +danger chattering to the little woodland maid so mirthfully, and like +one on an equality. When they appeared, Charles bestowed a kiss on +Emlyn's lips, and shook hands cordially with Steadfast, lamenting that +he had no reward, nor even a token to leave with them. + +Stead made his rustic bow, pinched his hat, and muttered, "It is enough +to--" + +"Enough reward to have served your Majesty," said Emlyn, "he would say." + +"Yea, and it is your business to find words for him, pretty one," said +the King. "A wholesome partnership--eh? He finds worth, and you find +wit! And so we leave the fairy buried in the woodland." + +And on the wanderers rode, while Steadfast and Emlyn turned back over +the path through the fields; and she eagerly told that the King had +slept at Blythedale on his way to Worcester, and that though Sir Harry +was dead, his son was living in Holland. "And if the King gets there +safely, he will tell Master George, and if my uncle is with him, no +doubt he will send for me, or mayhap, come and fetch me." + +There was a shock of pain in Steadfast's heart. + +"You would be glad?" + +"Poor old Stead. I would scarce be glad to quit you. I doubt me if the +Hague, as they call it, would show me any one I should care for as much +as for your round shoulders, you good old lubber! But you should come +too, and the King would give you high preferment, when he comes to his +own again, and then we won't be buried alive in this Hermit's Gulley." + +She danced about in exultation, hardly knowing what wild nonsense she +talked, and Stead was obliged to check her sharply in an attempt to sing + + "The king shall enjoy his own again." + +"But Stead," asked Ben, after long reflection, "how could Groom William +know all about brother Jeph?" + +A question Stead would not hear, not wishing to destroy confidence in +His Majesty's veracity. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. JEPH'S GOOD FORTUNE. + + + "Still sun and rain made emerald green the loveliest fields on earth, + And gave the type of deathless hope, the little shamrock, birth." + IRISH BALLAD. + + +The King's visit left traces. Emlyn had become far more restless and +consciously impatient of the dullness and seclusion of the Hermit's +Gulley. Not only did she, as before, avail herself of every pretext for +going into the village, or for making expeditions to Bristol, but she +openly declared the place a mere grave, intolerable to live in, and she +confided to Jerusha that the King had declared that it was a shame to +hide her there--such charms were meant for the world. + +The only way of getting into the world that occurred to her was going +into service at Bristol, and she talked of this whenever she specially +hated her spinning, or if Patience ventured to complain of her gadding +about, gossipping with Nanny Pierce or Kitty Blane, or getting all the +young lads in Elmwood round her, to be amused and teased by her lively +rattle. + +Patience began to be decidedly of opinion that it would be much better +for all parties that the girl should be under a good mistress. Both she +and Rusha were over sixteen years old; and though it was much improved, +the house was hardly fit for so many inhabitants, and both Goody Grace +and Dame Blane had told Patience that it would be better, both for +the awkward Rusha and the gay Emlyn, if they could have some household +training. + +Mistress Elmwood, at the Hall, had noted the family at church, and +observed their perfect cleanliness and orderliness, and it was intimated +that at the Ladyday hiring, she would take Rusha among her maidens. + +Shy Rusha cried a great deal, and wished Emlyn would go instead, but +Mrs. Elmwood would not have hired that flighty damsel on any account, +and Emlyn was sure it would be but mopish work to live under a starched +old Puritan. Mrs. Lightfoot was therefore applied to, to find a service +for Emlyn Gaythorn, and she presently discovered one Mistress Sloggett, +a haberdasher's wife of wealth and consideration, who wanted a young +maidservant. + +Emlyn was presented to her by the bakester, undertook for everything, +and was hired by the twelvemonth, going off in high glee at the variety +and diversion she expected to enjoy at the sign of the "Sheep and +Shears," though clinging with much tenderness to her friends as they +parted. + +"Remember, Emlyn, this is the home where you will always be welcome," +said Stead. + +"As if I wanted to _remember_ it," said Emlyn, with her sweet smile. "As +if I did not know where be kind hearts." + +The hovel seemed greatly deserted when the two young girls were gone. +Patience sorely missed Rusha, her diligent little helper, and latterly +her companion too; and the lack of Emlyn's merry tongue made all around +seem silent and tedious. Steadfast especially missed the girl. Perhaps +it was due to the King's gibes that her absence fully opened to him the +fact that he knew not how to do without her. After his usual fashion, +he kept the discovery to himself, not even talking to Patience about it, +being very shamefaced at the mere thought, which gave a delicious warmth +to his heart, though it made him revolve schemes of saving up till he +had a sufficient sum, with which to go to the squire and propose to meet +him half-way in rebuilding the old house; not such an expensive matter +as it would be in these days. There, in full view of all that passed +down Elmwood Lane, Emlyn could not complain of solitude, he thought! But +there was this difficulty in the way, that Jephthah had never resigned +his claims as eldest son, and might come home at any time, and take +possession of all the little farm at which Steadfast had worked for +seven years. + +The war was over, and nothing had been heard of Jeph, except the +king's apocryphal history, since his visit after the taking of Bristol. +Patience had begun to call him "poor Jeph," and thought he must have +been killed, but Stead had ascertained that the army had not been +disbanded, and believed him still to be employed. + +At length, one market day, Mrs. Lightfoot told him, "There has been +one asking for you, Kenton, Seth Coleman, the loriner's son, that went +soldiering when your brother did. He landed last week from Ireland with +a wooden leg, and said he, 'Where shall I come to the speech of one +Steadfast Kenton? I have a greeting from his brother, the peculiarly +favoured,' or some such word, 'Jephthah Kenton, who told me I should +hear tidings of him from Mrs. Bakester Lightfoot, at the sign of the +"Wheatsheaf."' I told him where you abode, and he said he knew as much +from your brother, but he could not be tramping out to Elmwood on a +wooden leg. So says I 'I will send Steadfast Kenton to you next market +day.' You will find him at the sign at the 'Golden Bridle,' by the Wharf +Stairs." + +Stead had no sooner disposed of his wares than he went in search of +the loriner's shop, really one for horse furniture. There was a bench +outside, looking out on the wharf and shipping, and on it was seated +the returned soldier, with a little party round him, to whom he was +expounding what sounded more military than religious: + +"And so, the fort having been summoned and quarter promised, if so be +no resistance were made, always excepting Popish priests, and--Eh! What +now? Be you an old neighbour? I don't remember your face." + +"I have seen you, though. I am Jephthah Kenton's brother, that you asked +for." + +"I mind you were but a stripling in those days, and yet in gross +darkness. Yea, I have a letter for thee from my comrade, who is come to +high preferment." + +"Jeph!" + +"Yea, things have prospered with him. He was a serjeant even before we +sailed for Ireland, and there he did such good service in hunting +out Popish priests and rebels in their lurking places in the bogs and +mountains, that the Lord General hath granted him the land that he +took with his sword and his bow, even a meadow land fat and fertile, +Ballyshea by name, full of the bulls of Bashan, goodly to look at. And +to make all sure, he hath taken to wife the daughter of the former owner +of the land a damsel fair to look upon." + +"Jeph! But sure--the Irish are Papists." + +"Not the whole of them. There are those that hold to Prelacy and call +themselves King's men, following the bloody and blinded Duke of Ormond. +Of them was this maid's father, whom we slew at the taking of Clonmel, +where I got this wound and left my good right leg. So is the race not to +the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but time and chance happeneth +to all. When I could hobble about once more on crutches, I found that +the call had come to divide and possess the gate of the enemy, and that +the meads of Ballyshea had fallen to Serjeant Kenton. Moreover, in the +castle hard by, dwelt the widow and her daughter, who cried to General +Lambert for their land, and what doth he say to Jephthah, but 'Make it +sure, Kenton. Take the maid to wife, and so none will disturb you in the +fair heritage.' Yea, and mine old comrade would have me sojourn with him +till I was quite restored, so far as a man with one limb short may be. I +tell you 'tis a castle, man." + +"Our Jeph lord of a castle?" + +"Aye, even so. Twice as big as Elmwood Hall, if half were not in ruins, +and the other half the rats run over like peas out of a bag. While as to +the servants, there are dozens of them, mostly barefoot and in rags, who +will run at the least beck from the old mistress or the young mistress, +though they scowl at the master. But he is taking order with them, and +teaching them who is to be obeyed." + +"Then our Jephthah is a great man?" + +"You may say that--a bigger man than the squire at Elmwood, or at Leigh +I can tell you. Only I would give all that bare mountain and bog, full +of wild, Popish, red-haired kernes for twenty yards in a tidy street at +Bristol, with decent godly folk around me. Murdering or being murdered, +I have marvelled more than once whether the men of Israel were as sick +of it in Canaan as I was at Drogheda, but the cry ever was, 'Be not +slack in the work.' But I will bring you Jephthah's letter. He could not +write when he went off, but he could not be a serjeant without, so we +taught him--I and Corporal Faith-Wins." + +Jephthah's handwriting was of a bold description doing honour to his +tutors, but the letter was very brief, though to the purpose-- + + +"Dear Brothers and Sisters, + +"This is to do you, to wit, that by the grace of Heaven on my poor +endeavours I am come to high preferment. A goodly spoil hath fallen +unto me, namely, the castle and lands of Ballyshea, and therewith +the daughter of the owner, deceased, by name Ellen Roche, whom I have +espoused in marriage, and am bringing to the light of truth. I have +castle, lands, flocks and herds, men-servants and maid-servants in +abundance, and I give thanks to Him who hath rewarded His servant. + +"Therefore I wholly resign to you, my brethren, Steadfast and Benoni, +any rights of heirship that may be mine in respect of the farmstead of +Elmwood, and will never, neither I nor my heirs, trouble you about it +further. Yet if Ben, or my sisters Patience and Jerusha, be willing to +cross over to me in this land of promise they shall be kindly welcome, +and I shall find how to bestow them well in marriage. Mine old comrade, +Seth Coleman, will tell them how to reach the Castle of Ballyshea, and +how to find safe convoy, and tell you more of the estate wherewith it +has pleased Heaven to reward my poor services. + +"And so commending you to His holy keeping, no more from your loving +brother, + +"JEPHTHAH KENTON." + + +The spelling of this was queer, even according to the ways of the time, +but it was not hard to understand, and it might well fill Steadfast with +amazement. + +He longed to share the tidings with Emlyn, but he did not feel as if it +would be right to let anyone hear before Patience. Only as he went back +and called again at Mrs. Lightfoot's for his basket, she asked +whether he had found Seth Coleman, and if his brother had come to such +preferment as was reported. + +"Yea," said Steadfast, "he hath a grant of land, and a castle, and a +wife." + +"Eh, now! Lack-a-day! 'Tis alway the most feather-pated that fly +highest." + +Cromwell's Ironsides feather-pated! But that did not trouble Steadfast, +who all the way home, as he rode his donkey, was thinking of the +difference it made in his prospects, and in what he had to offer Emlyn +to be able to feel his tenure so much more secure. + +Patience and Ben listened in utter amazement ending in a not +complimentary laugh on the part of the former. "Our Jeph lord of a +castle? I'd like to see him." + +"Would you? He has a welcome and a husband ready for you and Rusha +both?" + +"D'ye think I would go and leave you for Jeph, if he were lord of ten +castles?" + +And Ben, whose recollections of Jeph were very dim, exclaimed, "Lord of +a castle! I shall have a crow over Nick Blane now!" + +Rusha, who was well content with her service at the hall, had no mind +for such a terrible enterprise as a journey "beyond seas" to Ireland, +and mayhap Jeph's prospective husband was a less tempting idea, because +a certain young groom had shown symptoms of making her his sweetheart. + +Steadfast thought often of telling the great secret of his heart to his +faithful sister Patience, but his extreme shyness and modesty, and the +reserve in which he always lived, seemed to make it impossible to him +to broach the subject, and there might be a certain consciousness that +Emlyn, while his own pet, had been very troublesome to Patience. + +Stead was two-and-twenty, a sturdy well-grown fellow, but the hard work +he had been obliged to do as a growing lad, had rounded his shoulders, +and he certainly did not walk like the men who had been drilled for +soldiers. His face was healthy and sunburnt, with fair short hair and +straightforward grey eyes. At the first glance people would say, "What +a heavy-looking, clownish young man," but at the second there was +something that made a crying child in the street turn to him for help +in distress, and made the marketing dames secure that he told the truth +about his wares. + +Patience was rather startled by seeing him laboriously tying up a posy +of wild rose, honeysuckle, and forget-me-not, and told him the Bristol +folks would not buy those common wild flowers. + +"They are for none of them," replied Stead, a little gruffly, and +colouring hotly at being caught. + +"Oh!" said Patience, in her simplicity. "Are they for Emlyn? I do not +think her mistress will let you see her." + +"I shall," said Stead. "She ought to know of our good fortune." + +"He has forgotten that Emlyn is not our sister after all," said +Patience, as she went back to her washing. + +"She might as well," said Ben, who could not remember the hut without +Emlyn. + +Stead had better luck than Patience foreboded from a household where the +servants were kept very strictly, for there was a good deal of curiosity +in Bristol about the report that a lad from the neighbourhood had won an +Irish heiress and castle, and when Stead presented himself at the +door of the house under the overhanging gable, and begged to see Emlyn +Gaythorn to give her some tidings, the maid who opened it exclaimed, "Is +it anent the castle in Ireland?" + +Stead awkwardly said "Aye, mistress." And as it became evident that the +readiest way of learning the facts would be his admission, he was let +into the house into a sort of wainscotted hall, where he found the +mistress herself superintending three or four young sempstresses who +were making shirts for the gentlemen of the garrison. Emlyn was among +them, and sprang up looking as if white seams were not half so congenial +as nutting in the gulley, but she looked prettier than ever, as the +little dark curls burst out of the prim white cap, she sniffed the +flowers with ecstasy, and her eyes danced with delight that did Stead's +heart good to see. He needed it, for to stand there hat in hand before +so many women all staring at him filled him with utter confusion, +so that he could scarcely see, and stumbled along when Mrs. Sloggett +called, "Come here, young man. Is it true that it is your brother who +has won a castle and a countess in Ireland?" + +"Not a countess, ma'am," said Stead, gruff with shyness, "but a castle." + +Mrs. Sloggett put him through a perfect catechism on Jeph and his +fortunes, which he answered at first almost monosyllabically, though +afterwards he could speak a little more freely, when the questions +did not go quite beyond his knowledge. Finally he succeeded in asking +permission to take Emlyn and show her his brother's letter. Mrs. +Sloggett was gracious to the brother of the lord of a castle, even in +Ireland, and moreover Emlyn was viewed in the light of one of the Kenton +family. + +So leave was granted to take Master Kenton (he had never been so called +before) out into the garden of pot-herbs behind the house, and Emlyn +with her dancing step led the way, by a back door down a few steps into +a space where a paved walk led between two beds of vegetables, bordered +with a narrow edge of pinks, daisies, and gilliflowers, to a seat under +the shade of an old apple tree, looking out, as this was high ground, +over the broad river full of shipping. + +"Stead! Stead, good old Stead," she cried, "to come just as I was half +dead with white seam and scolding! Emlyn here! Emlyn there! And she's +ready with her fingers too. She boxed mine ears till they sang again +yesterday." + +"The jade," muttered Stead. "What for?" + +"Only for looking out at window," said Emlyn. "How could I help it, when +there were six outlandish sailors coming up the street leading a big +black bear. Well, Stead, and are you all going to live with Jeph in his +castle, and will you take me?" + +"He asks me not," said Stead, and began to read the letter, to which +Emlyn listened with many little remarks. "So Patience and Rusha wont go. +I marvel at them, yet 'tis like sober-sided old Patty! And mayhap among +the bogs and hills 'tis lonelier than in the gulley. I mind a trooper +who had served in Ireland telling my father it was so desolate he would +not banish a dog there. But what did he say about home, Stead, I thought +it was all yours?" + +Stead explained, and also the possibility of endeavouring to rebuild the +farmhouse. If he could go to Mr. Elmwood with thirty pounds he thought +it might be done. "And then, Emlyn, when that is saved (and I have five +pounds already), will you come and make it your home for good and all?" + +"Stead! oh Stead! You don't mean it--you--Why, that's sweethearting!" + +"Well, so it is, Emlyn," said Stead, a certain dignity taking the place +of his shyness now it had come to the point. "I ask you to be my little +sweetheart now, and my wife when I have enough to make our old house +such as it was when my good mother was alive." + +"Stead, Stead, you always were good to me! Will it take long, think +you? I would save too, but I have but three crowns the year, and that +sour-faced Rachel takes all the fees." + +"The thing is in the hands of God. It must depend on the crops, but +with this hope before me, I will work as never man worked before," said +Stead. + +"And I will be mistress there!" cried Emlyn. + +"My wife will be mistress wherever I am sweet." + +"Ah, ha!" she laughed, "now I have something to look to, I shall heed +little when the dame flouts me and scolds me, and Joan twits me with her +cousin the 'prentice." + +They had only just time to go through the ceremony of breaking a tester +between them before a shrill call of "Emlyn" resounded down the garden. +Mrs. Sloggett thought quite time enough had been wasted over the young +man, and summoned the girl back to her sewing. + +Emlyn made a face of disgust, very comical and very joyous, but as the +good dame was actually coming in search of her no more could pass. + +Stead went away overflowing with happiness, and full of plans of raising +the means of bringing back this sunshine of his hearth. Perhaps it was +well that, though slow of thought, Patience still had wit enough in the +long hours of the day to guess that the nosegay boded something. She +could not daunt or damp Steadfast's joy--nay, she had affection enough +for the pretty little being she had cherished for seven years to think +she shared it--but she knew all the time that there would be no place +in that new farmhouse for her, and there was a chill over her faithful +heart at times. But what would that signify, she thought, provided that +Stead was happy? + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. PATIENCE. + + + "I'm the wealthy miller yet." + TENNYSON. + + +Most devoted was the diligence with which Steadfast toiled and saved +with the hope before him. Since the two young girls were no longer at +home, and Ben had grown into a strong lad, Stead held that many little +indulgences might be dispensed with, one by one, either because they +cost money or prevented it from being acquired. No cheese was bought +now, and he wanted to sell all the butter and all the apples that were +not defective. + +Patience contrived that Ben should never be stinted of his usual fare; +and she would, not allow that he needed no warm coat for the winter, but +she said nothing about the threadbare state of her own petticoat, and +she stirred nothing but the thinnest buttermilk into her own porridge, +and not even that when the little pigs required it. It was all for +Stead. + +Patience at twenty was not an uncomely maiden so far as kindly blue +eyes, fresh healthy cheeks, and perfect neatness could make her +agreeable to look at, but there was an air of carefulness, and of having +done a great deal of hard work, which had made her seem out of the reach +of the young men who loitered and talked with the maidens on the village +green, and looked wistfully at the spot where the maypole had once +stood. + +Patience was the more amazed by a visit from the Miller Luck and his +son. The son was a fine looking young man of three or four and twenty, +who had about three years before married a farmer's daughter, and had +lost her at the birth of her second child. There he stood, almost as +bashful as Stead himself could have been under the circumstances, while +his father paid the astonished Patience the compliment of declaring that +they had put their heads together, and made up their minds that there +was no wench in those parts so like to be a good mother to the babes, +nor so thrifty a housewife as she; and, that, though there were plenty +of maids to be had who could bring something in their hands, her ways +were better than any portion she could bring. + +It really was a splendid offer. The position of miller's wife was very +prosperous, and the Lucks were highly respected. The old miller was good +and kindly, Andrew Luck the steadiest of young men, and though not seen +to much advantage as he stood sheepishly moving from leg to leg, he +was a very fine, tall, handsome youth, with a certain sweetness and +wistfulness in his countenance. Patience had no scruples about previous +love and courtship. That was not the point as she answered-- + +"Thank you, Master Luck, you are very good; but I cannot leave my +brothers." + +"Let the big one get a wife of his own then," and, as Patience shook her +head, and glanced at where Ben, shy of strangers, was cutting rushes, +"and if you be tender on the young one, there would be work for him +about the place. I know you have been a good mother to him, you'd be +the same to our little ones. Come, Andrew, can't ye say a word for +yourself?" + +"Come, Patience, do 'ee come!" pleaded poor Andrew, and the tears even +sprang to his eyes. "I'd be very good to thee, and I know thou would'st +be to my poor babes." + +Patience's heart really warmed to him, and still more to the babes, but +she could only hold out. + +"You must find another," she said. + +"Come, you need not be coy, my lass," said the old miller. "You'll not +get a better offer, and Andrew has no time nor heart either for running +about courting. What he wants is a good wife to cheer him up, and see to +the poor little children." + +It was powerful pleading, and Patience felt it. + +"Aye, Master Miller," she said, "but you see I'm bound not to leave +Steadfast till he is married. He could not get on no ways without me." + +"Then why--a plague on it--don't he wed and have done with it?" + +"He cannot," said Patience, "till he has made up enough to build up our +old house, but that won't be yet awhile--for years maybe; and he could +not do it without me to help him." + +"And what's to become of you when you've let your best years go by +a-toiling for him, and your chance is gone by, and his wife turns you to +the door?" said Master Luck, not very delicately. + +"That God will provide," said Patience, reverently. "Anyway, I must +cleave to Steadfast though 'tis very good of you, Master Luck and Master +Andrew, and I never could have thought of such a thing, and I am right +sorry for the little ones." + +"If you would only come and see them!" burst out the poor young father. +"You never see such a winsome little poppet as Bess. And they be so +young now, they'd never know you were not their own mother." + +"Don't, don't, Master Andrew!" cried Patience, "I tell you I'd come if I +could, but you can't wait, and they can't wait; and you must find a good +mother at once for them, for I have passed my word to hold by Stead till +he is married, and I must keep to it." + +"Very well, my lass," said the miller, grimly. "There's wenches better +portioned and better favoured than you, and I hope you won't have to +repent of missing a good offer." + +Of course he said it as if he hoped she would. Patience cried heartily +when they were gone. Ben came up to her and glowered after them, +declaring he wouldn't have his Patty go to be only a step-mother to +troublesome brats; but Stead, when he came to know of it, looked grave, +and said it was very good of Pat; but he wished she could have kept the +young fellow in play till she was ready for him. + +Goody Grace, who was looking after the children till the stepmother +could be found, came and expostulated with Patience, telling her she was +foolish to miss such a chance, and that she would find out her mistake +when Stead married and that little flighty, light-headed wench made the +place too hot to hold her. What would she do then? + +"Come and help you nurse the folk, Goody," said Patience, cheerfully. + +Her heart would fail her sometimes at the outlook, but she was too busy +to think much about it. Only the long evenings had been pleasanter when +Stead used to teach Ben to read Dr. Eales's books and tell her bits such +as she could understand than now when he grudged a candle big enough +to be of any use, and was only plaiting rushes and reckoning up what +everything would bring. + +Ben was a bright little fellow, and could read as well as his brother. +He longed for school, for when boys were not obliged to learn, some of +them wished to do so. There was a free grammar school about three +miles off to which he wanted to go, and Patience, who was proud of his +ability, wished to send him, neither of them thinking anything of the +walk. + +Stead, however, could see no use in more learning than he had himself. +Neither he nor Jeph had been to school. Why should the child go? He +could not be spared just as he was getting old enough to be of some use +and save time, which was money. + +And when the little fellow showed his disappointment, Stead was even +surly in telling him "they wanted no upstarts." + +It was a hard winter, and the frost was followed by a great deal of wet. +One of the sheep was swept away by the flood; three or four lambs +died; and Stead, for about the first time in his life, caught a severe +feverish cold in looking after the flock, and was laid by for a day or +two, very cross and fretful at everything going wrong without him. + +Poor little Ben was more railed at for those few days than ever he had +been before, and next he broke down and had to be nursed; and then came +Patience's turn. She was ill enough to frighten her brothers; and Goody +Grace, who came to see to her, finding how thin her blanket was, and how +long it was since she had had any food but porridge, gave Steadfast +a thorough good scolding, told him he would be the death of a better +sister than he deserved, and set before him how only for his sake +Patience might be living on the fat of the land at the mill. + +To all appearance, Stead listened sulkily enough, but by-and-by Goody +found a fowl killed and laid ready for use. It was an old hen, whose +death set Patience crying in her weakness. Nevertheless, it was stewed +down into broth which heartened her up considerably, and a blanket that +came home rolled up on the donkey's back warmed her heart as much as her +limbs. + +Mrs. Elmwood spared Rusha for a week, and it was funny to see how the +girl wondered at its having been possible to live in such a den. She +absolutely cried when Ben told her how hard they had been living, and +said she did not think Stead would ever have used Patience so. + +"Then why did she make as if she liked it?" said Stead, gruffly. + +But for all that Stead was too sound-hearted not to be grieved at +himself, and to see that his love and impatience had led him into +unkindness to those who depended on him; and when Master Woodley +preached against love of money he felt pricked at the heart, though it +had not been the gain in itself that he aimed at. And when he had to go +to the mill, the sight of the comfortable great kitchen, with the +open hearth, glowing fire, seats on either side, tall settle, and the +flitches of bacon on the rafters, seemed to reproach him additionally. +The difficulties there had been staved off by the old miller himself +marrying a stout, motherly widow, who had a real delight in the charge +of a baby. + +"For," said Master Luck, "Andrew and I could agree on no one for him." + +Moreover, Stead ceased to grunt contemptuously when Patience, with Goody +Grace to back her, declared that Ben was too young and slight for farm +work. + +The boy was allowed to trudge his daily three miles to school, and there +his progress was the wonder and delight of his slower-witted brother and +sister. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. EMLYN'S SERVICE. + + + "Oh, blind mine eye that would not trace, + And deaf mine ear that would not heed + The mocking smile upon her face, + The mocking voice of greed." + LEWIS CARROLL. + + +When Lady-day came round, Steadfast found to his delight and surprise a +little figure dancing out to meet him from Mrs. Lightfoot's. + +"There, Master Stead. Are not you glad to see me, or be you too +dumbfounded to get out a word, like good old Jenny?" stroking the +donkey's cars. "Posies of primroses! How sweet they be! You must spare +me one." + +"As many as you will, sweetheart. They be all for you, whether given or +sold. And you've got a holiday for Lady-day." + +"Have a care! I got my ears boxed for such a Popish word. 'Tis but +quarter day, you know, being that, hang, draw, and quarter is more +to the present folks' mind than ladies or saints. I have changed my +service, you must know, as poor Dick used to sing:-- + + "Have a new master, be a new man." + +"You have not heard from your own folk," cried Stead, this being what he +most dreaded. + +"Nay. But I can away no more with Dame Sloggett, and Cross-patch Rachel, +white seam and salmon, and plain collars. So I bade her farewell at the +end of the year, and I've got a new mistress." + +Stead stood with open mouth. To change service at the end of a year was +barely creditable in those days, and to do so without consultation with +home was unkind and alarming. + +"There now, don't be crooked about it. I had not time to come out and +tell you and Patience, the old crones kept me so close, stitching at +shirts for a captain that is to sail next week, and I knew you would be +coming in." + +"Where is it?" was all Stead uttered. + +"What think you of Master Henshaw's, the great merchant, and an honest +well-wisher to King and Church to boot?" + +"Master Henshaw, the West Indian merchant? His is a good, well-ordered +household, and he holds with the old ways." + +"Yes. He was out that Whitsun morning we wot of," said Emlyn. "I wist +well you would be pleased." + +"But I thought his good lady was dead," said Steadfast. + +"So she is. She that came out to the gully, but there's a new Mistress +Henshaw, a sweet young lady, of a loyal house, the Ayliffes of Calfield. +And I am to be her own woman." + +"Own woman," said Mrs. Lightfoot, for they were by this time among the +loaves in her stall. "Merchants' wives did not use to have women of +their own in my time." + +For this was the title of a lady's maid, and rules as to household +appointments were strictly observed before the rebellion. + +"Mistress Henshaw is gentlewoman born," returned Emlyn, with a toss of +her head. "She ought to have all that is becoming her station in return +for being wedded to an old hunks like that! And 'tis very well she +should have one like _me_ who has seen what becomes good blood! So +commend me to Patience and Rusha, and tell Ben maybe I shall have an +orange to send him one of these days. And cheer up, Stead. I shall get +five crowns and two gowns a year, and many a fee besides when there is +company, so we may build the house the sooner, and I shall not be mewed +up, and shall see the more of thee. 'Tis all for you. So never look so +gloomy on it, old Sobersides." + +And she turned her sweet face to him, and coaxed and charmed him +into being satisfied that all was well, dwelling on the loyalty and +excellence of the master of the house. + +He found it true that it was much easier to see Emlyn than before. Mrs. +Henshaw, a pretty young creature, not much older than Emlyn, was pleased +to do her own marketing, and came out attended by Emlyn, and a little +black slave boy carrying a basket. She generally bought all that +Steadfast had to sell, and then gave smiling thanks when he offered to +help carry home her purchases. She would join company with some of her +acquaintance, and leave the lovers to walk together, only accompanied by +little Diego, or Diggo as they called him, whose English was of the most +rudimentary description. + +Emlyn certainly was very happy in her new quarters. Neither her lady nor +herself was arrayed with the rigid plainness exacted by Puritanism, and +many disapproving glances were cast upon the fair young pair, mistress +and maid, by the sterner matrons. Waiting women could not indulge in +much finery, but whatever breast knots and tiny curls beyond her little +tight cap could do, Emlyn did without fear of rebuke. Stead tried to +believe that the disapproving looks and words, by which Mrs. Lightfoot +intimated that she heard reports unfavourable to the household were only +due to the general distrust and dislike to the bright and lively Emlyn. +Mrs. Lightfoot was no Puritan herself, but her gossips were, and he +received her observations with a dull, stony look that vexed her, by +intimating that it was no business of hers. + +Still it was borne in upon him that, good man as Mr. Henshaw certainly +was, the household was altered. It had been poverty and distress which +had led the Ayliffe family to give their young sister to a man so much +her elder, and inferior in position; and perhaps still more a desire to +confirm the Royalist footing in the city of Bristol. The lady's brothers +were penniless Cavaliers, and one of them made her house his home, and +a centre of Royalist plots and intelligences, which excited Emlyn very +much by the certainty that something was going on, though what it was, +of course, she did not know; and at any rate there was coming and going, +and all sorts of people were to be seen at the merchant's hospitable +table, all manner of news to be had here, there, and everywhere, with +which she delighted to entertain Steadfast, and show her own importance. + +It was not often good news as regarded the Cavalier cause, for Cromwell +was fixing himself in his seat; and every endeavour to hatch a scheme +against him was frustrated, and led to the flight or death of those +concerned in it. However, so long as Emlyn had something to tell, it +made little difference whether the tidings were good or bad, whether +they concerned Admiral Blake's fleet, or her mistress's little Italian +greyhound. By-and-by however instead of Mrs. Henshaw, there came to +market Madam Ayliffe, her mother, a staid, elderly lady, all in black, +who might as well, Emlyn said, have been a Puritan. + +She looked gravely at Stead, and said, "Young man, I am told that you +are well approved and trustworthy, and that my daughter suffers you to +walk home with this maiden, you being troth plight to her." + +Stead assented. + +"I will therefore not forbid it, trusting that if you be, as I hear, +a prudent youth, you may bring her to a more discreet and obedient +behaviour than hath been hers of late." + +[Illustration: Stead before the Roundheads] + +So saying, Mrs. Ayliffe joined company with the old Cavalier Colonel +and went on her way as Emlyn made that ugly face that Stead knew of old, +clenched her hand and muttered, "Old witch! She is a Puritan at heart, +after all! She is turning the house upside down, and my poor mistress +has not spirit to say 'tis her own, with the old woman and the old hunks +both against her! Why, she threatened to beat me because, forsooth, the +major's man was but giving me the time of day on the stairs!" + +"Was that what she meant?" asked Stead. + +"Assuredly it was. Trying to set you against me, the spiteful old +make-bate, and no one knows how long she will be here, falling on the +poor lads if they do but sing a song in the hall after supper, as if she +were a very Muggletonian herself. I trow she is no better." + +"Did you not tell me how she held out her house against the Roundheads, +and went to prison for sheltering Cavaliers?" + +"I only wish they had kept her there. All old women be Puritans at +heart. I say Stead, I'll have done with service. Let us be wed at once." + +Stead could hardly breathe at this proposition. "But I have only nine +pounds and two crowns and--" he began. + +"No matter, there be other ways," she went on. "Get the house built, and +I'll come, and we will have curds and whey all the summer, and mistress +and all her friends will come out and drink it, and eat strawberries!" + +"But the Squire will never build the place up unless I bring more in +hand." + +"You 'but' enough to butt down a wall, you dull-pated old Stead," said +Emlyn, "you know where to get at more, and so do I." + +Stead's grey eyes fixed on her in astonishment and bewilderment. + +"Numskull!" she exclaimed, but still in that good humoured voice of +banter that he never had withstood, "you know what I mean, though maybe +you would not have me say it in the street, you that have secrets." + +"How do you know of it?" + +"Have not I eyes, though some folk have not? Could not I look out at a +chink on a fine summer morning, when you thought the children asleep? +Could not I climb up to your precious cave as well as yourself; and hear +the iron clink under the stone. Ha, ha! and you and Patience thought no +one knew but yourselves." + +"I trust no one else does." + +"No, no, I'm no gad-about, whatever you may be pleased to think me. They +say everything comes of use in seven years, and it must be over that +now." + +"Ten since 'twas hidden, nigh seven since that Whitsuntide. There's +never a parson who could come out, is there? Besides, with Peter +Woodward nigh, 'tis not safe to meet." + +"That's what your head is running on. No, no. They will never have it +out again that fashion. The old Prayer-book is banished for ever and a +day! I heard master and the Captain say that now old Noll has got his +will, he will soon call himself king, and there's no hope of churches +or parsons coming back; and old madam sat and cried. The Jack Presbyters +and the rest of the sectaries have got it all their own way." + +"Dr. Eales said I had no right to give it to Master Woodley, or any that +was not the right sort." + +"So why should you go on keeping it there rotting for nothing, when +it might just hinder us from wearing our very lives out while you are +plodding and saving?" + +Stead stood stock still, as her meaning dawned on him, "Child, you know +not what you say," at last he uttered. + +"Ah well, you are slow to take things in; but you'll do it at last." + +"I am slow to take in this," said Stead. "Would you have me rob God?" + +"No, only the owls and the bats," said Emlyn. "If they are the better +for the silver and gold under them! What good can it do to let it lie +there and rot?" + +"Gold rots not!" growled Stead. + +"Tarnishes, spoils then!" said Emlyn pettishly. "Come, what good is't to +any mortal soul there?" + +"It is none of mine." + +"Not after seven years? Come, look you now, Stead, 'tis not only being +tired of service and sharp words, and nips and blows, but I don't like +being mocked for having a clown and a lubber for my sweetheart. Oh +yes! they do, and there's a skipper and two mates, and a clerk, and a +well-to-do locksmith, besides gentlemen's valets and others, I don't +account of, who would all cut off their little fingers if I'd only once +look at them as I am doing at you, you old block, who don't heed it, and +I don't know that I can hold out against them all," she added, looking +down with a sudden shyness; "specially the mates. There's Jonah +Richards, who has a ship building that he is to have of his own, and he +wants to call it the 'Sprightly Emlyn,' and the other sailed with Prince +Rupert, and made ever so many prizes, and how am I to stand out when you +don't value me the worth of an old silver cup?" + +"Come, come, Em, that's only to frighten a man." But she knew in his +tone that he was frightened. + +"Not a bit! I should be ever so much better off in a tidy little house +where I could see all that came and went than up in your lane with +nought to go by but the market folk. 'Tis not everyone that would have +kept true to a big country lout like you, like that lady among the +salvage men that the King spoke of; and I get nothing by it but wait, +wait, wait, when there's stores of silver ready to your hand." + +"Heaven knows, and you know, Emlyn, 'tis not for want of love." + +"Heaven may know, but I don't." + +"I gave my solemn word." + +"And you have kept it these ten years, and all is changed." Then +altering her tone, "There now, I know it takes an hour to beat a notion +into that slow brain of yours, and here we be at home, and I shall have +madam after me. I'll leave you to see the sense of it, and if I do not +hear of something before long, why then I shall know how much you care +for poor little Emlyn." + +With which last words she flitted within the gates, leaving Steadfast +still too much stunned to realise all she meant, as he turned homewards; +but all grew on him in time, the idea that Emlyn, his Emlyn, his orphan +of the battlefield, bereaved for the sake of King and Church, should be +striving to make him betray his trust! "The silver is Mine and the +gold is Mine," rang in his ears, and yet was it not cruel that when she +really loved him best, and sought to return to him as a refuge from the +many temptations to her lively spirit, he should be forced to leave her +in the midst of them--against her own warning and even entreaty, and +not only himself lose her, but lose her to one of those godless riotous +sailors who were the dread and bane of the neighbourhood? Was not a +human soul worth as much as a consecrated Chalice? + +These were the debates in Steadfast's much tormented soul. He could +think, though he could not clothe his thoughts in words, and day after +day, night after night he did think, while Patience wondered at the +heavy moodiness that seemed to have come over him. He would not open his +lips to ask her counsel, being quite certain of what it would be, and +not choosing to hear her censure of Emlyn for what he managed to excuse +by the poor child's ignorance and want of training, and by her ardent +desire to be under his wing and escape from temptation. + +He recollected a thousand pleas that he might have used with her, to +show it was not want of love but a sacred pledge that withheld him, and +market day after market day he went in, priming himself all the way +with arguments that were to confirm her constancy, arm her against +temptation, and assure her of his unalterable love, though he might not +break his vow, nor lay his hand upon sacred things. + +But whether Emlyn would not, or could not, meet him, he did not know, +for a week or two went by before he saw her, and then she was carrying +a great fan for her young mistress, who was walking with a Cavalier, +as gay as Cavaliers ever ventured to be, and another young lady, whose +waiting woman had paired with Emlyn. They were mincing along, gazing +about them, and uttering little contemptuous titters, and Stead could +only too well guess what kind of remarks Emlyn's companion might make +upon him. + +Near his stand, however, the other lady beckoned her maid to adjust +something in her dress; and Stead could approach Emlyn. She looked up +with her bright, laughing eyes with a certain wistfulness in them. + +"Have you made up your mind to cheat the owls?" she asked. + +"Emlyn, if you would not speak so lightly, I could show cause--" + +"Oh, that's enough," she answered hastily, turning as the other maid +joined her; and Stead caught the shrill, pert voice demanding if that +was her swain with clouted shoes. Emlyn's reply he could not hear, but +he saw the twist of the shoulders. + +There are bitter moments in everyone's life, and that was one of the +very bitterest of Steadfast Kenton's. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. THE ASSAULT OF THE CAVERN. + + + "By all description this should be the place. + Who's here?" + SHAKESPEARE. + + +Harvest was over, and the autumn evenings were darkening. It was later +than the usual bed time, but Patience had a piece of spinning which she +was anxious to finish for the weaver who took all her yarn, and Stead +was reading Dr. Eales's gift of the Morte d'Arthur, which had great +fascination for him, though he never knew whether to regard it as truth +or fable. He wanted to drive out the memory of what Mrs. Lightfoot had +told him about the Henshaw household, where the youngest of the lady's +brothers had lately arrived from beyond seas, bringing with him habits +of noise and riot, which greatly scandalised the neighbours. + +Suddenly Growler started up with pricked ears, and emitted a sound like +thunder. Patience checked her wheel. There was an unmistakable sound of +steps. Stead sprang up. Growler rushed at the door with a furious volley +of barking. Stead threw it open, catching up a stout stick as he did so, +and the dog dashed out, but was instantly driven back with an oath and +a blow. It was a bright moonlight night, and Stead beheld three tall men +evidently well armed. + +"Ho, you fellow there," one called out, "keep back your cur, we don't +want to hurt him nor you." + +"Then what are you doing here?" demanded Stead. + +"We are come for what you wot of. For the King's service." + +"Who sent you?" asked Stead, for the moment somewhat dazed. + +One of them laughed and said, "As if you did not know." + +There was a sickening perception, but Stead's powers were alert enough +for him to exclaim, "Then you have no warrant." + +"My good fellow, don't stickle about such trifles. For the King's +service it is, and that should be enough for all loyal hearts. Hollo, +what's that? Silence your dog, I say," as Growler's voice resounded +through the gulley, "or it will be the worse for you and him." + +Stead took hold of the dog's collar, and amidst his choked grumbles, +said, "I do nought but on true warrant." + +"Hark ye, blockhead," said the foremost. "I'm an officer of His +Majesty's, with power to make requisitions for his service." + +"Shew it," said Stead, quite convinced that this was sheer robbery. + +"You addle-pated, insolent clown, to dispute terms with gentlemen in His +Majesty's service. Stand aside. I've done you only too much honour by +parleying with you. Out of the way. We don't want to take a stick of +your own trumpery, I say." + +"Sir, it is Church plate." + +"Ha, ha! Church plate is His Most Sacred Majesty's plate. Don't ye know +that, you ass? Here! we'll throw you back something for yourself if you +will show us the cave and save us trouble, for we know which it is by +the token of the red stone and twisted ash. Ho! take--What's become of +the clown? He has run off. Discreet fellow!" + +For Stead had disappeared in the black darkness behind the hut. He +remembered Jephthah's discomfiture by the owl, and it struck him that +from within the cavern it would be quite possible to keep the robbers at +bay, if they tried without knowing the way to climb up among the bushes. +He was not afraid for his brother and sister, as the marauders evidently +did not want anything but the plate. Indeed, his whole soul was so +concentrated on the defence of his charge that he had no room for +anything else. + +Knowing the place perfectly, Stead had time to swing himself, armed with +a stout bludgeon, up into the hermit's cave, and even to drag after him +Growler, a very efficient ally. The contrasts of moonlight were all in +his favour, the lights almost as bright as in sunshine, the shadows so +very dark. He could see through the overhanging ivy and travellers' joy +the men peering about with their dark lantern, looking into the caves +where the pigs were, among the trees, and he held Growler's mouth +together lest the grim murmurs that were rolling in the beast's throat +should serve as a guide. + +Then he heard them shout to Patience to come and guide them since her +coward of a brother had made off, and he heard her answer, "Not I, 'tis +no business of mine." + +"We'll see about that. D'ye know how folks are made to speak, my lass?" + +Then Stead recollected with horror that he had left her to her fate. +Would he be obliged to come down to her help? At that moment, however, +there was a call from the fellow who bore the lantern. "Here's the red +stone. That must be the ash. Now then!" + +"You first, Nick." Then came a crackling and rustling of boughs, a head +appeared, and at that moment Stead loosed Growler and would have dealt +a blow with his stick, but that the assault of the dog had sufficed to +send the assailant, roaring and cursing, headlong down the crag. + +Furious threats came up to him and his dog, but he heard them in +silence, though Growler's replies were vociferous. Stead gathered that +the fall had in some degree hurt the man for he made an exclamation of +pain, and the others bade him stay there and keep back the wench. + +"We'll have you down though we smoke you out like a wasps' nest, you +disloyal adder, you," was one of the threats. + +"Or serve him like the Spaniard at Porto Santo," said another. + +Presently after numerous threats and warnings that they had firearms +and were determined to use them, two of the men began climbing much more +cautiously, holding by the trees, so as not to be suddenly overthrown. +However the furious attack of such a dog as Growler, springing from +utter darkness was a formidable matter, and the man against whom he had +launched himself could not but fall in his turn, but the dog went after +him, and the companion, being on his guard, was not overthrown. Stead +aimed a blow at the fellow with all his might, but the slouching hat +warded off the full force of the bludgeon. Then Stead sprang at him and +grappled with him. There was the report of a pistol, and both rolled +headlong among the bushes, but at that moment a fresh shout was heard--a +cry of "Villains, traitors, robbers--what be at?" and a rush of feet, +while in the moonlight appeared Peter Pierce with his fowling piece, +another man, Ben, and four or five dogs. + +The robbers never waited to see how small the reinforcement was, and +it made noise enough for the whole hue-and-cry of the parish. Off they +dashed, through the wood, the new comers after them. + +But all Patience knew was that Steadfast was lying senseless at the +bottom of the cliff, with poor Growler moaning by him, and licking his +face, and that her hands were wet with what must be blood. + +It was too dark to see anything, but she could hardly bear to leave him, +as she hurried back to the hut for the lantern. All this had taken but +few minutes, so that she had only to catch it up from the table where +Stead's book still lay. + +By the time she came back, he had opened his eyes, and his hand was on +Growler's head. + +"Are they gone?" he asked faintly. + +"Yes, and Peter after them. Oh! Stead, you are badly hurt." + +"They have not got it?" + +"Oh no, no, you saved it." + +"Thank God. Is Ben safe?" + +"Yes, after them with Peter. I sent him out while you were talking to +call Peter." + +"Good--" and his eyes closed again. "Good Growler, poor Growl--" he +added, fondling the big head, as the dog moaned. "See to him, Pat." + +"I must see to you first. Oh! Stead, is it very bad?" + +"I'll try to get in, if you'll help me." + +He raised himself, but this effort brought a rush of blood to the lips, +which greatly terrified Patience. To her great relief, however, Nanny +Pierce having satisfied herself that all was quiet round the hut, here +called out to ask where Patience was. She was profuse in "Lack-a-daisy!" +"Dear heart!" and "Poor soul!" and was quite sure Stead was as good as +a dead man; but she had strong arms, and so had Patience, and when they +had done what they could to stanch the wound in his side, which however, +was not bleeding much externally, they carried him in between them +to Patience's bed which had been Emlyn's, and therefore was the least +uncomfortable. Poor Growler crept after, bleeding a good deal, and +Steadfast would not rest till his faithful comrade was looked to. There +was a dagger cut in his chest, which Nanny, used to dog doctoring, bound +up, after which the creature came close to his master, and fell asleep +under his hand. + +It was a very faint hand. Movement or speech alike brought blood to the +mouth, and Stead's ruddy checks were becoming deadly white. He struggled +to say, "You and Ben guard it! Say a prayer, Pat," and then the two +women really thought that in the gush that followed all was over, and +Nanny marvelled at the stunned calm in which Patience went over the +Lord's Prayer, and such Psalms as she could remember. + +Steps came, and Nanny shrieked. Then she saw it was her husband and the +other two men. + +"Made off to the town," said Peter, gruffly. + +"How now--hurt?" + +"O, Peter, they have made an end of the poor lad. Died like a lamb, even +now." + +"No, no," said Peter, as he came close to the bed with his more +experienced eye; "he ain't dead. 'Tis but a swoon. Hast any strong +waters, Pat? No, I'll be bound. Ho, you now, Bill, run and knock them up +at the Elmwood Arms, and bring down a gill." + +"And call Goody Grace," entreated Patience, "she will know best what to +do." + +On the whole, Peter's military experience was more hopeful, if not more +helpful than Goody Grace's. He was the only person who persisted in +declaring that such wounds were not always mortal, though he agreed +in owning that the inward bleeding was the worst sign. Stead did not +attempt to speak again, but lay there deadly white and with a stricken +look on his face, which Patience could not bear to see, and she ascribed +to the conviction that the wretched little Emlyn must have betrayed his +secret. + +The hut was over-full of volunteers of assistance and enquiry the next +day, including the squire and Master Woodley; but nobody seemed to guess +at the real object of the robbers' attack, everybody thinking they +had come for the savings which Stead was known to be making towards +rebuilding the farmhouse. + +Mr. Elmwood was very indignant and took Pierce, and Blane the constable, +into Bristol to see whether the felons could be captured and brought to +justice, but they proved to have gone down to the wharf, and to have got +on board a vessel which had dropped down the river in the early morning. +They were also more than suspected of being no other than buccaneers who +plied their trade of piracy in the West Indies. The younger Ayliffe had +gone with them, and was by no means above suspicion. + +Mr. Elmwood also brought out a barber surgeon to see young Kenton, a +thing which his sister would not have dared to propose. But there was +not much to be done, the doctor decided that the bullet was where the +attempt at extraction would be fatal, and that the only hope of even +partial recovery was in perfect stillness and silence--and this Patience +could promise to ensure as far as in her lay. Instructions on dressing +the wound were given to her, and she was to send in to the barber's shop +if ointment or other appliances were needed. This was all that she was +to expect, and more indeed than she had thought feasible; for folks of +their condition were sick and got well, lived or died without the aid of +practitioners above the skill of Goody Grace. However, he gave her very +little hope, though he would not pronounce that her brother was dying. A +few days would decide, and quiet was the only chance. + +Scarcely however were the visitors gone, and Stead left to what rest +pain would allow him after being handled by the surgeon, when a sound of +sobbing was heard outside. "Oh! oh! I'm afraid to go in! Ben! Oh! tell +me, is he not dead? I'm the most miserable maid in the world if he is." + +"He's alive, small thanks to you," responded Ben, who had somehow +arrived at a knowledge of the facts, while Rusha, who was milking, +buried her head in Daisy's side, and would not even look at her. +Patience felt in utter despair, and longed to misunderstand Stead's +signs to her to open the door. She tried to impress the need of quiet, +but Emlyn darted in, her hood pushed back, her hair flying, her dress +disordered, looking half wild, and dropping on the floor, she crouched +there with clasped hands, crying "Oh! oh! he looks like death. He'll die +and I'm the most--" + +"If you make all that noise and tumult he will," said Patience, who +could bear no more. "Are you come here to finish what you have done? Do +go away." + +"Oh! but I must tell you! They said it was for the King, and that he had +the right. Yes they did, and they swore that they would hurt no one." + +Stead looked to a certain extent pleased, but Patience broke out, "As if +you did not know he would rather die than give up his trust." + +"I thought he would never know--" + +"Robber!" said Patience. "Go! You have done harm enough already." + +"But I must tell you," persisted Emlyn. "I used to see Dick Glass among +Lord Goring's troopers, and he is from our parts, and he has been with +Prince Rupert. There was a plot, I know there is, and both the Master +Ayliffes are in it, and we were to go and raise Worcestershire, only +they wanted money, and Dick was to--to wed me--and set us across the +river this morning, when they had got the treasure. 'Twas for the King. +And now they are all gone, Master Philip and all, and master says they +are flibustiers, and pirates, and robbers; and Mrs. Lightfoot's boy came +and said Stead Kenton was shot dead at his house door, and then I was +neither to have nor to hold, but I ran off here like one distraught, for +I never loved anyone like you Stead." + +"Pretty love!" said Patience. "Oh! if you think you love him, go and let +him be at peace." + +"I do! I do!" cried the girl, quite unmanageable. "Only it made me mad +that he should heed an old chest and a musty parson more than me, and +so I took up with Dick, and he over persuaded me with his smooth tongue +that we would raise folk for the King." + +Stead held out his hand. + +"Oh! Stead, Stead, you are always kinder than Patience! You forgive me, +dear old Stead, do not you? And I'll tend you day and night, and you +shall not die, and I'll wed you, if you have nought but the shirt to +your back." + +Patience felt nearly distracted at the notion of Emlyn there day and +night, but at that instant Goody Grace, who had been to her home in +preparation for spending the night in nursing, walked in. + +"How now, mistress, what are you about here?" + +"She wants to stay and tend him, and I don't know whether she has come +with her mistress's knowledge," sighed Patience. + +"Fine tendance!" said the old woman. "My lady wants to kill him +outright. Nay, nay, my young madam, we want none of your airs and +flights here. You can do no good, except by making yourself scarce--you +that can't hold your tongue a moment." + +Stead here whispered, "Her mistress, will she forgive her?" + +"Oh, yes, no fear but that she will," said Emlyn, who perhaps had +revolved in her mind, since her first impulse, what it would be to nurse +Stead in that hovel, with two such displeased companions as Goody and +Patience. More to pacify Steadfast's uneasy eyes than for her own sake, +Patience gave her a drink of milk and a piece of bread, and Peter coming +just then to ask if he could help Ben with the cattle, undertook to +see her safely on her way, since twilight was coming on. Sobered and +awestruck by the silence and evident condemnation of all around, she +ended by flinging herself on her knees by the bed, and saying "Stead, +Stead, you forgive me, though no one else does?" + +"Poor child--I do--as I hope--" + +"The blood again. You've done it now," exclaimed Goody Grace. "Away with +you!" + +Peter fairly dragged her out, while the women attended to Stead. + +But he let her wait outside till they heard, "Not dead, but not far from +it." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. EMLYN'S TROTH. + + + "Woman's love is writ in water, + Woman's faith is traced in sand." + AYTOUN. + + +Day after day Steadfast Kenton lingered between life and death, and +though the external wound healed, there was little relief to the deeper +injury which could not be reached, and which the damps and chills of +autumn and winter could only aggravate. + +He could move little, and speak even less; and suffered much, both from +pain and difficulty of breathing, as he lay against sacks and pillows +on his bed, or sat up in an elbow chair which Mrs. Elmwood lent him. +Everybody was very kind in those days of danger. Mrs. Elmwood let Rusha +come on many an afternoon to help her sister, and always bringing some +posset, or cordial, or dainty of some sort to tempt the invalid. Goody +Grace, Mrs. Blane, Dame Oates, Nanny Pierce vied with each other in +offers of sitting up with him; Andrew, the young miller, came out of his +way to bring a loaf of white bread, and to fetch the corn to be ground. +Peter Pierce, Rusha's lover, and more old comrades than Patience quite +desired, offered their services in aiding Ben with the cattle and +other necessary labours, but as the first excitement wore off, these +volunteers became scantier, and when nothing was to be heard but "just +the same," nothing to be seen but a weak, wan figure sitting wrapped +by the fire, the interest waned, and the gulley was almost as little +frequented as before. Poor Ben's schooling had, of course, to be given +up, and it was well that he was nearly as old as Stead had been when +they were first left to themselves. Happily his fifteen months of study +had not made him outgrow his filial obedience and devotion to the less +instructed elder brother and sister, who had taken the place of the +parents he had never known. Benoni, child of sorrow, he had been named, +and perhaps his sickly babyhood and the mournful times around had tended +to make him a quiet boy, without the tearing spirits that would have +made him eager to join the village lads in their games. Indeed they +laughed at him for his poverty and scholarship, and called him Jack +Presbyter, Puritan, bookworm, and all the opprobrious names they could +think of, though no one ever less merited sectarian nicknames than he, +as far as doctrine went. For, bred up on Dr. Eales' books, and obliged +to look out on the unsettled state of religious matters, he was +as staunch a churchman as his brother, and fairly understood +the foundations of his faith. Poor boy, the check to his studies +disappointed him, and he spent every leisure moment over his Latin +accidence or in reading. Next to the stories in the Bible, he loved +the Maccabees, because of the likeness to the persecuted state of the +Church; and he knew the Morte d'Arthur almost by heart, and thought it +part of the history of England. Especially he loved the part that tells +of the Holy Grail, the Sacred Cup that was guarded by the maimed King +Pelles, and only revealed to the pure in heart and life. Stead had fully +confided to him the secret of the cave, in case he should be the +one left to deliver up the charge; and, in some strange way, the boy +connected the treasure with the Saint Grail, and his brother with the +maimed king. So he worked very hard, and Patience was capable of a good +deal more than in her earlier days. Stead, helpless as he was, did +not require constant attendance, and knew too well how much was on his +sister's hands to trouble her when he could possibly help doing so. Thus +they rubbed on; though it was a terrible winter, and they often had to +break in on the hoard which was to have built the house, sometimes for +needments for the patient, sometimes to hire help when there was work +beyond the strength of Patience and Ben, who indeed was too slender to +do all that Stead had done. + +Ben did not shine in going to market. He was not big enough to hold his +own against rude lads, and once came home crying with his donkey beaten +and his eggs broken; moreover, he was apt to linger at stalls of books +and broadsheets. As soon as Patience could venture to leave her brother, +she was forced to go to market herself; and there was a staidness and +sobriety about her demeanour that kept all impertinence at a distance. +Poor Patience, she was not at all the laughing rustic beauty that Emlyn +would have been at market. She would never have been handsome, and +though she was only a few years over twenty, she was beginning to look +weather-beaten and careworn, like the market women about her, mothers of +half-a-dozen children. + +Now and then she saw Emlyn in all her young, plump beauty, but looking +much quieter, and always coming to her for news of Steadfast. There were +even tears in those bright eyes when she heard how much he suffered. +The girl had evidently been greatly sobered by the results of her +indiscretion, and the treachery into which it had led her. She probably +cared more for Steadfast than for anyone else except herself, and was +shocked and grieved at his condition; and she had moreover discovered +how her credulity had been played upon, and that she had had a narrow +escape of being carried off by a buccaneer. + +Her master too had been called to order by the authorities, fined and +threatened for permitting Royalist plots to be hatched in his house. He +had been angered by the younger Ayliffe's riotous doings, and his wife +had been terrified. There had been a general reformation in which Emlyn +had only escaped dismissal through her mistress's favour, pleading her +orphanhood, her repentance, and her troth plight to the good young man +who had been attacked by those dissolute fellows, though Mrs. Henshaw +little knew how accountable was her favourite maid for the attack. + +So good and discreet was Emlyn, so affectionate her messages to Stead, +and so much brightness shone in his face on hearing them; there was so +much pleasure when she sent him an orange and he returned the snowdrops +he had made Rusha gather, that Patience began to believe that Stead was +right--that the shock was all the maiden needed to steady her--and that +all would end as he hoped, when he should be able to resume his labours, +and add to the sadly reduced hoard. + +It was not, however, till the March winds were over that Stead made any +decided step towards recovery, and began to prefer the sun to the fire, +and to move feebly and slowly about the farmyard, visiting the animals, +too few in number, for his skilled attention had been missed. As summer +came on he was able to do a little more, herd them with Growler's help, +and gradually to undertake what required no exertion of strength or +speed, and there he stopped short--all the sunny months of summer could +do no more for him than make him fit to do such work as an old man of +seventy might manage. + +He was persuaded, much against his will, to ride the white horse into +Bristol at a foot-pace to consult once more the barber surgeon. That +worthy, who was unusually sagacious for his time and had had experience +in the wars, told him that his recovery was a marvel, but that with the +bullet where it was lodged, he could scarcely hope to enjoy much more +health or comfort than at present. It could not be reached, but it might +shift, when either it would prove fatal or become less troublesome; and +as a friend and honest man, he counselled the poor youth not to waste +his money nor torture himself by having recourse to remedies or doctors +who could do no real good. + +Stead thanked the barber, paid his crown, and slowly made his way to +Mrs. Lightfoot's, where he was to rest, dine, and see Emlyn. + +Kind Mrs. Lightfoot shed tears when she saw the sturdy, ruddy youth +grown so thin and pale; and as to Emlyn, she actually stood silent for +three minutes. + +The two were left together in Mrs. Lightfoot's kitchen, for Patience was +at market, and their hostess had to mind her trade. + +Stead presently told Emlyn somewhat of the doctor's opinion, and then, +producing his portion of the tester, and with lips that trembled in +spite of himself, said that he had come to give Emlyn back her troth +plight. + +"Oh! Stead, Stead," she cried, bursting into tears. "I thought you had +forgiven me." + +"Forgiven you! Yea, truly, poor child, but--" + +"But only when you were sick! You cast me off now you are whole." + +"I shall never be whole again, Emlyn." + +"I don't believe Master Willis. He is nought but a barber," she +exclaimed passionately. "I know there are physicians at the Bath who +would cure you; or there's the little Jew by the wharf; or the wise man +on Durdham Down. But you always are so headstrong; when you have made +up your mind no one can move you, and you don't care whose heart you +break," she sobbed. + +"Hearken, little sweet," said Stead. "'Tis nought but that I wot that it +would be ill for you to be bound to a poor frail man that will never be +able to keep you as you should be kept. All I had put by is well nigh +gone, and I'm not like to make it up again for many a year, even if I +were as strong as ever." + +"And you won't go to the Jew, or the wise man, or the Bath?" + +"I have not the money." + +"But I will--I will save it for you!" cried Emlyn, who never had saved +in her life. "Or look here. Master Henshaw might give you a place in +his office, and then there would be no need to dwell in that nasty, damp +gulley, but we could be in the town. I'll ask my mistress to crave it +from him." + +Stead could not but smile at her eagerness, but he shook his head. + +"It would be bootless, sweetheart, I cannot carry weights." + +"No, but you can write." + +"Very scurvily, and I cannot cypher." + +For Stead, like everyone else at Elmwood, kept his accounts by tally and +in his head, and the mysteries of the nine Arabic figures were perfectly +unknown to him. However, Emlyn stuck to the hope, and he was so far +inspired by it that he ceased to insist on giving up the pledges of the +betrothal, and he lay on the settle in quiet enjoyment of Emlyn's castle +building, as she sat on a stool by his side, his hand on her shoulder, +somewhat as it was wont to lie on Growler's head. And in spite of +Master Willis's opinion, he rode home to the gulley a new man, assuring +Patience, on the donkey by his side, that there was more staunchness +and kindness in little Emlyn than ever they had thought for. Even the +ferryman who put them over the river declared that the doctor must +have done Master Kenton a power of good, and Stead smiled and did not +contradict him. + +Stead actually consulted Mr. Woodley how to learn cyphering beyond what +Ben had acquired at school; and the minister lent him a treatise, over +which he pored with a board and a burnt stick for many an hour when he +was out on the common with the cattle, or on the darkening evenings in +the hut. Ben saw his way into those puzzles with no more difficulty than +whetted his appetite, worked out sum after sum, and explained them +to his brother, to the admiration of both his elders, till frowns of +despair and long sighs from Stead brought Patience to declare he was +mazing himself, and insist on putting out the light. + +Stead had more time for his studies than he could wish, for the cold +of winter soon affected the injured lungs; and, moreover, the being no +longer able to move about rapidly caused the damp and cold of the +ravine to produce rheumatism and attendant ills, of which, in his former +healthy, out-of-door life, he had been utterly ignorant, and he had to +spend many an hour breathless, or racked with pain in the poor little +hovel, sometimes trying to give his mind to the abstruse mysteries of +multiplication of money, but generally in vain, and at others whiling +away the time with his books, for though there were only seven of them, +including Bible and Prayer-book, a very little reading could be the text +of so much musing, that these few perfectly sufficed him. And then he +was the nurse of any orphaned lamb or sick chicken that Patience was +anxious about, and his care certainly saved many of those small lives. + +The spring, when he came forth again, found him on a lower level, less +strong and needing a stick to aid his rheumatic knee. + +Not much was heard of Emlyn that spring. She did not come to market +with her mistress, and Patience was not inclined to go in quest of her, +having a secret feeling that no news might be better for Stead than +anything she was likely to hear; while as to any chance of their coming +together, the Kentons had barely kept themselves through this winter, +and Steadfast's arithmetic was not making such progress as would give +him a place at a merchant's desk. + +Patience, however, was considerably startled when, one fine June +day, she saw Mrs. Henshaw's servant point her out to two tall +soldierly-looking men, apparently father and son. + +"Good morrow to you, honest woman," said the elder. "I am told it is you +who have been at charges for many years for my brother's daughter, Emlyn +Gaythorn." + +Patience assented. + +"You have been right good to her, I hear; and I thank you for that same, +and will bear what we may of the expense," he added, taking out a heavy +bag from his pouch. + +He went on to explain that he and his son having gone abroad with his +master had been serving with the Dutch, and had made some prize money. +Learning on the peace that a small inheritance in Worcestershire had +fallen to the family, they had returned, and found from Lady Blythedale +that the brother's daughter was supposed to be alive somewhere near +Bristol. She had a right to half, and being honourable men, they had +set out in search of her, bringing letters from the lady to Mr. Henshaw, +whose house was still a centre of inquiry for persons in the Cavalier +interest. There, of course, they had discovered Emlyn; and Master +Gaythorn proceeded to say that it had been decided that the estate +should not be broken up, but that his son should at once wed her and +unite their claims. + +"But, sir," exclaimed Patience, "she is troth plight to my brother." + +"So she told me, but likewise that he is a broken man and sickly, and +had offered to restore her pledge." + +Patience could not deny it, though she felt hotly indignant. + +"She charged me to give it back to you," added the uncle; "and to bid +you tell the young man that we are beholden to you both; but that since +the young folk are to be wedded to-morrow morn, and then to set forth +for Worcestershire, there is no time for leave-takings." + +"I do not wonder!" exclaimed Patience, "that she has no face to see us. +She that has been like a child or a sister to us, to leave us thus! O my +brother!" + +"Come, come, my good woman, best not make a pother." Poor Patience's +homely garb and hard-worked looks shewed little of the yeoman class to +which she belonged. "You've done your duty by the maid and here's the +best I have to make it up." + +Patience could not bring herself to take the bag, and he dropped it +into her basket "I am sorry for the young man, your brother, but he knew +better than to think to wed her as he is. And 'tis better for all there +should be no women's tears and foolishness over it." + +"Is she willing?" Patience could not but ask. + +"Willing?" Both men laughed. "Aye, what lass is not willing to take a +fine, strapping husband, and be a landed dame? She gave the token back +of her own free will, eh, Humfrey; and what did she bid us say?" + +"Her loving greetings to--What were their Puritanical names?" said the +son contemptuously. "Aye, and that she pitied the poor clown down there, +but knew he would be glad of what was best for her." + +"So farewell, good mistress," said Master Gaythorn, and off they clanked +together; and Patience, looking after them, could entirely believe that +the handsome buff coat, fringed belt, high boots, and jauntily cocked +hat would have driven out the thought of Stead in his best days. And now +that he was bent, crippled, weak, helpless,--"and all through her, what +hope was then," thought Patience, "yet if she had loved him, or there +had been any truth in her, she could have wedded him now, and he would +have been at ease through life! A little adder at our hearth! We are +well quit of her, if he will but think so, but how shall I ever tell +him?" + +She did not rush in with the tidings but came home slowly, drearily, +so that Stead, who was sitting outside by the door, peeling rushes, +gathered that something was amiss, and soon wormed it out of her, while +her tears dropped fast for him. Still, as ever, he spoke little. He said +her uncle was right in sparing tears and farewells, no doubt reserving +to himself the belief that it was against her will. And when Patience +could not help declaring that the girl might have made him share her +prosperity, he said, "I'm past looking after her lands. Her uncle would +say so. 'Tis his doing; I am glad of what is best for my darling as was. +There's an end of it, Patience--joy and grief. And I thank God that the +child is safely cared for at last." + +He tried to be as usual, but he was very ill that night. + +Patience found the money in her basket. She hated it and put it aside, +and it was only some time after that she was constrained to use it, only +then telling Stead whence it came, when he could endure to hear that the +uncle had done his best to be just. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. FULFILMENT. + + + "My spirit heats her mortal bars, + As down dark tides the glory glides, + And mingles with the stars." + TENNYSON. + + +The year 1660 had come, and in the autumn, just as harvest was over, and +the trees on the slopes were taking tints of red, yellow, and brown, an +elderly clergyman, staff in hand, came slowly up the long lane leading +to Elmwood, whence he had been carried, bound to his horse, seventeen +years before. + +He had not suffered as much as some of his fellow priests. After a term +of imprisonment in London, he had been transported to the plantations, +namely, the American settlements, and had fallen in with friends, who +took him to Virginia. This was chiefly colonized by people attached to +the Church, who made him welcome, and he had ministered among them till +the news arrived of the Restoration of Charles II, and likewise that the +lawful incumbents of benefices, who had been driven out, were reinstated +by Act of Parliament. Mr. Holworth's Virginian friends would gladly have +kept him with them, but he felt that his duty was to his original flock, +and set out at once for England, landing at Bristol. There, however, he +waited, like the courteous man he was, to hold communication with his +people, till he had written to Mr. Elmwood, and made arrangements with +him and Master Woodley. + +They were grieved, but they were both men who had a great respect for +law and parliament, so they made no difficulties. Mr. and Mrs. Woodley +retired to the hall and left the parsonage vacant, after the minister +had preached a farewell sermon in the church which made everyone cry, +for he was a good man and had made himself loved, and there were very +few in the parish who could understand that difference between the true +Church and a body without bishops. Mr. Holworth had in the meantime gone +to Wells to see his own Bishop Piers, an old man of eighty-six, and it +was from thence that he was now returning. He had not chosen to enter +his parish till the intruded minister had resigned the charge, but he +had been somewhat disappointed that none of his old flock, not even +any Kentons, who had so much in charge, had come in to see him. He now +arrived in this quiet way, thinking that it would not be delicate to +the feelings of the squire and ex-minister to let the people get up any +signs of joy or ring the bells, if they were so inclined. Indeed, he was +much afraid from what he had been able to learn that it would be only +the rougher sort, who hated Puritan strictness and wanted sport and +revelry, who would give him an eager welcome. + +So he first went quietly up to the church, which he found full of +benches and pews, with the Altar table in the middle of the nave, and +the squire's comfortable cushioned seat at the east end. He knelt on the +step for a long time, then made a brief visit to his own house, where +the garden was in beautiful order, but only a room or two were furnished +with goods he had bought from the Woodleys, and these were in charge of +a servant he had hired at Bristol. + +Thence the old man went out into the village, and his first halt was +at the forge, where Blane, who had grown a great deal stouter and more +grizzled, started at sight of his square cap. + +"Eh! but 'tis the old minister! You have come in quietly, sir! I am +afraid your reverence has but a sorry welcome." + +"I do not wonder you are grieved to part with Master Woodley." + +"Well, sir, he be a good man and a powerful preacher, though no doubt +your reverence has the best right, and for one, I'm right glad to see +an old face again. We would have rung the bells if we had known you were +coming." + +"That would have been hard on Master Woodley. I am only glad they are +not melted. But how is it with all my old friends, Harry? Poor Sir +George writ me that old clerk North died of grief of the rifling of the +church; and that John Kenton had been killed by some stragglers. What +became of his children?" + +"That eldest lad went off to the Parliament army, and came swaggering +here in his buff coat and boots like my Lord Protector himself, they say +he has got a castle and lands in Ireland. Men must be scarce, say I, if +they have had to make a gentleman of Jeph Kenton." + +"And the rest?" + +"Well, sir, I'm afraid that poor lad, Stead, is in poor plight. You +mind, he was always a still, steady, hard-working lad, and when his +father was killed, and his house burnt, and his brother ran away, the +way he and his sister turned to was just wonderful. They went to live +in an old hut in the gulley down there, and they have made the place so +tidy as it does your heart good to look at it. They bred up the young +ones, and the younger girl is well married to one of the Squire's +folks, and everyone respected them. But, as ill-luck would have it, some +robbers from Bristol seem to have got scent of their savings. Some said +that the Communion Cup was hid somewhere there." + +Mr. Holworth made an anxious sound of interrogation. + +"Well, I did see the corporal, when the Parliament soldiers were at +Bristol, flog Stead shamefully to know where it was, and never get a +word out of him, whether or no; and as he was a boy who would never tell +a lie, it stands to reason he knew where they were." + +"But how did anyone guess at his knowing?" asked Mr. Holworth. + +"His brother might have thought it likely, poor John being thick with +your reverence," said Blane. "After that I thought, myself, that he +ought to give them up to Master Woodley, if so be he had them; but I +could never get a hint from him. The talk went that old Dr. Eales, you +mind him, sir, before he died, came out and held a prelatist service, +begging your pardon, sir, and that the things were used. Stead got into +trouble with Squire about it." + +"But the robbers, how was that? You said he was hurt!" + +"Sore hurt, sir; and he has never got the better of it, though 'tis nigh +upon four years ago. There was a slip of a wench he picked up as a child +after the fight by Luck's mill, and bred up; a fair lass she grew up +to look on, but a light-headed one. She went to service at Bristol, and +poor Stead was troth plight to her, hoped to save and build up the house +again, never knowing, not he, poor rogue, of her goings on with the +sailors and all the roistering lads about her master's house. 'Tis my +belief she put those rascals on the track, whether she meant it or not. +Stead made what defence he could, stood up like a man against the odds, +three to one, and got a shot in the side, so that he was like to die +then. Better for him, mayhap, if he had at once, for it has been nought +but a lingering ever since, never able to do a day's work, though that +wench, Patience, and the young lad, Ben, have fought it out wonderfully. +That I will say." + +Mr. Holworth had tears in his eyes, and trembled with emotion. + +"The dear lad," he said. "Where is he? I must go and see him." + +"He bides in the gulley, sir; he has been there ever since the +farm-house was burnt." + +Ere long Mr. Holworth was on his way to the gulley. What had been only a +glade reaching from rock to stream, hidden in copsewood, was now an open +space trodden by cattle, with the actual straw-yard more in the rear, +but with a goat tethered on it and poultry running about. It was a sunny +afternoon, and in a wooden chair placed so as to catch the warmth, with +feet on a stool, sat, knitting, a figure that Mr. Holworth at first +thought was that of an aged man; but as he emerged from the wood, and +the big dog sprang up and barked, there was a looking up, an instant +silencing of the dog, a rising with manifest effort, a doffing of the +broad-brimmed hat, and the clergyman beheld what seemed to him his +old Churchwarden's face, only in the deadly pallor of long-continued +illness, and with the most intense, unspeakable look of happiness and +welcome afterwards irradiating it, a look that in after years always +came before Mr. Holworth with the "Nunc dimittis." + +Dropping the knitting, and holding by the chair, he stood trembling and +quivering with gladness, while, summoned by the dog's bark, Patience, +pail in hand, appeared on one side, and Ben, tall and slight, with his +flail, on the other. + +"My dear lad," was all Mr. Holworth could say, as he took the thin, +blanched hand, put his arm round the shoulders, and reseated Stead, +still speechless with joy. Patience, curtseying low, came up anxiously, +showing the same honest face as of old, though work and anxiety had +traced their lines on the sun-burnt complexion, and Ben stood blushing, +and showing his keener, more cultivated face, as the stranger turned to +greet them so as to give Steadfast time to recover himself. + +"Oh! sir, but we are glad to see your reverence," cried Patience. "Will +you go in, or sit by Stead? Ben, fetch a chair." + +"And is this fine strapping fellow, the sickly babe that you were never +to rear, Patience?" + +"God has been very good to us, sir," said Patience. + +"And this is best of all," said Stead, recovering breath and speech. "I +thank Him that I have lived to see this day! It is all safe, sir." + +"And you, you faithful guardian, you have suffered for it." + +If it had not been for Blane's partial revelations, Mr. Holworth never +would have extracted the full story of how for that sacred trust, +Steadfast Kenton had endured threats and pain, and had foregone ease, +prosperity, latterly happiness, and how finally it had cost him health, +nay life itself, for he was as surely dying of the buccaneer's pistol +shot, as though he had been slain on the spot. + +Long illness, with all the thought and reflection it had brought, had so +far changed and refined Stead that his awkward bashfulness and lack of +words had passed from him, and when he saw the clergyman overcome with +emotion at the thought of all he had undergone he said, + +"Never heed it, your reverence, it has come to be all joy to me to have +had a little to bear for the Master! 'Tis hard on Patience and Ben, but +they are very good to me; and being sick gives time for such comforts as +God sends me. It is more than all I could have had here." + +"I am sure of that, my dear boy. I was not grieving that I gave you +the trust, but thinking what a blessed thing it is to have kept it thus +faithfully." + +Two Sundays later, the Feast was again meetly spread in Elmwood Church, +the Altar restored to its place, and all as reverently arranged as it +could yet be among the broken carved work. + +In some respects it was a mournful service, few there were who after the +lapse of seventeen years even remembered the outlines of the old forms; +and the younger people knew not when to kneel or stand. There were +few who could read, and even for those who could there were only four +Prayer-books in the church, the clergyman's, the clerk's, the Kentons', +and one discovered by an old Elmwood servant. The Squire's family +came not; Goody Grace was dead, and though Rusha tried to instruct her +husband and her little girl, she herself was much at a loss. + +To Mr. Holworth it was almost like that rededication of the Temple when +the old men wept at the thought of the glory of the former house, but +there were some on whom his eye rested with joy and peace. There were +Blane and his wife, good and faithful though ignorant; there were the +old miller and his son, who had come all that distance since there +had as yet been no restoration in their church, and the goings on of +Original-Sin Hopkins and his friends had thoroughly disgusted them, and +made the old man yearn towards the church of his youth, and there was +the little group of three, the toil-worn but sweet-faced sister, calm +and restful, though watchful; the tall youth with thoughtful, earnest, +awe-struck face, come for his first Communion, for which through those +many years he had been taught to pray and long, and between them the +wasted form and wan features lighted up with that wonderful radiance +that had come on them with the sense that the trust was fulfilled, only +it was brighter, calmer, higher, than even at the greeting of the vicar. +Did Steadfast see only the burnished gold of the Chalice and paten he +had guarded for seventeen years at the cost of toil, danger, suffering, +love, and life itself? Did he not see and feel far beyond those outward +visible signs in which others, who had not yet endured to the end, could +only as yet put their trust by faith? + +Mr. Holworth, as he stood over him and saw the upturned eye, was sure it +was so. No doubt indeed Ben thought so too, but poor imaginative Ben +had somehow fancied it would be with his brother as with the King +who guarded that other sacred Cup, and when all was over, was quite +disappointed that Stead needed his strong arm as much as ever, nay more, +for on coming out into the air and sunshine a faintness and exhaustion +came on, and they had to rest him in the porch before he could move. + +"O Stead, I thought it would have healed you," the lad said. + +Stead slightly smiled. "Healed? I shall soon be healed altogether, Ben," +he said. He had with great difficulty and very slowly walked to church, +and Mr. Holworth wished him to come and rest at the Vicarage, but he was +very anxious to get home, and after he had taken a little food, Andrew +Luck offered to share with Ben and Rusha's husband the carrying him back +between them on an elbow chair. + +This pleased him, and he looked up to Andrew and said, "You are in the +same mind as long ago?" + +"I never found anyone else I could lay my mind to, since my poor Kitty," +said Andrew. + +"She will come to you--soon," said Stead. "She'll have a sore heart, but +you will be good to her." + +"That I will. And little Bess and Kate shall come and tell her how they +want her." + +Stead smiled and his lips moved in thankfulness. + +"And if Ben would come with her," added Andrew, "I'd be a brother to +him." + +"Parson wants Ben," said Stead. "He says he can make a scholar of him, +and maybe a parson, and it will not be so lonesome in the vicarage." + +"And your farm?" + +"Rusha and her man take that. They have saved enough to build the house. +Yes, all is well. It is great peace and thankfulness." + +Patience returned with the cushions she had borrowed and they brought +Steadfast home, very much exhausted, and not speaking all the way. +Perhaps the unusual motion and exertion had made the bullet change its +place, for he hardly uttered another word, and that night, as he had +said to Ben, he was healed for ever of all his ills. + +The funeral sermon that Mr. Holworth preached the next Sunday, was on +the text so dear to all the loyal hearts who remembered the White King's +coronation text-- + +"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." + + + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Under the Storm, by Charlotte M. 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