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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Armourer's Prentices, by Charlotte M. Yonge
+
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+Title: The Armourer's Prentices
+
+Author: Charlotte Mary Yonge
+
+Release Date: February, 2006  [EBook #9959]
+[This file was first posted on November 5, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE ARMOURER'S PRENTICES ***
+
+
+
+
+Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+
+
+
+
+THE ARMOURER'S PRENTICES
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+
+I have attempted here to sketch citizen life in the early Tudor
+days, aided therein by Stowe's Survey of London, supplemented by Mr.
+Loftie's excellent history, and Dr. Burton's English Merchants.
+
+Stowe gives a full account of the relations of apprentices to their
+masters; though I confess that I do not know whether Edmund Burgess
+could have become a citizen of York after serving an apprenticeship
+in London.  Evil May Day is closely described in Hall's Chronicle.
+The ballad, said to be by Churchill, a contemporary, does not agree
+with it in all respects; but the story-teller may surely have
+license to follow whatever is most suitable to the purpose.  The
+sermon is exactly as given by Hall, who is also responsible for the
+description of the King's sports and of the Field of the Cloth of
+Gold and of Ardres.  Knight's admirable Pictorial History of England
+tells of Barlow, the archer, dubbed by Henry VIII. the King of
+Shoreditch.
+
+Historic Winchester describes both St. Elizabeth College and the
+Archer Monks of Hyde Abbey.  The tales mentioned as told by Ambrose
+to Dennet are really New Forest legends.
+
+The Moresco's Arabic Gospel and Breviary are mentioned in Lady
+Calcott's History of Spain, but she does not give her authority.
+Nor can I go further than Knight's Pictorial History for the King's
+adventure in the marsh.  He does not say where it happened, but as
+in Stowe's map "Dead Man's Hole" appears in what is now Regent's
+Park, the marsh was probably deep enough in places for the adventure
+there.  Brand's Popular Antiquities are the authority for the
+nutting in St. John's Wood on Holy Cross Day.  Indeed, in some
+country parishes I have heard that boys still think they have a
+license to crack nuts at church on the ensuing Sunday.
+
+Seebohm's Oxford Reformers and the Life of Sir Thomas More, written
+by William Roper, are my other authorities, though I touched
+somewhat unwillingly on ground already lighted up by Miss Manning in
+her Household of Sir Thomas More.
+
+Galt's Life of Cardinal Wolsey afforded the description of his
+household taken from his faithful Cavendish, and likewise the story
+of Patch the Fool.  In fact, a large portion of the whole book was
+built on that anecdote.
+
+I mention all this because I have so often been asked my authorities
+in historical tales, that I think people prefer to have what the
+French appropriately call pieces justificatives.
+
+C. M. YONGE.
+
+August 1st, 1884
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.  THE VERDURER'S LODGE
+
+
+
+"Give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament, with
+that I will go buy me fortunes."
+"Get you with him, you old dog."
+
+As You Like It.
+
+
+The officials of the New Forest have ever since the days of the
+Conqueror enjoyed some of the pleasantest dwellings that southern
+England can boast.
+
+The home of the Birkenholt family was not one of the least
+delightful.  It stood at the foot of a rising ground, on which grew
+a grove of magnificent beeches, their large silvery boles rising
+majestically like columns into a lofty vaulting of branches, covered
+above with tender green foliage.  Here and there the shade beneath
+was broken by the gilding of a ray of sunshine on a lower twig, or
+on a white trunk, but the floor of the vast arcades was almost
+entirely of the russet brown of the fallen leaves, save where a fern
+or holly bush made a spot of green.  At the foot of the slope lay a
+stretch of pasture ground, some parts covered by "lady-smocks, all
+silver white," with the course of the little stream through the
+midst indicated by a perfect golden river of shining kingcups
+interspersed with ferns.  Beyond lay tracts of brown heath and
+brilliant gorse and broom, which stretched for miles and miles along
+the flats, while the dry ground was covered with holly brake, and
+here and there woods of oak and beech made a sea of verdure,
+purpling in the distance.
+
+Cultivation was not attempted, but hardy little ponies, cows, goats,
+sheep, and pigs were feeding, and picking their way about in the
+marshy mead below, and a small garden of pot-herbs, inclosed by a
+strong fence of timber, lay on the sunny side of a spacious rambling
+forest lodge, only one story high, built of solid timber and roofed
+with shingle.  It was not without strong pretensions to beauty, as
+well as to picturesqueness, for the posts of the door, the
+architecture of the deep porch, the frames of the latticed windows,
+and the verge boards were all richly carved in grotesque devices.
+Over the door was the royal shield, between a pair of magnificent
+antlers, the spoils of a deer reported to have been slain by King
+Edward IV., as was denoted by the "glorious sun of York" carved
+beneath the shield.
+
+In the background among the trees were ranges of stables and
+kennels, and on the grass-plat in front of the windows was a row of
+beehives.  A tame doe lay on the little green sward, not far from a
+large rough deer-hound, both close friends who could be trusted at
+large.  There was a mournful dispirited look about the hound,
+evidently an aged animal, for the once black muzzle was touched with
+grey, and there was a film over one of the keen beautiful eyes,
+which opened eagerly as he pricked his ears and lifted his head at
+the rattle of the door latch.  Then, as two boys came out, he rose,
+and with a slowly waving tail, and a wistful appealing air, came and
+laid his head against one of the pair who had appeared in the porch.
+They were lads of fourteen and fifteen, clad in suits of new
+mourning, with the short belted doublet, puffed hose, small ruffs
+and little round caps of early Tudor times.  They had dark eyes and
+hair, and honest open faces, the younger ruddy and sunburnt, the
+elder thinner and more intellectual--and they were so much the same
+size that the advantage of age was always supposed to be on the side
+of Stephen, though he was really the junior by nearly a year.  Both
+were sad and grave, and the eyes and cheeks of Stephen showed traces
+of recent floods of tears, though there was more settled dejection
+on the countenance of his brother.
+
+"Ay, Spring," said the lad, "'tis winter with thee now.  A poor old
+rogue!  Did the new housewife talk of a halter because he showed his
+teeth when her ill-nurtured brat wanted to ride on him?  Nay, old
+Spring, thou shalt share thy master's fortunes, changed though they
+be.  Oh, father! father! didst thou guess how it would be with thy
+boys!"  And throwing himself on the grass, he hid his face against
+the dog and sobbed.
+
+"Come, Stephen, Stephen; 'tis time to play the man!  What are we to
+do out in the world if you weep and wail?"
+
+"She might have let us stay for the month's mind," was heard from
+Stephen.
+
+"Ay, and though we might be more glad to go, we might carry bitterer
+thoughts along with us.  Better be done with it at once, say I."
+
+"There would still be the Forest!  And I saw the moorhen sitting
+yester eve!  And the wild ducklings are out on the pool, and the
+woods are full of song.  Oh!  Ambrose!  I never knew how hard it is
+to part--"
+
+"Nay, now, Steve, where be all your plots for bravery?  You always
+meant to seek your fortune--not bide here like an acorn for ever."
+
+"I never thought to be thrust forth the very day of our poor
+father's burial, by a shrewish town-bred vixen, and a base narrow-
+souled--"
+
+"Hist! hist!" said the more prudent Ambrose.
+
+"Let him hear who will!  He cannot do worse for us than he has done!
+All the Forest will cry shame on him for a mean-hearted skinflint to
+turn his brothers from their home, ere their father and his, be cold
+in his grave," cried Stephen, clenching the grass with his hands, in
+his passionate sense of wrong.
+
+"That's womanish," said Ambrose.
+
+"Who'll be the woman when the time comes for drawing cold steel?"
+cried Stephen, sitting up.
+
+At that moment there came through the porch a man, a few years over
+thirty, likewise in mourning, with a paler, sharper countenance than
+the brothers, and an uncomfortable pleading expression of self-
+justification.
+
+"How now, lads!" he said, "what means this passion?  You have taken
+the matter too hastily.  There was no thought that ye should part
+till you had some purpose in view.  Nay, we should be fain for
+Ambrose to bide on here, so he would leave his portion for me to
+deal with, and teach little Will his primer and accidence.  You are
+a quiet lad, Ambrose, and can rule your tongue better than Stephen."
+
+"Thanks, brother John," said Ambrose, somewhat sarcastically, "but
+where Stephen goes I go."
+
+"I would--I would have found Stephen a place among the prickers or
+rangers, if--" hesitated John.  "In sooth, I would yet do it, if he
+would make it up with the housewife."
+
+"My father looked higher for his son than a pricker's office,"
+returned Ambrose.
+
+"That do I wot," said John, "and therefore, 'tis for his own good
+that I would send him forth.  His godfather, our uncle Birkenholt,
+he will assuredly provide for him, and set him forth--"
+
+The door of the house was opened, and a shrewish voice cried, "Mr.
+Birkenholt--here, husband!  You are wanted.  Here's little Kate
+crying to have yonder smooth pouch to stroke, and I cannot reach it
+for her."
+
+"Father set store by that otter-skin pouch, for poor Prince Arthur
+slew the otter," cried Stephen.  "Surely, John, you'll not let the
+babes make a toy of that?"
+
+John made a helpless gesture, and at a renewed call, went indoors.
+
+"You are right, Ambrose," said Stephen, "this is no place for us.
+Why should we tarry any longer to see everything moiled and set at
+nought?  I have couched in the forest before, and 'tis summer time."
+
+"Nay," said Ambrose, "we must make up our fardels and have our money
+in our pouches before we can depart.  We must tarry the night, and
+call John to his reckoning, and so might we set forth early enough
+in the morning to lie at Winchester that night and take counsel with
+our uncle Birkenholt."
+
+"I would not stop short at Winchester," said Stephen.  "London for
+me, where uncle Randall will find us preferment!"
+
+"And what wilt do for Spring!"
+
+"Take him with me, of course!" exclaimed Stephen.  "What! would I
+leave him to be kicked and pinched by Will, and hanged belike by
+Mistress Maud?"
+
+"I doubt me whether the poor old hound will brook the journey."
+
+"Then I'll carry him!"
+
+Ambrose looked at the big dog as if he thought it would be a serious
+undertaking, but he had known and loved Spring as his brother's
+property ever since his memory began, and he scarcely felt that they
+could be separable for weal or woe.
+
+The verdurers of the New Forest were of gentle blood, and their
+office was well-nigh hereditary.  The Birkenholts had held it for
+many generations, and the reversion passed as a matter of course to
+the eldest son of the late holder, who had newly been laid in the
+burial ground of Beaulieu Abbey.  John Birkenholt, whose mother had
+been of knightly lineage, had resented his father's second marriage
+with the daughter of a yeoman on the verge of the Forest, suspected
+of a strain of gipsy blood, and had lived little at home, becoming a
+sort of agent at Southampton for business connected with the timber
+which was yearly cut in the Forest to supply material for the
+shipping.  He had wedded the daughter of a person engaged in law
+business at Southampton, and had only been an occasional visitor at
+home, ever after the death of his stepmother.  She had left these
+two boys, unwelcome appendages in his sight.  They had obtained a
+certain amount of education at Beaulieu Abbey, where a school was
+kept, and where Ambrose daily studied, though for the last few
+months Stephen had assisted his father in his forest duties.
+
+Death had come suddenly to break up the household in the early
+spring of 1515, and John Birkenholt had returned as if to a
+patrimony, bringing his wife and children with him.  The funeral
+ceremonies had been conducted at Beaulieu Abbey on the extensive
+scale of the sixteenth century, the requiem, the feast, and the
+dole, all taking place there, leaving the Forest lodge in its
+ordinary quiet.
+
+It had always been understood that on their father's death the two
+younger sons must make their own way in the world; but he had hoped
+to live until they were a little older, when he might himself have
+started them in life, or expressed his wishes respecting them to
+their elder brother.  As it was, however, there was no commendation
+of them, nothing but a strip of parchment, drawn up by one of the
+monks of Beaulieu, leaving each of them twenty crowns, with a few
+small jewels and properties left by their own mother, while
+everything else went to their brother.
+
+There might have been some jealousy excited by the estimation in
+which Stephen's efficiency--boy as he was--was evidently held by the
+plain-spoken underlings of the verdurer; and this added to Mistress
+Birkenholt's dislike to the presence of her husband's half-brothers,
+whom she regarded as interlopers without a right to exist.  Matters
+were brought to a climax by old Spring's resentment at being roughly
+teased by her spoilt children.  He had done nothing worse than growl
+and show his teeth, but the town-bred dame had taken alarm, and half
+in terror, half in spite, had insisted on his instant execution,
+since he was too old to be valuable.  Stephen, who loved the dog
+only less than he loved his brother Ambrose, had come to high words
+with her; and the end of the altercation had been that she had
+declared that she would suffer no great lubbers of the half-blood to
+devour her children's inheritance, and teach them ill manners, and
+that go they must, and that instantly.  John had muttered a little
+about "not so fast, dame," and "for very shame," but she had turned
+on him, and rated him with a violence that demonstrated who was
+ruler in the house, and took away all disposition to tarry long
+under the new dynasty.
+
+The boys possessed two uncles, one on each side of the house.  Their
+father's elder brother had been a man-at-arms, having preferred a
+stirring life to the Forest, and had fought in the last surges of
+the Wars of the Roses.  Having become disabled and infirm, he had
+taken advantage of a corrody, or right of maintenance, as being of
+kin to a benefactor of Hyde Abbey at Winchester, to which Birkenholt
+some generations back had presented a few roods of land, in right of
+which, one descendant at a time might be maintained in the Abbey.
+Intelligence of his brother's death had been sent to Richard
+Birkenholt, but answer had been returned that he was too evil-
+disposed with the gout to attend the burial.
+
+The other uncle, Harry Randall, had disappeared from the country
+under a cloud connected with the king's deer, leaving behind him the
+reputation of a careless, thriftless, jovial fellow, the best
+company in all the Forest, and capable of doing every one's work
+save his own.
+
+The two brothers, who were about seven and six years old at the time
+of his flight, had a lively recollection of his charms as a
+playmate, and of their mother's grief for him, and refusal to
+believe any ill of her Hal.  Rumours had come of his attainment to
+vague and unknown greatness at court, under the patronage of the
+Lord Archbishop of York, which the Verdurer laughed to scorn, though
+his wife gave credit to them.  Gifts had come from time to time,
+passed through a succession of servants and officials of the king,
+such as a coral and silver rosary, a jewelled bodkin, an agate
+carved with St. Catherine, an ivory pouncet box with a pierced gold
+coin as the lid; but no letter with them, as indeed Hal Randall had
+never been induced to learn to read or write.  Master Birkenholt
+looked doubtfully at the tokens and hoped Hal had come honestly by
+them; but his wife had thoroughly imbued her sons with the belief
+that Uncle Hal was shining in his proper sphere, where he was better
+appreciated than at home.  Thus their one plan was to go to London
+to find Uncle Hal, who was sure to put Stephen on the road to
+fortune, and enable Ambrose to become a great scholar, his favourite
+ambition.
+
+His gifts would, as Ambrose observed, serve them as tokens, and with
+the purpose of claiming them, they re-entered the hall, a long low
+room, with a handsome open roof, and walls tapestried with dressed
+skins, interspersed with antlers, hung with weapons of the chase.
+At one end of the hall was a small polished barrel, always
+replenished with beer, at the other a hearth with a wood fire
+constantly burning, and there was a table running the whole length
+of the room; at one end of this was laid a cloth, with a few
+trenchers on it, and horn cups, surrounding a barley loaf and a
+cheese, this meagre irregular supper being considered as a
+sufficient supplement to the funeral baked meats which had abounded
+at Beaulieu.  John Birkenholt sat at the table with a trencher and
+horn before him, uneasily using his knife to crumble, rather than
+cut, his bread.  His wife, a thin, pale, shrewish-looking woman, was
+warming her child's feet at the fire, before putting him to bed, and
+an old woman sat spinning and nodding on a settle at a little
+distance.
+
+"Brother," said Stephen, "we have thought on what you said.  We will
+put our stuff together, and if you will count us out our portions,
+we will be afoot by sunrise to-morrow."
+
+"Nay, nay, lad, I said not there was such haste; did I, mistress
+housewife?"--(she snorted); "only that thou art a well-grown lusty
+fellow, and 'tis time thou wentest forth.  For thee, Ambrose, thou
+wottest I made thee a fair offer of bed and board."
+
+"That is," called out the wife, "if thou wilt make a fair scholar of
+little Will.  'Tis a mighty good offer.  There are not many who
+would let their child be taught by a mere stripling like thee!"
+
+"Nay," said Ambrose, who could not bring himself to thank her, "I go
+with Stephen, mistress; I would mend my scholarship ere I teach."
+
+"As you please," said Mistress Maud, shrugging her shoulders, "only
+never say that a fair offer was not made to you."
+
+"And," said Stephen, "so please you, brother John, hand us over our
+portions, and the jewels as bequeathed to us, and we will be gone."
+
+"Portions, quotha?" returned John.  "Boy, they be not due to you
+till you be come to years of discretion."
+
+The brothers looked at one another, and Stephen said, "Nay, now,
+brother, I know not how that may be, but I do know that you cannot
+drive us from our father's house without maintenance, and detain
+what belongs to us."
+
+And Ambrose muttered something about "my Lord of Beaulieu."
+
+"Look you, now," said John, "did I ever speak of driving you from
+home without maintenance?  Hath not Ambrose had his choice of
+staying here, and Stephen of waiting till some office be found for
+him?  As for putting forty crowns into the hands of striplings like
+you, it were mere throwing it to the robbers."
+
+"That being so," said Ambrose turning to Stephen, "we will to
+Beaulieu, and see what counsel my lord will give us."
+
+"Yea, do, like the vipers ye are, and embroil us with my Lord of
+Beaulieu," cried Maud from the fire.
+
+"See," said John, in his more caressing fashion, "it is not well to
+carry family tales to strangers, and--and--"
+
+He was disconcerted by a laugh from the old nurse, "Ho!  John
+Birkenholt, thou wast ever a lad of smooth tongue, but an thou, or
+madam here, think that thy brothers can be put forth from thy
+father's door without their due before the good man be cold in his
+grave, and the Forest not ring with it, thou art mightily out in thy
+reckoning!"
+
+"Peace, thou old hag; what matter is't of thine?" began Mistress
+Maud, but again came the harsh laugh.  "Matter of mine!  Why, whose
+matter should it be but mine, that have nursed all three of the
+lads, ay, and their father before them, besides four more that lie
+in the graveyard at Beaulieu?  Rest their sweet souls!  And I tell
+thee, Master John, an thou do not righteously by these thy brothers,
+thou mayst back to thy parchments at Southampton, for not a man or
+beast in the Forest will give thee good day."
+
+They all felt the old woman's authority.  She was able and spirited
+in her homely way, and more mistress of the house than Mrs.
+Birkenholt herself; and such were the terms of domestic service,
+that there was no peril of losing her place.  Even Maud knew that to
+turn her out was an impossibility, and that she must be accepted
+like the loneliness, damp, and other evils of Forest life.  John had
+been under her dominion, and proceeded to persuade her.  "Good now,
+Nurse Joan, what have I denied these rash striplings that my father
+would have granted them?  Wouldst thou have them carry all their
+portion in their hands, to be cozened of it at the first ale-house,
+or robbed on the next heath?"
+
+"I would have thee do a brother's honest part, John Birkenholt.  A
+loving part I say not.  Thou wert always like a very popple for
+hardness, and smoothness, ay, and slipperiness.  Heigh ho!  But what
+is right by the lads, thou SHALT do."
+
+John cowered under her eye as he had done at six years old, and
+faltered, "I only seek to do them right, nurse."
+
+Nurse Joan uttered an emphatic grunt, but Mistress Maud broke in,
+"They are not to hang about here in idleness, eating my poor child's
+substance, and teaching him ill manners."
+
+"We would not stay here if you paid us for it," returned Stephen.
+
+"And whither would you go?" asked John.
+
+"To Winchester first, to seek counsel with our uncle Birkenholt.
+Then to London, where uncle Randall will help us to our fortunes."
+
+"Gipsy Hal!  He is more like to help you to a halter," sneered John,
+sotto voce, and Joan herself observed, "Their uncle at Winchester
+will show them better than to run after that there go-by-chance."
+
+However, as no one wished to keep the youths, and they were equally
+determined to go, an accommodation was come to at last.  John was
+induced to give them three crowns apiece and to yield them up the
+five small trinkets specified, though not without some murmurs from
+his wife.  It was no doubt safer to leave the rest of the money in
+his hands than to carry it with them, and he undertook that it
+should be forthcoming, if needed for any fit purpose, such as the
+purchase of an office, an apprentice's fee, or an outfit as a
+squire.  It was a vague promise that cost him nothing just then, and
+thus could be readily made, and John's great desire was to get them
+away so that he could aver that they had gone by their own free
+will, without any hardship, for he had seen enough at his father's
+obsequies to show him that the love and sympathy of all the scanty
+dwellers in the Forest was with them.
+
+Nurse Joan had fought their battles, but with the sore heart of one
+who was parting with her darlings never to see them again.  She bade
+them doff their suits of mourning that she might make up their
+fardels, as they would travel in their Lincoln-green suits.  To take
+these she repaired to the little rough shed-like chamber where the
+two brothers lay for the last time on their pallet bed, awake, and
+watching for her, with Spring at their feet.  The poor old woman
+stood over them, as over the motherless nurslings whom she had
+tended, and she should probably never see more, but she was a woman
+of shrewd sense, and perceived that "with the new madam in the hall"
+it was better that they should be gone before worse ensued.
+
+She advised leaving their valuables sealed up in the hands of my
+Lord Abbot, but they were averse to this--for they said their uncle
+Randall, who had not seen them since they were little children,
+would not know them without some pledge.
+
+She shook her head.  "The less you deal with Hal Randall the
+better," she said.  "Come now, lads, be advised and go no farther
+than Winchester, where Master Ambrose may get all the book-learning
+he is ever craving for, and you, Master Steevie, may prentice
+yourself to some good trade."
+
+"Prentice!" cried Stephen, scornfully.
+
+"Ay, ay.  As good blood as thine has been prenticed," returned Joan.
+"Better so than be a cut-throat sword-and-buckler fellow, ever
+slaying some one else or getting thyself slain--a terror to all
+peaceful folk.  But thine uncle will see to that--a steady-minded
+lad always was he--was Master Dick."
+
+Consoling herself with this hope, the old woman rolled up their new
+suits with some linen into two neat knapsacks; sighing over the
+thought that unaccustomed fingers would deal with the shirts she had
+spun, bleached, and sewn.  But she had confidence in "Master Dick,"
+and concluded that to send his nephews to him at Winchester gave a
+far better chance of their being cared for, than letting them be
+flouted into ill-doing by their grudging brother and his wife.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.  THE GRANGE OF SILKSTEDE
+
+
+
+      "All Itchen's valley lay,
+St. Catherine's breezy side and the woodlands far away,
+The huge Cathedral sleeping in venerable gloom,
+The modest College tower, and the bedesmen's Norman home."
+
+LORD SELBORNE.
+
+
+Very early in the morning, even according to the habits of the time,
+were Stephen and Ambrose Birkenholt astir.  They were full of ardour
+to enter on the new and unknown world beyond the Forest, and much as
+they loved it, any change that kept them still to their altered life
+would have been distasteful.
+
+Nurse Joan, asking no questions, folded up their fardels on their
+backs, and packed the wallets for their day's journey with ample
+provision.  She charged them to be good lads, to say their Pater,
+Credo, and Ave daily, and never omit Mass on a Sunday.  They kissed
+her like their mother and promised heartily--and Stephen took his
+crossbow.  They had had some hope of setting forth so early as to
+avoid all other human farewells, except that Ambrose wished to begin
+by going to Beaulieu to take leave of the Father who had been his
+kind master, and get his blessing and counsel.  But Beaulieu was
+three miles out of their way, and Stephen had not the same desire,
+being less attached to his schoolmaster and more afraid of
+hindrances being thrown in their way.
+
+Moreover, contrary to their expectation, their elder brother came
+forth, and declared his intention of setting them forth on their
+way, bestowing a great amount of good advice, to the same purport as
+that of nurse Joan, namely, that they should let their uncle Richard
+Birkenholt find them some employment at Winchester, where they, or
+at least Ambrose, might even obtain admission into the famous
+college of St. Mary.
+
+In fact, this excellent elder brother persuaded himself that it
+would be doing them an absolute wrong to keep such promising youths
+hidden in the Forest.
+
+The purpose of his going thus far with them made itself evident.  It
+was to see them past the turning to Beaulieu.  No doubt he wished to
+tell the story in his own way, and that they should not present
+themselves there as orphans expelled from their father's house.  It
+would sound much better that he had sent them to ask counsel of
+their uncle at Winchester, the fit person to take charge of them.
+And as he represented that to go to Beaulieu would lengthen their
+day's journey so much that they might hardly reach Winchester that
+night, while all Stephen's wishes were to go forward, Ambrose could
+only send his greetings.  There was another debate over Spring, who
+had followed his master as usual.  John uttered an exclamation of
+vexation at perceiving it, and bade Stephen drive the dog back.  "Or
+give me the leash to drag him.  He will never follow me."
+
+"He goes with us," said Stephen.
+
+"He!  Thou'lt never have the folly!  The old hound is half blind and
+past use.  No man will take thee in with him after thee."
+
+"Then they shall not take me in," said Stephen.  "I'll not leave him
+to be hanged by thee."
+
+"Who spoke of hanging him!"
+
+"Thy wife will soon, if she hath not already."
+
+"Thou wilt be for hanging him thyself ere thou have made a day's
+journey with him on the king's highway, which is not like these
+forest paths, I would have thee to know.  Why, he limps already."
+
+"Then I'll carry him," said Stephen, doggedly.
+
+"What hast thou to say to that device, Ambrose?" asked John,
+appealing to the elder and wiser.
+
+But Ambrose only answered "I'll help," and as John had no particular
+desire to retain the superannuated hound, and preferred on the whole
+to be spared sentencing him, no more was said on the subject as they
+went along, until all John's stock of good counsel had been lavished
+on his brothers' impatient ears.  He bade them farewell, and turned
+back to the lodge, and they struck away along the woodland pathway
+which they had been told led to Winchester, though they had never
+been thither, nor seen any town save Southampton and Romsey at long
+intervals.  On they went, sometimes through beech and oak woods of
+noble, almost primeval, trees, but more often across tracts of holly
+underwood, illuminated here and there with the snowy garlands of the
+wild cherry, and beneath with wide spaces covered with young green
+bracken, whose soft irregular masses on the undulating ground had
+somewhat the effect of the waves of the sea.  These alternated with
+stretches of yellow gorse and brown heather, sheets of cotton-grass,
+and pools of white crowfoot, and all the vegetation of a mountain
+side, only that the mountain was not there.
+
+The brothers looked with eyes untaught to care for beauty, but with
+a certain love of the home scenes, tempered by youth's impatience
+for something new.  The nightingales sang, the thrushes flew out
+before them, the wild duck and moorhen glanced on the pools.  Here
+and there they came on the furrows left by the snout of the wild
+swine, and in the open tracts rose the graceful heads of the deer,
+but of inhabitants or travellers they scarce saw any, save when they
+halted at the little hamlet of Minestead, where a small alehouse was
+kept by one Will Purkiss, who claimed descent from the charcoal-
+burner who had carried William Rufus's corpse to burial at
+Winchester--the one fact in history known to all New Foresters,
+though perhaps Ambrose and John were the only persons beyond the
+walls of Beaulieu who did not suppose the affair to have taken place
+in the last generation.
+
+A draught of ale and a short rest were welcome as the heat of the
+day came on, making the old dog plod wearily on with his tongue out,
+so that Stephen began to consider whether he should indeed have to
+be his bearer--a serious matter, for the creature at full length
+measured nearly as much as he did.  They met hardly any one, and
+they and Spring were alike too well known and trained, for
+difficulties to arise as to leading a dog through the Forest.
+Should they ever come to the term of the Forest?  It was not easy to
+tell when they were really beyond it, for the ground was much of the
+same kind.  Only the smooth, treeless hills, where they had always
+been told Winchester lay, seemed more defined; and they saw no more
+deer, but here and there were inclosures where wheat and barley were
+growing, and black timbered farm-houses began to show themselves at
+intervals.  Herd boys, as rough and unkempt as their charges, could
+be seen looking after little tawny cows, black-faced sheep, or
+spotted pigs, with curs which barked fiercely at poor weary Spring,
+even as their masters were more disposed to throw stones than to
+answer questions.
+
+By and by, on the further side of a green valley, could be seen
+buildings with an encircling wall of flint and mortar faced with
+ruddy brick, the dark red-tiled roofs rising among walnut-trees, and
+an orchard in full bloom spreading into a long green field.
+
+"Winchester must be nigh.  The sun is getting low," said Stephen.
+
+"We will ask.  The good folk will at least give us an answer," said
+Ambrose wearily.
+
+As they reached the gate, a team of plough horses was passing in led
+by a peasant lad, while a lay brother, with his gown tucked up, rode
+sideways on one, whistling.  An Augustinian monk, ruddy, burly, and
+sunburnt, stood in the farm-yard, to receive an account of the day's
+work, and doffing his cap, Ambrose asked whether Winchester were
+near.
+
+"Three mile or thereaway, my good lad," said the monk; "thou'lt see
+the towers an ye mount the hill.  Whence art thou?" he added,
+looking at the two young strangers.  "Scholars?  The College elects
+not yet a while."
+
+"We be from the Forest, so please your reverence," and are bound for
+Hyde Abbey, where our uncle, Master Richard Birkenholt, dwells."
+
+"And oh, sir," added Stephen, "may we crave a drop of water for our
+dog?"
+
+The monk smiled as he looked at Spring, who had flung himself down
+to take advantage of the halt, hanging out his tongue, and panting
+spasmodically.  "A noble beast," he said, "of the Windsor breed,
+is't not?"  Then laying his hand on the graceful head, "Poor old
+hound, thou art o'er travelled.  He is aged for such a journey, if
+you came from the Forest since morn.  Twelve years at the least, I
+should say, by his muzzle."
+
+"Your reverence is right," said Stephen, "he is twelve years old.
+He is two years younger than I am, and my father gave him to me when
+he was a little whelp."
+
+"So thou must needs take him to seek thy fortune with thee," said
+the good-natured Augustinian, not knowing how truly he spoke.  "Come
+in, my lads, here's a drink for him.  What said you was your uncle's
+name?" and as Ambrose repeated it, "Birkenholt!  Living on a corrody
+at Hyde!  Ay! ay!  My lads, I have a call to Winchester to-morrow,
+you'd best tarry the night here at Silkstede Grange, and fare
+forward with me."
+
+The tired boys were heartily glad to accept the invitation, more
+especially as Spring, happy as he was with the trough of water
+before him, seemed almost too tired to stand over it, and after the
+first, tried to lap, lying down.  Silkstede was not a regular
+convent, only a grange or farm-house, presided over by one of the
+monks, with three or four lay brethren under him, and a little
+colony of hinds, in the surrounding cottages, to cultivate the farm,
+and tend a few cattle and numerous sheep, the special care of the
+Augustinians.
+
+Father Shoveller, as the good-natured monk who had received the
+travellers was called, took them into the spacious but homely
+chamber which served as refectory, kitchen, and hall.  He called to
+the lay brother who was busy over the open hearth to fry a few more
+rashers of bacon; and after they had washed away the dust of their
+journey at the trough where Spring had slaked his thirst, they sat
+down with him to a hearty supper, which smacked more of the grange
+than of the monastery, spread on a large solid oak table, and washed
+down with good ale.  The repast was shared by the lay brethren and
+farm servants, and also by two or three big sheep dogs, who had to
+be taught their manners towards Spring.
+
+There was none of the formality that Ambrose was accustomed to at
+Beaulieu in the great refectory, where no one spoke, but one of the
+brethren read aloud some theological book from a stone pulpit in the
+wall.  Here Brother Shoveller conversed without stint, chiefly with
+the brother who seemed to be a kind of bailiff, with whom he
+discussed the sheep that were to be taken into market the next day,
+and the prices to be given for them by either the college, the
+castle, or the butchers of Boucher Row.  He however found time to
+talk to the two guests, and being sprung from a family in the
+immediate neighbourhood, he knew the verdurer's name, and ere he was
+a monk, had joined in the chase in the Forest.
+
+There was a little oratory attached to the hall, where he and the
+lay brethren kept the hours, to a certain degree, putting two or
+three services into one, on a liberal interpretation of laborare est
+orare.  Ambrose's responses made their host observe as they went
+out, "Thou hast thy Latin pat, my son, there's the making of a
+scholar in thee."
+
+Then they took their first night's rest away from home, in a small
+guest-chamber, with a good bed, though bare in all other respects.
+Brother Shoveller likewise had a cell to himself, but the lay
+brethren slept promiscuously among their sheep-dogs on the floor of
+the refectory.
+
+All were afoot in the early morning, and Stephen and Ambrose were
+awakened by the tumultuous bleatings of the flock of sheep that were
+being driven from their fold to meet their fate at Winchester
+market.  They heard Brother Shoveller shouting his orders to the
+shepherds in tones a great deal more like those of a farmer than of
+a monk, and they made haste to dress themselves and join him as he
+was muttering a morning abbreviation of his obligatory devotions in
+the oratory, observing that they might be in time to hear mass at
+one of the city churches, but the sheep might delay them, and they
+had best break their fast ere starting.
+
+It was Wednesday, a day usually kept as a moderate fast, so the
+breakfast was of oatmeal porridge, flavoured with honey, and washed
+down with mead, after which Brother Shoveller mounted his mule, a
+sleek creature, whose long ears had an air of great contentment, and
+rode off, accommodating his pace to that of his young companions up
+a stony cart-track which soon led them to the top of a chalk down,
+whence, as in a map, they could see Winchester, surrounded by its
+walls, lying in a hollow between the smooth green hills.  At one end
+rose the castle, its fortifications covering its own hill, beneath,
+in the valley, the long, low massive Cathedral, the college
+buildings and tower with its pinnacles, and nearer at hand, among
+the trees, the Almshouse of Noble Poverty at St. Cross, beneath the
+round hill of St. Catherine.  Churches and monastic buildings stood
+thickly in the town, and indeed, Brother Shoveller said, shaking his
+head, that there were well-nigh as many churches as folk to go to
+them; the place was decayed since the time he remembered when Prince
+Arthur was born there.  Hyde Abbey he could not show them, from
+where they stood, as it lay further off by the river side, having
+been removed from the neighbourhood of the Minster, because the
+brethren of St. Grimbald could not agree with those of St. Swithun's
+belonging to the Minster, as indeed their buildings were so close
+together that it was hardly possible to pass between them, and their
+bells jangled in each other's ears.
+
+Brother Shoveller did not seem to entertain a very high opinion of
+the monks of St. Grimbald, and he asked the boys whether they were
+expected there.  "No," they said; "tidings of their father's death
+had been sent by one of the woodmen, and the only answer that had
+been returned was that Master Richard Birkenholt was ill at ease,
+but would have masses said for his brother's soul."
+
+"Hem!" said the Augustinian ominously; but at that moment they came
+up with the sheep, and his attention was wholly absorbed by them, as
+he joined the lay brothers in directing the shepherds who were
+driving them across the downs, steering them over the high ground
+towards the arched West Gate close to the royal castle.  The street
+sloped rapidly down, and Brother Shoveller conducted his young
+companions between the overhanging houses, with stalls between
+serving as shops, till they reached the open space round the Market
+Cross, on the steps of which women sat with baskets of eggs, butter,
+and poultry, raised above the motley throng of cattle and sheep,
+with their dogs and drivers, the various cries of man and beast
+forming an incongruous accompaniment to the bells of the churches
+that surrounded the market-place.
+
+Citizens' wives in hood and wimple were there, shrilly bargaining
+for provision for their households, squires and grooms in quest of
+hay for their masters' stables, purveyors seeking food for the
+garrison, lay brethren and sisters for their convents, and withal,
+the usual margin of begging friars, wandering gleemen, jugglers and
+pedlars, though in no great numbers, as this was only a Wednesday
+market-day, not a fair.  Ambrose recognised one or two who made part
+of the crowd at Beaulieu only two days previously, when he had "seen
+through tears the juggler leap," and the jingling tune one of them
+was playing on a rebeck brought back associations of almost
+unbearable pain.  Happily, Father Shoveller, having seen his sheep
+safely bestowed in a pen, bethought him of bidding the lay brother
+in attendance show the young gentlemen the way to Hyde Abbey, and
+turning up a street at right angles to the principal one, they were
+soon out of the throng.
+
+It was a lonely place, with a decayed uninhabited appearance, and
+Brother Peter told them it had been the Jewry, whence good King
+Edward had banished all the unbelieving dogs of Jews, and where no
+one chose to dwell after them.
+
+Soon they came in sight of a large extent of monastic buildings,
+partly of stone, but the more domestic offices of flint and brick or
+mortar.  Large meadows stretched away to the banks of the Itchen,
+with cattle grazing in them, but in one was a set of figures to whom
+the lay brother pointed with a laugh of exulting censure.
+
+"Long bows!" exclaimed Stephen.  "Who be they?"
+
+"Brethren of St. Grimbald, sir.  Such rule doth my Lord of Hyde
+keep, mitred abbot though he be.  They say the good bishop hath
+called him to order, but what recks he of bishops?  Good-day,
+Brother Bulpett, here be two young kinsmen of Master Birkenholt to
+visit him; and so benedicite, fair sirs.  St. Austin's grace be with
+you!"
+
+Through a gate between two little red octagonal towers, Brother
+Bulpett led the two visitors, and called to another of the monks,
+"Benedicite, Father Segrim, here be two striplings wanting speech of
+old Birkenholt."
+
+"Looking after dead men's shoes, I trow," muttered father Segrim,
+with a sour look at the lads, as he led them through the outer
+court, where some fine horses were being groomed, and then across a
+second court surrounded with a beautiful cloister, with flower beds
+in front of it.  Here, on a stone bench, in the sun, clad in a gown
+furred with rabbit skin, sat a decrepit old man, both his hands
+clasped over his staff.  Into his deaf ears their guide shouted,
+"These boys say they are your kindred, Master Birkenholt."
+
+"Anan?" said the old man, trembling with palsy.  The lads knew him
+to be older than their father, but they were taken by surprise at
+such feebleness, and the monk did not aid them, only saying roughly,
+"There he is.  Tell your errand."
+
+"How fares it with you, uncle?" ventured Ambrose.
+
+"Who be ye?  I know none of you," muttered the old man, shaking his
+head still more.
+
+"We are Ambrose and Stephen from the Forest," shouted Ambrose.
+
+"Ah!  Steve! poor Stevie!  The accursed boar has rent his goodly
+face so as I would never have known him.  Poor Steve!  Best his
+soul!"
+
+The old man began to weep, while his nephews recollected that they
+had heard that another uncle had been slain by the tusk of a wild
+boar in early manhood.  Then to their surprise, his eyes fell on
+Spring, and calling the hound by name, he caressed the creature's
+head--"Spring, poor Spring!  Stevie's faithful old dog.  Hast lost
+thy master?  Wilt follow me now?"
+
+He was thinking of a Spring as well as of a Stevie of sixty years
+ago, and he babbled on of how many fawns were in the Queen's Bower
+this summer, and who had best shot at the butts at Lyndhurst, as if
+he were excited by the breath of his native Forest, but there was no
+making him understand that he was speaking with his nephews.  The
+name of his brother John only set him repeating that John loved the
+greenwood, and would be content to take poor Stevie's place and
+dwell in the verdurer's lodge; but that he himself ought to be
+abroad, he had seen brave Lord Talbot's ships ready at Southampton,
+John might stay at home, but he would win fame and honour in
+Gascony.
+
+And while he thus wandered, and the boys stood by perplexed and
+distressed, Brother Segrim came back, and said, "So, young sirs,
+have you seen enough of your doting kinsman?  The sub-prior bids me
+say that we harbour no strange, idling, lubber lads nor strange dogs
+here.  'Tis enough for us to be saddled with dissolute old men-at-
+arms without all their idle kin making an excuse to come and pay
+their devoirs.  These corrodies are a heavy charge and a weighty
+abuse, and if there be the visitation the king's majesty speaks of,
+they will be one of the first matters to be amended."
+
+Wherewith Stephen and Ambrose found themselves walked out of the
+cloister of St. Grimbald, and the gates shut behind them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.  KINSMEN AND STRANGERS
+
+
+
+"The reul of St. Maure and of St. Beneit
+Because that it was old and some deale streit
+This ilke monk let old things pace;
+He held ever of the new world the trace."
+
+CHAUCER.
+
+
+"The churls!" exclaimed Stephen.
+
+"Poor old man!" said Ambrose; "I hope they are good to him!"
+
+"To think that thus ends all that once was gallant talk of fighting
+under Talbot's banner," sighed Stephen, thoughtful for a moment.
+"However, there's a good deal to come first."
+
+"Yea, and what next?" said the elder brother.
+
+"On to uncle Hal.  I ever looked most to him.  He will purvey me to
+a page's place in some noble household, and get thee a clerk's or
+scholar's place in my Lord of York's house.  Mayhap there will be
+room for us both there, for my Lord of York hath a goodly following
+of armed men."
+
+"Which way lies the road to London?"
+
+"We must back into the town and ask, as well as fill our stomachs
+and our wallets," said Ambrose.  "Talk of their rule!  The
+entertaining of strangers is better understood at Silkstede than at
+Hyde."
+
+"Tush!  A grudged crust sticks in the gullet," returned Stephen.
+"Come on, Ambrose, I marked the sign of the White Hart by the
+market-place.  There will be a welcome there for foresters."
+
+They returned on their steps past the dilapidated buildings of the
+old Jewry, and presently saw the market in full activity; but the
+sounds and sights of busy life where they were utter strangers, gave
+Ambrose a sense of loneliness and desertion, and his heart sank as
+the bolder Stephen threaded the way in the direction of a broad
+entry over which stood a slender-bodied hart with gold hoofs, horns,
+collar, and chain.
+
+"How now, my sons?" said a full cheery voice, and to their joy, they
+found themselves pushed up against Father Shoveller.
+
+"Returned already!  Did you get scant welcome at Hyde?  Here, come
+where we can get a free breath, and tell me."
+
+They passed through the open gateway of the White Hart, into the
+court, but before listening to them, the monk exchanged greetings
+with the hostess, who stood at the door in a broad hat and velvet
+bodice, and demanded what cheer there was for noon-meat.
+
+"A jack, reverend sir, eels and a grampus fresh sent up from
+Hampton; also fresh-killed mutton for such lay folk as are not
+curious of the Wednesday fast.  They are laying the board even now."
+
+"Lay platters for me and these two young gentlemen," said the
+Augustinian.  "Ye be my guests, ye wot," he added, "since ye tarried
+not for meat at Hyde."
+
+"Nor did they ask us," exclaimed Stephen; "lubbers and idlers were
+the best words they had for us."
+
+"Ho! ho!  That's the way with the brethren of St Grimbald!  And your
+uncle?"
+
+"Alas, sir, he doteth with age," said Ambrose.  "He took Stephen for
+his own brother, dead under King Harry of Windsor."
+
+"So!  I had heard somewhat of his age and sickness.  Who was it who
+thrust you out?"
+
+"A lean brother with a thin red beard, and a shrewd, puckered
+visage."
+
+"Ha!  By that token 'twas Segrim the bursar.  He wots how to drive a
+bargain.  St. Austin! but he deemed you came to look after your
+kinsman's corrody."
+
+"He said the king spake of a visitation to abolish corrodies from
+religious houses," said Ambrose.
+
+"He'll abolish the long bow from them first," said Father Shoveller.
+"Ay, and miniver from my Lord Abbot's hood.  I'd admonish you, my
+good brethren of S.  Grimbald, to be in no hurry for a visitation
+which might scarce stop where you would fain have it.  Well, my
+sons, are ye bound for the Forest again?  An ye be, we'll wend back
+together, and ye can lie at Silkstede to-night."
+
+"Alack, kind father, there's no more home for us in the Forest,"
+said Ambrose.
+
+"Methought ye had a brother?"
+
+"Yea; but our brother hath a wife."
+
+"Ho! ho!  And the wife will none of you?"
+
+"She would have kept Ambrose to teach her boy his primer," said
+Stephen; "but she would none of Spring nor of me."
+
+"We hoped to receive counsel from our uncle at Hyde," added Ambrose.
+
+"Have ye no purpose now?" inquired the Father, his jolly good-
+humoured face showing much concern.
+
+"Yea," manfully returned Stephen.  "'Twas what I ever hoped to do,
+to fare on and seek our fortune in London."
+
+"Ha!  To pick up gold and silver like Dick Whittington.  Poor old
+Spring here will scarce do you the part of his cat," and the monk's
+hearty laugh angered Stephen into muttering, "We are no fools," but
+Father Shoveller only laughed the more, saying, "Fair and softly, my
+son, ye'll never pick up the gold if ye cannot brook a kindly quip.
+Have you friends or kindred in London?"
+
+"Yea, that have we, sir," cried Stephen; "our mother's own brother,
+Master Randall, hath come to preferment there in my Lord Archbishop
+of York's household, and hath sent us tokens from time to time,
+which we will show you."
+
+"Not while we be feasting," said Father Shoveller, hastily checking
+Ambrose, who was feeling in his bosom.  "See, the knaves be bringing
+their grampus across the court.  Here, we'll clean our hands, and be
+ready for the meal;" and he showed them, under a projecting gallery
+in the inn yard a stone trough, through which flowed a stream of
+water, in which he proceeded to wash his hands and face, and to wipe
+them in a coarse towel suspended nigh at hand.  Certainly after
+handling sheep freely there was need, though such ablutions were a
+refinement not indulged in by all the company who assembled round
+the well-spread board of the White Hart for the meal after the
+market.  They were a motley company.  By the host's side sat a
+knight on his way home from pilgrimage to Compostella, or perhaps a
+mission to Spain, with a couple of squires and other attendants, and
+converse of political import seemed to be passing between him and a
+shrewd-looking man in a lawyer's hood and gown, the recorder of
+Winchester, who preferred being a daily guest at the White Hart to
+keeping a table of his own.  Country franklins and yeomen, merchants
+and men-at-arms, palmers and craftsmen, friars and monks, black,
+white, and grey, and with almost all, Father Shoveller had greeting
+or converse to exchange.  He knew everybody, and had friendly talk
+with all, on canons or crops, on war or wool, on the prices of pigs
+or prisoners, on the news of the country side, or on the perilous
+innovations in learning at Oxford, which might, it was feared, even
+affect St. Mary's College at Winchester.
+
+He did not affect outlandish fishes himself, and dined upon pike,
+but observing the curiosity of his guests, he took good care to have
+them well supplied with grampus; also in due time with varieties of
+the pudding and cake kind which had never dawned on their forest-
+bred imagination, and with a due proportion of good ale--the same
+over which the knight might be heard rejoicing, and lauding far
+above the Spanish or French wines, on which he said he had been half
+starved.
+
+Father Shoveller mused a good deal over his pike and its savoury
+stuffing.  He was not by any means an ideal monk, but he was equally
+far from being a scandal.  He was the shrewd man of business and
+manager of his fraternity, conducting the farming operations and
+making all the bargains, following his rule respectably according to
+the ordinary standard of his time, but not rising to any
+spirituality, and while duly observing the fast day, as to the
+quality of his food, eating with the appetite of a man who lived in
+the open fields.
+
+But when their hunger was appeased, with many a fragment given to
+Spring, the young Birkenholts, wearied of the endless talk that was
+exchanged over the tankard, began to grow restless, and after
+exchanging signs across Father Shoveller's solid person, they
+simultaneously rose, and began to thank him and say they must pursue
+their journey.
+
+"How now, not so fast, my sons," said the Father; "tarry a bit, I
+have more to say to thee.  Prayers and provender, thou knowst--I'll
+come anon.  So, sir, didst say yonder beggarly Flemings haggle at
+thy price for thy Southdown fleeces.  Weight of dirt forsooth!  Do
+not we wash the sheep in the Poolhole stream, the purest water in
+the shire?"
+
+Manners withheld Ambrose from responding to Stephen's hot
+impatience, while the merchant in the sleek puce-coloured coat
+discussed the Flemish wool market with the monk for a good half-hour
+longer.
+
+By this time the knight's horses were brought into the yard, and the
+merchant's men had made ready his palfrey, his pack-horse being
+already on the way; the host's son came round with the reckoning,
+and there was a general move.  Stephen expected to escape, and
+hardly could brook the good-natured authority with which Father
+Shoveller put Ambrose aside, when he would have discharged their
+share of the reckoning, and took it upon himself.  "Said I not ye
+were my guests?" quoth he.  "We missed our morning mass, it will do
+us no harm to hear Nones in the Minster."
+
+"Sir, we thank you, but we should be on our way," said Ambrose,
+incited by Stephen's impatient gestures.
+
+"Tut, tut.  Fair and softly, my son, or more haste may be worse
+speed.  Methought ye had somewhat to show me."
+
+Stephen's youthful independence might chafe, but the habit of
+submission to authorities made him obediently follow the monk out at
+the back entrance of the inn, behind which lay the Minster yard, the
+grand western front rising in front of them, and the buildings of
+St. Swithun's Abbey extending far to their right.  The hour was
+nearly noon, and the space was deserted, except for an old woman
+sitting at the great western doorway with a basket of rosaries made
+of nuts and of snail shells, and a workman or two employed on the
+bishop's new reredos.
+
+"Now for thy tokens," said Father Shoveller.  "See my young
+foresters, ye be new to the world.  Take an old man's counsel, and
+never show, nor speak of such gear in an hostel.  Mine host of the
+White Hart is an old gossip of mine, and indifferent honest, but who
+shall say who might be within earshot?"
+
+Stephen had a mind to say that he did not see why the meddling monk
+should wish to see them at all, and Ambrose looked a little
+reluctant, but Father Shoveller said in his good-humoured way, "As
+you please, young sirs.  'Tis but an old man's wish to see whether
+he can do aught to help you, that you be not as lambs among wolves.
+Mayhap ye deem ye can walk into London town, and that the first man
+you meet can point you to your uncle--Randall call ye him?--as
+readily as I could show you my brother, Thomas Shoveller of
+Granbury.  But you are just as like to meet with some knave who
+might cozen you of all you have, or mayhap a beadle might take you
+up for vagabonds, and thrust you in the stocks, or ever you get to
+London town; so I would fain give you some commendation, an I knew
+to whom to make it, and ye be not too proud to take it."
+
+"You are but too good to us, sir," said Ambrose, quite conquered,
+though Stephen only half believed in the difficulties.  The Father
+took them within the west door of the Minster, and looking up and
+down the long arcade of the southern aisle to see that no one was
+watching, he inspected the tokens, and cross-examined them on their
+knowledge of their uncle.
+
+His latest gift, the rosary, had come by the hand of Friar Hurst, a
+begging Minorite of Southampton, who had it from another of his
+order at Winchester, who had received it from one of the king's
+archers at the Castle, with a message to Mistress Birkenholt that it
+came from her brother, Master Randall, who had good preferment in
+London, in the house of my Lord Archbishop of York, without whose
+counsel King Henry never stirred.  As to the coming of the agate and
+the pouncet box, the minds of the boys were very hazy.  They knew
+that the pouncet box had been conveyed through the attendants of the
+Abbot of Beaulieu, but they were only sure that from that time the
+belief had prevailed with their mother that her brother was
+prospering in the house of the all-powerful Wolsey.  The good
+Augustinian, examining the tokens, thought they gave colour to that
+opinion.  The rosary and agate might have been picked up in an
+ecclesiastical household, and the lid of the pouncet box was made of
+a Spanish coin, likely to have come through some of the attendants
+of Queen Katharine.
+
+"It hath an appearance," he said.  "I marvel whether there be still
+at the Castle this archer who hath had speech with Master Randall,
+for if ye know no more than ye do at present, 'tis seeking a needle
+in a bottle of hay.  But see, here come the brethren that be to sing
+Nones--sinner that I am, to have said no Hours since the morn, being
+letted with lawful business."
+
+Again the unwilling Stephen had to submit.  There was no feeling for
+the incongruous in those days, and reverence took very different
+directions from those in which it now shows itself, so that nobody
+had any objection to Spring's pacing gravely with the others towards
+the Lady Chapel, where the Hours were sung, since the Choir was in
+the hands of workmen, and the sound of chipping stone could be heard
+from it, where Bishop Fox's elaborate lace-work reredos was in
+course of erection.  Passing the shrine of St. Swithun, and the
+grand tomb of Cardinal Beaufort, where his life-coloured effigy
+filled the boys with wonder, they followed their leader's example,
+and knelt within the Lady Chapel, while the brief Latin service for
+the ninth hour was sung through by the canon, clerks, and boys.  It
+really was the Sixth, but cumulative easy-going treatment of the
+Breviary had made this the usual time for it, as the name of noon
+still testifies.  The boys' attention, it must be confessed, was
+chiefly expended on the wonderful miracles of the Blessed Virgin in
+fresco on the walls of the chapel, all tending to prove that here
+was hope for those who said their Ave in any extremity of fire or
+flood.
+
+Nones ended, Father Shoveller, with many a halt for greeting or for
+gossip, took the lads up the hill towards the wide fortified space
+where the old Castle and royal Hall of Henry of Winchester looked
+down on the city, and after some friendly passages with the warder
+at the gate, Father Shoveller explained that he was in quest of some
+one recently come from court, of whom the striplings in his company
+could make inquiry concerning a kinsman in the household of my Lord
+Archbishop of York.  The warder scratched his head, and bethinking
+himself that Eastcheap Jockey was the reverend.  Father's man,
+summoned a horse-boy to call that worthy.
+
+"Where was he?"
+
+"Sitting over his pottle in the Hall," was the reply, and the monk,
+with a laugh savouring little of asceticism, said he would seek him
+there, and accordingly crossed the court to the noble Hall, with its
+lofty dark marble columns, and the Round Table of King Arthur
+suspended at the upper end.  The governor of the Castle had risen
+from his meal long ago, but the garrison in the piping times of
+peace would make their ration of ale last as far into the afternoon
+as their commanders would suffer.  And half a dozen men still sat
+there, one or two snoring, two playing at dice on a clear corner of
+the board, and another, a smart well-dressed fellow in a bright
+scarlet jerkin, laying down the law to a country bumpkin, who looked
+somewhat dazed.  The first of these was, as it appeared, Eastcheap
+Jockey, and there was something both of the readiness and the
+impudence of the Londoner in his manner, when he turned to answer
+the question.  He knew many in my Lord of York's house--as many as a
+man was like to know where there was a matter of two hundred folk
+between clerks and soldiers, he had often crushed a pottle with
+them.  No; he had never heard of one called Randall, neither in hat
+nor cowl, but he knew more of them by face than by name, and more by
+byname than surname or christened name.  He was certainly not the
+archer who had brought a token for Mistress Birkenholt, and his
+comrades all avouched equal ignorance on the subject.  Nothing could
+be gained there, and while Father Shoveller rubbed his bald head in
+consideration, Stephen rose to take leave.
+
+"Look you here, my fair son," said the monk.  "Starting at this
+hour, though the days be long, you will not reach any safe halting
+place with daylight, whereas by lying a night in this good city, you
+might reach Alton to-morrow, and there is a home where the name of
+Brother Shoveller will win you free lodging and entertainment."
+
+"And to-night, good Father?" inquired Ambrose.
+
+"That will I see to, if ye will follow me."
+
+Stephen was devoured with impatience during the farewells in the
+Castle, but Ambrose represented that the good man was giving them
+much of his time, and that it would be unseemly and ungrateful to
+break from him.
+
+"What matter is it of his?  And why should he make us lose a whole
+day?" grumbled Stephen.
+
+"What special gain would a day be to us?" sighed Ambrose.  "I am
+thankful that any should take heed for us."
+
+"Ay, you love leading-strings," returned Stephen.  "Where is he
+going now?  All out of our way!"
+
+Father Shoveller, however, as he went down the Castle hill,
+explained that the Warden of St. Elizabeth's Hospital was his
+friend, and knowing him to have acquaintance among the clergy of St.
+Paul's, it would be well to obtain a letter of commendation from
+him, which might serve them in good stead in case they were
+disappointed of finding their uncle at once.
+
+"It would be better for Spring to have a little more rest," thought
+Stephen, thus mitigating his own longing to escape from the monks
+and friars, of whom Winchester seemed to be full.
+
+They had a kindly welcome in the pretty little college of St.
+Elizabeth of Hungary, lying in the meadows between William of
+Wykeham's College and the round hill of St. Catharine.  The Warden
+was a more scholarly and ecclesiastical-looking person than his
+friend, the good-natured Augustinian.  After commending them to his
+care, and partaking of a drink of mead, the monk of Silkstede took
+leave of the youths, with a hearty blessing and advice to husband
+their few crowns, not to tell every one of their tokens, and to
+follow the counsel of the Warden of St. Elizabeth's, assuring them
+that if they turned back to the Forest, they should have a welcome
+at Silkstede.  Moreover he patted Spring pitifully, and wished him
+and his master well through the journey.
+
+St. Elizabeth's College was a hundred years older than its neighbour
+St. Mary's, as was evident to practised eyes by its arches and
+windows, but it had been so entirely eclipsed by Wykeham's
+foundation that the number of priests, students, and choir-boys it
+was intended to maintain, had dwindled away, so that it now
+contained merely the Warden, a superannuated priest, and a couple of
+big lads who acted as servants.  There was an air of great quietude
+and coolness about the pointed arches of its tiny cloister on that
+summer's day, with the old monk dozing in his chair over the
+manuscript he thought he was reading, not far from the little table
+where the Warden was eagerly studying Erasmus's Praise of Folly.
+But the Birkenholts were of the age at which quiet means dulness, at
+least Stephen was, and the Warden had pity both on them and on
+himself; and hearing joyous shouts outside, he opened a little door
+in the cloister wall, and revealed a multitude of lads with their
+black gowns tucked up "a playing at the ball"--these being the
+scholars of St. Mary's.  Beckoning to a pair of elder ones, who were
+walking up and down more quietly, he consigned the strangers to
+their care, sweetening the introduction by an invitation to supper,
+for which he would gain permission from their Warden.
+
+One of the young Wykehamists was shy and churlish, and sheered off
+from the brothers, but the other catechised them on their views of
+becoming scholars in the college.  He pointed out the cloister where
+the studies took place in all weathers, showed them the hall, the
+chapel, and the chambers, and expatiated on the chances of attaining
+to New College.  Being moreover a scholarly fellow, he and Ambrose
+fell into a discussion over the passage of Virgil, copied out on a
+bit of paper, which he was learning by heart.  Some other scholars
+having finished their game, and become aware of the presence of a
+strange dog and two strange boys, proceeded to mob Stephen and
+Spring, whereupon the shy boy stood forth and declared that the
+Warden of St. Elizabeth's had brought them in for an hour's sport.
+
+Of course, in such close quarters, the rival Warden was esteemed a
+natural enemy, and went by the name of "Old Bess," so that his
+recommendation went for worse than nothing, and a dash at Spring was
+made by the inhospitable young savages.  Stephen stood to the
+defence in act to box, and the shy lad stood by him, calling for
+fair play and one at a time.  Of course a fight ensued, Stephen and
+his champion on the one side, and two assailants on the other, till
+after a fall on either side, Ambrose's friend interfered with a
+voice as thundering as the manly crack would permit, peace was
+restored, Stephen found himself free of the meads, and Spring was
+caressed instead of being tormented.
+
+Stephen was examined on his past, present, and future, envied for
+his Forest home, and beguiled into magnificent accounts, not only of
+the deer that had fallen to his bow and the boars that had fallen to
+his father's spear, but of the honours to which his uncle in the
+Archbishop's household would prefer him--for he viewed it as an
+absolute certainty that his kinsman was captain among the men-at-
+arms, whom he endowed on the spot with scarlet coats faced with
+black velvet, and silver medals and chains.
+
+Whereat one of the other boys was not behind in telling how his
+father was pursuivant to my Lord Duke of Norfolk, and never went
+abroad save with silver lions broidered on back and breast, and
+trumpets going before; and another dwelt on the splendours of the
+mayor and aldermen of Southampton with their chains and cups of
+gold.  Stephen felt bound to surpass this with the last report that
+my Lord of York's men rode Flemish steeds in crimson velvet
+housings, passmented with gold and gems, and of course his uncle had
+the leading of them.
+
+"Who be thine uncle?" demanded a thin, squeaky voice.  "I have
+brothers likewise in my Lord of York's meime."
+
+"Mine uncle is Captain Harry Randall, of Shirley," quoth Stephen
+magnificently, scornfully surveying the small proportions of the
+speaker, "What is thy brother?"
+
+"Head turnspit," said a rude voice, provoking a general shout of
+laughter; but the boy stood his ground, and said hotly:  "He is page
+to the comptroller of my lord's household, and waits at the second
+table, and I know every one of the captains."
+
+"He'll say next he knows every one of the Seven Worthies," cried
+another boy, for Stephen was becoming a popular character.
+
+"And all the paladins to boot.  Come on, little Rowley!" was the
+cry.
+
+"I tell you my brother is page to the comptroller of the household,
+and my mother dwells beside the Gate House, and I know every man of
+them," insisted Rowley, waxing hot.  "As for that Forest savage
+fellow's uncle being captain of the guard, 'tis more like that he is
+my lord's fool, Quipsome Hal!"
+
+Whereat there was a cry, in which were blended exultation at the
+hit, and vituperation of the hitter.  Stephen flew forward to avenge
+the insult, but a big bell was beginning to ring, a whole wave of
+black gowns rushed to obey it, sweeping little Rowley away with
+them; and Stephen found himself left alone with his brother and the
+two lads who had been invited to St. Elizabeth's, and who now
+repaired thither with them.
+
+The supper party in the refectory was a small one, and the rule of
+the foundation limited the meal to one dish and a pittance, but the
+dish was of savoury eels, and the Warden's good nature had added to
+it some cates and comfits in consideration of his youthful guests.
+
+After some conversation with the elder Wykehamist, the Warden called
+Ambrose and put him through an examination on his attainments, which
+proved so satisfactory, that it ended in an invitation to the
+brothers to fill two of the empty scholarships of the college of the
+dear St. Elizabeth.  It was a good offer, and one that Ambrose would
+fain have accepted, but Stephen had no mind for the cloister or for
+learning.
+
+The Warden had no doubt that he could be apprenticed in the city of
+Winchester, since the brother at home had in keeping a sum
+sufficient for the fee.  Though the trade of "capping" had fallen
+off, there were still good substantial burgesses who would be
+willing to receive an active lad of good parentage, some being
+themselves of gentle blood.  Stephen, however, would not brook the
+idea.  "Out upon you, Ambrose!" said he, "to desire to bind your own
+brother to base mechanical arts."
+
+"'Tis what Nurse Joan held to be best for us both," said Ambrose.
+
+"Joan!  Yea, like a woman, who deems a man safest when he is a
+tailor, or a perfumer.  An you be minded to stay here with a black
+gown and a shaven crown, I shall on with Spring and come to
+preferment.  Maybe thou'lt next hear of me when I have got some fat
+canonry for thee."
+
+"Nay, I quit thee not," said Ambrose.  "If thou fare forward, so do
+I.  But I would thou couldst have brought thy mind to rest there."
+
+"What! wouldst thou be content with this worn-out place, with more
+churches than houses, and more empty houses than full ones?  No! let
+us on where there is something doing!  Thou wilt see that my Lord of
+York will have room for the scholar as well as the man-at-arms."
+
+So the kind offer was declined, but Ambrose was grieved to see that
+the Warden thought him foolish, and perhaps ungrateful.
+
+Nevertheless the good man gave them a letter to the Reverend Master
+Alworthy, singing clerk at St. Paul's Cathedral, telling Ambrose it
+might serve them in case they failed to find their uncle, or if my
+Lord of York's household should not be in town.  He likewise gave
+them a recommendation which would procure them a night's lodging at
+the Grange, and after the morning's mass and meat, sped them on
+their way with his blessing, muttering to himself, "That elder one
+might have been the staff of mine age!  Pity on him to be lost in
+the great and evil City!  Yet 'tis a good lad to follow that fiery
+spark his brother.  Tanquam agnus inter lupos.  Alack!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.  A HERO'S FALL
+
+
+
+"These four came all afront and mainly made at me.  I made no more
+ado, but took their seven points on my target--thus--"
+
+SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+The journey to Alton was eventless.  It was slow, for the day was a
+broiling one, and the young foresters missed their oaks and beeches,
+as they toiled over the chalk downs that rose and sank in endless
+succession; though they would hardly have slackened their pace if it
+had not been for poor old Spring, who was sorely distressed by the
+heat and the want of water on the downs.  Every now and then he lay
+down, panting distressfully, with his tongue hanging out, and his
+young masters always waited for him, often themselves not sorry to
+rest in the fragment of shade from a solitary thorn or juniper.
+
+The track was plain enough, and there were hamlets at long
+intervals.  Flocks of sheep fed on the short grass, but there was no
+approaching the shepherds, as they and their dogs regarded Spring as
+an enemy, to be received with clamour, stones, and teeth, in spite
+of the dejected looks which might have acquitted him of evil
+intentions.
+
+The travellers reached Alton in the cool of the evening, and were
+kindly received by a monk, who had charge of a grange just outside
+the little town, near one of the springs of the River Wey.
+
+The next day's journey was a pleasanter one, for there was more of
+wood and heather, and they had to skirt round the marshy borders of
+various bogs.  Spring was happier, being able to stop and lap
+whenever he would, and the whole scene was less unfriendly to them.
+But they scarcely made speed enough, for they were still among tall
+whins and stiff scrub of heather when the sun began to get low,
+gorgeously lighting the tall plumes of golden broom, and they had
+their doubts whether they might not be off the track; but in such
+weather, there was nothing alarming in spending a night out of
+doors, if only they had something for supper.  Stephen took a bolt
+from the purse at his girdle, and bent his crossbow, so as to be
+ready in case a rabbit sprang out, or a duck flew up from the
+marshes.
+
+A small thicket of trees was in sight, and they were making for it,
+when sounds of angry voices were heard, and Spring, bristling up the
+mane on his neck, and giving a few premonitory fierce growls like
+thunder, bounded forward as though he had been seven years younger.
+Stephen darted after him, Ambrose rushed after Stephen, and breaking
+through the trees, they beheld the dog at the throat of one of three
+men.  As they came on the scene, the dog was torn down and hurled
+aside, giving a howl of agony, which infuriated his master.  Letting
+fly his crossbow bolt full at the fellow's face, he dashed on,
+reckless of odds, waving his knotted stick, and shouting with rage.
+Ambrose, though more aware of the madness of such an assault, still
+hurried to his support, and was amazed as well as relieved to find
+the charge effectual.  Without waiting to return a blow, the
+miscreants took to their heels, and Stephen, seeing nothing but his
+dog, dropped on his knees beside the quivering creature, from whose
+neck blood was fast pouring.  One glance of the faithful wistful
+eyes, one feeble movement of the expressive tail, and Spring had
+made his last farewell!  That was all Stephen was conscious of; but
+Ambrose could hear the cry, "Good sirs, good lads, set me free!" and
+was aware of a portly form bound to a tree.  As he cut the rope with
+his knife, the rescued traveller hurried out thanks and demands--
+"Where are the rest of you?" and on the reply that there were no
+more, proceeded, "Then we must on, on at once, or the villains will
+return!  They must have thought you had a band of hunters behind
+you.  Two furlongs hence, and we shall be safe in the hostel at
+Dogmersfield.  Come on, my boy," to Stephen, "the brave hound is
+quite dead, more's the pity.  Thou canst do no more for him, and we
+shall soon be in his case if we dally here."
+
+"I cannot, cannot leave him thus," sobbed Stephen, who had the
+loving old head on his knees.  "Ambrose! stay, we must bring him.
+There, his tail wagged!  If the blood were staunched--"
+
+"Stephen!  Indeed he is stone dead!  Were he our brother we could
+not do otherwise," reasoned Ambrose, forcibly dragging his brother
+to his feet.  "Go on we must.  Wouldst have us all slaughtered for
+his sake?  Come!  The rogues will be upon us anon.  Spring saved
+this good man's life.  Undo not his work.  See!  Is yonder your
+horse, sir?  This way, Stevie!"
+
+The instinct of catching the horse roused Stephen, and it was soon
+accomplished, for the steed was a plump, docile, city-bred palfrey,
+with dapple-grey flanks like well-stuffed satin pincushions, by no
+means resembling the shaggy Forest ponies of the boys' experience,
+but quite astray in the heath, and ready to come at the master's
+whistle, and call of "Soh!  Soh!--now Poppet!"  Stephen caught the
+bridle, and Ambrose helped the burgess into the saddle.  "Now, good
+boys," he said, "each of you lay a hand on my pommel.  We can make
+good speed ere the rascals find out our scant numbers."
+
+"You would make better speed without us, sir," said Stephen,
+hankering to remain beside poor Spring.
+
+"D'ye think Giles Headley the man to leave two children, that have
+maybe saved my life as well as my purse, to bear the malice of the
+robbers?" demanded the burgess angrily.  "That were like those
+fellows of mine who have shown their heels and left their master
+strapped to a tree!  Thou! thou! what's thy name, that hast the most
+wit, bring thy brother, unless thou wouldst have him laid by the
+side of his dog."
+
+Stephen was forced to comply, and run by Poppet's side, though his
+eyes were so full of tears that he could not see his way, even when
+the pace slackened, and in the twilight they found themselves among
+houses and gardens, and thus in safety, the lights of an inn shining
+not far off.
+
+A figure came out in the road to meet them, crying, "Master! master!
+is it you? and without scathe?  Oh, the saints be praised!"
+
+"Ay, Tibble, 'tis I and no other, thanks to the saints and to these
+brave lads!  What, man, I blame thee not, I know thou canst not
+strike; but where be the rest?"
+
+"In the inn, sir.  I strove to call up the hue and cry to come to
+the rescue, but the cowardly hinds were afraid of the thieves, and
+not one would come forth."
+
+"I wish they may not be in league with them," said Master Headley.
+"See! I was delivered--ay, and in time to save my purse, by these
+twain and their good dog.  Are ye from these parts, my fair lads?"
+
+"We be journeying from the New Forest to London," said Ambrose.
+"The poor dog heard the tumult, and leapt to your aid, sir, and we
+made after him."
+
+"'Twas the saints sent him!" was the fervent answer.  "And" (with a
+lifting of the cap) "I hereby vow to St. Julian a hound of solid
+bronze a foot in length, with a collar of silver, to his shrine in
+St. Faith's, in token of my deliverance in body and goods!  To
+London are ye bound?  Then will we journey on together!"
+
+They were by this time near the porch of a large country hostel,
+from the doors and large bay window of which light streamed out.
+And as the casement was open, those without could both see and hear
+all that was passing within.
+
+The table was laid for supper, and in the place of honour sat a
+youth of some seventeen or eighteen years, gaily dressed, with a
+little feather curling over his crimson cap, and thus discoursing:
+-
+
+"Yea, my good host, two of the rogues bear my tokens, besides him
+whom I felled to the earth.  He came on at me with his sword, but I
+had my point ready for him; and down he went before me like an ox.
+Then came on another, but him I dealt with by the back stroke as
+used in the tilt-yard at Clarendon."
+
+"I trow we shall know him again, sir.  Holy saints! to think such
+rascals should haunt so nigh us," the hostess was exclaiming.  "Pity
+for the poor goodman, Master Headley.  A portly burgher was he,
+friendly of tongue and free of purse.  I well remember him when he
+went forth on his way to Salisbury, little thinking, poor soul, what
+was before him.  And is he truly sped?"
+
+"I tell thee, good woman, I saw him go down before three of their
+pikes.  What more could I do but drive my horse over the nearest
+rogue who was rifling him?"
+
+"If he were still alive--which Our Lady grant!--the knaves will hold
+him to ransom," quoth the host, as he placed a tankard on the table.
+
+"I am afraid he is past ransom," said the youth, shaking his head.
+"But an if he be still in the rogues' hands and living, I will get
+me on to his house in Cheapside, and arrange with his mother to find
+the needful sum, as befits me, I being his heir and about to wed his
+daughter.  However, I shall do all that in me lies to get the poor
+old seignior out of the hands of the rogues.  Saints defend me!"
+
+"The poor old seignior is much beholden to thee," said Master
+Headley, advancing amid a clamour of exclamations from three or four
+serving-men or grooms, one protesting that he thought his master was
+with him, another that his horse ran away with him, one showing an
+arm which was actually being bound up, and the youth declaring that
+he rode off to bring help.
+
+"Well wast thou bringing it," Master Headley answered.  "I might be
+still standing bound like an eagle displayed, against yonder tree,
+for aught you fellows recked."
+
+"Nay, sir, the odds--" began the youth.
+
+"Odds! such odds as were put to rout--by what, deem you?  These two
+striplings and one poor hound.  Had but one of you had the heart of
+a sparrow, ye had not furnished a tale to be the laugh of the
+Barbican and Cheapside.  Look well at them.  How old be you, my
+brave lads?"
+
+"I shall be sixteen come Lammas day, and Stephen fifteen at
+Martinmas day, sir," said Ambrose; "but verily we did nought.  We
+could have done nought had not the thieves thought more were behind
+us."
+
+"There are odds between going forward and backward," said Master
+Headley, dryly.  "Ha!  Art hurt?  Thou bleedst," he exclaimed,
+laying his hand on Stephen's shoulder, and drawing him to the light.
+
+"'Tis no blood of mine," said Stephen, as Ambrose likewise came to
+join in the examination.  "It is my poor Spring's.  He took the
+coward's blow.  His was all the honour, and we have left him there
+on the heath!"  And he covered his face with his hands.
+
+"Come, come, my good child," said Master Headley; "we will back to
+the place by times to-morrow when rogues hide and honest men walk
+abroad.  Thou shalt bury thine hound, as befits a good warrior, on
+the battle-field.  I would fain mark his points for the effigy we
+will frame, honest Tibble, for St. Julian.  And mark ye, fellows,
+thou godson Giles, above all, who 'tis that boast of their valour,
+and who 'tis that be modest of speech.  Yea, thanks, mine host.  Let
+us to a chamber, and give us water to wash away soil of travel and
+of fray, and then to supper.  Young masters, ye are my guests.
+Shame were it that Giles Headley let go farther them that have,
+under Heaven and St. Julian, saved him in life, limb, and purse."
+
+The inn was large, being the resort of many travellers from the
+south, often of nobles and knights riding to Parliament, and thus
+the brothers found themselves accommodated with a chamber, where
+they could prepare for the meal, while Ambrose tried to console his
+brother by representing that, after all, poor Spring had died
+gallantly, and with far less pain than if he had suffered a wasting
+old age, besides being honoured for ever by his effigy in St.
+Faith's, wherever that might be, the idea which chiefly contributed
+to console his master.
+
+The two boys appeared in the room of the inn looking so unlike the
+dusty, blood-stained pair who had entered, that Master Headley took
+a second glance to convince himself that they were the same, before
+beckoning them to seats on either side of him, saying that he must
+know more of them, and bidding the host load their trenchers well
+from the grand fabric of beef-pasty which had been set at the end of
+the board.  The runaways, four or five in number, herded together
+lower down, with a few travellers of lower degree, all except the
+youth who had been boasting before their arrival, and who retained
+his seat at the board, thumping it with the handle of his knife to
+show his impatience for the commencement of supper; and not far off
+sat Tibble, the same who had hailed their arrival, a thin, slight,
+one-sided looking person, with a terrible red withered scar on one
+cheek, drawing the corner of his mouth awry.  He, like Master
+Headley himself, and the rest of his party were clad in red, guarded
+with white, and wore the cross of St. George on the white border of
+their flat crimson caps, being no doubt in the livery of their
+Company.  The citizen himself, having in the meantime drawn his
+conclusions from the air and gestures of the brothers, and their
+mode of dealing with their food, asked the usual question in an
+affirmative tone, "Ye be of gentle blood, young sirs?"
+
+To which they replied by giving their names, and explaining that
+they were journeying from the New Forest to find their uncle in the
+train of the Archbishop of York.
+
+"Birkenholt," said Tibble, meditatively.  "He beareth vert, a buck's
+head proper, on a chief argent, two arrows in saltire.  Crest, a
+buck courant, pierced in the gorge by an arrow, all proper."
+
+To which the brothers returned by displaying the handles of their
+knives, both of which bore the pierced and courant buck.
+
+"Ay, ay," said the man.  "'Twill be found in our books, sir.  We
+painted the shield and new-crested the morion the first year of my
+prenticeship, when the Earl of Richmond, the late King Harry of
+blessed memory, had newly landed at Milford Haven."
+
+"Verily," said Ambrose, "our uncle Richard Birkenholt fought at
+Bosworth under Sir Richard Pole's banner."
+
+"A tall and stalwart esquire, methinks," said Master Headley.  "Is
+he the kinsman you seek?"
+
+"Not so, sir.  We visited him at Winchester, and found him sorely
+old and with failing wits.  We be on our way to our mother's
+brother, Master Harry Randall."
+
+"Is he clerk or layman?  My Lord of York entertaineth enow of both,"
+said Master Headley.
+
+"Lay assuredly, sir," returned Stephen; "I trust to him to find me
+some preferment as page or the like."
+
+"Know'st thou the man, Tibble?" inquired the master.
+
+"Not among the men-at-arms, sir," was the answer; "but there be a
+many of them whose right names we never hear.  However, he will be
+easily found if my Lord of York be returned from Windsor with his
+train."
+
+"Then will we go forward together, my young Masters Birkenholt.  I
+am not going to part with my doughty champions!"--patting Stephen's
+shoulder.  "Ye'd not think that these light-heeled knaves belonged
+to the brave craft of armourers?"
+
+"Certainly not," thought the lads, whose notion of armourers was
+derived from the brawny blacksmith of Lyndhurst, who sharpened their
+boar spears and shod their horses.  They made some kind of assent,
+and Master Headley went on.  "These be the times!  This is what
+peace hath brought us to!  I am called down to Salisbury to take
+charge of the goods, chattels, and estate of my kinsman, Robert
+Headley--Saints rest his soul!--and to bring home yonder spark, my
+godson, whose indentures have been made over to me.  And I may not
+ride a mile after sunset without being set upon by a sort of
+robbers, who must have guessed over-well what a pack of cowards they
+had to deal with."
+
+"Sir," cried the younger Giles, "I swear to you that I struck right
+and left.  I did all that man could do, but these rogues of serving-
+men, they fled, and dragged me along with them, and I deemed you
+were of our company till we dismounted."
+
+"Did you so?  Methought anon you saw me go down with three pikes in
+my breast.  Come, come, godson Giles, speech will not mend it!  Thou
+art but a green, town-bred lad, a mother's darling, and mayst be a
+brave man yet, only don't dread to tell the honest truth that you
+were afeard, as many a better man might be."
+
+The host chimed in with tales of the thieves and outlaws who then,
+and indeed for many later generations, infested Bagshot heath, and
+the wild moorland tracks around.  He seemed to think that the
+travellers had had a hair's-breadth escape, and that a few seconds'
+more delay might have revealed the weakness of the rescuers and have
+been fatal to them.
+
+However there was no danger so near the village in the morning, and,
+somewhat to Stephen's annoyance, the whole place turned out to
+inspect the spot, and behold the burial of poor Spring, who was
+found stretched on the heather, just as he had been left the night
+before.  He was interred under the stunted oak where Master Headley
+had been tied.  While the grave was dug with a spade borrowed at the
+inn, Ambrose undertook to cut out the dog's name on the bark, but he
+had hardly made the first incision when Tibble, the singed foreman,
+offered to do it for him, and made a much more sightly inscription
+than he could have done.  Master Headley's sword was found
+honourably broken under the tree, and was reserved to form a base
+for his intended ex voto.  He uttered the vow in due form like a
+funeral oration, when Stephen, with a swelling heart, had laid the
+companion of his life in the little grave, which was speedily
+covered in.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.  THE DRAGON COURT
+
+
+
+         "A citizen
+   Of credit and renown;
+A trainband captain eke was he
+   Of famous London town."
+
+COWPER.
+
+
+In spite of his satisfaction at the honourable obsequies of his dog,
+Stephen Birkenholt would fain have been independent, and thought it
+provoking and strange that every one should want to direct his
+movements, and assume the charge of one so well able to take care of
+himself; but he could not escape as he had done before from the
+Warden of St. Elizabeth, for Ambrose had readily accepted the
+proposal that they should travel in Master Headley's company, only
+objecting that they were on foot; on which the good citizen hired a
+couple of hackneys for them.
+
+Besides the two Giles Headleys, the party consisted of Tibble, the
+scarred and withered foreman, two grooms, and two serving-men, all
+armed with the swords and bucklers of which they had made so little
+use.  It appeared in process of time that the two namesakes, besides
+being godfather and godson, were cousins, and that Robert, the
+father of the younger one, had, after his apprenticeship in the
+paternal establishment at Salisbury, served for a couple of years in
+the London workshop of his kinsman to learn the latest improvements
+in weapons.  This had laid the foundation of a friendship which had
+lasted through life, though the London cousin had been as prosperous
+as the country one had been the reverse.  The provincial trade in
+arms declined with the close of the York and Lancaster wars.  Men
+were not permitted to turn from one handicraft to another, and
+Robert Headley had neither aptitude nor resources.  His wife was
+vain and thriftless, and he finally broke down under his
+difficulties, appointing by will his cousin to act as his executor,
+and to take charge of his only son, who had served out half his time
+as apprentice to himself.  There had been delay until the peace with
+France had given the armourer some leisure for an expedition to
+Salisbury, a serious undertaking for a London burgess, who had
+little about him of the ancient northern weapon-smith, and had
+wanted to avail himself of the protection of the suite of the Bishop
+of Salisbury, returning from Parliament.  He had spent some weeks in
+disposing of his cousin's stock in trade, which was far too
+antiquated for the London market; also of the premises, which were
+bought by an adjoining convent to extend its garden; and he had
+divided the proceeds between the widow and children.  He had
+presided at the wedding of the last daughter, with whom the mother
+was to reside, and was on his way back to London with his godson,
+who had now become his apprentice.
+
+Giles Headley the younger was a fine tall youth, but clumsy and
+untrained in the use of his limbs, and he rode a large, powerful
+brown horse, which brooked no companionship, lashing out with its
+shaggy hoofs at any of its kind that approached it, more especially
+at poor, plump, mottled Poppet.  The men said he had insisted on
+retaining that, and no other, for his journey to London, contrary to
+all advice, and he was obliged to ride foremost, alone in the middle
+of the road; while Master Headley seemed to have an immense quantity
+of consultation to carry on with his foreman, Tibble, whose quiet-
+looking brown animal was evidently on the best of terms with Poppet.
+By daylight Tibble looked even more sallow, lean, and sickly, and
+Stephen could not help saying to the serving-man nearest to him,
+"Can such a weakling verily be an armourer?"
+
+"Yea, sir.  Wry-mouthed Tibble, as they call him, was a sturdy
+fellow till he got a fell against the mouth of a furnace, and lay
+ten months in St. Bartholomew's Spital, scarce moving hand or foot.
+He cannot wield a hammer, but he has a cunning hand for gilding, and
+coloured devices, and is as good as Garter-king-at-arms himself for
+all bearings of knights and nobles."
+
+"As we heard last night," said Stephen.
+
+"Moreover in the spital he learnt to write and cast accompts like a
+very scrivener, and the master trusts him more than any, except
+maybe Kit Smallbones, the head smith."
+
+"What will Smallbones think of the new prentice!" said one of the
+other men.
+
+"Prentice!  'Tis plain enough what sort of prentice the youth is
+like to be who beareth the name of a master with one only daughter."
+
+An emphatic grunt was the only answer, while Ambrose pondered on the
+good luck of some people, who had their futures cut out for them
+with no trouble on their own part.
+
+This day's ride was through more inhabited parts, and was esteemed
+less perilous.  They came in sight of the Thames at Lambeth, but
+Master Headley, remembering how ill his beloved Poppet had brooked
+the ferry, decided to keep to the south of the river by a causeway
+across Lambeth marsh, which was just passable in high and dry
+summers, and which conducted them to a raised road called Bankside,
+where they looked across to the towers of Westminster, and the Abbey
+in its beauty dawned on the imagination of Stephen and Ambrose.  The
+royal standard floated over the palace, whence Master Headley
+perceived that the King was there, and augured that my Lord of
+York's meine would not be far to seek.  Then came broad green fields
+with young corn growing, or hay waving for the scythe, the tents and
+booths of May Fair, and the beautiful Market Cross in the midst of
+the village of Charing, while the Strand, immediately opposite,
+began to be fringed with great monasteries within their ample
+gardens, with here and there a nobleman's castellated house and
+terraced garden, with broad stone stairs leading to the Thames.
+
+Barges and wherries plied up and down, the former often gaily
+canopied and propelled by liveried oarsmen, all plying their arms in
+unison, so that the vessel looked like some brilliant many-limbed
+creature treading the water.  Presently appeared the heavy walls
+inclosing the City itself, dominated by the tall openwork timber
+spire of St. Paul's, with the foursquare, four-turreted Tower
+acting, as it has been well said, as a padlock to a chain, and the
+river's breadth spanned by London bridge, a very street of houses
+built on the abutments.  Now, Bankside had houses on each side of
+the road, and Wry-mouthed Tibble showed evident satisfaction when
+they turned to cross the bridge, where they had to ride in single
+file, not without some refractoriness on the part of young Headley's
+steed.
+
+On they went, now along streets where each story of the tall houses
+projected over the last, so that the gables seemed ready to meet;
+now beside walls of convent gardens, now past churches, while the
+country lads felt bewildered with the numbers passing to and fro,
+and the air was full of bells.
+
+Cap after cap was lifted in greeting to Master Headley by burgess,
+artisan, or apprentice, and many times did he draw Poppet's rein to
+exchange greetings and receive congratulations on his return.  On
+reaching St. Paul's Minster, he halted and bade the servants take
+home the horses, and tell the mistress, with his dutiful greetings,
+that he should be at home anon, and with guests.
+
+"We must e'en return thanks for our safe journey and great
+deliverance," he said to his young companions, and thrusting his arm
+into that of a russet-vested citizen, who met him at the door, he
+walked into the cathedral, recounting his adventure.
+
+The youths followed with some difficulty through the stream of
+loiterers in the nave, Giles the younger elbowing and pushing so
+that several of the crowd turned to look at him, and it was well
+that his kinsman soon astonished him by descending a stair into a
+crypt, with solid, short, clustered columns, and high-pitched
+vaulting, fitted up as a separate church, namely that of the parish
+of St. Faith.  The great cathedral, having absorbed the site of the
+original church, had given this crypt to the parishioners.  Here all
+was quiet and solemn, in marked contrast to the hubbub in "Paul's
+Walk," above in the nave.  Against the eastern pillar of one of the
+bays was a little altar, and the decorations included St. Julian,
+the patron of travellers, with his saltire doubly crossed, and his
+stag beside him.  Little ships, trees, and wonderful enamelled
+representations of perils by robbers, field and flood, hung thickly
+on St. Julian's pillar, and on the wall and splay of the window
+beside it; and here, after crossing himself, Master Headley rapidly
+repeated a Paternoster, and ratified his vow of presenting a bronze
+image of the hound to whom he owed his rescue.  One of the clergy
+came up to register the vow, and the good armourer proceeded to
+bespeak a mass of thanksgiving on the next morning, also ten for the
+soul of Master John Birkenholt, late Verdurer of the New Forest in
+Hampshire--a mode of showing his gratitude which the two sons highly
+appreciated.
+
+Then, climbing up the steps again, and emerging from the cathedral
+by the west door, the boys beheld a scene for which their
+experiences of Romsey, and even of Winchester, had by no means
+prepared them.  It was five o'clock on a summer evening, so that the
+place was full of stir.  Old women sat with baskets of rosaries and
+little crosses, or images of saints, on the steps of the cathedral,
+while in the open space beyond, more than one horse was displaying
+his paces for the benefit of some undecided purchaser, who had been
+chaffering for hours in Paul's Walk.  Merchants in the costume of
+their countries, Lombard, Spanish, Dutch, or French, were walking
+away in pairs, attended by servants, from their Exchange, likewise
+in the nave.  Women, some alone, some protected by serving-men or
+apprentices, were returning from their orisons, or, it might be,
+from their gossipings.  Priests and friars, as usual, pervaded
+everything, and round the open space were galleried buildings with
+stalls beneath them, whence the holders were removing their wares
+for the night.  The great octagonal structure of Paul's Cross stood
+in the centre, and just beneath the stone pulpit, where the sermons
+were wont to be preached, stood a man with a throng round him,
+declaiming a ballad at the top of his sing-song voice, and causing
+much loud laughter by some ribaldry about monks and friars.
+
+Master Headley turned aside as quickly as he could, through
+Paternoster Row, which was full of stalls, where little black books,
+and larger sheets printed in black-letter, seemed the staple
+commodities, and thence the burgess, keeping a heedful eye on his
+young companions among all his greetings, entered the broader space
+of Cheapside, where numerous prentice lads seemed to be playing at
+different sports after the labours of the day.
+
+Passing under an archway surmounted by a dragon with shining scales,
+Master Headley entered a paved courtyard, where the lads started at
+the figures of two knights in full armour, their lances in rest, and
+their horses with housings down to their hoofs, apparently about to
+charge any intruder.  But at that moment there was a shriek of joy,
+and out from the scarlet and azure petticoats of the nearest steed,
+there darted a little girl, crying, "Father! father!" and in an
+instant she was lifted in Master Headley's arms, and was clinging
+round his neck, while he kissed and blessed her, and as he set her
+on her feet, he said, "Here, Dennet, greet thy cousin Giles Headley,
+and these two brave young gentlemen.  Greet them like a courteous
+maiden, or they will think thee a little town mouse."
+
+In truth the child had a pointed little visage, and bright brown
+eyes, somewhat like a mouse, but it was a very sweet face that she
+lifted obediently to be kissed not only by the kinsman, but by the
+two guests.  Her father meantime was answering with nods to the
+respectful welcomes of the workmen, who thronged out below, and
+their wives looking down from the galleries above; while Poppet and
+the other horses were being rubbed down after their journey.
+
+The ground-floor of the buildings surrounding the oblong court
+seemed to be entirely occupied by forges, workshops, warehouses and
+stables.  Above, were open railed galleries, with outside stairs at
+intervals, giving access to the habitations of the workpeople on
+three sides.  The fourth, opposite to the entrance, had a much
+handsomer, broad, stone stair, adorned on one side with a stone
+figure of the princess fleeing from the dragon, and on the other of
+St. George piercing the monster's open mouth with his lance, the
+scaly convolutions of the two dragons forming the supports of the
+handrail on either side.  Here stood, cap in hand, showing his thick
+curly hair, and with open front, displaying a huge hairy chest, a
+giant figure, whom his master greeted as Kit Smallbones, inquiring
+whether all had gone well during his absence.  "'Tis time you were
+back, sir, for there's a great tilting match on hand for the Lady
+Mary's wedding.  Here have been half the gentlemen in the Court
+after you, and my Lord of Buckingham sent twice for you since
+Sunday, and once for Tibble Steelman, and his squire swore that if
+you were not at his bidding before noon to-morrow, he would have his
+new suit of Master Hillyer of the Eagle."
+
+"He shall see me when it suiteth me," said Mr. Headley coolly.  "He
+wotteth well that Hillyer hath none who can burnish plate armour
+like Tibble here."
+
+"Moreover the last iron we had from that knave Mepham is nought.  It
+works short under the hammer."
+
+"That shall be seen to, Kit.  The rest of the budget to-morrow.  I
+must on to my mother."
+
+For at the doorway, at the head of the stairs, there stood the still
+trim and active figure of an old woman, with something of the mouse
+likeness seen in her grand-daughter, in the close cap, high hat, and
+cloth dress, that sumptuary opinion, if not law, prescribed for the
+burgher matron, a white apron, silver chain and bunch of keys at her
+girdle.  Due and loving greetings passed between mother and son,
+after the longest and most perilous absence of Master Headley's
+life, and he then presented Giles, to whom the kindly dame offered
+hand and cheek, saying, "Welcome, my young kinsman, your good father
+was well known and liked here.  May you tread in his steps!"
+
+"Thanks, good mistress," returned Giles.  "I am thought to have a
+pretty taste in the fancy part of the trade.  My Lord of Montagu--"
+
+Before he could get any farther, Mistress Headley was inquiring what
+was the rumour she had heard of robbers and dangers that had beset
+her son, and he was presenting the two young Birkenholts to her.
+"Brave boys! good boys," she said, holding out her hands and kissing
+each according to the custom of welcome, "you have saved my son for
+me, and this little one's father for her.  Kiss them, Dennet, and
+thank them."
+
+"It was the poor dog," said the child, in a clear little voice,
+drawing back with a certain quaint coquetting shyness; "I would
+rather kiss him."
+
+"Would that thou couldst, little mistress," said Stephen.  "My poor
+brave Spring!"
+
+"Was he thine own?  Tell me all about him," said Dennet, somewhat
+imperiously.
+
+She stood between the two strangers looking eagerly up with
+sorrowfully interested eyes, while Stephen, out of his full heart,
+told of his faithful comradeship with his hound from the infancy of
+both.  Her father meanwhile was exchanging serious converse with her
+grandmother, and Giles finding himself left in the background,
+began:  "Come hither, pretty coz, and I will tell thee of my Lady of
+Salisbury's dainty little hounds."
+
+"I care not for dainty little hounds," returned Dennet; "I want to
+hear of the poor faithful dog that flew at the wicked robber."
+
+"A mighty stir about a mere chance," muttered Giles.
+
+"I know what YOU did," said Dennet, turning her bright brown eyes
+full upon him.  "You took to your heels."
+
+Her look and little nod were so irresistibly comical that the two
+brothers could not help laughing; whereupon Giles Headley turned
+upon them in a passion.
+
+"What mean ye by this insolence, you beggars' brats picked up on the
+heath?"
+
+"Better born than thou, braggart and coward that thou art!" broke
+forth Stephen, while Master Headley exclaimed, "How now, lads?  No
+brawling here!"
+
+Three voices spoke at once.
+
+"They were insolent."
+
+"He reviled our birth."
+
+"Father! they did but laugh when I told cousin Giles that he took to
+his heels, and he must needs call them beggars' brats picked up on
+the heath."
+
+"Ha! ha! wench, thou art woman enough already to set them together
+by the ears," said her father, laughing.  "See here, Giles Headley,
+none who bears my name shall insult a stranger on my hearth."
+
+Stephen however had stepped forth holding out his small stock of
+coin, and saying, "Sir, receive for our charges, and let us go to
+the tavern we passed anon."
+
+"How now, boy!  Said I not ye were my guests?"
+
+"Yea, sir, and thanks; but we can give no cause for being called
+beggars nor beggars' brats."
+
+"What beggary is there in being guests, my young gentlemen?" said
+the master of the house.  "If any one were picked up on the heath,
+it was I.  We owned you for gentlemen of blood and coat armour, and
+thy brother there can tell thee that, ye have no right to put an
+affront on me, your host, because a rude prentice from a country
+town hath not learnt to rule his tongue."
+
+Giles scowled, but the armourer spoke with an authority that imposed
+on all, and Stephen submitted, while Ambrose spoke a few words of
+thanks, after which the two brothers were conducted by an external
+stair and gallery to a guest-chamber, in which to prepare for
+supper.
+
+The room was small, but luxuriously filled beyond all ideas of the
+young foresters, for it was hung with tapestry, representing the
+history of Joseph; the bed was curtained, there was a carved chest
+for clothes, a table and a ewer and basin of bright brass with the
+armourer's mark upon it, a twist in which the letter H and the
+dragon's tongue and tail were ingeniously blended.  The City was far
+in advance of the country in all the arts of life, and only the more
+magnificent castles and abbeys, which the boys had never seen,
+possessed the amount of comforts to be found in the dwellings of the
+superior class of Londoners.  Stephen was inclined to look with
+contempt upon the effeminacy of a churl merchant.
+
+"No churl," returned Ambrose, "if manners makyth man, as we saw at
+Winchester."
+
+"Then what do they make of that cowardly clown, his cousin?"
+
+Ambrose laughed, but said, "Prove we our gentle blood at least by
+not brawling with the fellow.  Master Headley will soon teach him to
+know his place."
+
+"That will matter nought to us.  To-morrow shall we be with our
+uncle Hal.  I only wish his lord was not of the ghostly sort, but
+perhaps he may prefer me to some great knight's service.  But oh!
+Ambrose, come and look.  See!  The fellow they call Smallbones is
+come out to the fountain in the middle of the court with a bucket in
+each hand.  Look!  Didst ever see such a giant?  He is as big and
+brawny as Ascapart at the bar-gate at Southampton.  See! he lifts
+that big pail full and brimming as though it were an egg shell.  See
+his arm!  'Twere good to see him wield a hammer!  I must look into
+his smithy before going forth to-morrow."
+
+Stephen clenched his fist and examined his muscles ere donning his
+best mourning jerkin, and could scarce be persuaded to complete his
+toilet, so much was he entertained with the comings and goings in
+the court, a little world in itself, like a college quadrangle.  The
+day's work was over, the forges out, and the smiths were lounging
+about at ease, one or two sitting on a bench under a large elm-tree
+beside the central well, enjoying each his tankard of ale.  A few
+more were watching Poppet being combed down, and conversing with the
+newly-arrived grooms.  One was carrying a little child in his arms,
+and a young man and maid sitting on the low wall round the well,
+seemed to be carrying on a courtship over the pitcher that stood
+waiting to be filled.  Two lads were playing at skittles, children
+were running up and down the stairs and along the wooden galleries,
+and men and women went and came by the entrance gateway between the
+two effigies of knights in armour.  Some were servants bringing helm
+or gauntlet for repair, or taking the like away.  Some might be
+known by their flat caps to be apprentices, and two substantial
+burgesses walked in together, as if to greet Master Headley on his
+return.  Immediately after, a man-cook appeared with white cap and
+apron, bearing aloft a covered dish surrounded by a steamy cloud,
+followed by other servants bearing other meats; a big bell began to
+sound, the younger men and apprentices gathered together and the
+brothers descended the stairs, and entered by the big door into the
+same large hall where they had been received.  The spacious hearth
+was full of green boughs, with a beaupot of wild rose, honeysuckle,
+clove pinks and gilliflowers; the lower parts of the walls were hung
+with tapestry representing the adventures of St. George; the
+mullioned windows had their upper squares filled with glass, bearing
+the shield of the City of London, that of the Armourers' Company,
+the rose and portcullis of the King, the pomegranate of Queen
+Catharine, and other like devices.  Others, belonging to the
+Lancastrian kings, adorned the pendants from the handsome open roof
+and the front of a gallery for musicians which crossed one end of
+the hall in the taste of the times of Henry V. and Whittington.
+
+Far more interesting to the hungry travellers was it that the long
+table, running the whole breadth of the apartment, was decked with
+snowy linen, trenchers stood ready with horns or tankards beside
+them, and loaves of bread at intervals, while the dishes were being
+placed on the table.  The master and his entire establishment took
+their meals together, except the married men, who lived in the
+quadrangle with their families.  There was no division by the salt-
+cellar, as at the tables of the nobles and gentry, but the master,
+his family and guests, occupied the centre, with the hearth behind
+them, where the choicest of the viands were placed; next after them
+were the places of the journeymen according to seniority, then those
+of the apprentices, household servants, and stable-men, but the
+apprentices had to assist the serving-men in waiting on the master
+and his party before sitting down themselves.  There was a dignity
+and regularity about the whole, which could not fail to impress
+Stephen and Ambrose with the weight and importance of a London
+burgher, warden of the Armourers' Company, and alderman of the Ward
+of Cheap.  There were carved chairs for himself, his mother, and the
+guests, also a small Persian carpet extending from the hearth beyond
+their seats.  This article filled the two foresters with amazement.
+To put one's feet on what ought to be a coverlet!  They would not
+have stepped on it, had they not been kindly summoned by old
+Mistress Headley to take their places among the company, which
+consisted, besides the family, of the two citizens who had entered,
+and of a priest who had likewise dropped in to welcome Master
+Headley's return, and had been invited to stay to supper.  Young
+Giles, as a matter of course, placed himself amongst them, at which
+there were black looks and whispers among the apprentices, and even
+Mistress Headley wore an air of amazement.
+
+"Mother," said the head of the family, speaking loud enough for all
+to hear, "you will permit our young kinsman to be placed as our
+guest this evening.  To-morrow he will act as an apprentice, as we
+all have done in our time."
+
+"I never did so at home!" cried Giles, in his loud, hasty voice.
+
+"I trow not," dryly observed one of the guests.
+
+Giles, however, went on muttering while the priest was pronouncing a
+Latin grace, and thereupon the same burgess observed, "Never did I
+see it better proved that folk in the country give their sons no
+good breeding."
+
+"Have patience with him, good Master Pepper," returned Mr. Headley.
+"He hath been an only son, greatly cockered by father, mother, and
+sisters, but ere long he will learn what is befiting."
+
+Giles glared round, but he met nothing encouraging.  Little Dennet
+sat with open mouth of astonishment, her grandmother looked shocked,
+the household which had been aggrieved by his presumption laughed at
+his rebuke, for there was not much delicacy in those days; but
+something generous in the gentle blood of Ambrose moved him to some
+amount of pity for the lad, who thus suddenly became conscious that
+the tie he had thought nominal at Salisbury, a mere preliminary to
+municipal rank, was here absolute subjection, and a bondage whence
+there was no escape.  His was the only face that Giles met which had
+any friendliness in it, but no one spoke, for manners imposed
+silence upon youth at table, except when spoken to; and there was
+general hunger enough prevailing to make Mistress Headley's fat
+capon the most interesting contemplation for the present.
+
+The elders conversed, for there was much for Master Headley to hear
+of civic affairs that had passed in his absence of two months, also
+of all the comings and goings, and it was ascertained that my Lord
+Archbishop of York was at his suburban abode, York House, now
+Whitehall.
+
+It was a very late supper for the times, not beginning till seven
+o'clock, on account of the travellers; and as soon as it was
+finished, and the priest and burghers had taken their leave, Master
+Headley dismissed the household to their beds, although daylight was
+scarcely departed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.  A SUNDAY IN THE CITY
+
+
+
+"The rod of Heaven has touched them all,
+   The word from Heaven is spoken:
+Rise, shine and sing, thou captive thrall,
+   Are not thy fetters broken?"
+
+KEBLE.
+
+
+On Sunday morning, when the young Birkenholts awoke, the whole air
+seemed full of bells from hundreds of Church and Minster steeples.
+The Dragon Court wore a holiday air, and there was no ring of
+hammers at the forges; but the men who stood about were in holiday
+attire:  and the brothers assumed their best clothes.
+
+Breakfast was not a meal much accounted of.  It was reckoned
+effeminate to require more than two meals a day, though, just as in
+the verdurer's lodge at home, there was a barrel of ale on tap with
+drinking horns beside it in the hall, and on a small round table in
+the window a loaf of bread, to which city luxury added a cheese, and
+a jug containing sack, with some silver cups beside it, and a
+pitcher of fair water.  Master Headley, with his mother and
+daughter, was taking a morsel of these refections, standing, and in
+out-door garments, when the brothers appeared at about seven o'clock
+in the morning.
+
+"Ha! that's well," quoth he, greeting them.  "No slugabeds, I see.
+Will ye come with us to hear mass at St. Faith's?"  They agreed, and
+Master Headley then told them that if they would tarry till the next
+day in searching out their uncle, they could have the company of
+Tibble Steelman, who had to see one of the captains of the guard
+about an alteration of his corslet, and thus would have every
+opportunity of facilitating their inquiries for their uncle.
+
+The mass was an ornate one, though not more so than they were
+accustomed to at Beaulieu.  Ambrose had his book of devotions,
+supplied by the good monks who had brought him up, and old Mrs.
+Headley carried something of the same kind; but these did not
+necessarily follow the ritual, and neither quiet nor attention was
+regarded as requisite in "hearing mass."  Dennet, unchecked, was
+exchanging flowers from her Sunday posy with another little girl,
+and with hooded fingers carrying on in all innocence the satirical
+pantomime of Father Francis and Sister Catharine; and even Master
+Headley himself exchanged remarks with his friends, and returned
+greetings from burgesses and their wives while the celebrant
+priest's voice droned on, and the choir responded--the peals of the
+organ in the Minster above coming in at inappropriate moments, for
+there they were in a different part of High Mass using the Liturgy
+peculiar to St. Paul's.
+
+Thinking of last week at Beaulieu, Ambrose knelt meantime with his
+head buried in his hands, in an absorption of feeling that was not
+perhaps wholly devout, but which at any rate looked more like
+devotion than the demeanour of any one around.  When the Ite missa
+est was pronounced, and all rose up, Stephen touched him and he
+rose, looking about, bewildered.
+
+"So please you, young sir, I can show you another sort of thing by
+and by," said in his ear Tibble Steelman, who had come in late, and
+marked his attitude.
+
+They went up from St. Faith's in a flood of talk, with all manner of
+people welcoming Master Headley after his journey, and thence came
+back to dinner which was set out in the hall very soon after their
+return from church.  Quite guests enough were there on this occasion
+to fill all the chairs, and Master Headley intimated to Giles that
+he must begin his duties at table as an apprentice, under the
+tuition of the senior, a tall young fellow of nineteen, by name
+Edmund Burgess.  He looked greatly injured and discomfited, above
+all when he saw his two travelling companions seated at the table--
+though far lower than the night before; nor would he stir from where
+he was standing against the wall to do the slightest service,
+although Edmund admonished him sharply that unless he bestirred
+himself it would be the worse for him.
+
+When the meal was over, and grace had been said, the boards were
+removed from their trestles, and the elders drew round the small
+table in the window with a flagon of sack and a plate of wastel
+bread in their midst to continue their discussion of weighty Town
+Council matters.  Every one was free to make holiday, and Edmund
+Burgess good-naturedly invited the strangers to come to Mile End,
+where there was to be shooting at the butts, and a match at
+singlestick was to come off between Kit Smallbones and another
+giant, who was regarded as the champion of the brewer's craft.
+
+Stephen was nothing loth, especially if he might take his own
+crossbow; but Ambrose never had much turn for these pastimes and was
+in no mood for them.  The familiar associations of the mass had
+brought the grief of orphanhood, homelessness, and uncertainty upon
+him with the more force.  His spirit yearned after his father, and
+his heart was sick for his forest home.  Moreover, there was the
+duty incumbent on a good son of saying his prayers for the repose of
+his father's soul.  He hinted as much to Stephen, who, boy-like,
+answered, "Oh, we'll see to that when we get into my Lord of York's
+house.  Masses must be plenty there.  And I must see Smallbones
+floor the brewer."
+
+Ambrose could trust his brother under the care of Edmund Burgess,
+and resolved on a double amount of repetitions of the appointed
+intercessions for the departed.
+
+He was watching the party of youths set off, all except Giles
+Headley, who sulkily refused the invitations, betook himself to a
+window and sat drumming on the glass, while Ambrose stood leaning on
+the dragon balustrade, with his eyes dreamily following the merry
+lads out at the gateway.
+
+"You are not for such gear, sir," said a voice at his ear, and he
+saw the scathed face of Tibble Steelman beside him.
+
+"Never greatly so, Tibble," answered Ambrose.  "And my heart is too
+heavy for it now."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir.  So I thought when I saw you in St. Faith's.  I have
+known what it was to lose a good father in my time."
+
+Ambrose held out his hand.  It was the first really sympathetic word
+he had heard since he had left Nurse Joan.
+
+"'Tis the week's mind of his burial," he said, half choked with
+tears.  "Where shall I find a quiet church where I may say his De
+profundis in peace?"
+
+"Mayhap," returned Tibble, "the chapel in the Pardon churchyard
+would serve your turn.  'Tis not greatly resorted to when mass time
+is over, when there's no funeral in hand, and I oft go there to read
+my book in quiet on a Sunday afternoon.  And then, if 'tis your
+will, I will take you to what to my mind is the best healing for a
+sore heart."
+
+"Nurse Joan was wont to say the best for that was a sight of the
+true Cross, as she once beheld it at Holy Rood church at
+Southampton," said Ambrose.
+
+"And so it is, lad, so it is," said Tibble, with a strange light on
+his distorted features.
+
+So they went forth together, while Giles again hugged himself in his
+doleful conceit, marvelling how a youth of birth and nurture could
+walk the streets on a Sunday with a scarecrow such as that!
+
+The hour was still early, there was a whole summer afternoon before
+them; and Tibble, seeing how much his young companion was struck
+with the grand vista of church towers and spires, gave him their
+names as they stood, though coupling them with short dry comments on
+the way in which their priests too often perverted them.
+
+The Cheap was then still in great part an open space, where boys
+were playing, and a tumbler was attracting many spectators; while
+the ballad-singer of yesterday had again a large audience, who
+laughed loudly at every coarse jest broken upon mass-priests and
+friars.
+
+Ambrose was horrified at the stave that met his ears, and asked how
+such profanity could be allowed.  Tibble shrugged his shoulders, and
+cited the old saying, "The nearer the church"--adding, "Truth hath a
+voice, and will out."
+
+"But surely this is not the truth?"
+
+"'Tis mighty like it, sir, though it might be spoken in a more
+seemly fashion."
+
+"What's this?" demanded Ambrose.  "'Tis a noble house."
+
+"That's the Bishop's palace, sir--a man that hath much to answer
+for."
+
+"Liveth he so ill a life then?"
+
+"Not so.  He is no scandalous liver, but he would fain stifle all
+the voices that call for better things.  Ay, you look back at yon
+ballad-monger!  Great folk despise the like of him, never guessing
+at the power there may be in such ribald stuff; while they would
+fain silence that which might turn men from their evil ways while
+yet there is time."
+
+Tibble muttered this to himself, unheeded by Ambrose, and then
+presently crossing the church-yard, where a grave was being filled
+up, with numerous idle children around it, he conducted the youth
+into a curious little chapel, empty now, but with the Host enthroned
+above the altar, and the trestles on which the bier had rested still
+standing in the narrow nave.
+
+It was intensely still and cool, a fit place indeed for Ambrose's
+filial devotions, while Tibble settled himself on the step, took out
+a little black book, and became absorbed.  Ambrose's Latin
+scholarship enabled him to comprehend the language of the round of
+devotions he was rehearsing for the benefit of his father's soul;
+but there was much repetition in them, and he had been so trained as
+to believe their correct recital was much more important than
+attention to their spirit, and thus, while his hands held his
+rosary, his eyes were fixed upon the walls where was depicted the
+Dance of Death.  In terrible repetition, the artist had aimed at
+depicting every rank or class in life as alike the prey of the
+grisly phantom.  Triple-crowned pope, scarlet-hatted cardinal,
+mitred prelate, priests, monks, and friars of every degree;
+emperors, kings, princes, nobles, knights, squires, yeomen, every
+sort of trade, soldiers of all kinds, beggars, even thieves and
+murderers, and, in like manner, ladies of every degree, from the
+queen and the abbess, down to the starving beggar, were each
+represented as grappled with, and carried off by the crowned
+skeleton.  There was no truckling to greatness.  The bishop and
+abbot writhed and struggled in the grasp of Death, while the miser
+clutched at his gold, and if there were some nuns, and some poor
+ploughmen who willingly clasped his bony fingers and obeyed his
+summons joyfully, there were countesses and prioresses who tried to
+beat him off, or implored him to wait.  The infant smiled in his
+arms, but the middle-aged fought against his scythe.
+
+The contemplation had a most depressing effect on the boy, whose
+heart was still sore for his father.  After the sudden shock of such
+a loss, the monotonous repetition of the snatching away of all
+alike, in the midst of their characteristic worldly employments, and
+the anguish and hopeless resistance of most of them, struck him to
+the heart.  He moved between each bead to a fresh group; staring at
+it with fixed gaze, while his lips moved in the unconscious hope of
+something consoling; till at last, hearing some uncontrollable sobs,
+Tibble Steelman rose and found him crouching rather than kneeling
+before the figure of an emaciated hermit, who was greeting the
+summons of the King of Terrors, with crucifix pressed to his breast,
+rapt countenance and outstretched arms, seeing only the Angel who
+hovered above.  After some minutes of bitter weeping, which choked
+his utterance, Ambrose, feeling a friendly hand on his shoulder,
+exclaimed in a voice broken by sobs, "Oh, tell me, where may I go to
+become an anchorite!  There's no other safety!  I'll give all my
+portion, and spend all my time in prayer for my father and the other
+poor souls in purgatory."
+
+Two centuries earlier, nay, even one, Ambrose would have been
+encouraged to follow out his purpose.  As it was, Tibble gave a
+little dry cough and said, "Come along with me, sir, and I'll show
+you another sort of way."
+
+"I want no entertainment!" said Ambrose, "I should feel only as if
+he," pointing to the phantom, "were at hand, clutching me with his
+deadly claw," and he looked over his shoulder with a shudder.
+
+There was a box by the door to receive alms for masses on behalf of
+the souls in purgatory, and here he halted and felt for the pouch at
+his girdle, to pour in all the contents; but Steelman said, "Hold,
+sir, are you free to dispose of your brother's share, you who are
+purse-bearer for both?"
+
+"I would fain hold my brother to the only path of safety."
+
+Again Tibble gave his dry cough, but added, "He is not in the path
+of safety who bestows that which is not his own but is held in
+trust.  I were foully to blame if I let this grim portrayal so work
+on you as to lead you to beggar not only yourself, but your brother,
+with no consent of his."
+
+For Tibble was no impulsive Italian, but a sober-minded Englishman
+of sturdy good sense, and Ambrose was reasonable enough to listen
+and only drop in a few groats which he knew to be his own.
+
+At the same moment, a church bell was heard, the tone of which
+Steelman evidently distinguished from all the others, and he led the
+way out of the Pardon churchyard, over the space in front of St.
+Paul's.  Many persons were taking the same route; citizens in gowns
+and gold or silver chains, their wives in tall pointed hats;
+craftsmen, black-gowned scholarly men with fur caps, but there was a
+much more scanty proportion of priests, monks or friars, than was
+usual in any popular assemblage.  Many of the better class of women
+carried folding stools, or had them carried by their servants, as if
+they expected to sit and wait.
+
+"Is there a procession toward? or a relic to be displayed?" asked
+Ambrose, trying to recollect whose feast-day it might be.
+
+Tibble screwed up his mouth in an extraordinary smile as he said,
+"Relic quotha? yea, the soothest relic there be of the Lord and
+Master of us all."
+
+"Methought the true Cross was always displayed on the High Altar,"
+said Ambrose, as all turned to a side aisle of the noble nave.
+
+"Rather say hidden," muttered Tibble.  "Thou shalt have it
+displayed, young sir, but neither in wood nor gilded shrine.  See,
+here he comes who setteth it forth."
+
+From the choir came, attended by half a dozen clergy, a small, pale
+man, in the ordinary dress of a priest, with a square cap on his
+head.  He looked spare, sickly, and wrinkled, but the furrows traced
+lines of sweetness, his mouth was wonderfully gentle, and there was
+a keen brightness about his clear grey eye.  Every one rose and made
+obeisance as he passed along to the stone stair leading to a pulpit
+projecting from one of the columns.
+
+Ambrose saw what was coming, though he had only twice before heard
+preaching.  The children of the ante-reformation were not called
+upon to hear sermons; and the few exhortations given in Lent to the
+monks of Beaulieu were so exclusively for the religious that
+seculars were not invited to them.  So that Ambrose had only once
+heard a weary and heavy discourse there plentifully garnished with
+Latin; and once he had stood among the throng at a wake at
+Millbrook, and heard a begging friar recommend the purchase of
+briefs of indulgence and the daily repetition of the Ave Maria by a
+series of extraordinary miracles for the rescue of desperate
+sinners, related so jocosely as to keep the crowd in a roar of
+laughter.  He had laughed with the rest, but he could not imagine
+his guide, with the stern, grave eyebrows, writhen features and
+earnest, ironical tone, covering--as even he could detect--the
+deepest feeling, enjoying such broad sallies as tickled the slow
+merriment of village clowns and forest deer-stealers.
+
+All stood for a moment while the Paternoster was repeated.  Then the
+owners of stools sat down on them, some leant on adjacent pillars,
+others curled themselves on the floor, but most remained on their
+feet as unwilling to miss a word, and of these were Tibble Steelman
+and his companion.
+
+Omnis qui facit peccatum, servus est peccati, followed by the
+rendering in English, "Whosoever doeth sin is sin's bond thrall."
+The words answered well to the ghastly delineations that seemed
+stamped on Ambrose's brain and which followed him about into the
+nave, so that he felt himself in the grasp of the cruel fiend, and
+almost expected to feel the skeleton claw of Death about to hand him
+over to torment.  He expected the consolation of hearing that a
+daily "Hail Mary," persevered in through the foulest life, would
+obtain that beams should be arrested in their fall, ships fail to
+sink, cords to hang, till such confession had been made as should
+insure ultimate salvation, after such a proportion of the flames of
+purgatory as masses and prayers might not mitigate.
+
+But his attention was soon caught.  Sinfulness stood before him not
+as the liability to penalty for transgressing an arbitrary rule, but
+as a taint to the entire being, mastering the will, perverting the
+senses, forging fetters out of habit, so as to be a loathsome horror
+paralysing and enchaining the whole being and making it into the
+likeness of him who brought sin and death into the world.  The
+horror seemed to grow on Ambrose, as his boyish faults and errors
+rushed on his mind, and he felt pervaded by the contagion of the
+pestilence, abhorrent even to himself.  But behold, what was he
+hearing now?  "The bond thrall abideth not in the house for ever,
+but the Son abideth ever.  Si ergo Filius liberavit, vere liberi
+eritis."  "If the Son should make you free, then are ye free
+indeed."  And for the first time was the true liberty of the
+redeemed soul comprehensibly proclaimed to the young spirit that had
+begun to yearn for something beyond the outside.  Light began to
+shine through the outward ordinances; the Church; the world, life,
+and death, were revealed as something absolutely new; a redeeming,
+cleansing, sanctifying power was made known, and seemed to inspire
+him with a new life, joy, and hope.  He was no longer feeling
+himself necessarily crushed by the fetters of death, or only
+delivered from absolute peril by a mechanism that had lost its
+heart, but he could enter into the glorious liberty of the sons of
+God, in process of being saved, not in sin but FROM sin.
+
+It was an era in his life, and Tibble heard him sobbing, but with
+very different sobs from those in the Pardon chapel.  When it was
+over, and the blessing given, Ambrose looked up from the hands which
+had covered his face with a new radiance in his eyes, and drew a
+long breath.  Tibble saw that he was like one in another world, and
+gently led him away.
+
+"Who is he?  What is he?  Is he an angel from Heaven?" demanded the
+boy, a little wildly, as they neared the southern door.
+
+"If an angel be a messenger of God, I trow he is one," said Tibble.
+"But men call him Dr. Colet.  He is Dean of St. Paul's Minster, and
+dwelleth in the house you see below there."
+
+"And are such words as these to be heard every Sunday?"
+
+"On most Sundays doth he preach here in the nave to all sorts of
+folk."
+
+"I must--I must hear it again!" exclaimed Ambrose.
+
+"Ay, ay," said Tibble, regarding him with a well-pleased face.  "You
+are one with whom it works."
+
+"Every Sunday!" repeated Ambrose.  "Why do not all--your master and
+all these," pointing to the holiday crowds going to and fro--"why do
+they not all come to listen?"
+
+"Master doth come by times," said Tibble, in the tone of irony that
+was hard to understand.  "He owneth the dean as a rare preacher."
+
+Ambrose did not try to understand.  He exclaimed again, panting as
+if his thoughts were too strong for his words--"Lo you, that
+preacher--dean call ye him?--putteth a soul into what hath hitherto
+been to me but a dead and empty framework."
+
+Tibble held out his hand almost unconsciously, and Ambrose pressed
+it.  Man and boy, alike they had felt the electric current of that
+truth, which, suppressed and ignored among man's inventions, was
+coming as a new revelation to many, and was already beginning to
+convulse the Church and the world.
+
+Ambrose's mind was made up on one point.  Whatever he did, and
+wherever he went, he felt the doctrine he had just heard as needful
+to him as vital air, and he must be within reach of it.  This, and
+not the hermit's cell, was what his instinct craved.  He had always
+been a studious, scholarly boy, supposed to be marked out for a
+clerical life, because a book was more to him than a bow, and he had
+been easily trained in good habits and practices of devotion; but
+all in a childish manner, without going beyond simple receptiveness,
+until the experiences of the last week had made a man of him, or
+more truly, the Pardon chapel and Dean Colet's sermon had made him a
+new being, with the realities of the inner life opened before him.
+
+His present feeling was relief from the hideous load he had felt
+while dwelling on the Dance of Death, and therewith general goodwill
+to all men, which found its first issue in compassion for Giles
+Headley, whom he found on his return seated on the steps--moody and
+miserable.
+
+"Would that you had been with us," said Ambrose, sitting down beside
+him on the step.  "Never have I heard such words as to-day."
+
+"I would not be seen in the street with that scarecrow," murmured
+Giles.  "If my mother could have guessed that he was to be set over
+me, I had never come here."
+
+"Surely you knew that he was foreman."
+
+"Yea, but not that I should be under him--I whom old Giles vowed
+should be as his own son--I that am to wed yon little brown moppet,
+and be master here!  So, forsooth," he said, "now he treats me like
+any common low-bred prentice."
+
+"Nay," said Ambrose, "an if you were his son, he would still make
+you serve.  It's the way with all craftsmen--yea and with
+gentlemen's sons also.  They must be pages and squires ere they can
+be knights."
+
+"It never was the way at home.  I was only bound prentice to my
+father for the name of the thing, that I might have the freedom of
+the city, and become head of our house."
+
+"But how could you be a wise master without learning the craft?"
+
+"What are journeymen for?" demanded the lad.  "Had I known how Giles
+Headley meant to serve me, he might have gone whistle for a husband
+for his wench.  I would have ridden in my Lady of Salisbury's
+train."
+
+"You might have had rougher usage there than here," said Ambrose.
+"Master Headley lays nothing on you but what he has himself proved.
+I would I could see you make the best of so happy a home."
+
+"Ay, that's all very well for you, who are certain of a great man's
+house."
+
+"Would that I were certified that my brother would be as well off as
+you, if you did but know it," said Ambrose.  "Ha! here come the
+dishes!  'Tis supper time come on us unawares, and Stephen not
+returned from Mile End!"
+
+Punctuality was not, however, exacted on these summer Sunday
+evenings, when practice with the bow and other athletic sports were
+enjoined by Government, and, moreover, the youths were with so
+trustworthy a member of the household as Kit Smallbones.
+
+Sundry City magnates had come to supper with Master Headley, and
+whether it were the effect of Ambrose's counsel, or of the example
+of a handsome lad who had come with his father, one of the
+worshipful guild of Merchant Taylors, Giles did vouchsafe to bestir
+himself in waiting, and in consideration of the effort it must have
+cost him, old Mrs. Headley and her son did not take notice of his
+blunders, but only Dennet fell into a violent fit of laughter, when
+he presented the stately alderman with a nutmeg under the impression
+that it was an overgrown peppercorn.  She suppressed her mirth as
+well as she could, poor little thing, for it was a great offence in
+good manners, but she was detected, and, only child as she was, the
+consequence was the being banished from the table and sent to bed.
+
+But when, after supper was over, Ambrose went out to see if there
+were any signs of the return of Stephen and the rest, he found the
+little maiden curled up in the gallery with her kitten in her arms.
+
+"Nay!" she said, in a spoilt-child tone, "I'm not going to bed
+before my time for laughing at that great oaf!  Nurse Alice says he
+is to wed me, but I won't have him!  I like the pretty boy who had
+the good dog and saved father, and I like you, Master Ambrose.  Sit
+down by me and tell me the story over again, and we shall see Kit
+Smallbones come home.  I know he'll have beaten the brewer's
+fellow."
+
+Before Ambrose had decided whether thus far to abet rebellion, she
+jumped up and cried:  "Oh, I see Kit!  He's got my ribbon!  He has
+won the match!"
+
+And down she rushed, quite oblivious of her disgrace, and Ambrose
+presently saw her uplifted in Kit Smallbones' brawny arms to utter
+her congratulations.
+
+Stephen was equally excited.  His head was full of Kit Smallbones'
+exploits, and of the marvels of the sports he had witnessed and
+joined in with fair success.  He had thought Londoners poor
+effeminate creatures, but he found that these youths preparing for
+the trained bands understood all sorts of martial exercises far
+better than any of his forest acquaintance, save perhaps the hitting
+of a mark.  He was half wild with a boy's enthusiasm for Kit
+Smallbones and Edmund Burgess, and when, after eating the supper
+that had been reserved for the late comers, he and his brother
+repaired to their own chamber, his tongue ran on in description of
+the feats he had witnessed and his hopes of emulating them, since he
+understood that Archbishop as was my Lord of York, there was a tilt-
+yard at York House.  Ambrose, equally full of his new feelings,
+essayed to make his brother a sharer in them, but Stephen entirely
+failed to understand more than that his book-worm brother had heard
+something that delighted him in his own line of scholarship, from
+which Stephen had happily escaped a year ago!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.  YORK HOUSE
+
+
+
+"Then hath he servants five or six score,
+Some behind and some before;
+A marvellous great company
+Of which are lords and gentlemen,
+With many grooms and yeomen
+And also knaves among them."
+
+Contemporary Poem on Wolsey.
+
+
+Early were hammers ringing on anvils in the Dragon Court, and all
+was activity.  Master Headley was giving his orders to Kit
+Smallbones before setting forth to take the Duke of Buckingham's
+commands; Giles Headley, very much disgusted, was being invested
+with a leathern apron, and entrusted to Edmund Burgess to learn
+those primary arts of furbishing which, but for his mother's vanity
+and his father's weakness, he would have practised four years
+sooner.  Tibble Steelman was superintending the arrangement of half
+a dozen corslets, which were to be carried by three stout porters,
+under his guidance, to what is now Whitehall, then the residence of
+the Archbishop of York, the king's prime adviser, Thomas Wolsey.
+
+"Look you, Tib," said the kind-hearted armourer, "if those lads find
+not their kinsman, or find him not what they look for, bring them
+back hither, I cannot have them cast adrift.  They are good and
+brave youths, and I owe a life to them."
+
+Tibble nodded entire assent, but when the boys appeared in their
+mourning suits, with their bundles on their backs, they were sent
+back again to put on their forest green, Master Headley explaining
+that it was reckoned ill-omened, if not insulting, to appear before
+any great personage in black, unless to enhance some petition
+directly addressed to himself.  He also bade them leave their
+fardels behind, as, if they tarried at York House, these could be
+easily sent after them.
+
+They obeyed--even Stephen doing so with more alacrity than he had
+hitherto shown to Master Headley's behests; for now that the time
+for departure had come, he was really sorry to leave the armourer's
+household.  Edmund Burgess had been very good-natured to the raw
+country lad, and Kit Smallbones was, in his eyes, an Ascapart in
+strength, and a Bevis in prowess and kindliness.  Mistress Headley
+too had been kind to the orphan lads, and these two days had given a
+feeling of being at home at the Dragon.  When Giles wished them a
+moody farewell, and wished he were going with them, Stephen
+returned, "Ah! you don't know when you are well off."
+
+Little Dennet came running down after them with two pinks in her
+hands.  "Here's a sop-in-wine for a token for each of you young
+gentlemen," she cried, "for you came to help father, and I would you
+were going to stay and wed me instead of Giles."
+
+"What, both of us, little maid?" said Ambrose, laughing, as he
+stooped to receive the kiss her rosy lips tendered to him.
+
+"Not but what she would have royal example," muttered Tibble aside.
+
+Dennet put her head on one side, as considering.  "Nay, not both;
+but you are gentle and courteous, and he is brave and gallant--and
+Giles there is moody and glum, and can do nought."
+
+"Ah! you will see what a gallant fellow Giles can be when thou hast
+cured him of his home-sickness by being good to him," said Ambrose,
+sorry for the youth in the universal laughter at the child's plain
+speaking.
+
+And thus the lads left the Dragon, amid friendly farewells.  Ambrose
+looked up at the tall spire of St. Paul's with a strong
+determination that he would never put himself out of reach of such
+words as he had there drunk in, and which were indeed spirit and
+life to him.
+
+Tibble took them down to the St. Paul's stairs on the river, where
+at his whistle a wherry was instantly brought to transport them to
+York stairs, only one of the smiths going any further in charge of
+the corslets.  Very lovely was their voyage in the brilliant summer
+morning, as the glittering water reflected in broken ripples church
+spire, convent garden, and stately house.  Here rows of elm-trees
+made a cool walk by the river side, there strawberry beds sloped
+down the Strand, and now and then the hooded figures of nuns might
+be seen gathering the fruit.  There, rose the round church of the
+Temple, and the beautiful gardens surrounding the buildings, half
+monastic, half military, and already inhabited by lawyers.  From a
+barge at the Temple stairs a legal personage descended, with a
+square beard, and open, benevolent, shrewd face, before whom Tibble
+removed his cap with eagerness, saying to Ambrose, "Yonder is Master
+More, a close friend of the dean's, a good and wise man, and forward
+in every good work."
+
+Thus did they arrive at York House.  Workmen were busy on some
+portions of it, but it was inhabited by the great Archbishop, the
+king's chief adviser.  The approach of the boat seemed to be
+instantly notified, as it drew near the stone steps giving entrance
+to the gardens, with an avenue of trees leading up to the principal
+entrance.
+
+Four or five yeomen ran down the steps, calling out to Tibble that
+their corslets had tarried a long time, and that Sir Thomas Drury
+had been storming for him to get his tilting armour into order.
+
+Tibble followed the man who had undertaken to conduct him through a
+path that led to the offices of the great house, bidding the boys
+keep with him, and asking for their uncle Master Harry Randall.
+
+The yeoman shook his head.  He knew no such person in the household,
+and did not think there ever had been such.  Sir Thomas Drury was
+found in the stable court, trying the paces of the horse he intended
+to use in the approaching joust.  "Ha! old Wry-mouth," he cried,
+"welcome at last!  I must have my new device damasked on my shield.
+Come hither, and I'll show it thee."
+
+Private rooms were seldom enjoyed, even by knights and gentlemen, in
+such a household, and Sir Thomas could only conduct Tibble to the
+armoury, where numerous suits of armour hung on blocks, presenting
+the semblance of armed men.  The knight, a good-looking personage,
+expatiated much on the device he wished to dedicate to his lady-
+love, a pierced heart with a forget-me-not in the midst, and it was
+not until the directions were finished that Tibble ventured to
+mention the inquiry for Randall.
+
+"I wot of no such fellow," returned Sir Thomas, "you had best go to
+the comptroller, who keeps all the names."  Tibble had to go to this
+functionary at any rate, to obtain an order for payment for the
+corslets he had brought home.  Ambrose and Stephen followed him
+across an enormous hall, where three long tables were being laid for
+dinner.
+
+The comptroller of the household, an esquire of good birth, with a
+stiff little ruff round his neck, sat in a sort of office inclosed
+by panels at the end of the hall.  He made an entry of Tibble's
+account in a big book, and sent a message to the cofferer to bring
+the amount.  Then Tibble again put his question on behalf of the two
+young foresters, and the comptroller shook his head.  He did not
+know the name.  "Was the gentleman" (he chose that word as he looked
+at the boys) "layman or clerk?"  "Layman, certainly," said Ambrose,
+somewhat dismayed to find how little, on interrogation, he really
+knew.
+
+"Was he a yeoman of the guard, or in attendance on one of my lord's
+nobles in waiting?"
+
+"We thought he had been a yeoman," said Ambrose.
+
+"See," said the comptroller, stimulated by a fee administered by
+Tibble, "'tis just dinner time, and I must go to attend on my Lord
+Archbishop; but do you, Tibble, sit down with these striplings to
+dinner, and then I will cast my eye over the books, and see if I can
+find any such name.  What, hast not time?  None ever quits my lord's
+without breaking his fast."
+
+Tibble had no doubt that his master would be willing that he should
+give up his time for this purpose, so he accepted the invitation.
+The tables were by this time nearly covered, but all stood waiting,
+for there flowed in from the great doorway of the hall a gorgeous
+train--first, a man bearing the double archiepiscopal cross of York,
+fashioned in silver, and thick with gems--then, with lofty mitre
+enriched with pearls and jewels, and with flowing violet lace-
+covered robes came the sturdy square-faced ruddy prelate, who was
+then the chief influence in England, and after him two glittering
+ranks of priests in square caps and richly embroidered copes, all in
+accordant colours.  They were returning, as a yeoman told Tibble,
+from some great ecclesiastical ceremony, and dinner would be served
+instantly.
+
+"That for which Ralf Bowyer lives!" said a voice close by, "He would
+fain that the dial's hands were Marie bones, the face blancmange,
+wherein the figures should be grapes of Corinth!"
+
+Stephen looked round and saw a man close beside him in what he knew
+at once to be the garb of a jester.  A tall scarlet velvet cap, with
+three peaks, bound with gold braid, and each surmounted with a
+little gilded bell, crowned his head, a small crimson ridge to
+indicate the cock's comb running along the front.  His jerkin and
+hose were of motley, the left arm and right leg being blue, their
+opposites, orange tawny, while the nether stocks and shoes were in
+like manner black and scarlet counterchanged.  And yet, somehow,
+whether from the way of wearing it, or from the effect of the gold
+embroidery meandering over all, the effect was not distressing, but
+more like that of a gorgeous bird.  The figure was tall, lithe, and
+active, the brown ruddy face had none of the blank stare of vacant
+idiocy, but was full of twinkling merriment, the black eyes laughed
+gaily, and perhaps only so clearsighted and shrewd an observer as
+Tibble would have detected a weakness of purpose about the mouth.
+
+There was a roar of laughter at the gibe, as indeed there was at
+whatever was uttered by the man whose profession was to make mirth.
+
+"Thou likest thy food well enough thyself, quipsome one," muttered
+Ralf.
+
+"Hast found one who doth not, Ralf?  Then should he have a free gift
+of my bauble," responded the jester, shaking on high that badge,
+surmounted with the golden head of an ass, and jingling with bells.
+"How now, friend Wry-mouth?  'Tis long since thou wert here!  This
+house hath well-nigh been forced to its ghostly weapons for lack of
+thy substantial ones.  Where hast thou been?"
+
+"At Salisbury, good Merryman."
+
+"Have the Wilts men raked the moon yet out of the pond?  Did they
+lend thee their rake, Tib, that thou hast raked up a couple of green
+Forest palmer worms, or be they the sons of the man in the moon,
+raked out and all astray?"
+
+"Mayhap, for we met them with dog and bush," said Tibble, "and they
+dropped as from the moon to save my poor master from the robbers on
+Bagshot heath!  Come now, mine honest fellow, aid me to rake, as
+thou sayest, this same household.  They are come up from the Forest,
+to seek out their uncle, one Randall, who they have heard to be in
+this meine.  Knowest thou such a fellow?"
+
+"To seek a spider in a stubble-field!  Truly he needs my bauble who
+sent them on such an errand," said the jester, rather slowly, as if
+to take time for consideration.  "What's your name, my Forest
+flies?"
+
+"Birkenholt, sir," answered Ambrose, "but our uncle is Harry
+Randall."
+
+"Here's fools enow to take away mine office," was the reply.
+"Here's a couple of lads would leave the greenwood and the free oaks
+and beeches, for this stinking, plague-smitten London."
+
+"We'd not have quitted it could we have tarried at home," began
+Ambrose; but at that moment there was a sudden commotion, a
+trampling of horses was heard outside, a loud imperious voice
+demanded, "Is my Lord Archbishop within?" a whisper ran round, "the
+King," and there entered the hall with hasty steps, a figure never
+to be forgotten, clad in a hunting dress of green velvet embroidered
+with gold, with a golden hunting horn slung round his neck.
+
+Henry VIII. was then in the splendid prime of his youth, in his
+twenty-seventh year, and in the eyes, not only of his own subjects,
+but of all others, the very type of a true king of men.  Tall, and
+as yet of perfect form for strength, agility, and grace; his
+features were of the beautiful straight Plantagenet type, and his
+complexion of purely fair rosiness, his large well-opened blue eyes
+full at once of frankness and keenness, and the short golden beard
+that fringed his square chin giving the manly air that otherwise
+might have seemed wanting to the feminine tinting of his regular
+lineaments.  All caps were instantly doffed save the little bonnet
+with one drooping feather that covered his short, curled, yellow
+hair; and the Earl of Derby, who was at the head of Wolsey's
+retainers, made haste, bowing to the ground, to assure him that my
+Lord Archbishop was but doffing his robes, and would be with his
+Grace instantly.  Would his Grace vouchsafe to come on to the privy
+chamber where the dinner was spread?
+
+At the same moment Quipsome Hal sprang forward, exclaiming, "How
+now, brother and namesake?  Wherefore this coil?  Hath cloth of gold
+wearied yet of cloth of frieze?  Is she willing to own her right to
+this?" as he held out his bauble.
+
+"Holla, old Blister! art thou there?" said the King, good-
+humouredly.  "What! knowest not that we are to have such a wedding
+as will be a sight for sore eyes!"
+
+"Sore! that's well said, friend Hal.  Thou art making progress in
+mine art!  Sore be the eyes wherein thou wouldst throw dust."
+
+Again the King laughed, for every one knew that his sister Mary had
+secretly been married to the Duke of Suffolk for the last two
+months, and that this public marriage and the tournament that was to
+follow were only for the sake of appearances.  He laid his hand
+good-naturedly on the jester's shoulder as he walked up the hall
+towards the Archbishop's private apartments, but the voices of both
+were loud pitched, and bits of the further conversation could be
+picked up.  "Weddings are rife in your family," said the jester,
+"none of you get weary of fitting on the noose.  What, thou thyself,
+Hal?  Ay, thou hast not caught the contagion yet!  Now ye gods
+forefend!  If thou hast the chance, thou'lt have it strong."
+
+Therewith the Archbishop, in his purple robes, appeared in the
+archway at the other end of the hall, the King joined him, and still
+followed by the jester, they both vanished.  It was presently made
+known that the King was about to dine there, and that all were to
+sit down to eat.  The King dined alone with the Archbishop as his
+host; the two noblemen who had formed his suite joined the first
+table in the higher hall; the knights that of the steward of the
+household, who was of knightly degree, and with whom the superior
+clergy of the household ate; and the grooms found their places among
+the vast array of yeomen and serving-men of all kinds with whom
+Tibble and his two young companions had to eat.  A week ago, Stephen
+would have contemned the idea of being classed with serving-men and
+grooms, but by this time he was quite bewildered, and anxious enough
+to be thankful to keep near a familiar face on any terms, and to
+feel as if Tibble were an old friend, though he had only known him
+for five days.
+
+Why the King had come had not transpired, but there was a whisper
+that despatches from Scotland were concerned in it.  The meal was a
+lengthy one, but at last the King's horses were ordered, and
+presently Henry came forth, with his arm familiarly linked in that
+of the Archbishop, whose horse had likewise been made ready that he
+might accompany the King back to Westminster.  The jester was close
+at hand, and as a parting shaft he observed, while the King mounted
+his horse, "Friend Hal! give my brotherly commendations to our
+Madge, and tell her that one who weds Anguish cannot choose but cry
+out."
+
+Wherewith, affecting to expect a stroke from the King's whip, he
+doubled himself up, performed the contortion now called turning a
+coachwheel, then, recovering himself, put his hands on his hips and
+danced wildly on the steps; while Henry, shaking his whip at him,
+laughed at the only too obvious pun, for Anguish was the English
+version of Angus, the title of Queen Margaret's second husband, and
+it was her complaints that had brought him to his counsellor.
+
+The jester then, much to the annoyance of the two boys, thought
+proper to follow them to the office of the comptroller, and as that
+dignitary read out from his books the name of every Henry, and of
+all the varieties of Ralf and Randolf among the hundred and eighty
+persons composing the household, he kept on making comments.  "Harry
+Hempseed, clerk to the kitchen; ay, Hempseed will serve his turn one
+of these days.  Walter Randall, groom of the chamber; ah, ha! my
+lads, if you want a generous uncle who will look after you well,
+there is your man!  He'll give you the shakings of the napery for
+largesse, and when he is in an open-handed mood, will let you lie on
+the rushes that have served the hall.  Harry of Lambeth, yeoman of
+the stable.  He will make you free of all the taverns in Eastchepe."
+
+And so on, accompanying each remark with a pantomime mimicry of the
+air and gesture of the individual.  He showed in a second the
+contortions of Harry Weston in drawing the bow, and in another the
+grimaces of Henry Hope, the choir man, in producing bass notes, or
+the swelling majesty of Randall Porcher, the cross-bearer, till it
+really seemed as if he had shown off the humours of at least a third
+of the enormous household.  Stephen had laughed at first, but as
+failure after failure occurred, the antics began to weary even him,
+and seem unkind and ridiculous as hope ebbed away, and the appalling
+idea began to grow on him of being cast loose on London without a
+friend or protector.  Ambrose felt almost despairing as he heard in
+vain the last name.  He would almost have been willing to own Hal
+the scullion, and his hopes rose when he heard of Hodge Randolph,
+the falconer, but alas, that same Hodge came from Yorkshire.
+
+"And mine uncle was from the New Forest in Hampshire," he said.
+
+"Maybe he went by the name of Shirley," added Stephen, "'tis where
+his home was."
+
+But the comptroller, unwilling to begin a fresh search, replied at
+once that the only Shirley in the household was a noble esquire of
+the Warwickshire family.
+
+"You must e'en come back with me, young masters," said Tibble, "and
+see what my master can do for you."
+
+"Stay a bit," said the fool.  "Harry of Shirley!  Harry of Shirley!
+Methinks I could help you to the man, if so be as you will deem him
+worth the finding," he added, suddenly turning upside down, and
+looking at them standing on the palms of his hands, with an
+indescribable leer of drollery, which in a moment dashed all the
+hopes with which they had turned to him.  "Should you know this
+minks of yours?" he added.
+
+"I think I should," said Ambrose.  "I remember best how he used to
+carry me on his shoulder to cull mistletoe for Christmas."
+
+"Ah, ha!  A proper fellow of his inches now, with yellow hair?"
+
+"Nay," said Ambrose, "I mind that his hair was black, and his eyes
+as black as sloes--or as thine own, Master Jester."
+
+The jester tumbled over into a more extraordinary attitude than
+before, while Stephen said -
+
+"John was wont to twit us with being akin to Gipsy Hal."
+
+"I mean a man sad and grave as the monks of Beaulieu," said the
+jester.
+
+"He!" they both cried.  "No, indeed!  He was foremost in all
+sports."  "Ah!" cried Stephen, "mind you not, Ambrose, his teaching
+us leap-frog, and aye leaping over one of us himself, with the other
+in his arms?"
+
+"Ah! sadly changed, sadly changed," said the jester, standing
+upright, with a most mournful countenance.  "Maybe you'd not thank
+me if I showed him to you, young sirs, that is, if he be the man."
+
+"Nay! is he in need, or distress?" cried the brothers.
+
+"Poor Hal!" returned the fool, shaking his head with mournfulness in
+his voice.
+
+"Oh, take us to him, good--good jester," cried Ambrose.  "We are
+young and strong.  We will work for him."
+
+"What, a couple of lads like you, that have come to London seeking
+for him to befriend you--deserving well my cap for that matter.
+Will ye be guided to him, broken and soured--no more gamesome, but a
+sickly old runagate?"
+
+"Of course," cried Ambrose.  "He is our mother's brother.  We must
+care for him."
+
+"Master Headley will give us work, mayhap," said Stephen, turning to
+Tibble.  "I could clean the furnaces."
+
+"Ah, ha!  I see fools' caps must hang thick as beech masts in the
+Forest," cried the fool, but his voice was husky, and he turned
+suddenly round with his back to them, then cut three or four
+extraordinary capers, after which he observed--"Well, young
+gentlemen, I will see the man I mean, and if he be the same, and be
+willing to own you for his nephews, he will meet you in the Temple
+Gardens at six of the clock this evening, close to the rose-bush
+with the flowers in my livery--motley red and white."
+
+"But how shall we know him?"
+
+"D'ye think a pair of green caterpillars like you can't be marked--
+unless indeed the gardener crushes you for blighting his roses."
+Wherewith the jester quitted the scene, walking on his hands, with
+his legs in the air.
+
+"Is he to be trusted?" asked Tibble of the comptroller.
+
+"Assuredly," was the answer; "none hath better wit than Quipsome
+Hal, when he chooseth to be in earnest.  In very deed, as I have
+heard Sir Thomas More say, it needeth a wise man to be fool to my
+Lord of York."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.  QUIPSOME HAL
+
+
+
+"The sweet and bitter fool
+   Will presently appear,
+The one in motley here
+   The other found out there."
+
+SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+There lay the quiet Temple Gardens, on the Thames bank, cut out in
+formal walks, with flowers growing in the beds of the homely kinds
+beloved by the English.  Musk roses, honeysuckle and virgin's bower,
+climbed on the old grey walls; sops-in-wine, bluebottles, bachelor's
+buttons, stars of Bethlehem and the like, filled the borders; May
+thorns were in full sweet blossom; and near one another were the two
+rose bushes, one damask and one white Provence, whence Somerset and
+Warwick were said to have plucked their fatal badges; while on the
+opposite side of a broad grass-plot was another bush, looked on as a
+great curiosity of the best omen, where the roses were streaked with
+alternate red and white, in honour, as it were, of the union of York
+and Lancaster.
+
+By this rose-tree stood the two young Birkenholts.  Edmund Burgess
+having, by his master's desire, shown them the way, and passed them
+in by a word and sign from his master, then retired unseen to a
+distance to mark what became of them, they having promised also to
+return and report of themselves to Master Headley.
+
+They stood together earnestly watching for the coming of the uncle,
+feeling quite uncertain whether to expect a frail old broken man, or
+to find themselves absolutely deluded, and made game of by the
+jester.
+
+The gardens were nearly empty, for most people were sitting over
+their supper-tables after the business of the day was over, and only
+one or two figures in black gowns paced up and down in conversation.
+
+"Come away, Ambrose," said Stephen at last.  "He only meant to make
+fools of us!  Come, before he comes to gibe us for having heeded a
+moment.  Come, I say--here's this man coming to ask us what we are
+doing here."
+
+For a tall, well-made, well-dressed personage in the black or sad
+colour of a legal official, looking like a prosperous householder,
+or superior artisan, was approaching them, some attendant, as the
+boys concluded belonging to the Temple.  They expected to be turned
+out, and Ambrose in an apologetic tone, began, "Sir, we were bidden
+to meet a--a kinsman here."
+
+"And even so am I," was the answer, in a grave, quiet tone, "or
+rather to meet twain."
+
+Ambrose looked up into a pair of dark eyes, and exclaimed "Stevie,
+Stevie, 'tis he.  'Tis uncle Hal."
+
+"Ay, 'tis all you're like to have for him," answered Harry Randall,
+enfolding each in his embrace.  "Lad, how like thou art to my poor
+sister!  And is she indeed gone--and your honest father too--and
+none left at home but that hunks, little John?  How and when died
+she?"
+
+"Two years agone come Lammastide," answered Stephen.  "There was a
+deadly creeping fever and ague through the Forest.  We two sickened,
+and Ambrose was so like to die that Diggory went to the abbey for
+the priest to housel and anneal him, but by the time Father Simon
+came he was sound asleep, and soon was whole again.  But before we
+were on our legs, our blessed mother took the disease, and she
+passed away ere many days were over.  Then, though poor father took
+not that sickness, he never was the same man again, and only twelve
+days after last Pasch-tide he was taken with a fit and never spake
+again."
+
+Stephen was weeping by this time, and his uncle had a hand on his
+shoulder, and with tears in his eyes, threw in ejaculations of pity
+and affection.  Ambrose finished the narrative with a broken voice
+indeed, but as one who had more self-command than his brother,
+perhaps than his uncle, whose exclamations became bitter and angry
+as he heard of the treatment the boys had experienced from their
+half-brother, who, as he said, he had always known as a currish
+mean-spirited churl, but scarce such as this.
+
+"Nor do I think he would have been, save for his wife, Maud Pratt of
+Hampton," said Ambrose.  "Nay, truly also, he deemed that we were
+only within a day's journey of council from our uncle Richard at
+Hyde."
+
+"Richard Birkenholt was a sturdy old comrade!  Methinks he would
+give Master Jack a piece of his mind."
+
+"Alack, good uncle, we found him in his dotage, and the bursar of
+Hyde made quick work with us, for fear, good Father Shoveller said,
+that we were come to look after his corrody."
+
+"Shoveller--what, a Shoveller of Cranbury?  How fell ye in with
+him?"
+
+Ambrose told the adventures of their journey, and Randall exclaimed
+"By my bau--I mean by my faith--if ye have ill-luck in uncles, ye
+have had good luck in friends."
+
+"No ill-luck in thee, good, kind uncle," said Stephen, catching at
+his hand with the sense of comfort that kindred blood gives.
+
+"How wottest thou that, child?  Did not I--I mean did not Merryman
+tell you, that mayhap ye would not be willing to own your uncle?"
+
+"We deemed he was but jesting," said Stephen.  "Ah!"
+
+For a sudden twinkle in the black eyes, an involuntary twist of the
+muscles of the face, were a sudden revelation to him.  He clutched
+hold of Ambrose with a sudden grasp; Ambrose too looked and recoiled
+for a moment, while the colour spread over his face.
+
+"Yes, lads.  Can you brook the thought!--Harry Randall is the poor
+fool!"
+
+Stephen, whose composure had already broken down, burst into tears
+again, perhaps mostly at the downfall of all his own expectations
+and glorifications of the kinsman about whom he had boasted.
+Ambrose only exclaimed "O uncle, you must have been hard pressed."
+For indeed the grave, almost melancholy man, who stood before them,
+regarding them wistfully, had little in common with the lithe
+tumbler full of absurdities whom they had left at York House.
+
+"Even so, my good lad.  Thou art right in that," said he gravely.
+"Harder than I trust will ever be the lot of you two, my sweet
+Moll's sons.  She never guessed that I was come to this."
+
+"O no," said Stephen.  "She always thought thou--thou hadst some
+high preferment in--"
+
+"And so I have," said Randall with something of his ordinary humour.
+"There's no man dares to speak such plain truth to my lord--or for
+that matter to King Harry himself, save his own Jack-a-Lee--and he,
+being a fool of nature's own making, cannot use his chances, poor
+rogue!  And so the poor lads came up to London hoping to find a
+gallant captain who could bring them to high preferment, and found
+nought but--Tom Fool!  I could find it in my heart to weep for them!
+And so thou mindest clutching the mistletoe on nunk Hal's shoulder.
+I warrant it groweth still on the crooked May bush?  And is old
+Bobbin alive?"
+
+They answered his questions, but still as if under a great shock,
+and presently he said, as they paced up and down the garden walks,
+"Ay, I have been sore bestead, and I'll tell you how it came about,
+boys, and mayhap ye will pardon the poor fool, who would not own you
+sooner, lest ye should come in for mockery ye have not learnt to
+brook."  There was a sadness and pleading in his tone that touched
+Ambrose, and he drew nearer to his uncle, who laid a hand on his
+shoulder, and presently the other on that of Stephen, who shrank a
+little at first, but submitted.  "Lads, I need not tell you why I
+left fair Shirley and the good greenwood.  I was a worse fool then
+than ever I have been since I wore the cap and bells, and if all had
+been brought home to me, it might have brought your father and
+mother into trouble--my sweet Moll who had done her best for me.  I
+deemed, as you do now, that the way to fortune was open, but I found
+no path before me, and I had tightened my belt many a time, and was
+not much more than a bag of bones, when, by chance, I fell in with a
+company of tumblers and gleemen.  I sang them the old hunting-song,
+and they said I did it tunably, and, whereas they saw I could
+already dance a hornpipe and turn a somersault passably well, the
+leader of the troop, old Nat Fire-eater, took me on, and methinks he
+did not repent--nor I neither--save when I sprained my foot and had
+time to lie by and think.  We had plenty to fill our bellies and put
+on our backs; we had welcome wherever we went, and the groats and
+pennies rained into our caps.  I was Clown and Jack Pudding and
+whatever served their turn, and the very name of Quipsome Hal drew
+crowds.  Yea, 'twas a merry life!  Ay, I feel thee wince and shrink,
+my lad; and so should I have shuddered when I was of thine age, and
+hoped to come to better things."
+
+"Methinks 'twere better than this present," said Stephen rather
+gruffly.
+
+"I had my reasons, boy," said Randall, speaking as if he were
+pleading his cause with their father and mother rather than with two
+such young lads.  "There was in our company an old man-at-arms who
+played the lute and the rebeck, and sang ballads so long as hand and
+voice served him, and with him went his grandchild, a fair and
+honest little maiden, whom he kept so jealously apart that 'twas
+long ere I knew of her following the company.  He had been a
+franklin on my Lord of Warwick's lands, and had once been burnt out
+by Queen Margaret's men, and just as things looked up again with
+him, King Edward's folk ruined all again, and slew his two sons.
+When great folk play the fool, small folk pay the scot, as I din
+into his Grace's ears whenever I may.  A minion of the Duke of
+Clarence got the steading, and poor old Martin Fulford was turned
+out to shift as best he might.  One son he had left, and with him he
+went to the Low Countries, where they would have done well had they
+not been bitten by faith in the fellow Perkin Warbeck.  You've heard
+of him?"
+
+"Yea," said Ambrose; "the same who was taken out of sanctuary at
+Beaulieu, and borne off to London.  Father said he was marvellous
+like in the face to all the kings he had ever seen hunting in the
+Forest."
+
+"I know not; but to the day of his death old Martin swore that he
+was a son of King Edward's, and they came home again with the men
+the Duchess of Burgundy gave Perkin--came bag and baggage, for young
+Fulford had wedded a fair Flemish wife, poor soul!  He left her with
+his father nigh to Taunton ere the battle, and he was never heard of
+more, but as he was one of the few men who knew how to fight, belike
+he was slain.  Thus old Martin was left with the Flemish wife and
+her little one on his hands, for whose sake he did what went against
+him sorely, joined himself to this troop of jugglers and players, so
+as to live by the minstrelsy he had learnt in better days, while his
+daughter-in-law mended and made for the company and kept them in
+smart and shining trim.  By the time I fell in with them his voice
+was well-nigh gone, and his hand sorely shaking, but Fire-eating
+Nat, the master of our troop, was not an ill-natured fellow, and the
+glee-women's feet were well used to his rebeck.  Moreover, the Fire-
+eater had an eye to little Perronel, though her mother had never let
+him train her--scarce let him set an eye on her; and when Mistress
+Fulford died, poor soul, of ague, caught when we showed off before
+the merry Prior of Worcester, her last words were that Perronel
+should never be a glee-maiden.  Well, to make an end of my tale, we
+had one day a mighty show at Windsor, when the King and Court were
+at the castle, and it was whispered to me at the end that my Lord
+Archbishop's household needed a jester, and that Quipsome Hal had
+been thought to make excellent fooling.  I gave thanks at first, but
+said I would rather be a free man, not bound to be a greater fool
+than Dame Nature made me all the hours of the day.  But when I got
+back to the Garter, what should I find but that poor old Martin had
+been stricken with the dead palsy while he was playing his rebeck,
+and would never twang a note more; and there was pretty Perronel
+weeping over him, and Nat Fire-eater pledging his word to give the
+old man bed, board, and all that he could need, if so be that
+Perronel should be trained to be one of his glee-maidens, to dance
+and tumble and sing.  And there was the poor old franklin shaking
+his head more than the palsy made it shake already, and trying to
+frame his lips to say, 'rather they both should die.'"
+
+"Oh, uncle, I wot now what thou didst!" cried Stephen.
+
+"Yea, lad, there was nought else to be done.  I asked Master Fulford
+to give me Perronel, plighting my word that never should she sing or
+dance for any one's pleasure save her own and mine, and letting him
+know that I came of a worthy family.  We were wedded out of hand by
+the priest that had been sent for to housel him, and in our true
+names.  The Fire-eater was fiery enough, and swore that, wedded or
+not, I was bound to him, that he would have both of us, and would
+not drag about a helpless old man unless he might have the wench to
+do his bidding.  I verily believe that, but for my being on the
+watch and speaking a word to two or three stout yeomen of the king's
+guard that chanced to be crushing a pot of sack at the Garter, he
+would have played some villainous trick on us.  They gave a hint to
+my Lord of York's steward, and he came down and declared that the
+Archbishop required Quipsome Hal, and would--of his grace--send a
+purse of nobles to the Fire-eater, wherewith he was to be off on the
+spot without more ado, or he might find it the worse for him, and
+they, together with mine host's good wife, took care that the rogue
+did not carry away Perronel with him, as he was like to have done.
+To end my story, here am I, getting showers of gold coins one day
+and nought but kicks and gibes the next, while my good woman keeps
+house nigh here on the banks of the Thames with Gaffer Martin.  Her
+Flemish thrift has set her to the washing and clear-starching of the
+lawyers' ruffs, whereby she makes enough to supply the defects of my
+scanty days, or when I have to follow my lord's grace out of her
+reach, sweet soul.  There's my tale, nevoys.  And now, have ye a
+hand for Quipsome Hal?"
+
+"O uncle!  Father would have honoured thee!" cried Stephen.
+
+"Why didst thou not bring her down to the Forest?" said Ambrose.
+
+"I conned over the thought," said Randall, "but there was no way of
+living.  I wist not whether the Ranger might not stir up old tales,
+and moreover old Martin is ill to move.  We brought him down by boat
+from Windsor, and he has never quitted the house since, nor his bed
+for the last two years.  You'll come and see the housewife?  She
+hath a supper laying out for you, and on the way we'll speak of what
+ye are to do, my poor lads."
+
+"I'd forgotten that," said Stephen.
+
+"So had not I," returned his uncle; "I fear me I cannot aid you to
+preferment as you expected.  None know Quipsome Hal by any name but
+that of Harry Merryman, and it were not well that ye should come in
+there as akin to the poor fool."
+
+"No," said Stephen, emphatically.
+
+"Your father left you twenty crowns apiece?"
+
+"Ay, but John hath all save four of them."
+
+"For that there's remedy.  What saidst thou of the Cheapside
+armourer?  His fellow, the Wry-mouth, seemed to have a care of you.
+Ye made in to the rescue with poor old Spring."
+
+"Even so," replied Ambrose, "and if Stevie would brook the thought,
+I trow that Master Headley would be quite willing to have him bound
+as his apprentice."
+
+"Well said, my good lad!" cried Hal.  "What sayest thou, Stevie?"
+
+"I had liefer be a man-at-arms."
+
+"That thou couldst only be after being sorely knocked about as
+horseboy and as groom.  I tried that once, but found it meant kicks,
+and oaths, and vile company--such as I would not have for thy
+mother's son, Steve.  Headley is a well-reported, God-fearing man,
+and will do well by thee.  And thou wilt learn the use of arms as
+well as handle them."
+
+"I like Master Headley and Kit Smallbones well enough," said
+Stephen, rather gloomily, "and if a gentleman must be a prentice,
+weapons are not so bad a craft for him."
+
+"Whittington was a gentleman," said Ambrose.
+
+"I am sick of Whittington," muttered Stephen.
+
+"Nor is he the only one," said Randall; "there's Middleton and Pole-
+-ay, and many another who have risen from the flat cap to the open
+helm, if not to the coronet.  Nay, these London companies have rules
+against taking any prentice not of gentle blood.  Come in to supper
+with my good woman, and then I'll go with thee and hold converse
+with good Master Headley, and if Master John doth not send the fee
+freely, why then I know of them who shall make him disgorge it.  But
+mark," he added, as he led the way out of the gardens, "not a breath
+of Quipsome Hal.  Down here they know me as a clerk of my lord's
+chamber, sad and sober, and high in his trust, and therein they are
+not far out."
+
+In truth, though Harry Randall had been a wild and frolicsome youth
+in his Hampshire home, the effect of being a professional buffoon
+had actually made it a relaxation of effort to him to be grave,
+quiet, and slow in movement; and this was perhaps a more effectual
+disguise than the dark garments, and the false brown hair, beard,
+and moustache, with which he concealed the shorn and shaven
+condition required of the domestic jester.  Having been a player, he
+was well able to adapt himself to his part, and yet Ambrose had
+considerable doubts whether Tibble had not suspected his identity
+from the first, more especially as both the lads had inherited the
+same dark eyes from their mother, and Ambrose for the first time
+perceived a considerable resemblance between him and Stephen, not
+only in feature but in unconscious gesture.
+
+Ambrose was considering whether he had better give his uncle a hint,
+lest concealment should excite suspicion; when, niched as it were
+against an abutment of the wall of the Temple courts, close to some
+steps going down to the Thames, they came upon a tiny house, at
+whose open door stood a young woman in the snowiest of caps and
+aprons over a short black gown, beneath which were a trim pair of
+blue hosen and stout shoes; a suspicion of yellow hair was allowed
+to appear framing the honest, fresh, Flemish face, which beamed a
+good-humoured welcome.
+
+"Here they be! here be the poor lads, Pernel mine."  She held out
+her hand, and offered a round comfortable cheek to each, saying,
+"Welcome to London, young gentlemen."
+
+Good Mistress Perronel did not look exactly the stuff to make a
+glee-maiden of, nor even the beauty for whom to sacrifice
+everything, even liberty and respect.  She was substantial in form,
+and broad in face and mouth, without much nose, and with large
+almost colourless eyes.  But there was a wonderful look of
+heartiness and friendliness about her person and her house; the boys
+had never in their lives seen anything so amazingly and spotlessly
+clean and shining.  In a corner stood an erection like a dark oaken
+cupboard or wardrobe, but in the middle was an opening about a yard
+square through which could be seen the night-capped face of a white-
+headed, white-bearded old man, propped against snowy pillows.  To
+him Randall went at once, saying, "So, gaffer, how goes it?  You see
+I have brought company, my poor sister's sons--rest her soul!"
+
+Gaffer Martin mumbled something to them incomprehensible, but which
+the jester comprehended, for he called them up and named them to
+him, and Martin put out a bony hand, and gave them a greeting.
+Though his speech and limbs had failed him, his intelligence was
+evidently still intact, and there was a tenderly-cared-for look
+about him, rendering his condition far less pitiable than that of
+Richard Birkenholt, who was so palpably treated as an incumbrance.
+
+The table was already covered with a cloth, and Perronel quickly
+placed on it a yellow bowl of excellent beef broth, savoury with
+vegetables and pot-herbs, and with meat and dumplings floating in
+it.  A lesser bowl was provided for each of the company, with horn
+spoons, and a loaf of good wheaten bread, and a tankard of excellent
+ale.  Randall declared that his Perronel made far daintier dishes
+than my Lord Archbishop's cook, who went every day in silk and
+velvet.
+
+He explained to her his views on the armourer, to which she agreed
+with all her might, the old gentleman in bed adding something which
+the boys began to understand, that there was no worthier nor more
+honourable condition than that of an English burgess, specially in
+the good town of London, where the kings knew better than to be ever
+at enmity with their good towns.
+
+"Will the armourer take both of you?" asked Mistress Randall.
+
+"Nay, it was only for Stephen we devised it," said Ambrose.
+
+"And what wilt thou do?"
+
+"I wish to be a scholar," said Ambrose.
+
+"A lean trade," quoth the jester; "a monk now or a friar may be a
+right jolly fellow, but I never yet saw a man who throve upon
+books!"
+
+"I had rather study than thrive," said Ambrose rather dreamily.
+
+"He wotteth not what he saith," cried Stephen.
+
+"Oh ho! so thou art of that sort!" rejoined his uncle.  "I know
+them!  A crabbed black and white page is meat and drink to them!
+There's that Dutch fellow, with a long Latin name, thin and weazen
+as never was Dutchman before; they say he has read all the books in
+the world, and can talk in all the tongues, and yet when he and Sir
+Thomas More and the Dean of St. Paul's get together at my lord's
+table one would think they were bidding for my bauble.  Such
+excellent fooling do they make, that my lord sits holding his
+sides."
+
+"The Dean of St. Paul's!" said Ambrose, experiencing a shock.
+
+"Ay!  He's another of your lean scholars, and yet he was born a
+wealthy man, son to a Lord Mayor, who, they say, reared him alone
+out of a round score of children."
+
+"Alack! poor souls," sighed Mistress Randall under her breath, for,
+as Ambrose afterwards learnt, her two babes had scarce seen the
+light.  Her husband, while giving her a look of affection, went on--
+"Not that he can keep his wealth.  He has bestowed the most of it on
+Stepney church, and on the school he hath founded for poor children,
+nigh to St. Paul's."
+
+"Could I get admittance to that school?" exclaimed Ambrose.
+
+"Thou art a big fellow for a school," said his uncle, looking him
+over.  "However, faint heart never won fair lady."
+
+"I have a letter from the Warden of St. Elizabeth's to one of the
+clerks of St. Paul's," added Ambrose.  "Alworthy is his name."
+
+"That's well.  We'll prove that same," said his uncle.  "Meantime,
+if ye have eaten your fill, we must be on our way to thine armourer,
+nevoy Stephen, or I shall be called for."
+
+And after a private colloquy between the husband and wife, Ambrose
+was by both of them desired to make the little house his home until
+he could find admittance into St. Paul's School, or some other.  He
+demurred somewhat from a mixture of feelings, in which there was a
+certain amount of Stephen's longing for freedom of action, and
+likewise a doubt whether he should not thus be a great inconvenience
+in the tiny household--a burden he was resolved not to be.  But his
+uncle now took a more serious tone.
+
+"Look thou, Ambrose, thou art my sister's son, and fool though I be,
+thou art bound in duty to me, and I to have charge of thee, nor will
+I--for the sake of thy father and mother--have thee lying I know not
+where, among gulls, and cutpurses, and beguilers of youth here in
+this city of London.  So, till better befals thee, and I wot of it,
+thou must be here no later than curfew, or I will know the reason
+why."
+
+"And I hope the young gentleman will find it no sore grievance,"
+said Perronel, so good-humouredly that Ambrose could only protest
+that he had feared to be troublesome to her, and promise to bring
+his bundle the next day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.  ARMS SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL
+
+
+
+"For him was leifer to have at his bedde's hedde
+Twenty books clothed in blacke or redde
+Of Aristotle and his philosophie
+Than robes riche or fiddle or psalterie."
+
+CHAUCER.
+
+
+Master Headley was found spending the summer evening in the bay
+window of the hall.  Tibble sat on a three-legged stool by him,
+writing in a crabbed hand, in a big ledger, and Kit Smallbones
+towered above both, holding in his hand a bundle of tally-sticks.
+By the help of these, and of that accuracy of memory which writing
+has destroyed, he was unfolding, down to the very last farthing, the
+entire account of payments and receipts during his master's absence,
+the debtor and creditor account being preserved as perfectly as if
+he had always had a pen in his huge fingers, and studied book-
+keeping by double or single entry.
+
+On the return of the two boys with such an apparently respectable
+member of society as the handsome well-dressed personage who
+accompanied them, little Dennet, who had been set to sew her sampler
+on a stool by her grandmother, under penalty of being sent off to
+bed if she disturbed her father, sprang up with a little cry of
+gladness, and running up to Ambrose, entreated for the tales of his
+good greenwood Forest, and the pucks and pixies, and the girl who
+daily shared her breakfast with a snake and said, "Eat your own
+side, Speckleback."  Somehow, on Sunday night she had gathered that
+Ambrose had a store of such tales, and she dragged him off to the
+gallery, there to revel in them, while his brother remained with her
+father.
+
+Though Master Stephen had begun by being high and mighty about
+mechanical crafts, and thought it a great condescension to consent
+to be bound apprentice, yet when once again in the Dragon court, it
+looked so friendly and felt so much like a home that he found
+himself very anxious that Master Headley should not say that he
+could take no more apprentices at present, and that he should be
+satisfied with the terms uncle Hal would propose.  And oh! suppose
+Tibble should recognise Quipsome Hal!
+
+However, Tibble was at this moment entirely engrossed by the
+accounts, and his master left him and his big companion to unravel
+them, while he himself held speech with his guest at some distance--
+sending for a cup of sack, wherewith to enliven the conversation.
+
+He showed himself quite satisfied with what Randall chose to tell of
+himself as a well known "housekeeper" close to the Temple, his wife
+a "lavender" there, while he himself was attached to the suite of
+the Archbishop of York.  Here alone was there any approach to
+shuffling, for Master Headley was left to suppose that Randall
+attended Wolsey in his capacity of king's counsellor, and therefore,
+having a house of his own, had not been found in the roll of the
+domestic retainers and servants.  He did not think of inquiring
+further, the more so as Randall was perfectly candid as to his own
+inferiority of birth to the Birkenholt family, and the circumstances
+under which he had left the Forest.
+
+Master Headley professed to be quite willing to accept Stephen as an
+apprentice, with or without a fee; but he agreed with Randall that
+it would be much better not to expose him to having it cast in his
+teeth that he was accepted out of charity; and Randall undertook to
+get a letter so written and conveyed to John Birkenholt that he
+should not dare to withhold the needful sum, in earnest of which
+Master Headley would accept the two crowns that Stephen had in hand,
+as soon as the indentures could be drawn out by one of the many
+scriveners who lived about St. Paul's.
+
+This settled, Randall could stay no longer, but he called both
+nephews into the court with him.  "Ye can write a letter?" he said.
+
+"Ay, sure, both of us; but Ambrose is the best scribe," said
+Stephen.
+
+"One of you had best write then.  Let that cur John know that I have
+my Lord of York's ear, and there will be no fear but he will give
+it.  I'll find a safe hand among the clerks, when the judges ride to
+hold the assize.  Mayhap Ambrose might also write to the Father at
+Beaulieu.  The thing had best be bruited."
+
+"I wished to do so," said Ambrose.  "It irked me to have taken no
+leave of the good Fathers."
+
+Randall then took his leave, having little more than time to return
+to York House, where the Archbishop might perchance come home
+wearied and chafed from the King, and the jester might be missed if
+not there to put him in good humour.
+
+The curfew sounded, and though attention to its notes was not
+compulsory by law, it was regarded as the break-up of the evening
+and the note of recall in all well-ordered establishments.  The
+apprentices and journeymen came into the court, among them Giles
+Headley, who had been taken out by one of the men to be provided
+with a working dress, much to his disgust; the grandmother summoned
+little Dennet and carried her off to bed.  Stephen and Ambrose bade
+good-night, but Master Headley and his two confidential men remained
+somewhat longer to wind up their accounts.  Doors were not, as a
+rule, locked within the court, for though it contained from forty to
+fifty persons, they were all regarded as a single family, and it was
+enough to fasten the heavily bolted, iron-studded folding doors of
+the great gateway leading into Cheapside, the key being brought to
+the master like that of a castle, seven minutes, measured by the
+glass, after the last note of the curfew in the belfry outside St.
+Paul's.
+
+The summer twilight, however, lasted long after this time of grace,
+and when Tibble had completed his accountant's work, and Smallbones'
+deep voiced "Goodnight, comrade," had resounded over the court, he
+beheld a figure rise up from the steps of the gallery, and Ambrose's
+voice said:  "May I speak to thee, Tibble?  I need thy counsel."
+
+"Come hither, sir," said the foreman, muttering to himself,
+"Methought 'twas working in him!  The leaven! the leaven!"
+
+Tibble led the way up one of the side stairs into the open gallery,
+where he presently opened a door, admitting to a small, though high
+chamber, the walls of bare brick, and containing a low bed, a small
+table, a three-legged stool, a big chest, and two cupboards, also a
+cross over the head of the bed.  A private room was a luxury neither
+possessed nor desired by most persons of any degree, and only
+enjoyed by Tibble in consideration of his great value to his master,
+his peculiar tastes, and the injuries he had received.  In point of
+fact, his fall had been owing to a hasty blow, given in a passion by
+the master himself when a young man.  Dismay and repentance had made
+Giles Headley a cooler and more self-controlled man ever since, and
+even if Tibble had not been a superior workman, he might still have
+been free to do almost anything he chose.  Tibble gave his visitor
+the stool, and himself sat down on the chest, saying:  "So you have
+found your uncle, sir."
+
+"Ay," said Ambrose, pausing in some expectation that Tibble would
+mention some suspicion of his identity; but if the foreman had his
+ideas on the subject he did not disclose them, and waited for more
+communications.
+
+"Tibble!" said Ambrose, with a long gasp, "I must find means to hear
+more of him thou tookedst me to on Sunday."
+
+"None ever truly tasted of that well without longing to come back to
+it," quoth Tibble.  "But hath not thy kinsman done aught for thee?"
+
+"Nay," said Ambrose, "save to offer me a lodging with his wife, a
+good and kindly lavender at the Temple."
+
+Tibble nodded.
+
+"So far am I free," said Ambrose, "and I am glad of it.  I have a
+letter here to one of the canons, one Master Alworthy, but ere I
+seek him I would know somewhat from thee, Tibble.  What like is he?"
+
+"I cannot tell, sir," said Tibble.  "The canons are rich and many,
+and a poor smith like me wots little of their fashions."
+
+"Is it true," again asked Ambrose, "that the Dean--he who spake
+those words yesterday--hath a school here for young boys?"
+
+"Ay.  And a good and mild school it be, bringing them up in the name
+and nurture of the Holy Child Jesus, to whom it is dedicated."
+
+"Then they are taught this same doctrine?"
+
+"I trow they be.  They say the Dean loves them like the children of
+his old age, and declares that they shall be made in love with holy
+lore by gentleness rather than severity."
+
+"Is it likely that this same Alworthy could obtain me entrance
+there?"
+
+"Alack, sir, I fear me thou art too old.  I see none but little lads
+among them.  Didst thou come to London with that intent?"
+
+"Nay, for I only wist to-day that there was such a school.  I came
+with I scarce know what purpose, save to see Stephen safely
+bestowed, and then to find some way of learning myself.  Moreover, a
+change seems to have come on me, as though I had hitherto been
+walking in a dream."
+
+Tibble nodded, and Ambrose, sitting there in the dark, was moved to
+pour forth all his heart, the experience of many an ardent soul in
+those spirit searching days.  Growing up happily under the care of
+the simple monks of Beaulieu he had never looked beyond their
+somewhat mechanical routine, accepted everything implicitly, and
+gone on acquiring knowledge with the receptive spirit but dormant
+thought of studious boyhood as yet unawakened, thinking that the
+studious clerical life to which every one destined him would only be
+a continuation of the same, as indeed it had been to his master,
+Father Simon.  Not that Ambrose expressed this, beyond saying, "They
+are good and holy men, and I thought all were like them, and fear
+that was all!"
+
+Then came death, for the first time nearly touching and affecting
+the youth, and making his soul yearn after further depths, which he
+might yet have found in the peace of the good old men, and the holy
+rites and doctrine that they preserved; but before there was time
+for these things to find their way into the wounds of his spirit,
+his expulsion from home had sent him forth to see another side of
+monkish and clerkly life.
+
+Father Shoveller, kindly as he was, was a mere yeoman with nothing
+spiritual about him; the monks of Hyde were, the younger, gay
+comrades, only trying how loosely they could sit to their vows; the
+elder, churlish and avaricious; even the Warden of Elizabeth College
+was little more than a student.  And in London, fresh phases had
+revealed themselves; the pomp, state, splendour and luxury of
+Archbishop Wolsey's house had been a shock to the lad's ideal of a
+bishop drawn from the saintly biographies he had studied at
+Beaulieu; and he had but to keep his ears open to hear endless
+scandals about the mass priests, as they were called, since they
+were at this time very unpopular in London, and in many cases
+deservedly so.  Everything that the boy had hitherto thought the way
+of holiness and salvation seemed invaded by evil and danger, and
+under the bondage of death, whose terrible dance continued to haunt
+him.
+
+"I saw it, I saw it;" he said, "all over those halls at York House.
+I seemed to behold the grisly shape standing behind one and another,
+as they ate and laughed; and when the Archbishop and his priests and
+the King came in it seemed only to make the pageant complete!  Only
+now and then could I recall those blessed words, 'Ye are free
+indeed.'  Did he say from the bondage of death?"
+
+"Yea," said Tibble, "into the glorious freedom of God's children."
+
+"Thou knowst it.  Thou knowst it, Tibble.  It seems to me that life
+is no life, but living death, without that freedom!  And I MUST hear
+of it, and know whether it is mine, yea, and Stephen's, and all whom
+I love.  O Tibble, I would beg my bread rather than not have that
+freedom ever before mine eyes."
+
+"Hold it fast! hold it fast, dear sir," said Tibble, holding out his
+hands with tears in his eyes, and his face working in a manner that
+happily Ambrose could not see.
+
+"But how--how?  The barefoot friar said that for an Ave a day, our
+Blessed Lady will drag us back from purgatory.  I saw her on the
+wall of her chapel at Winchester saving a robber knight from the
+sea, yea and a thief from the gallows; but that is not being free."
+
+"Fond inventions of pardon-mongers," muttered Tibble.
+
+"And is one not free when the priest hath assoilsied him?" added
+Ambrose.
+
+"If, and if--" said Tibble.  "But bone shall make me trow that
+shrift in words, without heart-sorrow for sin, and the Latin heard
+with no thought of Him that bore the guilt, can set the sinner free.
+'Tis none other that the Dean sets forth, ay, and the book that I
+have here.  I thank my God," he stood up and took off his cap
+reverently, "that He hath opened the eyes of another!"
+
+His tone was such that Ambrose could have believed him some devout
+almost inspired hermit rather than the acute skilful artisan he
+appeared at other times; and in fact, Tibble Steelman, like many
+another craftsman of those days, led a double life, the outer one
+that of the ordinary workman, the inner one devoted to those lights
+that were shining unveiled and new to many; and especially here in
+the heart of the City, partly from the influence of Dean Colet's
+sermons and catechisings at St. Paul's, but also from remnants of
+Lollardism, which had never been entirely quenched.  The ordinary
+clergy looked at it with horror, but the intelligent and thoughtful
+of the burgher and craftsman classes studied it with a passionate
+fervour which might have sooner broken out and in more perilous
+forms save for the guidance it received in the truly Catholic and
+open-spirited public teachings of Colet, in which he persisted in
+spite of the opposition of his brother clergy.
+
+Not that as yet the inquirers had in the slightest degree broken
+with the system of the Church, or with her old traditions.  They
+were only beginning to see the light that had been veiled from them,
+and to endeavour to clear the fountain from the mire that had fouled
+it; and there was as yet no reason to believe that the aspersions
+continually made against the mass priests and the friars were more
+than the chronic grumblings of Englishmen, who had found the same
+faults in them for the last two hundred years.
+
+"And what wouldst thou do, young sir?" presently inquired Tibble.
+
+"That I came to ask thee, good Tibble.  I would work to the best of
+my power in any craft so I may hear those words and gain the key to
+all I have hitherto learnt, unheeding as one in a dream.  My purpose
+had been to be a scholar and a clerk, but I must see mine own way,
+and know whither I am being carried, ere I can go farther."
+
+Tibble writhed and wriggled himself about in consideration.  "I
+would I wist how to take thee to the Dean himself," he said, "but I
+am but a poor man, and his doctrine is 'new wine in old bottles' to
+the master, though he be a right good man after his lights.  See
+now, Master Ambrose, meseemeth that thou hadst best take thy letter
+first to this same priest.  It may be that he can prefer thee to
+some post about the minster.  Canst sing?"
+
+"I could once, but my voice is nought at this present.  If I could
+but be a servitor at St. Paul's School!"
+
+"It might be that the will which hath led thee so far hath that post
+in store for thee, so bear the letter to Master Alworthy.  And if he
+fail thee, wouldst thou think scorn of aiding a friend of mine who
+worketh a printing-press in Warwick Inner Yard?  Thou wilt find him
+at his place in Paternoster Row, hard by St. Paul's.  He needeth one
+who is clerk enough to read the Latin, and the craft being a new one
+'tis fenced by none of those prentice laws that would bar the way to
+thee elsewhere, at thy years."
+
+"I should dwell among books!"
+
+"Yea, and holy books, that bear on the one matter dear to the true
+heart.  Thou might serve Lucas Hansen at the sign of the Winged
+Staff till thou hast settled thine heart, and then it may be the way
+would be opened to study at Oxford or at Cambridge, so that thou
+couldst expound the faith to others."
+
+"Good Tibble, kind Tibble, I knew thou couldst aid me!  Wilt thou
+speak to this Master Hansen for me?"
+
+Tibble, however, held that it was more seemly that Ambrose should
+first try his fate with Master Alworthy, but in case of this not
+succeeding, he promised to write a billet that would secure
+attention from Lucas Hansen.
+
+"I warn thee, however, that he is Low Dutch," he added, "though he
+speaketh English well."  He would gladly have gone with the youth,
+and at any other time might have been sent by his master, but the
+whole energies of the Dragon would be taken up for the next week by
+preparations for the tilting-match at court, and Tibble could not be
+spared for another working hour.
+
+Ambrose, as he rose to bid his friend good-night, could not help
+saying that he marvelled that one such as he could turn his mind to
+such vanities as the tilt-yard required.
+
+"Nay," said Tibble, "'twas the craft I was bred to--yea, and I have
+a good master; and the Apostle Paul himself--as I've heard a
+preacher say--bade men continue in the state wherein they were, and
+not be curious to chop and change.  Who knoweth whether in God's
+sight, all our wars and policies be no more than the games of the
+tilt-yard.  Moreover, Paul himself made these very weapons read as
+good a sermon as the Dean himself.  Didst never hear of the shield
+of faith, and helmet of salvation, and breastplate of righteousness?
+So, if thou comest to Master Hansen, and provest worthy of his
+trust, thou wilt hear more, ay, and maybe read too thyself, and send
+forth the good seed to others," he murmured to himself, as he guided
+his visitor across the moonlit court up the stairs to the chamber
+where Stephen lay fast asleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.  TWO VOCATIONS
+
+
+
+"The smith, a mighty man is he
+   With large and sinewy hands;
+And the muscles of his brawny arms
+   Are strong as iron bands."
+
+LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+Stephen's first thought in the morning was whether the ex voto
+effigy of poor Spring was put in hand, while Ambrose thought of
+Tibble's promised commendation to the printer.  They both, however,
+found their affairs must needs wait.  Orders for weapons for the
+tilting-match had come in so thickly the day before that every hand
+must be employed on executing them, and the Dragon court was ringing
+again with the clang of hammers and screech of grind-stones.
+
+Stephen, though not yet formally bound, was to enter on his
+apprentice life at once; and Ambrose was assured by Master Headley
+that it was of no use to repair to any of the dignified clergy of
+St. Paul's before mid-day, and that he had better employ the time in
+writing to his elder brother respecting the fee.  Materials were
+supplied to him, and he used them so as to do credit to the monks of
+Beaulieu, in spite of little Dennet spending every spare moment in
+watching his pen as if he were performing some cabalistic operation.
+
+He was a long time about it.  There were two letters to write, and
+the wording of thorn needed to be very careful, besides that the old
+court hand took more time to frame than the Italian current hand,
+and even thus, when dinner-time came, at ten o'clock, the household
+was astonished to find that he had finished all that regarded
+Stephen, though he had left the letters open, until his own venture
+should have been made.
+
+Stephen flung himself down beside his brother hot and panting,
+shaking his shoulder-blades and declaring that his arms felt ready
+to drop out.  He had been turning a grindstone ever since six
+o'clock.  The two new apprentices had been set on to sharpening the
+weapon points as all that they were capable of, and had been bidden
+by Smallbones to turn and hold alternately, but "that oaf Giles
+Headley," said Stephen, "never ground but one lance, and made me go
+on turning, threatening to lay the butt about mine ears if I
+slacked."
+
+"The lazy lubber!" cried Ambrose.  "But did none see thee, or
+couldst not call out for redress?"
+
+"Thou art half a wench thyself, Ambrose, to think I'd complain.
+Besides, he stood on his rights as a master, and he is a big
+fellow."
+
+"That's true," said Ambrose, "and he might make it the worse for
+thee."
+
+"I would I were as big as he," sighed Stephen, "I would soon show
+him which was the better man."
+
+Perhaps the grinding match had not been as unobserved as Stephen
+fancied, for on returning to work, Smallbones, who presided over all
+the rougher parts of the business, claimed them both.  He set
+Stephen to stand by him, sort out and hand him all the rivets needed
+for a suit of proof armour that hung on a frame, while he required
+Giles to straighten bars of iron heated to a white heat.  Ere long
+Giles called out for Stephen to change places, to which Smallbones
+coolly replied, "Turnabout is the rule here, master."
+
+"Even so," replied Giles, "and I have been at work like this long
+enough, ay, and too long!"
+
+"Thy turn was a matter of three hours this morning," replied Kit--
+not coolly, for nobody was cool in his den, but with a brevity which
+provoked a laugh.
+
+"I shall see what my cousin the master saith!" cried Giles in great
+wrath.
+
+"Ay, that thou wilt," returned Kit, "if thou dost loiter over thy
+business, and hast not those bars ready when called for."
+
+"He never meant me to be put on work like this, with a hammer that
+breaks mine arm."
+
+"What! crying out for THAT!" said Edmund Burgess, who had just come
+in to ask for a pair of tongs.  "What wouldst say to the big hammer
+that none can wield save Kit himself?"
+
+Giles felt there was no redress, and panted on, feeling as if he
+were melting away, and with a dumb, wild rage in his heart, that
+could get no outlet, for Smallbones was at least as much bigger than
+he as he was than Stephen.  Tibble was meanwhile busy over the
+gilding and enamelling of Buckingham's magnificent plate armour in
+Italian fashion, but he had found time to thrust into Ambrose's hand
+an exceedingly small and curiously folded billet for Lucas Hansen,
+the printer, in case of need.  "He would be found at the sign of the
+Winged Staff, in Paternoster Row," said Tibble, "or if not there
+himself, there would be his servant who would direct Ambrose to the
+place where the Dutch printer lived and worked."  No one was at
+leisure to show the lad the way, and he set out with a strange
+feeling of solitude, as his path began decisively to be away from
+that of his brother.
+
+He did not find much difficulty in discovering the quadrangle on the
+south side of the minster where the minor canons lived near the
+deanery; and the porter, a stout lay brother, pointed out to him the
+doorway belonging to Master Alworthy.  He knocked, and a young man
+with a tonsured head but a bloated face opened it.  Ambrose
+explained that he had brought a letter from the Warden of St.
+Elizabeth's College at Winchester.
+
+"Give it here," said the young man.
+
+"I would give it to his reverence himself," said Ambrose.
+
+"His reverence is taking his after-dinner nap and may not be
+disturbed," said the man.
+
+"Then I will wait," said Ambrose.
+
+The door was shut in his face, but it was the shady side of the
+court, and he sat down on a bench and waited.  After full an hour
+the door was opened, and the canon, a good-natured looking man, in a
+square cap, and gown and cassock of the finest cloth, came slowly
+out.  He had evidently heard nothing of the message, and was taken
+by surprise when Ambrose, doffing his cap and bowing low, gave him
+the greeting of the Warden of St. Elizabeth's and the letter.
+
+"Hum!  Ha!  My good friend--Fielder--I remember him.  He was always
+a scholar.  So he hath sent thee here with his commendations.  What
+should I do with all the idle country lads that come up to choke
+London and feed the plague?  Yet stay--that lurdane Bolt is getting
+intolerably lazy and insolent, and methinks he robs me!  What canst
+do, thou stripling?"
+
+"I can read Latin, sir, and know the Greek alphabeta."
+
+"Tush!  I want no scholar more than enough to serve my mass.  Canst
+sing?"
+
+"Not now; but I hope to do so again."
+
+"When I rid me of Bolt there--and there's an office under the
+sacristan that he might fill as well as another knave--the fellow
+might do for me well enow as a body servant," said Mr. Alworthy,
+speaking to himself.  "He would brush my gowns and make my bed, and
+I might perchance trust him with my marketings, and by and by there
+might be some office for him when he grew saucy and idle.  I'll
+prove him on mine old comrade's word."
+
+"Sir," said Ambrose, respectfully, "what I seek for is occasion for
+study.  I had hoped you could speak to the Dean, Dr. John Colet, for
+some post at his school."
+
+"Boy," said Alworthy, "I thought thee no such fool!  Why crack thy
+brains with study when I can show thee a surer path to ease and
+preferment?  But I see thou art too proud to do an old man a
+service.  Thou writst thyself gentleman, forsooth, and high blood
+will not stoop."
+
+"Not so, sir," returned Ambrose, "I would work in any way so I could
+study the humanities, and hear the Dean preach.  Cannot you commend
+me to his school?"
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed the canon, "this is your sort, is it?  I'll have
+nought to do with it!  Preaching, preaching!  Every idle child's
+head is agog on preaching nowadays!  A plague on it!  Why can't
+Master Dean leave it to the black friars, whose vocation 'tis, and
+not cumber us with his sermons for ever, and set every lazy lad
+thinking he must needs run after them?  No, no, my good boy, take my
+advice.  Thou shalt have two good bellyfuls a day, all my cast
+gowns, and a pair of shoes by the year, with a groat a month if thou
+wilt keep mine house, bring in my meals, and the like, and by and
+by, so thou art a good lad, and runst not after these new-fangled
+preachments which lead but to heresy, and set folk racking their
+brains about sin and such trash, we'll get thee shorn and into minor
+orders, and who knows what good preferment thou mayst not win in due
+time!"
+
+"Sir, I am beholden to you, but my mind is set on study."
+
+"What kin art thou to a fool?" cried the minor canon, so startling
+Ambrose that he had almost answered, and turning to another
+ecclesiastic whose siesta seemed to have ended about the same time,
+"Look at this varlet, Brother Cloudesley!  Would you believe it?  He
+comes to me with a letter from mine old friend, in consideration of
+which I offer him that saucy lubber Bolt's place, a gown of mine own
+a year, meat and preferment, and, lo you, he tells me all he wants
+is to study Greek, forsooth, and hear the Dean's sermons!"
+
+The other canon shook his head in dismay at such arrant folly.
+"Young stripling, be warned," he said.  "Know what is good for thee.
+Greek is the tongue of heresy."
+
+"How may that be, reverend sir," said Ambrose, "when the holy
+Apostles and the Fathers spake and wrote in the Greek?"
+
+"Waste not thy time on him, brother," said Mr. Alworthy.  "He will
+find out his error when his pride and his Greek forsooth have
+brought him to fire and faggot."
+
+"Ay! ay!" added Cloudesley.  "The Dean with his Dutch friend and his
+sermons, and his new grammar and accidence, is sowing heretics as
+thick as groundsel."
+
+Wherewith the two canons of the old school waddled away, arm in arm,
+and Bolt put out his head, leered at Ambrose, and bade him shog off,
+and not come sneaking after other folk's shoes.
+
+Sooth to say, Ambrose was relieved by his rejection.  If he were not
+to obtain admission in any capacity to St. Paul's School, he felt
+more drawn to Tibble's friend the printer; for the self-seeking
+luxurious habits into which so many of the beneficed clergy had
+fallen were repulsive to him, and his whole soul thirsted after that
+new revelation, as it were, which Colet's sermon had made to him.
+Yet the word heresy was terrible and confusing, and a doubt came
+over him whether he might not be forsaking the right path, and be
+lured aside by false lights.
+
+He would think it out before he committed himself.  Where should he
+do so in peace?  He thought of the great Minster, but the nave was
+full of a surging multitude, and there was a loud hum of voices
+proceeding from it, which took from him all inclination to find his
+way to the quieter and inner portions of the sanctuary.
+
+Then he recollected the little Pardon Church, where he had seen the
+Dance of Death on the walls; and crossing the burial-ground he
+entered, and, as he expected, found it empty, since the hours for
+masses for the dead were now past.  He knelt down on a step,
+repeated the sext office, in warning for which the bells were
+chiming all round, covering his face with his hands, and thinking
+himself back to Beaulieu; then, seating himself on a step, leaning
+against the wall, he tried to think out whether to give himself up
+to the leadings of the new light that had broken on him, or whether
+to wrench himself from it.  Was this, which seemed to him truth and
+deliverance, verily the heresy respecting which rumours had come to
+horrify the country convents?  If he had only heard of it from
+Tibble Wry-mouth, he would have doubted, in spite of its power over
+him, but he had heard it from a man, wise, good, and high in place,
+like Dean Colet.  Yet to his further perplexity, his uncle had
+spoken of Colet as jesting at Wolsey's table.  What course should he
+take?  Could he bear to turn away from that which drew his soul so
+powerfully, and return to the bounds which seem to him to be grown
+so narrow, but which he was told were safe?  Now that Stephen was
+settled, it was open to him to return to St. Elizabeth's College,
+but the young soul within him revolted against the repetition of
+what had become to him unsatisfying, unless illumined by the
+brightness he seemed to have glimpsed at.
+
+But Ambrose had gone through much unwonted fatigue of late, and
+while thus musing he fell asleep, with his head against the wall.
+He was half wakened by the sound of voices, and presently became
+aware that two persons were examining the walls, and comparing the
+paintings with some others, which one of them had evidently seen.
+If he had known it, it was with the Dance of Death on the bridge of
+Lucerne.
+
+"I question," said a voice that Ambrose had heard before, "whether
+these terrors be wholesome for men's souls."
+
+"For priests' pouches, they be," said the other, with something of a
+foreign accent.
+
+"Alack, when shall we see the day when the hope of paradise and
+dread of purgatory shall be no longer made the tools of priestly
+gain; and hatred of sin taught to these poor folk, instead of
+servile dread of punishment."
+
+"Have a care, my Colet," answered the yellow bearded foreigner;
+"thou art already in ill odour with those same men in authority; and
+though a Dean's stall be fenced from the episcopal crook, yet there
+is a rod at Rome which can reach even thither."
+
+"I tell thee, dear Erasmus, thou art too timid; I were well content
+to leave house and goods, yea, to go to prison or to death, could I
+but bring home to one soul, for which Christ died, the truth and
+hope in every one of those prayers and creeds that our poor folk are
+taught to patter as a senseless charm."
+
+"These are strange times," returned Erasmus.  "Methinks yonder
+phantom, be he skeleton or angel, will have snatched both of us away
+ere we behold the full issue either of thy preachings, or my Greek
+Testament, or of our More's Utopian images.  Dost thou not feel as
+though we were like children who have set some mighty engine in
+motion, like the great water-wheels in my native home, which,
+whirled by the flowing streams of time and opinion, may break up the
+whole foundations, and destroy the oneness of the edifice?"
+
+"It may be so," returned Colet.  "What read we?  'The net brake'
+even in the Master's sight, while still afloat on the sea.  It was
+only on the shore that the hundred and fifty-three, all good and
+sound, were drawn to His feet."
+
+"And," returned Erasmus, "I see wherefore thou hast made thy
+children at St. Paul's one hundred and fifty and three."
+
+The two friends were passing out.  Their latter speeches had scarce
+been understood by Ambrose, even if he heard them, so full was he of
+conflicting feelings, now ready to cast himself before their feet,
+and entreat the Dean to help him to guidance, now withheld by
+bashfulness, unwillingness to interrupt, and ingenuous shame at
+appearing like an eavesdropper towards such dignified and venerable
+personages.  Had he obeyed his first impulse, mayhap his career had
+been made safer and easier for him, but it was while shyness chained
+his limbs and tongue that the Dean and Erasmus quitted the chapel,
+and the opportunity of accosting them had slipped away.
+
+Their half comprehended words had however decided him in the part he
+should take, making him sure that Colet was not controverting the
+formularies of the Church, but drawing out those meanings which in
+repetition by rote were well-nigh forgotten.  It was as if his
+course were made clear to him.
+
+He was determined to take the means which most readily presented
+themselves of hearing Colet; and leaving the chapel, he bent his
+steps to the Row which his book-loving eye had already marked.
+Flanking the great Cathedral on the north, was the row of small open
+stalls devoted to the sale of books, or "objects of devotion," all
+so arranged that the open portion might be cleared, and the stock-
+in-trade locked up if not carried away.  Each stall had its own
+sign, most of them sacred, such as the Lamb and Flag, the Scallop
+Shell, or some patron saint, but classical emblems were oddly
+intermixed, such as Minerva's AEgis, Pegasus, and the Lyre of
+Apollo.  The sellers, some middle-aged men, some lads, stretched out
+their arms with their wares to attract the passengers in the street,
+and did not fail to beset Ambrose.  The more lively looked at his
+Lincoln green and shouted verses of ballads at him, fluttering broad
+sheets with verses on the lamentable fate of Jane Shore, or Fair
+Rosamond, the same woodcut doing duty for both ladies, without mercy
+to their beauty.  The scholastic judged by his face and step that he
+was a student, and they flourished at him black-bound copies of
+Virgilius Maro, and of Tully's Offices, while others, hoping that he
+was an incipient clerk, offered breviaries, missals or portuaries,
+with the Use of St. Paul's, or of Sarum, or mayhap St. Austin's
+Confessions.  He made his way along, with his eye diligently heedful
+of the signs, and at last recognised the Winged Staff, or caduceus
+of Hermes, over a stall where a couple of boys in blue caps and
+gowns and yellow stockings were making a purchase of a small, grave-
+looking, elderly but bright cheeked man, whose yellow hair and beard
+were getting intermingled with grey.  They were evidently those St.
+Paul's School boys whom Ambrose envied so much, and as they finished
+their bargaining and ran away together, Ambrose advanced with a
+salutation, asked if he did not see Master Lucas Hansen, and gave
+him the note with the commendations of Tibble Steelman the armourer.
+
+He was answered with a ready nod and "yea, yea," as the old man
+opened the billet and cast his eyes over it; then scanning Ambrose
+from head to foot, said with some amazement, "But you are of gentle
+blood, young sir."
+
+"I am," said Ambrose; "but gentle blood needs at times to work for
+bread, and Tibble let me hope that I might find both livelihood for
+the body and for the soul with you, sir."
+
+"Is it so?" asked the printer, his face lighting up.  "Art thou
+willing to labour and toil, and give up hope of fee and honour, if
+so thou mayst win the truth?"
+
+Ambrose folded his hands with a gesture of earnestness, and Lucas
+Hansen said, "Bless thee, my son!  Methinks I can aid thee in thy
+quest, so thou canst lay aside," and here his voice grew sharper and
+more peremptory, "all thy gentleman's airs and follies, and serve--
+ay, serve and obey."
+
+"I trust so," returned Ambrose; "my brother is even now becoming
+prentice to Master Giles Headley, and we hope to live as honest men
+by the work of our hands and brains."
+
+"I forgot that you English herren are not so puffed up with pride
+and scorn like our Dutch nobles," returned the printer.  "Canst live
+sparingly, and lie hard, and see that thou keepst the house clean,
+not like these English swine?"
+
+"I hope so," said Ambrose, smiling; "but I have an uncle and aunt,
+and they would have me lie every night at their house beside the
+Temple gardens."
+
+"What is thine uncle?"
+
+"He hath a post in the meine of my Lord Archbishop of York," said
+Ambrose, blushing and hesitating a little.  "He cometh to and fro to
+his wife, who dwells with her old father, doing fine lavender's work
+for the lawyer folk therein."
+
+It was somewhat galling that this should be the most respectable
+occupation that could be put forward, but Lucas Hansen was evidently
+reassured by it.  He next asked whether Ambrose could read Latin,
+putting a book into his hand as he did so; Ambrose read and
+construed readily, explaining that he had been trained at Beaulieu.
+
+"That is well!" said the printer; "and hast thou any Greek?"
+
+"Only the alphabeta," said Ambrose, "I made that out from a book at
+Beaulieu, but Father Simon knew no more, and there was nought to
+study from."
+
+"Even so," replied Hansen, "but little as thou knowst 'tis as much
+as I can hope for from any who will aid me in my craft.  'Tis I
+that, as thou hast seen, furnish for the use of the children at the
+Dean's school of St. Paul's.  The best and foremost scholars of them
+are grounded in their Greek, that being the tongue wherein the Holy
+Gospels were first writ.  Hitherto I have had to get me books for
+their use from Holland, whither they are brought from Basle, but I
+have had sent me from Hamburg a fount of type of the Greek
+character, whereby I hope to print at home, the accidence, and
+mayhap the Dialogues of Plato, and it might even be the sacred
+Gospel itself, which the great Doctor, Master Erasmus, is even now
+collating from the best authorities in the universities."
+
+Ambrose's eyes kindled with unmistakable delight.  "You have the
+accidence!" he exclaimed.  "Then could I study the tongue even while
+working for you!  Sir, I would do my best!  It is the very
+opportunity I seek."
+
+"Fair and softly," said the printer with something of a smile.
+"Thou art new to cheapening and bargaining, my fair lad.  Thou hast
+spoken not one word of the wage."
+
+"I recked not of that," said Ambrose.  "'Tis true, I may not burthen
+mine uncle and aunt, but verily, sir, I would live on the humblest
+fare that will keep body and soul together so that I may have such
+an opportunity."
+
+"How knowst thou what the opportunity may be?" returned Lucas,
+drily.  "Thou art but a babe!  Some one should have a care of thee.
+If I set thee to stand here all day and cry what d'ye lack? or to
+carry bales of books twixt this and Warwick Inner Yard, thou wouldst
+have no ground to complain."
+
+"Nay, sir," returned Ambrose, "I wot that Tibble Steelman would
+never send me to one who would not truly give me what I need."
+
+"Tibble Steelman is verily one of the few who are both called and
+chosen," replied Lucas, "and I think thou art the same so far as
+green youth may be judged, since thou art one who will follow the
+word into the desert, and never ask for the loaves and fishes.
+Nevertheless, I will take none advantage of thy youth and zeal, but
+thou shalt first behold what thou shalt have to do for me, and then
+if it still likes thee, I will see thy kindred.  Hast no father?"
+
+Ambrose explained, and at that moment Master Hansen's boy made his
+appearance, returning from an errand; the stall was left in his
+charge, while the master took Ambrose with him into the precincts of
+what had once been the splendid and hospitable mansion of the great
+king-maker, Warwick, but was now broken up into endless little
+tenements with their courts and streets, though the baronial
+ornaments and the arrangement still showed what the place had been.
+
+Entering beneath a wide archway, still bearing the sign of the Bear
+and Ragged Staff, Lucas led the way into what must have been one of
+the courts of offices, for it was surrounded with buildings and
+sheds of different heights and sizes, and had on one side a deep
+trough of stone, fed by a series of water-taps, intended for the use
+of the stables.  The doors of one of these buildings was unlocked by
+Master Hansen, and Ambrose found himself in what had once perhaps
+been part of a stable, but had been partitioned off from the rest.
+There were two stalls, one serving the Dutchman for his living room,
+the other for his workshop.  In one corner stood a white earthenware
+stove--so new a spectacle to the young forester that he supposed it
+to be the printing press.  A table, shiny with rubbing, a wooden
+chair, a couple of stools, a few vessels, mirrors for brightness,
+some chests and corner cupboards, a bed shutting up like a box and
+likewise highly polished, completed the furniture, all arranged with
+the marvellous orderliness and neatness of the nation.  A curtain
+shut off the opening to the other stall, where stood a machine with
+a huge screw, turned by leverage.  Boxes of type and piles of paper
+surrounded it, and Ambrose stood and looked at it with a sort of
+awe-struck wonder and respect as the great fount of wisdom.  Hansen
+showed him what his work would be, in setting up type, and by and by
+correcting after the first proof.  The machine could only print four
+pages at a time, and for this operation the whole strength of the
+establishment was required.  Moreover, Master Hansen bound, as well
+as printed his books.  Ambrose was by no means daunted.  As long as
+he might read as well as print, and while he had Sundays at St.
+Paul's to look to, he asked no more--except indeed that his gentle
+blood stirred at the notion of acting salesman in the book-stall,
+and Master Hansen assured him with a smile that Will Wherry, the
+other boy, would do that better than either of them, and that he
+would be entirely employed here.
+
+The methodical master insisted however on making terms with the
+boy's relations; and with some misgivings on Ambrose's part, the
+two--since business hours were almost over--walked together to the
+Temple and to the little house, where Perronel was ironing under her
+window.
+
+Ambrose need not have doubted.  The Dutch blood on either side was
+stirred; and the good housewife commanded the little printer's
+respect as he looked round on a kitchen as tidy as if it were in his
+own country.  And the bargain was struck that Ambrose Birkenholt
+should serve Master Hansen for his meals and two pence a week, while
+he was to sleep at the little house of Mistress Randall, who would
+keep his clothes and linen in order.
+
+And thus it was that both Ambrose and Stephen Birkenholt had found
+their vocations for the present, and both were fervent in them.
+Master Headley pshawed a little when he heard that Ambrose had
+engaged himself to a printer and a foreigner; and when he was told
+it was to a friend of Tibble's, only shook his head, saying that
+Tib's only fault was dabbling in matters of divinity, as if a plain
+man could not be saved without them!  However, he respected the lad
+for having known his own mind and not hung about in idleness, and he
+had no opinion of clerks, whether monks or priests.  Indeed, the low
+esteem in which the clergy as a class were held in London was one of
+the very evil signs of the times.  Ambrose was invited to dine and
+sup at the Dragon court every Sunday and holiday, and he was glad to
+accept, since the hospitality was so free, and he thus was able to
+see his brother and Tibble; besides that, it prevented him from
+burthening Mistress Randall, whom he really liked, though he could
+not see her husband, either in his motley or his plain garments,
+without a shudder of repulsion.
+
+Ambrose found that setting up type had not much more to do with the
+study of new books than Stephen's turning the grindstone had with
+fighting in the lists; and the mistakes he made in spelling from
+right to left, and in confounding the letters, made him despair, and
+prepare for any amount of just indignation from his master; but he
+found on the contrary that Master Hansen had never had a pupil who
+made so few blunders on the first trial, and augured well of him
+from such a beginning.  Paper was too costly, and pressure too
+difficult, for many proofs to be struck off, but Hansen could read
+and correct his type as it stood, and assured Ambrose that practice
+would soon give him the same power; and the correction was thus
+completed, when Will Wherry, a big, stout fellow, came in to dinner-
+-the stall being left during that time, as nobody came for books
+during the dinner-hour, and Hansen, having an understanding with his
+next neighbour, by which they took turns to keep guard against
+thieves.
+
+The master and the two lads dined together on the contents of a
+cauldron, where pease and pork had been simmering together on the
+stove all the morning.  Their strength was then united to work the
+press and strike off a sheet, which the master scanned, finding only
+one error in it.  It was a portion of Lilly's Grammar, and Ambrose
+regarded it with mingled pride and delight, though he longed to go
+further into those deeper revelations for the sake of which he had
+come here.
+
+Master Hansen then left the youths to strike off a couple of hundred
+sheets, after which they were to wash the types and re-arrange the
+letters in the compartments in order, whilst he returned to the
+stall.  The customers requiring his personal attention were
+generally late ones.  When all this was accomplished, and the pot
+put on again in preparation for supper, the lads might use the short
+time that remained as they would, and Hansen himself showed Ambrose
+a shelf of books concealed by a blue curtain, whence he might read.
+
+Will Wherry showed unconcealed amazement that this should be the
+taste of his companion.  He himself hated the whole business, and
+would never have adopted it, but that he had too many brothers for
+all to take to the water on the Thames, and their mother was too
+poor to apprentice them, and needed the small weekly pay the
+Dutchman gave him.  He seemed a good-natured, dull fellow, whom no
+doubt Hansen had hired for the sake of the strong arms, developed by
+generations of oarsmen upon the river.  What he specially disliked
+was that his master was a foreigner.  The whole court swarmed with
+foreigners, he said, with the utmost disgust, as if they were
+noxious insects.  They made provisions dear, and undersold honest
+men, and he wondered the Lord Mayor did not see to it and drive them
+out.  He did not SO much object to the Dutch, but the Spaniards--no
+words could express his horror of them.
+
+By and by, Ambrose going out to fetch some water from the conduit,
+found standing by it a figure entirely new to him.  It was a young
+girl of some twelve or fourteen years old, in the round white cap
+worn by all of her age and sex; but from beneath it hung down two
+thick plaits of the darkest hair he had ever seen, and though the
+dress was of the ordinary dark serge with a coloured apron, it was
+put on with an air that made it look like some strange and beautiful
+costume on the slender, lithe, little form.  The vermilion apron was
+further trimmed with a narrow border of white, edged again with deep
+blue, and it chimed in with the bright coral earrings and necklace.
+As Ambrose came forward the creature tried to throw a crimson
+handkerchief over her head, and ran into the shelter of another
+door, but not before Ambrose had seen a pair of large dark eyes so
+like those of a terrified fawn that they seemed to carry him back to
+the Forest.  Going back amazed, he asked his companion who the girl
+he had seen could have been.
+
+Will stared.  "I trow you mean the old blackamoor sword-cutler's
+wench.  He is one of those pestilent strangers.  An 'Ebrew Jew who
+worships Mahound and is too bad for the Spanish folk themselves."
+
+This rather startled Ambrose, though he knew enough to see that the
+accusations could not both be true, but he forgot it in the delight,
+when Will pronounced the work done, of drawing back the curtain and
+feasting his eyes upon the black backs of the books, and the black-
+letter brochures that lay by them.  There were scarcely thirty, yet
+he gloated on them as on an inexhaustible store, while Will,
+whistling wonder at his taste, opined that since some one was there
+to look after the stove, and the iron pot on it, he might go out and
+have a turn at ball with Hob and Martin.
+
+Ambrose was glad to be left to go over his coming feast.  There was
+Latin, English, and, alas! baffling Dutch.  High or Low it was all
+the same to him.  What excited his curiosity most was the
+Enchiridion Militis Christiani of Erasmus--in Latin of course, and
+that he could easily read--but almost equally exciting was a Greek
+and Latin vocabulary; or again, a very thin book in which he
+recognised the New Testament in the Vulgate.  He had heard chapters
+of it read from the graceful stone pulpit overhanging the refectory
+at Beaulieu, and, of course, the Gospels and Epistles at mass, but
+they had been read with little expression and no attention; and that
+Sunday's discourse had filled him with eagerness to look farther;
+but the mere reading the titles of the books was pleasure enough for
+the day, and his master was at home before he had fixed his mind on
+anything.  Perhaps this was as well, for Lucas advised him what to
+begin with, and how to divide his studies so as to gain a knowledge
+of the Greek, his great ambition, and also to read the Scripture.
+
+The master was almost as much delighted as the scholar, and it was
+not till the curfew was beginning to sound that Ambrose could tear
+himself away.  It was still daylight, and the door of the next
+dwelling was open.  There, sitting on the ground cross-legged, in an
+attitude such as Ambrose had never seen, was a magnificent old man,
+with a huge long white beard, wearing, indeed, the usual dress of a
+Londoner of the lower class, but the gown flowed round him in a
+grand and patriarchal manner, corresponding with his noble, somewhat
+aquiline features; and behind him Ambrose thought he caught a
+glimpse of the shy fawn he had seen in the morning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.  AY DI ME GRENADA
+
+
+
+"In sooth it was a thing to weep
+   If then as now the level plain
+Beneath was spreading like the deep,
+   The broad unruffled main.
+If like a watch-tower of the sun
+   Above, the Alpuxarras rose,
+Streaked, when the dying day was done,
+   "With evening's roseate snows."
+
+ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.
+
+
+When Mary Tudor, released by death from her first dreary marriage,
+contracted for her brother's pleasure, had appeased his wrath at her
+second marriage made to please herself, Henry VIII. was only too
+glad to mark his assent by all manner of festivities; and English
+chroniclers, instead of recording battles and politics, had only to
+write of pageantries and tournaments during the merry May of the
+year 1515--a May, be it remembered, which, thanks to the old style,
+was at least ten days nearer to Midsummer than our present month.
+
+How the two queens and all their court had gone a-maying on
+Shooter's Hill, ladies and horses poetically disguised and labelled
+with sweet summer titles, was only a nine days' wonder when the
+Birkenholts had come to London, but the approaching tournament at
+Westminster on the Whitsun holiday was the great excitement to the
+whole population, for, with all its faults, the Court of bluff King
+Hal was thoroughly genial, and every one, gentle and simple, might
+participate in his pleasures.
+
+Seats were reserved at the lists for the city dignitaries and their
+families, and though old Mistress Headley professed that she ought
+to have done with such vanities, she could not forbear from going to
+see that her son was not too much encumbered with the care of little
+Dennet, and that the child herself ran into no mischief.  Master
+Headley himself grumbled and sighed, but he put himself into his
+scarlet gown, holding that his presence was a befitting attention to
+the king, glad to gratify his little daughter, and not without a
+desire to see how his workmanship--good English ware--held out
+against "mail and plate of Milan steel," the fine armour brought
+home from France by the new Duke of Suffolk.  Giles donned his best
+in the expectation of sitting in the places of honour as one of the
+family, and was greatly disgusted when Kit Smallbones observed,
+"What's all that bravery for?  The tilting match quotha?  Ha! ha! my
+young springald, if thou see it at all, thou must be content to gaze
+as thou canst from the armourers' tent, if Tibble there chooses to
+be cumbered with a useless lubber like thee."
+
+"I always sat with my mother when there were matches at Clarendon,"
+muttered Giles, who had learnt at least that it was of no use to
+complain of Smallbones' plain speaking.
+
+"If folks cocker malapert lads at Sarum we know better here," was
+the answer.
+
+"I shall ask the master, my kinsman," returned the youth.
+
+But he got little by his move.  Master Headley told him, not
+unkindly, for he had some pity for the spoilt lad, that not the Lord
+Mayor himself would take his own son with him while yet an
+apprentice.  Tibble Steelman would indeed go to one of the
+attendants' tents at the further end of the lists, where repairs to
+armour and weapons might be needed, and would take an assistant or
+two, but who they might be must depend on his own choice, and if
+Giles had any desire to go, he had better don his working dress.
+
+In fact, Tibble meant to take Edmund Burgess and one workman for
+use, and one of the new apprentices for pleasure, letting them
+change in the middle of the day.  The swagger of Giles actually
+forfeited for him the first turn, which--though he was no favourite
+with the men--would have been granted to his elder years and his
+relationship to the master; but on his overbearing demand to enter
+the boat which was to carry down a little anvil and charcoal
+furnace, with a few tools, rivets, nails, and horse-shoes, Tibble
+coolly returned that he needed no such gay birds; but if Giles chose
+to be ready in his leathern coat when Stephen Birkenholt came home
+at midday, mayhap he might change with him.
+
+Stephen went joyously in the plainest of attire, though Tibble in
+fur cap, grimy jerkin, and leathern apron was no elegant steersman;
+and Edmund, who was at the age of youthful foppery, shrugged his
+shoulders a little, and disguised the garments of the smithy with
+his best flat cap and newest mantle.
+
+They kept in the wake of the handsome barge which Master Headley
+shared with his friend and brother alderman, Master Hope the draper,
+whose young wife, in a beautiful black velvet hood and shining blue
+satin kirtle, was evidently petting Dennet to her heart's content,
+though the little damsel never lost an opportunity of nodding to her
+friends in the plainer barge in the rear.
+
+The Tudor tilting matches cost no lives, and seldom broke bones.
+They were chiefly opportunities for the display of brilliant
+enamelled and gilt armour, at the very acme of cumbrous
+magnificence; and of equally gorgeous embroidery spread out over the
+vast expanse provided by elephantine Flemish horses.  Even if the
+weapons had not been purposely blunted, and if the champions had
+really desired to slay one another, they would have found the task
+very difficult, as in effect they did in the actual game of war.
+But the spectacle was a splendid one, and all the apparatus was
+ready in the armourers' tent, marked by St. George and the Dragon.
+Tibble ensconced himself in the innermost corner with a "tractate,"
+borrowed from his friend Lucas, and sent the apprentices to gaze
+their fill at the rapidly filling circles of seats.  They saw King
+Harry, resplendent in gilded armour--"from their own anvil, true
+English steel," said Edmund, proudly--hand to her seat his sister
+the bride, one of the most beautiful women then in existence, with a
+lovely and delicate bloom on her fair face and exquisite Plantagenet
+features.  No more royally handsome creatures could the world have
+offered than that brother and sister, and the English world
+appreciated them and made the lists ring with applause at the fair
+lady who had disdained foreign princes to wed her true love, an
+honest Englishman.
+
+He--the cloth of frieze--in blue Milanese armour, made to look as
+classical as possible, and with clasps and medals engraven from
+antique gems--handed in Queen Katharine, whose dark but glowing
+Spanish complexion made a striking contrast to the dazzling fairness
+of her young sister-in-law.  Near them sat a stout burly figure in
+episcopal purple, and at his feet there was a form which nearly took
+away all Stephen's pleasure for the time.  For it was in motley, and
+he could hear the bells jingle, while the hot blood rose in his
+cheeks in the dread lest Burgess should detect the connection, or
+recognise in the jester the grave personage who had come to
+negotiate with Mr. Headley for his indentures, or worse still, that
+the fool should see and claim him.
+
+However, Quipsome Hal seemed to be exchanging drolleries with the
+young dowager of France, who, sooth to say, giggled in a very
+unqueenly manner at jokes which made the grave Spanish-born queen
+draw up her stately head, and converse with a lady on her other
+hand--an equally stately lady, somewhat older, with the straight
+Plantagenet features, and by her side a handsome boy, who, though
+only eight or nine years was tonsured, and had a little scholar's
+gown.  "That," said Edmund, "is my Lady Countess of Salisbury, of
+whom Giles Headley prates so much."
+
+A tournament, which was merely a game between gorgeously equipped
+princes and nobles, afforded little scope for adventure worthy of
+record, though it gave great diversion to the spectators.  Stephen
+gazed like one fascinated at the gay panoply of horse and man with
+the huge plumes on the heads of both, as they rushed against one
+another, and he shared with Edmund the triumph when the lance from
+their armoury held good, the vexation if it were shivered.  All
+would have been perfect but for the sight of his uncle, playing off
+his drolleries in a manner that gave him a sense of personal
+degradation.
+
+To escape from the sight almost consoled him when, in the pause
+after the first courses had been run, Tibble told him and Burgess to
+return, and send Headley and another workman with a fresh bundle of
+lances for the afternoon's tilting.  Stephen further hoped to find
+his brother at the Dragon court, as it was one of those holidays
+that set every one free, and separation began to make the brothers
+value their meetings.
+
+But Ambrose was not at the Dragon court, and when Stephen went in
+quest of him to the Temple, Perronel had not seen him since the
+early morning, but she said he seemed so much bitten with the little
+old man's scholarship that she had small doubt that he would be
+found poring over a book in Warwick Inner Yard.
+
+Thither therefore did Stephen repair.  The place was nearly
+deserted, for the inhabitants were mostly either artisans or that
+far too numerous race who lived on the doles of convents, on the
+alms of churchgoers, and the largesses scattered among the people on
+public occasions, and these were for the most part pursuing their
+vocation both of gazing and looking out for gain among the
+spectators outside the lists.  The door that Stephen had been shown
+as that of Ambrose's master was, however, partly open, and close
+beside it sat in the sun a figure that amazed him.  On a small mat
+or rug, with a black and yellow handkerchief over her head, and
+little scarlet legs crossed under a blue dress, all lighted up by
+the gay May sun, there slept the little dark, glowing maiden, with
+her head best as it leant against the wall, her rosy lips half open,
+her long black plaits on her shoulders.
+
+Stepping up to the half-open door, whence he heard a voice reading,
+his astonishment was increased.  At the table were his brother and
+his master, Ambrose with a black book in hand, Lucas Hansen with
+some papers, and on the ground was seated a venerable, white-bearded
+old man, something between Stephen's notions of an apostle and of a
+magician, though the latter idea predominated at sight of a long
+parchment scroll covered with characters such as belonged to no
+alphabet that he had ever dreamt of.  What were they doing to his
+brother?  He was absolutely in an enchanter's den.  Was it a pixy at
+the door, guarding it?  "Ambrose!" he cried aloud.
+
+Everybody started.  Ambrose sprang to his feet, exclaiming,
+"Stephen!"  The pixy gave a little scream and jumped up, flying to
+the old man, who quietly rolled up his scroll.
+
+Lucas rose up as Ambrose spoke.
+
+"Thy brother?" said he.
+
+"Yea--come in search of me," said Ambrose.
+
+"Thou hadst best go forth with him," said Lucas.
+
+"It is not well that youth should study over long," said the old
+man.  "Thou hast aided us well, but do thou now unbend the bow.
+Peace be with thee, my son."
+
+Ambrose complied, but scarcely willingly, and the instant they had
+made a few steps from the door, Stephen exclaimed in dismay, "Who--
+what was it?  Have they bewitched thee, Ambrose?"
+
+Ambrose laughed merrily.  "Not so.  It is holy lore that those good
+men are reading."
+
+"Nay now, Ambrose.  Stand still--if thou canst, poor fellow," he
+muttered, and then made the sign of the cross three times over his
+brother, who stood smiling, and said, "Art satisfied Stevie?  Or
+wilt have me rehearse my Credo?"  Which he did, Stephen listening
+critically, and drawing a long breath as he recognised each word,
+pronounced without a shudder at the critical points.  "Thou art safe
+so far," said Stephen.  "But sure he is a wizard.  I even beheld his
+familiar spirit--in a fair shape doubtless--like a pixy!  Be not
+deceived, brother.  Sorcery reads backwards--and I saw him so read
+from that scroll of his.  Laughest thou!  Nay! what shall I do to
+free thee?  Enter here!"
+
+Stephen dragged his brother, still laughing, into the porch of the
+nearest church, and deluged him with holy water with such good will,
+that Ambrose, putting up his hands to shield his eyes, exclaimed,
+"Come now, have done with this folly, Stephen--though it makes me
+laugh to think of thy scared looks, and poor little Aldonza being
+taken for a familiar spirit."  And Ambrose laughed as he had not
+laughed for weeks.
+
+"But what is it, then?"
+
+"The old man is of thy calling, or something like it, Stephen, being
+that he maketh and tempereth sword-blades after the prime Damascene
+or Toledo fashion, and the familiar spirit is his little daughter."
+
+Stephen did not however look mollified.  "Swordblades!  None have a
+right to make them save our craft.  This is one of the rascaille
+Spaniards who have poured into the city under favour of the queen to
+spoil and ruin the lawful trade.  Though could you but have seen,
+Ambrose, how our tough English ashwood in King Harry's hand--from
+our own armoury too--made all go down before it, you would never
+uphold strangers and their false wares that CAN only get the better
+by sorcery."
+
+"How thou dost harp upon sorcery!" exclaimed Ambrose.  "I must tell
+thee the good old man's story as 'twas told to me, and then wilt
+thou own that he is as good a Christian as ourselves--ay, or better-
+-and hath little cause to love the Spaniards."
+
+"Come on, then," said Stephen.  "Methought if we went towards
+Westminster we might yet get where we could see the lists.  Such a
+rare show, Ambrose, to see the King in English armour, ay, and
+Master Headley's, every inch of it, glittering in the sun, so that
+one could scarce brook the dazzling, on his horse like a rock
+shattering all that came against him!  I warrant you the lances
+cracked and shivered like faggots under old Purkis's bill-hook.  And
+that you should liefer pore over crabbed monkish stuff with yonder
+old men!  My life on it, there must be some spell!"
+
+"No more than of old, when I was ever for book and thou for bow,"
+said Ambrose; "but I'll make thee rueful for old Michael yet.  Hast
+heard tell of the Moors in Spain?"
+
+"Moors--blackamoors who worship Mahound and Termagant.  I saw a
+blackamoor last week behind his master, a merchant of Genoa, in
+Paul's Walk.  He looked like the devils in the Miracle Play at
+Christ Church, with blubber lips and wool for hair.  I marvelled
+that he did not writhe and flee when he came within the Minster, but
+Ned Burgess said he was a christened man."
+
+"Moors be not all black, neither be they all worshippers of
+Mahound," replied Ambrose.
+
+However, as Ambrose's information, though a few degrees more correct
+and intelligent than his brother's, was not complete, it will be
+better not to give the history of Lucas's strange visitors in his
+words.
+
+They belonged to the race of Saracen Arabs who had brought the arts
+of life to such perfection in Southern Spain, but who had received
+the general appellation of Moors from those Africans who were
+continually reinforcing them, and, bringing a certain Puritan
+strictness of Mohammedanism with them, had done much towards
+destroying the highest cultivation among them before the Spanish
+kingdoms became united, and finally triumphed over them.  During the
+long interval of two centuries, while Castille was occupied by
+internal wars, and Aragon by Italian conquests, there had been
+little aggression on the Moorish borderland, and a good deal of
+friendly intercourse both in the way of traffic and of courtesy, nor
+had the bitter persecution and distrust of new converts then set in,
+which followed the entire conquest of Granada.  Thus, when Ronda was
+one of the first Moorish cities to surrender, a great merchant of
+the unrivalled sword-blades whose secret had been brought from
+Damascus, had, with all his family, been accepted gladly when he
+declared himself ready to submit and receive baptism.  Miguel
+Abenali was one of the sons, and though his conversion had at first
+been mere compliance with his father's will and the family
+interests, he had become sufficiently convinced of Christian truth
+not to take part with his own people in the final struggle.  Still,
+however, the inbred abhorrence of idolatry had influenced his manner
+of worship, and when, after half a life-time, Granada had fallen,
+and the Inquisition had begun to take cognisance of new Christians
+from among the Moors as well as the Jews, there were not lacking
+spies to report the absence of all sacred images or symbols from the
+house of the wealthy merchant, and that neither he nor any of his
+family had been seen kneeling before the shrine of Nuestra Senora.
+The sons of Abenali did indeed feel strongly the power of the
+national reaction, and revolted from the religion which they saw
+cruelly enforced on their conquered countrymen.  The Moor had been
+viewed as a gallant enemy, the Morisco was only a being to be
+distrusted and persecuted; and the efforts of the good Bishop of
+Granada, who had caused the Psalms, Gospels, and large portions of
+the Breviary to be translated into Arabic, were frustrated by the
+zeal of those who imagined that heresy lurked in the vernacular, and
+perhaps that objections to popular practices might be strengthened.
+
+By order of Cardinal Ximenes, these Arabic versions were taken away
+and burnt; but Miguel Abenali had secured his own copy, and it was
+what he there learnt that withheld him from flying to his countrymen
+and resuming their faith when he found that the Christianity he had
+professed for forty years was no longer a protection to him.  Having
+known the true Christ in the Gospel, he could not turn back to
+Mohammed, even though Christians persecuted in the Name they so
+little understood.
+
+The crisis came in 1507, when Ximenes, apparently impelled by the
+dread that simulated conformity should corrupt the Church, quickened
+the persecution of the doubtful "Nuevos Cristianos," and the Abenali
+family, who had made themselves loved and respected, received
+warning that they had been denounced, and that their only hope lay
+in flight.
+
+The two sons, high-spirited young men, on whom religion had far less
+hold than national feeling, fled to the Alpuxarra Mountains, and
+renouncing the faith of the persecutors, joined their countrymen in
+their gallant and desperate warfare.  Their mother, who had long
+been dead, had never been more than an outward Christian; but the
+second wife of Abenali shared his belief and devotion with the
+intelligence and force of character sometimes found among the
+Moorish ladies of Spain.  She and her little ones fled with him in
+disguise to Cadiz, with the precious Arabic Scriptures rolled round
+their waists, and took shelter with an English merchant, who had had
+dealings in sword-blades with Senor Miguel, and had been entertained
+by him in his beautiful Saracenic house at Ronda with Eastern
+hospitality.  This he requited by giving them the opportunity of
+sailing for England in a vessel laden with Xeres sack; but the
+misery of the voyage across the Bay of Biscay in a ship fit for
+nothing but wine, was excessive, and creatures reared in the lovely
+climate and refined luxury of the land of the palm and orange,
+exhausted too already by the toils of the mountain journey, were
+incapable of enduring it, and Abenali's brave wife and one of her
+children were left beneath the waves of the Atlantic.  With the one
+little girl left to him, he arrived in London, and the
+recommendation of his Cadiz friend obtained for him work from a
+dealer in foreign weapons, who was not unwilling to procure them
+nearer home.  Happily for him, Moorish masters, however rich, were
+always required to be proficients in their own trade; and thus
+Miguel, or Michael as he was known in England, was able to maintain
+himself and his child by the fabrication of blades that no one could
+distinguish from those of Damascus.  Their perfection was a work of
+infinite skill, labour, and industry, but they were so costly, that
+their price, and an occasional job of inlaying gold in other metal,
+sufficed to maintain the old man and his little daughter.  The
+armourers themselves were sometimes forced to have recourse to him,
+though unwillingly, for he was looked on with distrust and dislike
+as an interloper of foreign birth, belonging to no guild.  A
+Biscayan or Castillian of the oldest Christian blood incurred
+exactly the same obloquy from the mass of London craftsmen and
+apprentices, and Lucas himself had small measure of favour, though
+Dutchmen were less alien to the English mind than Spaniards, and his
+trade did not lead to so much rivalry and competition.
+
+As much of this as Ambrose knew or understood he told to Stephen,
+who listened in a good deal of bewilderment, understanding very
+little, but with a strong instinct that his brother's love of
+learning was leading him into dangerous company.  And what were they
+doing on this fine May holiday, when every one ought to be out
+enjoying themselves?
+
+"Well, if thou wilt know," said Ambrose, pushed hard, "there is one
+Master William Tindal, who hath been doing part of the blessed
+Evangel into English, and for better certainty of its correctness,
+Master Michael was comparing it with his Arabic version, while I
+overlooked the Latin."
+
+"O Ambrose, thou wilt surely run into trouble.  Know you not how
+nurse Joan used to tell us of the burning of the Lollard books?"
+
+"Nay, nay, Stevie, this is no heresy.  'Tis such work as the great
+scholar, Master Erasmus, is busied on--ay, and he is loved and
+honoured by both the Archbishops and the King's grace!  Ask Tibble
+Steelman what he thinks thereof."
+
+"Tibble Steelman would think nought of a beggarly stranger calling
+himself a sword cutler, and practising the craft without
+prenticeship or license," said Stephen, swelling with indignation.
+"Come on, Ambrose, and sweep the cobwebs from thy brain.  If we
+cannot get into our own tent again, we can mingle with the
+outskirts, and learn how the day is going, and how our lances and
+breastplates have stood where the knaves' at the Eagle have gone
+like reeds and egg-shells--just as I threw George Bates, the
+prentice at the Eagle yesterday, in a wrestling match at the butts
+with the trick old Diggory taught me."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.  A KING IN A QUAGMIRE
+
+
+
+   For my pastance
+Hunt, sing, and dance,
+My heart is set
+All godly sport
+To my comfort.
+Who shall me let?
+
+THE KING'S BALADE, attributed to Henry VIII.
+
+
+Life was a rough, hearty thing in the early sixteenth century,
+strangely divided between thought and folly, hardship and splendour,
+misery and merriment, toil and sport.
+
+The youths in the armourer's household had experienced little of
+this as yet in their country life, but in London they could not but
+soon begin to taste both sides of the matter.  Master Headley
+himself was a good deal taken up with city affairs, and left the
+details of his business to Tibble Steelman and Kit Smallbones,
+though he might always appear on the scene, and he had a wonderful
+knowledge of what was going on.
+
+The breaking-in and training of the two new country lads was
+entirely left to them and to Edmund Burgess.  Giles soon found that
+complaints were of no avail, and only made matters harder for him,
+and that Tibble Steelman and Kit Smallbones had no notion of
+favouring their master's cousin.
+
+Poor fellow, he was very miserable in those first weeks.  The actual
+toil, to which he was an absolute novice, though nominally three
+years an apprentice, made his hands raw, and his joints full of
+aches, while his groans met with nothing but laughter; and he
+recognised with great displeasure, that more was laid on him than on
+Stephen Birkenholt.  This was partly in consideration of Stephen's
+youth, partly of his ready zeal and cheerfulness.  His hands might
+be sore too, but he was rather proud of it than otherwise, and his
+hero worship of Kit Smallbones made him run on errands, tug at the
+bellows staff, or fetch whatever was called for with a bright
+alacrity that won the foremen's hearts, and it was noted that he who
+was really a gentleman, had none of the airs that Giles Headley
+showed.
+
+Giles began by some amount of bullying, by way of slaking his wrath
+at the preference shown for one whom he continued to style a
+beggarly brat picked up on the heath; but Stephen was good-humoured,
+and accustomed to give and take, and they both found their level, as
+well in the Dragon court as among the world outside, where the
+London prentices were a strong and redoubtable body, with rude, not
+to say cruel, rites of initiation among themselves, plenty of
+rivalries and enmities between house and house, guild and guild, but
+a united, not to say ferocious, esprit de corps against every one
+else.  Fisticuffs and wrestlings were the amenities that passed
+between them, though always with a love of fair play so long as no
+cowardice, or what was looked on as such, was shown, for there was
+no mercy for the weak or weakly.  Such had better betake themselves
+at once to the cloister, or life was made intolerable by constant
+jeers, blows, baiting and huntings, often, it must be owned,
+absolutely brutal.
+
+Stephen and Giles had however passed through this ordeal.  The
+letter to John Birkenholt had been despatched by a trusty clerk
+riding with the Judges of Assize, whom Mistress Perronel knew might
+be safely trusted, and who actually brought back a letter which
+might have emanated from the most affectionate of brothers, giving
+his authority for the binding Stephen apprentice to the worshipful
+Master Giles Headley, and sending the remainder of the boy's
+portion.
+
+Stephen was thereupon regularly bound apprentice to Master Headley.
+It was a solemn affair, which took place in the Armourer's Hall in
+Coleman Street, before sundry witnesses.  Harry Randall, in his
+soberest garb and demeanour, acted as guardian to his nephew, and
+presented him, clad in the regulation prentice garb--"flat round
+cap, close-cut hair, narrow falling bands, coarse side coat, close
+hose, cloth stockings," coat with the badge of the Armourers'
+Company, and Master Headley's own dragon's tail on the sleeve, to
+which was added a blue cloak marked in like manner.  The
+instructions to apprentices were rehearsed, beginning, "Ye shall
+constantly and devoutly on your knees every day serve God, morning
+and evening"--pledging him to "avoid evil company, to make speedy
+return when sent on his master's business, to be fair, gentle and
+lowly in speech and carriage with all men," and the like.
+
+Mutual promises were interchanged between him and his master,
+Stephen on his knees; the indentures were signed, for Quipsome Hal
+could with much ado produce an autograph signature, though his
+penmanship went no further, and the occasion was celebrated by a
+great dinner of the whole craft at the Armourers' Hall, to which the
+principal craftsmen who had been apprentices, such as Tibble
+Steelman and Kit Smallbones, were invited, sitting at a lower table,
+while the masters had the higher one on the dais, and a third was
+reserved for the apprentices after they should have waited on their
+masters--in fact it was an imitation of the orders of chivalry,
+knights, squires, and pages, and the gradation of rank was as
+strictly observed as by the nobility.  Giles, considering the feast
+to be entirely in his honour, though the transfer of his indentures
+had been made at Salisbury, endeavoured to come out in some of his
+bravery, but was admonished that such presumption might be punished,
+the first time, at his master's discretion, the second time, by a
+whipping at the Hall of his Company, and the third time by six
+months being added to the term of his apprenticeship.
+
+Master Randall was entertained in the place of honour, where he
+comported himself with great gravity, though he could not resist
+alarming Stephen with an occasional wink or gesture as the boy
+approached in the course of the duties of waiting at the upper
+board--a splendid sight with cups and flagons of gold and silver,
+with venison and capons and all that a City banquet could command
+before the invention of the turtle.
+
+There was drinking of toasts, and among the foremost was that of
+Wolsey, who had freshly received his nomination of cardinal, and
+whose hat was on its way from Rome--and here the jester could not
+help betraying his knowledge of the domestic policy of the
+household, and telling the company how it had become known that the
+scarlet hat was actually on the way, but in a "varlet's budget--a
+mere Italian common knave, no better than myself," quoth Quipsome
+Hal, whereat his nephew trembled standing behind his chair,
+forgetting that the decorous solid man in the sad-coloured gown and
+well-crimped ruff, neatest of Perronel's performances, was no such
+base comparison for any varlet.  Hal went on to describe, however,
+how my Lord of York had instantly sent to stay the messenger on his
+handing at Dover, and equip him with all manner of costly silks by
+way of apparel, and with attendants, such as might do justice to his
+freight, "that so," he said, "men may not rate it but as a scarlet
+cock's comb, since all men be but fools, and the sole question is,
+who among them hath wit enough to live by his folly."  Therewith he
+gave a wink that so disconcerted Stephen as nearly to cause an upset
+of the bowl of perfumed water that he was bringing for the washing
+of hands.
+
+Master Headley, however, suspected nothing, and invited the grave
+Master Randall to attend the domestic festival on the presentation
+of poor Spring's effigy at the shrine of St. Julian.  This was to
+take place early in the morning of the 14th of September, Holy Cross
+Day, the last holiday in the year that had any of the glory of
+summer about it, and on which the apprentices claimed a prescriptive
+right to go out nutting in St. John's Wood, and to carry home their
+spoil to the lasses of their acquaintance.
+
+Tibble Steelman had completed the figure in bronze, with a silver
+collar and chain, not quite without protest that the sum had better
+have been bestowed in alms.  But from his master's point of view
+this would have been giving to a pack of lying beggars and thieves
+what was due to the holy saint; no one save Tibble, who could do and
+say what he chose, could have ventured on a word of remonstrance on
+such a subject; and as the full tide of iconoclasm, consequent on
+the discovery of the original wording of the second commandment, had
+not yet set in, Tibble had no more conscientious scruple against
+making the figure, than in moulding a little straight-tailed lion
+for Lord Harry Percy's helmet.
+
+So the party in early morning heard their mass, and then, repairing
+to St. Julian's pillar, while the rising sun came peeping through
+the low eastern window of the vaulted Church of St. Faith, Master
+Headley on his knees gave thanks for his preservation, and then put
+forward his little daughter, holding on her joined hands the figure
+of poor Spring, couchant, and beautifully modelled in bronze with
+all Tibble's best skill.
+
+Hal Randall and Ambrose had both come up from the little home where
+Perronel presided, for the hour was too early for the jester's
+absence to be remarked in the luxurious household of the Cardinal
+elect, and he even came to break his fast afterwards at the Dragon
+court, and held such interesting discourse with old Dame Headley on
+the farthingales and coifs of Queen Katharine and her ladies, that
+she pronounced him a man wondrous wise and understanding, and
+declared Stephen happy in the possession of such a kinsman.
+
+"And whither away now, youngsters?" he said, as he rose from table.
+
+"To St. John's Wood!  The good greenwood, uncle," said Ambrose.
+
+"Thou too, Ambrose?" said Stephen joyfully.  "For once away from
+thine ink and thy books!"
+
+"Ay," said Ambrose, "mine heart warms to the woodlands once more.
+Uncle, would that thou couldst come."
+
+"Would that I could, boy!  We three would show these lads of
+Cockayne what three foresters know of wood craft!  But it may not
+be.  Were I once there the old blood might stir again and I might
+bring you into trouble, and ye have not two faces under one hood as
+I have!  So fare ye well, I wish you many a bagful of nuts!"
+
+The four months of city life, albeit the City was little bigger than
+our moderate sized country towns, and far from being an unbroken
+mass of houses, had yet made the two young foresters delighted to
+enjoy a day of thorough country in one another's society.  Little
+Dennet longed to go with them, but the prentice world was far too
+rude for little maidens to be trusted in it, and her father held out
+hopes of going one of these days to High Park as he called it, while
+Edmund and Stephen promised her all their nuts, and as many
+blackberries as could be held in their flat caps.
+
+"Giles has promised me none," said Dennet, with a pouting lip, "nor
+Ambrose."
+
+"Why sure, little mistress, thou'lt have enough to crack thy teeth
+on!" said Edmund Burgess.
+
+"They OUGHT to bring theirs to me," returned the little heiress of
+the Dragon court with an air of offended dignity that might have
+suited the heiress of the kingdom.
+
+Giles, who looked on Dennet as a kind of needful appendage to the
+Dragon, a piece of property of his own, about whom he need take no
+trouble, merely laughed and said, "Want must be thy master then."
+But Ambrose treated her petulance in another fashion.  "Look here,
+pretty mistress," said he, "there dwells by me a poor little maid
+nigh about thine age, who never goeth further out than to St. Paul's
+minster, nor plucketh flower, nor hath sweet cake, nor manchet
+bread, nor sugar-stick, nay, and scarce ever saw English hazel-nut
+nor blackberry.  'Tis for her that I want to gather them."
+
+"Is she thy master's daughter?" demanded Dennet, who could admit the
+claims of another princess.
+
+"Nay, my master hath no children, but she dwelleth near him."
+
+"I will send her some, and likewise of mine own comfits and cakes,"
+said Mistress Dennet.  "Only thou must bring all to me first."
+
+Ambrose laughed and said, "It's a bargain then, little mistress?"
+
+"I keep my word," returned Dennet marching away, while Ambrose
+obeyed a summons from good-natured Mistress Headley to have his
+wallet filled with bread and cheese like those of her own prentices.
+
+Off went the lads under the guidance of Edmund Burgess, meeting
+parties of their own kind at every turn, soon leaving behind them
+the City bounds, as they passed under New Gate, and by and by
+skirting the fields of the great Carthusian monastery, or Charter
+House, with the burial-ground given by Sir Walter Manny at the time
+of the Black Death.  Beyond came marshy ground through which they
+had to pick their way carefully, over stepping-stones--this being no
+other than what is now the Regent's Park, not yet in any degree
+drained by the New River, but all quaking ground, overgrown with
+rough grass and marsh-plants, through which Stephen and Ambrose
+bounded by the help of stout poles with feet and eyes well used to
+bogs, and knowing where to look for a safe footing, while many a
+flat-capped London lad floundered about and sank over his yellow
+ankles or left his shoes behind him, while lapwings shrieked pee-
+wheet, and almost flapped him with their broad wings, and moorhens
+dived in the dark pools, and wild ducks rose in long families.
+
+Stephen was able to turn the laugh against his chief adversary and
+rival, George Bates of the Eagle, who proposed seeking for the
+lapwing's nest in hopes of a dainty dish of plovers' eggs; being too
+great a cockney to remember that in September the contents of the
+eggs were probably flying over the heather, as well able to shift
+for themselves as their parents.
+
+Above all things the London prentices were pugnacious, but as every
+one joined in the laugh against George, and he was, besides, stuck
+fast on a quaking tussock of grass, afraid to proceed or advance, he
+could not have his revenge.  And when the slough was passed, and the
+slight rise leading to the copse of St. John's Wood was attained,
+behold, it was found to be in possession of the lower sort of lads,
+the black guard as they were called.  They were of course quite as
+ready to fight with the prentices as the prentices were with them,
+and a battle royal took place, all along the front of the hazel
+bushes--in which Stephen of the Dragon and George of the Eagle
+fought side by side.  Sticks and fists were the weapons, and there
+were no very severe casualties before the prentices, being the
+larger number as well as the stouter and better fed, had routed
+their adversaries, and driven them off towards Harrow.
+
+There was crackling of boughs and filling of bags, and cracking of
+nuts, and wild cries in pursuit of startled hare or rabbit, and
+though Ambrose and Stephen indignantly repelled the idea of St.
+John's Wood being named in the same day with their native forest, it
+is doubtful whether they had ever enjoyed themselves more; until
+just as they were about to turn homeward, whether moved by his
+hostility to Stephen, or by envy at the capful of juicy
+blackberries, carefully covered with green leaves, George Bates,
+rushing up from behind, shouted out "Here's a skulker!  Here's one
+of the black guard!  Off to thy fellows, varlet!" at the same time
+dealing a dexterous blow under the cap, which sent the blackberries
+up into Ambrose's face.  "Ha! ha!" shouted the ill-conditioned
+fellow.  "So much for a knave that serves rascally strangers!  Here!
+hand over that bag of nuts!"
+
+Ambrose was no fighter, but in defence of the bag that was to
+purchase a treat for little Aldonza, he clenched his fists, and bade
+George Bates come and take them if he would.  The quiet scholarly
+boy was, however, no match for the young armourer, and made but poor
+reply to the buffets of his adversary, who had hold of the bag, and
+was nearly choking him with the string round his neck.
+
+However, Stephen had already missed his brother, and turning round,
+shouted out that the villain Bates was mauling him, and rushed back,
+falling on Ambrose's assailant with a sudden well-directed pounding
+that made him hastily turn about, with cries of "Two against one!"
+
+"Not at all," said Stephen.  "Stand by, Ambrose; I'll give the
+coward his deserts."
+
+In fact, though the boys were nearly of a size, George somewhat the
+biggest, Stephen's country activity, and perhaps the higher spirit
+of his gentle blood, generally gave him the advantage, and on this
+occasion he soon reduced Bates to roar for mercy.
+
+"Thou must purchase it!" said Stephen.  "Thy bag of nuts, in return
+for the berries thou hast wasted!"
+
+Peaceable Ambrose would have remonstrated, but Stephen was
+implacable.  He cut the string, and captured the bag, then with a
+parting kick bade Bates go after his comrades, for his Eagle was
+nought but a thieving kite.
+
+Bates made off pretty quickly, but the two brothers tarried a little
+to see how much damage the blackberries had suffered, and to repair
+the losses as they descended into the bog by gathering some choice
+dewberries.
+
+"I marvel these fine fellows 'scaped our company," said Stephen
+presently.
+
+"Are we in the right track, thinkst thou?  Here is a pool I marked
+not before," said Ambrose anxiously.
+
+"Nay, we can't be far astray while we see St. Paul's spire and the
+Tower full before us," said Stephen.  "Plainer marks than we had at
+home."
+
+"That may be.  Only where is the safe footing?" said Ambrose.  "I
+wish we had not lost sight of the others!"
+
+"Pish! what good are a pack of City lubbers!" returned Stephen.
+"Don't we know a quagmire when we see one, better than they do?"
+
+"Hark, they are shouting for us."
+
+"Not they!  That's a falconer's call.  There's another whistle!
+See, there's the hawk.  She's going down the wind, as I'm alive,"
+and Stephen began to bound wildly along, making all the sounds and
+calls by which falcons were recalled, and holding up as a lure a
+lapwing which he had knocked down.  Ambrose, by no means so
+confident in bog-trotting as his brother, stood still to await him,
+hearing the calls and shouts of the falconer coming nearer, and
+presently seeing a figure, flying by the help of a pole over the
+pools and dykes that here made some attempt at draining the waste.
+Suddenly, in mid career over one of these broad ditches, there was a
+collapse, and a lusty shout for help as the form disappeared.
+Ambrose instantly perceived what had happened, the leaping pole had
+broken to the downfall of its owner.  Forgetting all his doubts as
+to bogholes and morasses, he grasped his own pole, and sprang from
+tussock to tussock, till he had reached the bank of the ditch or
+water-course in which the unfortunate sportsman was floundering.  He
+was a large, powerful man, but this was of no avail, for the slough
+afforded no foothold.  The further side was a steep built up of
+sods, the nearer sloped down gradually, and though it was not
+apparently very deep, the efforts of the victim to struggle out had
+done nothing but churn up a mass of black muddy water in which he
+sank deeper every moment, and it was already nearly to his shoulders
+when with a cry of joy, half choked however, by the mud, he cried,
+"Ha! my good lad!  Are there any more of ye?"
+
+"Not nigh, I fear," said Ambrose, beholding with some dismay the
+breadth of the shoulders which were all that appeared above the
+turbid water.
+
+"Soh!  Lie down, boy, behind that bunch of osier.  Hold out thy
+pole.  Let me see thine hands.  Thou art but a straw, but, our Lady
+be my speed!  Now hangs England on a pair of wrists!"
+
+There was a great struggle, an absolute effort for life, and but for
+the osier stump Ambrose would certainly have been dragged into the
+water, when the man had worked along the pole, and grasping his
+hands, pulled himself upwards.  Happily the sides of the dyke became
+harder higher up, and did not instantly yield to the pressure of his
+knees, and by the time Ambrose's hands and shoulders felt nearly
+wrenched from their sockets, the stem of the osier had been
+attained, and in another minute, the rescued man, bareheaded,
+plastered with mud, and streaming with water, sat by him on the
+bank, panting, gasping, and trying to gather breath and clear his
+throat from the mud he had swallowed.
+
+"Thanks, good lad, well done," he articulated.  "Those fellows!
+where are they?"  And feeling in his bosom, he brought out a gold
+whistle suspended by a chain.  "Blow it," he said, taking off the
+chain, "my mouth is too full of slime."
+
+Ambrose blew a loud shrill call, but it seemed to reach no one but
+Stephen, whom he presently saw dashing towards them.
+
+"Here is my brother coming, sir," he said, as he gave his endeavours
+to help the stranger to free himself from the mud that clung to him,
+and which was in some places thick enough to be scraped off with a
+knife.  He kept up a continual interchange of exclamations at his
+plight, whistles and shouts for his people, and imprecations on
+their tardiness, until Stephen was near enough to show that the hawk
+had been recovered, and then he joyfully called out, "Ha! hast thou
+got her?  Why, flat-caps as ye are, ye put all my fellows to shame!
+How now, thou errant bird, dost know thy master, or take him for a
+mud wall?  Kite that thou art, to have led me such a dance!  And
+what's your name, my brave lads?  Ye must have been bred to wood-
+craft."
+
+Ambrose explained both their parentage and their present occupation,
+but was apparently heeded but little.  "Wot ye how to get out of
+this quagmire?" was the question.
+
+"I never was here before, sir," said Stephen; "but yonder lies the
+Tower, and if we keep along by this dyke, it must lead us out
+somewhere."
+
+"Well said, boy, I must be moving, or the mud will dry on me, and I
+shall stand here as though I were turned to stone by the Gorgon's
+head!  So have with thee!  Go on first, master hawk-tamer.  What
+will bear thee will bear me!"
+
+There was an imperative tone about him that surprised the brothers,
+and Ambrose looking at him from head to foot, felt sure that it was
+some great man at the least, whom it had been his hap to rescue.
+Indeed, he began to have further suspicions when they came to a pool
+of clearer water, beyond which was firmer ground, and the stranger
+with an exclamation of joy, borrowed Stephen's cap, and, scooping up
+the water with it, washed his face and head, disclosing the golden
+hair and beard, fair complexion, and handsome square face he had
+seen more than once before.
+
+He whispered to Stephen "'Tis the King!"
+
+"Ha! ha!" laughed Henry, "hast found him out, lads?  Well, it may
+not be the worse for ye.  Pity thou shouldst not be in the Forest
+still, my young falconer, but we know our good city of London to
+well to break thy indentures.  And thou--"
+
+He was turning to Ambrose when further shouts were heard.  The King
+hallooed, and bade the boys do so, and in a few moments more they
+were surrounded by the rest of the hawking party, full of dismay at
+the king's condition, and deprecating his anger for having lost him.
+
+"Yea," said Henry; "an it had not been for this good lad, ye would
+never have heard more of the majesty of England!  Swallowed in a
+quagmire had made a new end for a king, and ye would have to brook
+the little Scot."
+
+The gentlemen who had come up were profuse in lamentations.  A horse
+was brought up for the king's use, and he prepared to mount, being
+in haste to get into dry clothes.  He turned round, however, to the
+boys, and said, "I'll not forget you, my lads.  Keep that!" he
+added, as Ambrose, on his knee, would have given him back the
+whistle, "'tis a token that maybe will serve thee, for I shall know
+it again.  And thou, my black-eyed lad--My purse, Howard!"
+
+He handed the purse to Stephen--a velvet hag richly wrought with
+gold, and containing ten gold angels, besides smaller money--bidding
+them divide, like good brothers as he saw they were, and then
+galloped off with his train.
+
+Twilight was coming on, but following in the direction of the
+riders, the boys were soon on the Islington road.  The New Gate was
+shut by the time they reached it, and their explanation that they
+were belated after a nutting expedition would not have served them,
+had not Stephen produced the sum of twopence which softened the
+surliness of the guard.
+
+It was already dark, and though curfew had not yet sounded,
+preparations were making for lighting the watch-fires in the open
+spaces and throwing chains across the streets, but the little door
+in the Dragon court was open, and Ambrose went in with his brother
+to deliver up his nuts to Dennet and claim her promise of sending a
+share to Aldonza.
+
+They found their uncle in his sober array sitting by Master Headley,
+who was rating Edmund and Giles for having lost sight of them, the
+latter excusing himself by grumbling out that he could not be
+marking all Stephen's brawls with George Bates.
+
+When the two wanderers appeared, relief took the form of anger, and
+there were sharp demands why they had loitered.  Their story was
+listened to with many exclamations:  Dennet jumped for joy, her
+grandmother advised that the angels should be consigned to her own
+safe keeping, and when Master Headley heard of Henry's scruples
+about the indentures, he declared that it was a rare wise king who
+knew that an honest craft was better than court favour.
+
+"Yet mayhap he might do something for thee, friend Ambrose," added
+the armourer.  "Commend thee to some post in his chapel royal, or
+put thee into some college, since such is thy turn.  How sayst thou,
+Master Randall, shall he send in this same token, and make his
+petition?"
+
+"If a foo--if a plain man may be heard where the wise hath spoken,"
+said Randall, "he had best abstain.  Kings love not to be minded of
+mishaps, and our Hal's humour is not to be reckoned on!  Lay up the
+toy in case of need, but an thou claim overmuch he may mind thee in
+a fashion not to thy taste."
+
+"Sure our King is of a more generous mould!" exclaimed Mrs. Headley.
+
+"He is like other men, good mistress, just as you know how to have
+him, and he is scarce like to be willing to be minded of the taste
+of mire, or of floundering like a hog in a salt marsh.  Ha! ha!" and
+Quipsome Hal went off into such a laugh as might have betrayed his
+identity to any one more accustomed to the grimaces of his
+professional character, but which only infected the others with the
+same contagious merriment.  "Come thou home now," he said to
+Ambrose; "my good woman hath been in a mortal fright about thee, and
+would have me come out to seek after thee.  Such are the women folk,
+Master Headley.  Let them have but a lad to look after, and they'll
+bleat after him like an old ewe that has lost her lamb."
+
+Ambrose only stayed for Dennet to divide the spoil, and though the
+blackberries had all been lost or crushed, the little maiden kept
+her promise generously, and filled the bag not only with nuts but
+with three red-checked apples, and a handful of comfits, for the
+poor little maid who never tasted fruit or sweets.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.  A LONDON HOLIDAY
+
+
+
+"Up then spoke the apprentices tall
+Living in London, one and all."
+
+Old Ballad.
+
+
+Another of the many holidays of the Londoners was enjoyed on the
+occasion of the installation of Thomas Wolsey as Cardinal of St.
+Cecilia, and Papal Legate.
+
+A whole assembly of prelates and "lusty gallant gentlemen" rode out
+to Blackheath to meet the Roman envoy, who, robed in full splendour,
+with St. Peter's keys embroidered on back and breast and on the
+housings of his mule, appeared at the head of a gallant train in the
+papal liveries, two of whom carried the gilded pillars, the insignia
+of office, and two more, a scarlet and gold-covered box or casket
+containing the Cardinal's hat.  Probably no such reception of the
+dignity was ever prepared elsewhere, and all was calculated to give
+magnificent ideas of the office of Cardinal and of the power of the
+Pope to those who had not been let into the secret that the
+messenger had been met at Dover; and thus magnificently fitted out
+to satisfy the requirements of the butcher's son of Ipswich, and of
+one of the most ostentatious of courts.
+
+Old Gaffer Martin Fulford had muttered in his bed that such pomp had
+not been the way in the time of the true old royal blood, and that
+display had come in with the upstart slips of the Red Rose--as he
+still chose to style the Tudors; and he maundered away about the
+beauty and affability of Edward IV. till nobody could understand
+him, and Perronel only threw in her "ay, grandad," or "yea, gaffer,"
+when she thought it was expected of her.
+
+Ambrose had an unfailing appetite for the sermons of Dean Colet, who
+was to preach on this occasion in Westminster Abbey, and his uncle
+had given him counsel how to obtain standing ground there, entering
+before the procession.  He was alone, his friends Tibble and Lucas
+both had that part of the Lollard temper which loathed the pride and
+wealth of the great political clergy, and in spite of their
+admiration for the Dean they could not quite forgive his taking part
+in the pomp of such a rare show.
+
+But Ambrose's devotion to the Dean, to say nothing of youthful
+curiosity, outweighed all those scruples, and as he listened, he was
+carried along by the curious sermon in which the preacher likened
+the orders of the hierarchy below to that of the nine orders of the
+Angels, making the rank of Cardinal correspond to that of the
+Seraphim, aglow with love.  Of that holy flame, the scarlet robes
+were the type to the spiritualised mind of Colet, while others saw
+in them only the relic of the imperial purple of old Rome; and some
+beheld them as the token that Wolsey was one step nearer the supreme
+height that he coveted so earnestly.  But the great and successful
+man found himself personally addressed, bidden not to be puffed up
+with his own greatness, and stringently reminded of the highest
+Example of humility, shown that he that exalteth himself shall be
+abased, and he that humbleth himself be exalted.  The preacher
+concluded with a strong personal exhortation to do righteousness and
+justice alike to rich and poor, joined with truth and mercy, setting
+God always before him.
+
+The sermon ended, Wolsey knelt at the altar, and Archbishop Wareham,
+who, like his immediate predecessors, held legatine authority,
+performed the act of investiture, placing the scarlet hat with its
+many hoops and tassels on his brother primate's head, after which a
+magnificent Te Deum rang through the beautiful church, and the
+procession of prelates, peers, and ecclesiastics of all ranks in
+their richest array formed to escort the new Cardinal to banquet at
+his palace with the King and Queen.
+
+Ambrose, stationed by a column, let the throng rush, tumble, and
+jostle one another to behold the show, till the Abbey was nearly
+empty, while he tried to work out the perplexing question whether
+all this pomp and splendour were truly for the glory of God, or
+whether it were a delusion for the temptation of men's souls.  It
+was a debate on which his old and his new guides seemed to him at
+issue, and he was drawn in both directions--now by the beauty,
+order, and deep symbolism of the Catholic ritual, now by the
+spirituality and earnestness of the men among whom he lived.  At one
+moment the worldly pomp, the mechanical and irreverent worship, and
+the gross and vicious habits of many of the clergy repelled him; at
+another the reverence and conservatism of his nature held him fast.
+
+Presently he felt a hand on his shoulder, and started, "Lost in a
+stud, as we say at home, boy," said the jester, resplendent in a
+bran new motley suit.  "Wilt come in to the banquet?  'Tis open
+house, and I can find thee a seat without disclosing the kinship
+that sits so sore on thy brother.  Where is he?"
+
+"I have not seen him this day."
+
+"That did I," returned Randall, "as I rode by on mine ass.  He was
+ruffling it so lustily that I could not but give him a wink, the
+which my gentleman could by no means stomach!  Poor lad!  Yet there
+be times, Ambrose, when I feel in sooth that mine office is the only
+honourable one, since who besides can speak truth?  I love my lord;
+he is a kind, open-handed master, and there's none I would so
+willingly serve, whether by jest or earnest, but what is he but that
+which I oft call him in joke--the greater fool than I, selling peace
+and ease, truth and hope, this life and the next, for yonder scarlet
+hat, which is after all of no more worth than this jingling head-
+gear of mine."
+
+"Deafening the spiritual ears far more, it may be," said Ambrose,
+"since humiles exallaverint."
+
+It was no small shock that there, in the midst of the nave, the
+answer was a bound, like a ball, almost as high as the capital of
+the column by which they stood.  "There's exaltation!" said Randall
+in a low voice, and Ambrose perceived that some strangers were in
+sight.  "Come, seek thy brother out, boy, and bring him to the
+banquet.  I'll speak a word to Peter Porter, and he'll let you in.
+There'll be plenty of fooling all the afternoon, before my namesake
+King Hal, who can afford to be an honester man in his fooling than
+any about him, and whose laugh at a hearty jest is goodly to hear."
+
+Ambrose thanked him and undertook the quest.  They parted at the
+great west door of the Abbey, where, by way of vindicating his own
+character for buffoonery, Randall exclaimed, "Where be mine ass?"
+and not seeing the animal, immediately declared, "There he is!" and
+at the same time sprang upon the back and shoulders of a gaping and
+astonished clown who was gazing at the rear of the procession.
+
+The crowd applauded with shouts of coarse laughter, but a man, who
+seemed to belong to the victim, broke in with an angry oath, and
+"How now, sir?"
+
+"I cry you mercy," quoth the jester; "'twas mine own ass I sought,
+and if I have fallen on thine, I will but ride him to York House and
+then restore him.  So ho! good jackass," crossing his ankles on the
+poor fellow's chest so that he could not be shaken off.
+
+The comrade lifted a cudgel, but there was a general cry of "My Lord
+Cardinal's jester, lay not a finger on him!"
+
+But Harry Randall was not one to brook immunity on the score of his
+master's greatness.  In another second he was on his feet, had
+wrested the staff from the hands of his astounded beast of burden,
+flourished it round his head after the most approved manner of
+Shirley champions at Lyndhurst fair, and called to his adversary to
+"come on."
+
+It did not take many rounds before Hal's dexterity had floored his
+adversary, and the shouts of "Well struck, merry fool!"  "Well
+played, Quipsome Hal!" were rising high when the Abbot of
+Westminster's yeomen were seen making way through the throng, which
+fell back in terror on either side as they came to seize on the
+brawlers in their sacred precincts.
+
+But here again my Lord Cardinal's fool was a privileged person, and
+no one laid a hand on him, though his blood being up, he would,
+spite of his gay attire, have enjoyed a fight on equal terms.  His
+quadruped donkey was brought up to him amid general applause, but
+when he looked round for Ambrose, the boy had disappeared.
+
+The better and finer the nature that displayed itself in Randall,
+the more painful was the sight of his buffooneries to his nephew,
+and at the first leap, Ambrose had hurried away in confusion.  He
+sought his brother here, there, everywhere, and at last came to the
+conclusion that Stephen must have gone home to dinner.  He walked
+quickly across the fields separating Westminster from the City of
+London, hoping to reach Cheapside before the lads of the Dragon
+should have gone out again; but just as he was near St. Paul's,
+coming round Amen Corner, he heard the sounds of a fray.  "Have at
+the country lubbers!  Away with the moonrakers!  Flat-caps, come
+on!"  "Hey! lads of the Eagle!  Down with the Dragons!  Adders
+Snakes--s-s s-s-s!"
+
+There was a kicking, struggling mass of blue backs and yellow legs
+before him, from out of which came "Yah!  Down with the Eagles!
+Cowards!  Kites!  Cockneys!"  There were plenty of boys, men, women
+with children in their arms hallooing on, "Well done, Eagle!"  "Go
+it, Dragon!"
+
+The word Dragon filled the quiet Ambrose with hot impulse to defend
+his brother.  All his gentle, scholarly habits gave way before that
+cry, and a shout that he took to be Stephen's voice in the midst of
+the melee.
+
+He was fairly carried out of himself, and doubling his fists, fell
+on the back of the nearest boys, intending to break through to his
+brother, and he found an unexpected ally.  Will Wherry's voice
+called out, "Have with you, comrade!"--and a pair of hands and arms
+considerably stouter and more used to fighting than his own, began
+to pommel right and left with such good will that they soon broke
+through to the aid of their friends; and not before it was time, for
+Stephen, Giles, and Edmund, with their backs against the wall, were
+defending themselves with all their might against tremendous odds;
+and just as the new allies reached them, a sharp stone struck Giles
+in the eye, and levelled him with the ground, his head striking
+against the wall.  Whether it were from alarm at his fall, or at the
+unexpected attack in the rear, or probably from both causes, the
+assailants dispersed in all directions without waiting to perceive
+how slender the succouring force really was.
+
+Edmund and Stephen were raising up the unlucky Giles, who lay quite
+insensible, with blood pouring from his eye.  Ambrose tried to wipe
+it away, and there were anxious doubts whether the eye itself were
+safe.  They were some way from home, and Giles was the biggest and
+heaviest of them all.
+
+"Would that Kit Smallbones were here!" said Stephen, preparing to
+take the feet, while Edmund took the shoulders.
+
+"Look here," said Will Wherry, pulling Ambrose's sleeve, "our yard
+is much nearer, and the old Moor, Master Michael, is safe to know
+what to do for him.  That sort of cattle always are leeches.  He
+wiled the pain from my thumb when 'twas crushed in our printing
+press.  Mayhap if he put some salve to him, he might get home on his
+own feet."
+
+Edmund listened.  "There's reason in that," he said.  "Dost know
+this leech, Ambrose?"
+
+"I know him well.  He is a good old man, and wondrous wise.  Nay, no
+black arts; but he saith his folk had great skill in herbs and the
+like, and though he be no physician by trade, he hath much of their
+lore."
+
+"Have with thee, then," returned Edmund, "the rather that Giles is
+no small weight, and the guard might come on us ere we reached the
+Dragon."
+
+"Or those cowardly rogues of the Eagle might set on us again," added
+Stephen; and as they went on their way to Warwick Inner Yard, he
+explained that the cause of the encounter had been that Giles had
+thought fit to prank himself in his father's silver chain, and thus
+George Bates, always owing the Dragon a grudge, and rendered
+specially malicious since the encounter on Holy Rood Day, had raised
+the cry against him, and caused all the flat-caps around to make a
+rush at the gaud as lawful prey.
+
+"'Tis clean against prentice statutes to wear one, is it not?" asked
+Ambrose.
+
+"Ay," returned Stephen; "yet none of us but would stand up for our
+own comrade against those meddling fellows of the Eagle."
+
+"But," added Edmund, "we must beware the guard, for if they looked
+into the cause of the fray, our master might be called on to give
+Giles a whipping in the Company's hall, this being a second offence
+of going abroad in these vanities."
+
+Ambrose went on before to prepare Miguel Abenali, and entreat his
+good offices, explaining that the youth's master, who was also his
+kinsman, would be sure to give handsome payment for any good offices
+to him.  He scarcely got out half the words; the grand old Arab
+waved his hand and said, "When the wounded is laid before the tent
+of Ben Ali, where is the question of recompense?  Peace be with
+thee, my son!  Bring him hither.  Aldonza, lay the carpet yonder,
+and the cushions beneath the window, where I may have light to look
+to his hurt."
+
+Therewith he murmured a few words in an unknown tongue, which, as
+Ambrose understood, were an invocation to the God of Abraham to
+bless his endeavours to heal the stranger youth, but which happily
+were spoken before the arrival of the others, who would certainly
+have believed them an incantation.
+
+The carpet though worn threadbare, was a beautiful old Moorish rug,
+once glowing with brilliancy, and still rich in colouring, and the
+cushion was of thick damask faded to a strange pale green.  All in
+that double-stalled partition, once belonging to the great earl's
+war-horses, was scrupulously clean, for the Christian Moor had
+retained some of the peculiar virtues born of Mohammedanism and of
+high civilisation.  The apprentice lads tramped in much as if they
+had been entering a wizard's cave, though Stephen had taken care to
+assure Edmund of his application of the test of holy water.
+
+Following the old man's directions, Edmund and Stephen deposited
+their burden on the rug.  Aldonza brought some warm water, and
+Abenali washed and examined the wound, Aldonza standing by and
+handing him whatever he needed, now and then assisting with her
+slender brown hands in a manner astonishing to the youths, who stood
+by anxious and helpless, white their companion began to show signs
+of returning life.
+
+Abenali pronounced that the stone had missed the eyeball, but the
+cut and bruise were such as to require constant bathing, and the
+blow on the head was the more serious matter, for when the patient
+tried to raise himself he instantly became sick and giddy, so that
+it would be wise to leave him where he was.  This was much against
+the will of Edmund Burgess, who shared all the prejudices of the
+English prentice against the foreigner--perhaps a wizard and rival
+in trade; but there was no help for it, and he could only insist
+that Stephen should mount guard over the bed until he had reported
+to his master, and returned with his orders.  Therewith he departed,
+with such elaborate thanks and courtesies to the host, as betrayed a
+little alarm in the tall apprentice, who feared not quarter-staff,
+nor wrestler, and had even dauntlessly confronted the masters of his
+guild!
+
+Stephen, sooth to say, was not very much at ease; everything around
+had such a strange un-English aspect, and he imploringly muttered,
+"Bide with me, Am!" to which his brother willingly assented, being
+quite as comfortable in Master Michael's abode as by his aunt's own
+hearth.
+
+Giles meanwhile lay quiet, and then, as his senses became less
+confused, and he could open one eye, he looked dreamily about him,
+and presently began to demand where he was, and what had befallen
+him, grasping at the hand of Ambrose as if to hold fast by something
+familiar; but he still seemed too much dazed to enter into the
+explanation, and presently murmured something about thirst.  Aldonza
+came softly up with a cup of something cool.  He looked very hard at
+her, and when Ambrose would have taken it from her hand to give it
+to him, he said, "Nay!  SHE!"
+
+And SHE, with a sweet smile in her soft, dark, shady eyes, and on
+her full lips, held the cup to his lips far more daintily and
+dexterously than either of his boy companions could have done; then
+when he moaned and said his head and eye pained him, the white-
+bearded elder came and bathed his brow with the soft sponge.  It
+seemed all to pass before him like a dream, and it was not much
+otherwise with his unhurt companions, especially Stephen, who
+followed with wonder the movements made by the slippered feet of
+father and daughter upon the mats which covered the stone flooring
+of the old stable.  The mats were only of English rushes and flags,
+and had been woven by Abenali and the child; but loose rushes
+strewing the floor were accounted a luxury in the Forest, and even
+at the Dragon court the upper end of the hall alone had any
+covering.  Then the water was heated, and all such other operations
+carried on over a curious round vessel placed over charcoal; the
+window and the door had dark heavy curtains; and a matted partition
+cut off the further stall, no doubt to serve as Aldonza's chamber.
+Stephen looked about for something to assure him that the place
+belonged to no wizard enchanter, and was glad to detect a large
+white cross on the wall, with a holy-water stoup beneath it, but of
+images there were none.
+
+It seemed to him a long time before Master Headley's ruddy face,
+full of anxiety, appeared at the door.
+
+Blows were, of course, no uncommon matter; perhaps so long as no
+permanent injury was inflicted, the master-armourer had no objection
+to anything that might knock the folly out of his troublesome young
+inmate; but Edmund had made him uneasy for the youth's eye, and
+still more so about the quarters he was in, and he had brought a
+mattress and a couple of men to carry the patient home, as well as
+Steelman, his prime minister, to advise him.
+
+He had left all these outside, however, and advanced, civilly and
+condescendingly thanking the sword-cutler, in perfect ignorance that
+the man who stood before him had been born to a home that was an
+absolute palace compared with the Dragon court.  The two men were a
+curious contrast.  There stood the Englishman with his sturdy form
+inclining, with age, to corpulence, his broad honest face telling of
+many a civic banquet, and his short stubbly brown grizzled heard;
+his whole air giving a sense of worshipful authority and weight; and
+opposite to him the sparely made, dark, thin, aquiline-faced, white-
+bearded Moor, a far smaller man in stature, yet with a patriarchal
+dignity, refinement, and grace in port and countenance, belonging as
+it were to another sphere.
+
+Speaking English perfectly, though with a foreign accent, Abenali
+informed Master Headley that his young kinsman would by Heaven's
+blessing soon recover without injury to the eye, though perhaps a
+scar might remain.
+
+Mr. Headley thanked him heartily for his care, and said that he had
+brought men to carry the youth home, if he could not walk; and then
+he went up to the couch with a hearty "How now, Giles?  So thou hast
+had hard measure to knock the foolery out of thee, my poor lad.  But
+come, we'll have thee home, and my mother will see to thee."
+
+"I cannot walk," said Giles, heavily, hardly raising his eyes, and
+when he was told that two of the men waited to bear him home, he
+only entreated to be let alone.  Somewhat sharply, Mr. Headley
+ordered him to sit up and make ready, but when he tried to do so, he
+sank back with a return of sickness and dizziness.
+
+Abenali thereupon intreated that he might be left for that night,
+and stepping out into the court so as to be unheard by the patient,
+explained that the brain had had a shock, and that perfect quiet for
+some hours to come was the only way to avert a serious illness,
+possibly dangerous.  Master Headley did not like the alternative at
+all, and was a good deal perplexed.  He beckoned to Tibble Steelman,
+who had all this time been talking to Lucas Hansen, and now came up
+prepared with his testimony that this Michael was a good man and
+true, a godly one to boot, who had been wealthy in his own land and
+was a rare artificer in his own craft.
+
+"Though he hath no license to practise it here," threw in Master
+Headley, sotto voce; but he accepted the assurance that Michael was
+a good Christian, and, with his daughter, regularly went to mass;
+and since better might not be, he reluctantly consented to leave
+Giles under his treatment, on Lucas reiterating the assurance that
+he need have no fears of magic or foul play of any sort.  He then
+took the purse that hung at his girdle, and declared that Master
+Michael (the title of courtesy was wrung from him by the stately
+appearance of the old man) must be at no charges for his cousin.
+
+But Abenali with a grace that removed all air of offence from his
+manner, returned thanks for the intention, but declared that it
+never was the custom of the sons of Ali to receive reward for the
+hospitality they exercised to the stranger within their gates.  And
+so it was that Master Headley, a good deal puzzled, had to leave his
+apprentice under the roof of the old sword-cutler for the night at
+least.
+
+"'Tis passing strange," said he, as he walked back; "I know not what
+my mother will say, but I wish all may be right.  I feel--I feel as
+if I had left the lad Giles with Abraham under the oak tree, as we
+saw him in the miracle play!"
+
+This description did not satisfy Mrs. Headley, indeed she feared
+that her son was likewise bewitched; and when, the next morning,
+Stephen, who had been sent to inquire for the patient, reported him
+better, but still unable to be moved, since he could not lift his
+head without sickness, she became very anxious.  Giles was
+transformed in her estimate from a cross-grained slip to poor Robin
+Headley's boy, the only son of a widow, and nothing would content
+her but to make her son conduct her to Warwick Inner Yard to inspect
+matters, and carry thither a precious relic warranted proof against
+all sorcery.
+
+It was with great trepidation that the good old dame ventured, but
+the result was that she was fairly subdued by Abenali's patriarchal
+dignity.  She had never seen any manners to equal his, not EVEN when
+King Edward the Fourth had come to her father's house at the
+Barbican, chucked her under the chin, and called her a dainty duck!
+
+It was Aldonza, however, who specially touched her feelings.  Such a
+sweet little wench, with the air of being bred in a kingly or
+knightly court, to be living there close to the very dregs of the
+city was a scandal and a danger--speaking so prettily too, and
+knowing how to treat her elders.  She would be a good example for
+Dennet, who, sooth to say, was getting too old for spoilt-child
+sauciness to be always pleasing, while as to Giles, he could not be
+in better quarters.  Mrs. Headley, well used to the dressing of the
+burns and bruises incurred in the weapon smiths' business, could not
+but confess that his eye had been dealt with as skilfully as she
+could have done it herself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.  THE KNIGHT OF THE BADGER
+
+
+
+"I am a gentleman of a company."
+
+SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+Giles Headley's accident must have amounted to concussion of the
+brain, for though he was able to return to the Dragon in a couple of
+days, and the cut over his eye was healing fast, he was weak and
+shaken, and did not for several weeks recover his usual health.  The
+noise and heat of the smithy were distressing to him, and there was
+no choice but to let him lie on settles, sun himself on the steps,
+and attempt no work.
+
+It had tamed him a good deal.  Smallbones said the letting out of
+malapert blood was wholesome, and others thought him still under a
+spell; but he seemed to have parted with much of his arrogance,
+either because he had not spirits for self-assertion, or because
+something of the grand eastern courtesy of Abenali had impressed
+him.  For intercourse with the Morisco had by no means ceased.
+Giles went, as long as the injury required it, to have the hurt
+dressed, and loitered in the Inner Yard a long time every day, often
+securing some small dainty for Aldonza--an apple, a honey cake, a
+bit of marchpane, a dried plum, or a comfit.  One day he took her a
+couple of oranges.  To his surprise, as he entered, Abenali looked
+up with a strange light in his eyes, and exclaimed, "My son! thy
+scent is to my nostrils as the court of my father's house!" Then, as
+he beheld the orange, he clasped his hands, took it in them, and
+held it to his breast, pouring out a chant in an unknown tongue,
+while the tears flowed down his cheeks.
+
+"Father, father!" Aldonza cried, terrified, while Giles marvelled
+whether the orange worked on him like a spell.  But he perceived
+their amazement, and spoke again in English, "I thank thee, my son!
+Thou hast borne me back for a moment to the fountain in my father's
+house, where ye grow, ye trees of the unfading leaf, the spotless
+blossom, and golden fruit!  Ah Ronda!  Ronda!  Land of the sunshine,
+the deep blue sky, and snow-topped hills!  Land where are the graves
+of my father and mother!  How pines and sickens the heart of the
+exile for thee!  O happy they who died beneath the sword or flame,
+for they knew not the lonely home-longing of the exile.  Ah! ye
+golden fruits!  One fragrant breath of thee is as a waft of the joys
+of my youth!  Are ye foretastes of the fruits of Paradise, the true
+home to which I may yet come, though I may never, never see the
+towers and hills of Ronda more?"
+
+Giles knew not what to make of this outburst.  He kept it to himself
+as too strange to be told.  The heads of the family were willing
+that he should carry these trifles to the young child of the man who
+would accept no reward for his hospitality.  Indeed, Master Headley
+spent much consideration on how to recompense the care bestowed on
+his kinsman.
+
+Giles suggested that Master Michael had just finished the most
+beautiful sword blade he had ever seen, and had not yet got a
+purchaser for it; it was far superior to the sword Tibble had just
+completed for my Lord of Surrey.  Thereat the whole court broke into
+an outcry; that any workman should be supposed to turn out any kind
+of work surpassing Steelman's was rank heresy, and Master Headley
+bluntly told Giles that he knew not what he was talking of!  He
+might perhaps purchase the blade by way of courtesy and return of
+kindness, but--good English workmanship for him!
+
+However, Giles was allowed to go and ask the price of the blade, and
+bring it to be looked at.  When he returned to the court he found,
+in front of the building where finished suits were kept for display,
+a tall, thin, wiry, elderly man, deeply bronzed, and with a scar on
+his brow.  Master Headley and Tibble were both in attendance, Tib
+measuring the stranger, and Stephen, who was standing at a
+respectful distance, gave Giles the information that this was the
+famous Captain of Free-lances, Sir John Fulford, who had fought in
+all the wars in Italy, and was going to fight in them again, but
+wanted a suit of "our harness."
+
+The information was hardly needed, for Sir John, in a voice loud
+enough to lead his men to the battle-field, and with all manner of
+strong asseverations in all sorts of languages, was explaining the
+dints and blows that had befallen the mail he had had from Master
+Headley eighteen years ago, when he was but a squire; how his helmet
+had endured tough blows, and saved his head at Novara, but had been
+crushed like an egg shell by a stone from the walls at Barletta,
+which had nearly been his own destruction:  and how that which he at
+present wore (beautifully chased and in a classical form) was taken
+from a dead Italian Count on the field of Ravenna, but always sat
+amiss on him; and how he had broken his good sword upon one of the
+rascally Swiss only a couple of months ago at Marignano.  Having
+likewise disabled his right arm, and being well off through the
+payment of some ransoms, he had come home partly to look after his
+family, and partly to provide himself with a full suit of English
+harness, his present suit being a patchwork of relics of numerous
+battle-fields.  Only one thing he desired, a true Spanish sword, not
+only Toledo or Bilboa in name, but nature.  He had seen execution
+done by the weapons of the soldiers of the Great Captain, and been
+witness to the endurance of their metal, and this made him demand
+whether Master Headley could provide him with the like.
+
+Giles took the moment for stepping forward and putting Abenali's
+work into the master's hand.  The Condottiere was in raptures.  He
+pronounced it as perfect a weapon as Gonzalo de Cordova himself
+could possess; showed off its temper and his own dexterity by
+piercing and cutting up an old cuirass, and invited the bystanders
+to let him put it to further proof by letting him slice through an
+apple placed on the open palm of the hand.
+
+Giles's friendship could not carry him so far as to make the
+venture; Kit Smallbones observed that he had a wife and children,
+and could not afford to risk his good right hand on a wandering
+soldier's bravado; Edmund was heard saying, "Nay, nay, Steve, don't
+be such a fool," but Stephen was declaring he would not have the
+fellow say that English lads hung back from what rogues of France
+and Italy would dare.
+
+"No danger for him who winceth not," said the knight.
+
+Master Headley, a very peaceful citizen in his composition in spite
+of his trade, was much inclined to forbid Stephen from the
+experiment, but he refrained, ashamed and unwilling to daunt a high
+spirit; and half the household, eager for the excitement, rushed to
+the kitchen in quest of apples, and brought out all the women to
+behold, and add a clamour of remonstrance.  Sir John, however,
+insisted that they should all be ordered back again.  "Not that the
+noise and clamour of women folk makes any odds to me," said the grim
+old warrior, "I've seen too many towns taken for that, but it might
+make the lad queasy, and cost him a thumb or so."
+
+Of course this renewed the dismay and excitement, and both Tibble
+and his master entreated Stephen to give up the undertaking if he
+felt the least misgiving as to his own steadiness, arguing that they
+should not think him any more a craven than they did Kit Smallbones
+or Edmund Burgess.  But Stephen's mind was made up, his spirit was
+high, and he was resolved to go through with it.
+
+He held out his open hand, a rosy-checked apple was carefully laid
+on it.  The sword flashed through the air--divided in half the apple
+which remained on Stephen's palm.  There was a sharp shriek from a
+window, drowned in the acclamations of the whole court, while the
+Captain patted Stephen on the shoulder, exclaiming, "Well done, my
+lad.  There's the making of a tall fellow in thee!  If ever thou art
+weary of making weapons and wouldst use them instead, seek out John
+Fulford, of the Badger troop, and thou shalt have a welcome.  Our
+name is the Badger, because there's no troop like us for digging out
+mines beneath the walls."
+
+A few months ago such an invitation would have been bliss to
+Stephen.  Now he was bound in all honour and duty to his master, and
+could only thank the knight of the Badger, and cast a regretful eye
+at him, as he drank a cup of wine, and flung a bag of gold and
+silver, supplemented by a heavy chain, to Master Headley, who
+prudently declined working for Free Companions, unless he were paid
+beforehand; and, at the knight's request, took charge of a
+sufficient amount to pay his fare back again to the Continent.  Then
+mounting a tall, lean, bony horse, the knight said he should call
+for his armour on returning from Somerset, and rode off, while
+Stephen found himself exalted as a hero in the eyes of his
+companions for an act common enough at feats of arms among modern
+cavalry, but quite new to the London flat-caps.  The only sufferer
+was little Dennet, who had burst into an agony of crying at the
+sight, needed that Stephen should spread out both hands before her,
+and show her the divided apple, before she would believe that his
+thumb was in its right place, and at night screamed out in her sleep
+that the ill-favoured man was cutting off Stephen's hands.
+
+The sword was left behind by Sir John in order that it might be
+fitted with a scabbard and belt worthy of it; and on examination,
+Master Headley and Tibble both confessed that they could produce
+nothing equal to it in workmanship, though Kit looked with contempt
+at the slight weapon of deep blue steel, with lines meandering on it
+like a watered silk, and the upper part inlaid with gold wire in
+exquisite arabesque patterns.  He called it a mere toy, and muttered
+something about sorcery, and men who had been in foreign parts not
+thinking honest weight of English steel good enough for them.
+
+Master Headley would not trust one of the boys with the good silver
+coins that had been paid as the price of the sword--French crowns
+and Milanese ducats, with a few Venetian gold bezants--but he bade
+them go as guards to Tibble, for it was always a perilous thing to
+carry a sum of money through the London streets.  Tibble was not an
+unwilling messenger.  He knew Master Michael to be somewhat of his
+own way of thinking, and he was a naturally large-minded man who
+could appreciate skill higher than his own without jealousy.
+Indeed, he and his master held a private consultation on the mode of
+establishing a connection with Michael and profiting by his ability.
+
+To have lodged him at the Dragon court and made him part of the
+establishment might have seemed the most obvious way, but the dogged
+English hatred and contempt of foreigners would have rendered this
+impossible, even if Abenali himself would have consented to give up
+his comparative seclusion and live in a crowd and turmoil.
+
+But he was thankful to receive and execute orders from Master
+Headley, since so certain a connection would secure Aldonza from
+privation such as the child had sometimes had to endure in the
+winter; when, though the abstemious Eastern nature needed little
+food, there was great suffering from cold and lack of fuel.  And
+Tibble moreover asked questions and begged for instructions in some
+of the secrets of the art.  It was an effort to such a prime
+artificer as Steelman to ask instruction from any man, especially a
+foreigner, but Tibble had a nature of no common order, and set
+perfection far above class prejudice; and moreover, he felt Abenali
+to be one of those men who had their inner eyes devotedly fixed on
+the truth, though little knowing where the quest would lead them.
+
+On his side Abenali underwent a struggle.  "Woe is me!" he said.
+"Wottest thou, my son, that the secrets of the sword of light and
+swiftness are the heritage that Abdallah Ben Ali brought from
+Damascus in the hundred and fifty-third year of the flight of him
+whom once I termed the prophet; nor have they departed from our
+house, but have been handed on from father to son.  And shall they
+be used in the wars of the stranger and the Christian?"
+
+"I feared it might be thus," said Tibble.
+
+"And yet," went on the old man, as if not hearing him, "wherefore
+should I guard the secret any longer?  My sons?  Where are they?
+They brooked not the scorn and hatred of the Castillian which
+poisoned to them the new faith.  They cast in their lot with their
+own people, and that their bones may lie bleaching on the mountains
+is the best lot that can have befallen the children of my youth and
+hope.  The house of Miguel Abenali is desolate and childless, save
+for the little maiden who sits by my hearth in the land of my exile!
+Why should I guard it longer for him who may wed her, and whom I may
+never behold?  The will of Heaven be done!  Young man, if I bestow
+this knowledge on thee, wilt thou swear to be as a father to my
+daughter, and to care for her as thine own?"
+
+It was a good while since Tibble had been called a young man, and as
+he listened to the flowing Eastern periods in their foreign
+enunciation, he was for a moment afraid that the price of the secret
+was that he should become the old Moor's son-in-law!  His seared and
+scarred youth had precluded marriage, and he entertained the low
+opinion of women frequent in men of superior intellect among the
+uneducated.  Besides, the possibilities of giving umbrage to Church
+authorities were dawning on him, and he was not willing to form any
+domestic ties, so that in every way such a proposition would have
+been unwelcome to him.  But he had no objection to pledge himself to
+fatherly guardianship of the pretty child in case of a need that
+might never arise.  So he gave the promise, and became a pupil of
+Abenali, visiting Warwick Inner Yard with his master's consent
+whenever he could be spared, while the workmanship at the Dragon
+began to profit thereby.
+
+The jealousy of the Eagle was proportionately increased.  Alderman
+Itillyeo, the head of the Eagle, was friendly enough to Mr. Headley,
+but it was undeniable that they were the rival armourers of London,
+dividing the favours of the Court equally between them, and the
+bitterness of the emulation increased the lower it went in the
+establishment.  The prentices especially could hardly meet without
+gibes and sneers, if nothing worse, and Stephen's exploit had a
+peculiar flavour because it was averred that no one at the Eagle
+would have done the like.
+
+But it was not till the Sunday that Ambrose chanced to hear of the
+feat, at which he turned quite pale, but he was prouder of it than
+any one else, and although he rejoiced that he had not seen it
+performed, he did not fail to boast of it at home, though Perronel
+began by declaring that she did not care for the mad pranks of
+roistering prentices; but presently she paused, as she stirred her
+grandfather's evening posset, and said, "What saidst thou was the
+strange soldier's name?"
+
+"Fulford--Sir John Fulford" said Ambrose.  "What?  I thought not of
+it, is not that Gaffer's name?"
+
+"Fulford, yea!  Mayhap--" and Perronel sat down and gave an odd sort
+of laugh of agitation--"mayhap 'tis mine own father."
+
+"Shouldst thou know him, good aunt?" cried Ambrose, much excited.
+
+"Scarce," she said.  "I was not seven years old when he went to the
+wars--if so be he lived through the battle--and he reeked little of
+me, being but a maid.  I feared him greatly and so did my mother.
+'Twas happier with only Gaffer!  Where saidst thou he was gone?"
+
+Ambrose could not tell, but he undertook to bring Stephen to answer
+all queries on the subject.  His replies that the Captain was gone
+in quest of his family to Somersetshire settled the matter, since
+there had been old Martin Fulford's abode, and there John Fulford
+had parted with his wife and father.  They did not, however, tell
+the old man of the possibility of his son's being at home, he had
+little memory, and was easily thrown into a state of agitation;
+besides, it was a doubtful matter how the Condottiere would feel as
+to the present fortunes of the family.  Stephen was to look out for
+his return in quest of his suit of armour, inform him of his
+father's being alive, and show him the way to the little house by
+the Temple Gardens; but Perronel gave the strictest injunctions that
+her husband's profession should not be explained.  It would be quite
+enough to say that he was of the Lord Cardinal's household.
+
+Stephen watched, but the armour was finished and Christmas passed by
+before anything was seen of the Captain.  At last, however, he did
+descend on the Dragon court, looking so dilapidated that Mr. Headley
+rejoiced in the having received payment beforehand.  He was louder
+voiced and fuller of strange oaths than ever, and in the utmost
+haste, for he had heard tidings that "there was to be a lusty game
+between the Emperor and the Italians, and he must have his share."
+
+Stephen made his way up to speak to him, and was received with "Ha,
+my gallant lad!  Art weary of hammer and anvil?  Wouldst be a brave
+Badger, slip thine indentures, and hear helm and lance ring in good
+earnest?"
+
+"Not so, sir," said Stephen, "but I have been bidden to ask if thou
+hast found thy father?"
+
+"What's that to thee, stripling?  When thou hast cut thy wisdom
+teeth, thou'lt know old fathers be not so easy found.  'Twas a wild
+goose chase, and I wot not what moved me to run after it.  I met
+jolly comrades enough, bumpkins that could drink with an honest
+soldier when they saw him, but not one that ever heard the name of
+Fulford."
+
+"Sir," said Stephen, "I know an old man named Fulford.  His
+granddaughter is my uncle's wife, and they dwell by the Temple."
+
+The intelligence seemed more startling and less gratifying than
+Stephen had expected.  Sir John demanded whether they were poor, and
+declared that he had better have heard of them when his purse was
+fuller.  He had supposed that his wife had given him up and found a
+fresh mate, and when he heard of her death, he made an exclamation
+which might be pity, but had in it something of relief.  He showed
+more interest about his old father; but as to his daughter, if she
+had been a lad now, a' might have been a stout comrade by this time,
+ready to do the Badger credit.  Yea, his poor Kate was a good lass,
+but she was only a Flemish woman and hadn't the sense to rear aught
+but a whining little wench, who was of no good except to turn fools'
+heads, and she was wedded and past all that by this time.
+
+Stephen explained that she was wedded to one of the Lord Cardinal's
+meine.
+
+"Ho!" said the Condottiere, pausing, "be that the butcher's boy that
+is pouring out his gold to buy scarlet hats, if not the three
+crowns.  'Tis no bad household wherein to have a footing.  Saidst
+thou I should find my wench and the old Gaffer there?"
+
+Stephen had to explain, somewhat to the disappointment of the
+Captain, who had, as it appeared, in the company of three or four
+more adventurous spirits like himself, taken a passage in a vessel
+lying off Gravesend, and had only turned aside to take up his new
+armour and his deposit of passage-money.  He demurred a little, he
+had little time to spare, and though, of course, he could take boat
+at the Temple Stairs, and drop down the river, he observed that it
+would have been a very different thing to go home to the old man
+when he first came back with a pouch full of ransoms and plunder,
+whereas now he had barely enough to carry him to the place of
+meeting with his Badgers.  And there was the wench too--he had
+fairly forgotten her name.  Women were like she wolves for greed
+when they had a brood of whelps.
+
+Stephen satisfied him that there was no danger on that score, and
+heard him muttering, that it was no harm to secure a safe harbour in
+case a man hadn't the luck to be knocked on the head ere he grew too
+old to trail a pike.  And he would fain see the old man.
+
+So permission was asked for Stephen to show the way to Master
+Randall's, and granted somewhat reluctantly, Master Headley saying,
+"I'll have thee back within an hour, Stephen Birkenholt, and look
+thou dost not let thy brain be set afire with this fellow's windy
+talk of battles and sieges, and deeds only fit for pagans and
+wolves."
+
+"Ay!" said Tibble, perhaps with a memory of the old fable, "better
+be the trusty mastiff than the wolf."
+
+And like the wolf twitting the mastiff with his chain, the soldier
+was no sooner outside the door of the Dragon court before he began
+to express his wonder how a lad of mettle could put up with a flat
+cap, a blue gown, and the being at the beck and call of a greasy
+burgher, when a bold, handsome young knave like him might have the
+world before him and his stout pike.
+
+Stephen was flattered, but scarcely tempted.  The hard selfishness
+and want of affection of the Condottiere shocked him, while he
+looked about, hoping some of his acquaintance would see him in
+company with this tall figure clanking in shining armour, and with a
+knightly helmet and gilt spurs.  The armour, new and brilliant,
+concealed the worn and shabby leathern dress beneath, and gave the
+tall, spare figure a greater breadth, diminishing the look of a
+hungry wolf which Sir John Fulford's aspect suggested.  However, as
+he passed some of the wealthier stalls, where the apprentices,
+seeing the martial figure, shouted, "What d'ye lack, sir knight?"
+and offered silk and velvet robes and mantles, gay sword knots, or
+even rich chains, under all the clamour, Stephen heard him swearing
+by St. George what a place this would be for a sack, if his Badgers
+were behind him.
+
+"If that poor craven of a Warbeck had had a spark of valour in him,"
+quoth he, as he passed a stall gay with bright tankards and flagons,
+"we would have rattled some of that shining gear about the lazy
+citizens' ears!  He, jolly King Edward's son!  I'll never give faith
+to it!  To turn his back when there was such a booty to be had for
+the plundering."
+
+"He might not have found it so easy.  Our trainbands are sturdy
+enough," said Stephen, whose esprit de corps was this time on the
+Londoners' side, but the knight of the Badger snapped his fingers,
+and said, "So much for your burgher trainbands!  All they be good
+for with their show of fight is to give honest landsknechts a good
+reason to fall on to the plunder, if so be one is hampered by a
+squeamish prince.  But grammercy to St. George, there be not many of
+that sort after they he once fleshed!"
+
+Perhaps a year ago, when fresh from the Forest, Stephen might have
+been more captivated by the notion of adventure and conquest.  Now
+that he had his place in the community and looked on a civic
+position with wholesome ambition, Fulford's longings for havoc in
+these peaceful streets made his blood run cold.  He was glad when
+they reached their destination, and he saw Perronel with bare arms,
+taking in some linen cuffs and bands from a line across to the
+opposite wall.  He could only call out, "Good naunt, here he be!"
+
+Perronel turned round, the colour rising in her cheeks, with an
+obeisance, but trembling a good deal.  "How now, wench?  Thou art
+grown a buxom dame.  Thou makst an old man of me," said the soldier
+with a laugh.  "Where's my father?  I have not the turning of a cup
+to stay, for I'm come home poor as a cat in a plundered town, and am
+off to the wars again; but hearing that the old man was nigh at
+hand, I came this way to see him, and let thee know thou art a
+knight's daughter.  Thou art indifferent comely, girl, what's thy
+name? but not the peer of thy mother when I wooed her as one of the
+bonny lasses of Bruges."
+
+He gave a kind of embrace, while she gave a kind of gasp of
+"Welcome, sir," and glanced somewhat reproachfully at Stephen for
+not having given her more warning.  The cause of her dismay was
+plain as the Captain, giving her no time to precede him, strode into
+the little chamber, where Hal Randall, without his false beard or
+hair, and in his parti-coloured hose, was seated by the cupboard-
+like bed, assisting old Martin Fulford to take his midday meal.
+
+"Be this thine husband, girl?  Ha! ha!  He's more like a jolly friar
+come in to make thee merry when the good man is out!" exclaimed the
+visitor, laughing loudly at his own rude jest; but heeding little
+either Hal's appearance or his reply, as he caught the old man's
+bewildered eyes, and heard his efforts to utter his name.
+
+For eighteen years had altered John Fulford less than either his
+father or his daughter, and old Martin recognised him instantly, and
+held out the only arm he could use, while the knight, softened,
+touched, and really feeling more natural affection than Stephen had
+given him credit for, dropped on his knee, breaking into indistinct
+mutterings with rough but hearty greetings, regretting that he had
+not found his father sooner, when his pouch was full, lamenting the
+change in him, declaring that he must hurry away now, but promising
+to come back with sacks of Italian ducats to provide for the old
+man.
+
+Those who could interpret the imperfect utterance, now further
+choked by tears and agitation, knew that there was a medley of
+broken rejoicings, blessings, and weepings, in the midst of which
+the soldier, glad perhaps to end a scene where he became
+increasingly awkward and embarrassed, started up, hastily kissed the
+old man on each of his withered cheeks, gave another kiss to his
+daughter, threw her two Venetian ducats, bidding her spend them for
+the old man, and he would bring a pouchful more next time, and
+striding to the door, bade Stephen call a boat to take him down to
+Gravesend.
+
+Randall, who had in the meantime donned his sober black gown in the
+inner chamber, together with a dark hood, accompanied his newly
+found father-in-law down the river, and Stephen would fain have gone
+too, but for the injunction to return within the hour.
+
+Perronel had hurried back to her grandfather's side to endeavour to
+compose him after the shock of gladness.  But it had been too much
+for his enfeebled powers.  Another stroke came on before the day was
+over, and in two or three days more old Martin Fulford was laid to
+rest, and his son's ducats were expended on masses for his soul's
+welfare.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.  HEAVE HALF A BRICK AT HIM
+
+
+
+"For strangers then did so increase,
+   By reason of King Henry's queen,
+And privileged in many a place
+   To dwell, as was in London seen.
+Poor tradesmen had small dealing then
+   And who but strangers bore the bell,
+Which was a grief to Englishmen
+   To see them here in London dwell."
+
+Ill May Day, by CHURCHILL, a Contemporary Poet.
+
+
+Time passed on, and Edmund Burgess, who had been sent from York to
+learn the perfection of his craft, completed his term and returned
+to his home, much regretted in the Dragon court, where his good
+humour and good sense had generally kept the peace, both within and
+without.
+
+Giles Headley was now the eldest prentice.  He was in every way
+greatly improved, thoroughly accepting his position, and showing
+himself quite ready both to learn and to work; but he had not the
+will or the power of avoiding disputes with outsiders, or turning
+them aside with a merry jest; and rivalries and quarrels with the
+armoury at the Eagle began to increase.  The Dragon, no doubt,
+turned out finer workmanship, and this the Eagle alleged was wholly
+owing to nefarious traffic with the old Spanish or Moorish sorcerer
+in Warwick Inner Yard, a thing unworthy of honest Englishmen.  This
+made Giles furious, and the cry never failed to end in a fight, in
+which Stephen supported the cause of the one house, and George Bates
+and his comrades of the other.
+
+It was the same with even the archery at Mile End, where the butts
+were erected, and the youth contended with the long bow, which was
+still considered as the safeguard of England.  King Henry often
+looked in on these matches, and did honour to the winners.  One
+match there was in especial, on Mothering Sunday, when the champions
+of each guild shot against one another at such a range that it
+needed a keen eye to see the popinjay--a stuffed bird at which they
+shot.
+
+Stephen was one of these, his forest lore having always given him an
+advantage over many of the others.  He even was one of the last
+three who were to finish the sport by shooting against one another.
+One was a butcher named Barlow.  The other was a Walloon, the best
+shot among six hundred foreigners of various nations, all of whom,
+though with little encouragement, joined in the national sport on
+these pleasant spring afternoons.  The first contest threw out the
+Walloon, at which there were cries of ecstasy; now the trial was
+between Barlow and Stephen, and in this final effort, the distance
+of the pole to which the popinjay was fastened was so much increased
+that strength of arm told as much as accuracy of aim, and Stephen's
+seventeen years' old muscles could not, after so long a strain, cope
+with those of Ralph Barlow, a butcher of full thirty years old.  His
+wrist and arm began to shake with weariness, and only one of his
+three last arrows went straight to the mark, while Barlow was as
+steady as ever, and never once failed.  Stephen was bitterly
+disappointed, his eyes filled with tears, and he flung himself down
+on the turf feeling as if the shouts of "A Barlow! a Barlow!" which
+were led by the jovial voice of King Harry himself, were all
+exulting over him.
+
+Barlow was led up to the king, who hailed him "King of Shoreditch,"
+a title borne by the champion archer ever after, so long as
+bowmanship in earnest lasted.  A tankard which the king filled with
+silver pieces was his prize, but Henry did not forget No. 2.
+"Where's the other fellow?" he said.  "He was but a stripling, and
+to my mind, his feat was a greater marvel than that of a stalwart
+fellow like Barlow."
+
+Half a dozen of the spectators, among them the cardinal's jester,
+hurried in search of Stephen, who was roused from his fit of
+weariness and disappointment by a shake of the shoulder as his uncle
+jingled his bells in his ears, and exclaimed, "How now, here I own a
+cousin!"  Stephen sat up and stared with angry, astonished eyes, but
+only met a laugh.  "Ay, ay, 'tis but striplings and fools that have
+tears to spend for such as this!  Up, boy!  Dye hear?  The other Hal
+is asking for thee."
+
+And Stephen, hastily brushing away his tears, and holding his flat
+cap in his hand, was marshalled across the mead, hot, shy, and
+indignant, as the jester mopped and mowed, and cut all sorts of
+antics before him, turning round to observe in an encouraging voice,
+"Pluck up a heart, man!  One would think Hal was going to cut oft
+thine head!"  And then, on arriving where the king sat on his horse,
+"Here he is, Hal, such as he is come humbly to crave thy gracious
+pardon for hitting the mark no better!  He'll mend his ways, good my
+lord, if your grace will pardon him this time."
+
+"Ay, marry, and that will I," said the king.  "The springald bids
+fair to be King of Shoreditch by the time the other fellow
+abdicates.  How old art thou, my lad?"
+
+"Seventeen, an it please your grace," said Stephen, in the gruff
+voice of his age.
+
+"And thy name?"
+
+"Stephen Birkenholt, my liege," and he wondered whether he would be
+recognised; but Henry only said -
+
+"Methinks I've seen those sloe-black eyes before.  Or is it only
+that the lad is thy very marrow, quipsome one?"
+
+"The which," returned the jester, gravely, while Stephen tingled all
+over with dismay, "may account for the tears the lad was wasting at
+not having the thews of the fellow double his age!  But I envy him
+not!  Not I!  He'll never have wit for mine office, but will come in
+second there likewise."
+
+"I dare be sworn he will," said the king.  "Here, take this, my good
+lad, and prank thee in it when thou art out of thy time, and goest
+a-hunting in Epping!"
+
+It was a handsome belt with a broad silver clasp, engraven with the
+Tudor rose and portcullis; and Stephen bowed low and made his
+acknowledgments as best he might.
+
+He was hailed with rapturous acclamations by his own contemporaries,
+who held that he had saved the credit of the English prentice world,
+and insisted on carrying him enthroned on their shoulders back to
+Cheapside, in emulation of the journeymen and all the butcher kind,
+who were thus bearing home the King of Shoreditch.
+
+Shouts, halloos, whistles, every jubilant noise that youth and
+boyhood could invent, were the triumphant music of Stephen on his
+surging and uneasy throne, as he was shifted from one bearer to
+another when each in turn grew tired of his weight.  Just, however,
+as they were nearing their own neighbourhood, a counter cry broke
+out, "Witchcraft!  His arrows are bewitched by the old Spanish
+sorcerer!  Down with Dragons and Wizards!"  And a handful of mud
+came full in the face of the enthroned lad, aimed no doubt by George
+Bates.  There was a yell and rush of rage, but the enemy was in
+numbers too small to attempt resistance, and dashed off before their
+pursuers, only pausing at safe corners to shout Parthian darts of
+"Wizards!"  "Magic!"  "Sorcerers!"  "Heretics!"
+
+There was nothing to be done but to collect again, and escort
+Stephen, who had wiped the mud off his face, to the Dragon court,
+where Dennet danced on the steps for joy, and Master Headley, not a
+little gratified, promised Stephen a supper for a dozen of his
+particular friends at Armourers' Hall on the ensuing Easter Sunday.
+
+Of course Stephen went in search of his brother, all the more
+eagerly because he was conscious that they had of late drifted apart
+a good deal.  Ambrose was more and more absorbed by the studies to
+which Lucas Hansen led him, and took less and less interest in his
+brother's pursuits.  He did indeed come to the Sunday's dinner
+according to the regular custom, but the moment it was permissible
+to leave the board he was away with Tibble Steelman to meet friends
+of Lucas, and pursue studies, as if, Stephen thought, he had not
+enough of books as it was.  When Dean Colet preached or catechised
+in St. Paul's in the afternoon they both attended and listened, but
+that good man was in failing health, and his wise discourses were
+less frequent.
+
+Where they were at other times, Stephen did not know, and hardly
+cared, except that he had a general dislike to, and jealousy of,
+anything that took his brother's sympathy away from him.  Moreover
+Ambrose's face was thinner and paler, he had a strange absorbed
+look, and often even when they were together seemed hardly to attend
+to what his brother was saying.
+
+"I will make him come," said Stephen to himself, as he went with
+swinging gait towards Warwick Inner Yard, where, sure enough, he
+found Ambrose sitting at the door, frowning over some black letter
+which looked most uninviting in the eyes of the apprentice, and he
+fell upon his brother with half angry, half merry reproofs for
+wasting the fine spring afternoon over such studies.
+
+Ambrose looked up with a dreamy smile and greeted his brother; but
+all the time Stephen was narrating the history of the match (and he
+DID tell the fate of each individual arrow of his own or Barlow's)
+his eyes were wandering back to the crabbed page in his hand, and
+when Stephen impatiently wound up his history with the invitation to
+supper on Easter Sunday, the reply was, "Nay, brother, thanks, but
+that I cannot do."
+
+"Cannot!" exclaimed Stephen.
+
+"Nay, there are other matters in hand that go deeper."
+
+"Yea, I know whatever concerns musty books goes deeper with thee
+than thy brother," replied Stephen, turning away much mortified.
+
+Ambrose's warm nature was awakened.  He held his brother by the arm
+and declared himself anything but indifferent to him, but he owned
+that he did not love noise and revelry, above all on Sunday.
+
+"Thou art addling thy brains with preachings!" said Stephen.  "Pray
+Heaven they make not a heretic of thee.  But thou mightest for once
+have come to mine own feast."
+
+Ambrose, much perplexed and grieved at thus vexing his brother,
+declared that he would have done so with all his heart, but that
+this very Easter Sunday there was coming a friend of Master Hansen's
+from Holland; who was to tell them much of the teaching in Germany,
+which was so enlightening men's eyes.
+
+"Yea, truly, making heretics of them, Mistress Headley saith,"
+returned Stephen.  "O Ambrose, if thou wilt run after these books
+and parchments, canst not do it in right fashion, among holy monks,
+as of old?"
+
+"Holy monks!" repeated Ambrose.  "Holy monks!  Where be they?"
+
+Stephen stared at him.
+
+"Hear uncle Hal talk of monks whom he sees at my Lord Cardinal's
+table!  What holiness is there among them?  Men, that have vowed to
+renounce all worldly and carnal things flaunt like peacocks and
+revel like swine--my Lord Cardinal with his silver pillars foremost
+of them!  He poor and mortified!  'Tis verily as our uncle saith, he
+plays the least false and shameful part there!"
+
+"Ambrose, Ambrose, thou wilt be distraught, poring over these
+matters that were never meant for lads like us!  Do but come and
+drive them out for once with mirth and good fellowship."
+
+"I tell thee, Stephen, what thou callest mirth and good fellowship
+do but drive the pain in deeper.  Sin and guilt be everywhere.  I
+seem to see the devils putting foul words on the tongue and ill
+deeds in the hands of myself and all around me, that they may accuse
+us before God.  No, Stephen, I cannot, cannot come, I must go where
+I can hear of a better way."
+
+"Nay," said Stephen, "what better way can there be than to be
+shriven--clean shriven--and then houselled, as I was ere Lent, and
+trust to be again on next Low Sunday morn?  That's enough for a
+plain lad."  He crossed himself reverently, "Mine own Lord pardoneth
+and cometh to me."
+
+But the two minds, one simple and practical, the other sensitive and
+speculative, did not move in the same atmosphere, and could not
+understand one another.  Ambrose was in the condition of excitement
+and bewilderment produced by the first stirrings of the Reformation
+upon enthusiastic minds.  He had studied the Vulgate, made out
+something of the Greek Testament, read all fragments of the Fathers
+that came in his way, and also all the controversial "tractates,"
+Latin or Dutch, that he could meet with, and attended many a secret
+conference between Lucas and his friends, when men, coming from
+Holland or Germany, communicated accounts of the lectures and
+sermons of Dr. Martin Luther, which already were becoming widely
+known.
+
+He was wretched under the continual tossings of his mind.  Was the
+entire existing system a vast delusion, blinding the eyes and
+destroying the souls of those who trusted to it; and was the only
+safety in the one point of faith that Luther pressed on all, and
+ought all that he had hitherto revered to crumble down to let that
+alone be upheld?  Whatever he had once loved and honoured at times
+seemed to him a lie, while at others real affection and veneration,
+and dread of sacrilege, made him shudder at himself and his own
+doubts!  It was his one thought, and he passionately sought after
+all those secret conferences which did but feed the flame that
+consumed him.
+
+The elder men who were with him were not thus agitated.  Lucas's
+convictions had not long been fixed.  He did not court observation
+nor do anything unnecessarily to bring persecution on himself, but
+he quietly and secretly acted as an agent in dispersing the Lollard
+books and those of Erasmus, and lived in the conviction that there
+would one day be a great crash, believing himself to be doing his
+part by undermining the structure, and working on undoubtingly.
+Abenali was not aggressive.  In fact, though he was reckoned among
+Lucas's party, because of his abstinence from all cult of saints or
+images, and the persecution he had suffered, he did not join in
+their general opinions, and held aloof from their meetings.  And
+Tibble Steelman, as has been before said, lived two lives, and that
+as foreman at the Dragon court, being habitual to him, and requiring
+much thought and exertion, the speculations of the reformers were to
+him more like an intellectual relaxation than the business of life.
+He took them as a modern artisan would in this day read his
+newspaper, and attend his club meeting.
+
+Ambrose, however, had the enthusiastic practicalness of youth.  On
+that which he fully believed, he must act, and what did he fully
+believe?
+
+Boy as he was--scarcely yet eighteen--the toils and sports that
+delighted his brother seemed to him like toys amusing infants on the
+verge of an abyss, and he spent his leisure either in searching in
+the Vulgate for something to give him absolute direction, or in
+going in search of preachers, for, with the stirring of men's minds,
+sermons were becoming more frequent.
+
+There was much talk just now of the preaching of one Doctor Beale,
+to whom all the tradesmen, journeymen, and apprentices were
+resorting, even those who were of no special religious tendencies.
+Ambrose went on Easter Tuesday to hear him preach at St. Mary's
+Spitall.  The place was crowded with artificers, and Beale began by
+telling them that he had "a pitiful bill," meaning a letter, brought
+to him declaring how aliens and strangers were coming in to inhabit
+the City and suburbs, to eat the bread from poor fatherless
+children, and take the living from all artificers and the
+intercourse from merchants, whereby poverty was so much increased
+that each bewaileth the misery of others.  Presently coming to his
+text, "Coelum coeli Domini, terram autem dedit filiis hominis" (the
+Heaven of Heavens is the Lord's, the earth hath He given to the
+children of men), the doctor inculcated that England was given to
+Englishmen, and that as birds would defend their nests, so ought
+Englishmen to defend themselves, AND TO HURT AND GRIEVE ALIENS FOR
+THE COMMON WEAL!  The corollary a good deal resembled that of "hate
+thine enemy" which was foisted by "them of the old time" upon "thou
+shalt love thy neighbour."  And the doctor went on upon the text,
+"Pugna pro patria," to demonstrate that fighting for one's country
+meant rising upon and expelling all the strangers who dwelt and
+traded within it.  Many of these foreigners were from the Hanse
+towns which had special commercial privileges, there were also
+numerous Venetians and Genoese, French and Spaniards, the last of
+whom were, above all, the objects of dislike.  Their imports of
+silks, cloth of gold, stamped leather, wine and oil, and their
+superior skill in many handicrafts, had put English wares out of
+fashion; and their exports of wool, tin, and lead excited equal
+jealousy, which Dr. Beale, instigated as was well known by a broker
+named John Lincoln, was thus stirring up into fierce passion.  His
+sermon was talked of all over London; blacker looks than ever were
+directed at the aliens, stones and dirt were thrown at them, and
+even Ambrose, as he walked along the street, was reviled as the
+Dutchkin's knave.  The insults became each day more daring and
+outrageous.  George Bates and a skinner's apprentice named Studley
+were caught in the act of tripping up a portly old Flanderkin and
+forthwith sent to Newgate, and there were other arrests, which did
+but inflame the smouldering rage of the mob.  Some of the wealthier
+foreigners, taking warning by the signs of danger, left the City,
+for there could be no doubt that the whole of London and the suburbs
+were in a combustible condition of discontent, needing only a spark
+to set it alight.
+
+It was just about this time that a disreputable clerk--a lewd
+priest, as Hall calls him--a hanger-on of the house of Howard, was
+guilty of an insult to a citizen's wife as she was quietly walking
+home through the Cheap.  Her husband and brother, who were nearer at
+hand than he guessed, avenged the outrage with such good wills that
+this disgrace to the priesthood was left dead on the ground.  When
+such things happened, and discourses like Beale's were heard, it was
+not surprising that Ambrose's faith in the clergy as guides received
+severe shocks.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.  MAY EVE
+
+
+
+"The rich, the poor, the old, the young,
+Beyond the seas though born and bred,
+By prentices they suffered wrong,
+When armed thus, they gather'd head."
+
+Ill May Day.
+
+May Eve had come, and little Dennet Headley was full of plans for
+going out early with her young playfellows to the meadow to gather
+May dew in the early morning, but her grandmother, who was in bed
+under a heavy attack of rheumatism, did not like the reports brought
+to her, and deferred her consent to the expedition.
+
+In the afternoon there were tidings that the Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas
+Rest had been sent for to my Lord Cardinal, who just at this time,
+during the building at York House, was lodging in his house close to
+Temple Bar.  Some hours later a message came to Master Alderman
+Headley to meet the Lord Mayor and the rest of the Council at the
+Guildhall.  He shook himself into his scarlet gown, and went off,
+puffing and blowing, and bidding Giles and Stephen take heed that
+they kept close, and ran into no mischief.
+
+But they agreed, and Kit Smallbones with them, that there could be
+no harm in going into the open space of Cheapside and playing out a
+match with bucklers between Giles and Wat Ball, a draper's prentice
+who had challenged him.  The bucklers were huge shields, and the
+weapons were wooden swords.  It was an exciting sport, and brought
+out all the youths of Cheapside in the summer evening, bawling out
+encouragement, and laying wagers on either side.  The curfew rang,
+but there were special privileges on May Eve, and the game went on
+louder than ever.
+
+There was far too much noise for any one to hear the town crier, who
+went along jingling his bell, and shouting, "O yes!  O yes!  O yes!
+By order of the Lord Mayor and Council, no householder shall allow
+any one of his household to be abroad beyond his gate between the
+hours of nine o'clock at night and seven in the morning," or if any
+of the outermost heard it, as did Ambrose who was on his way home to
+his night quarters, they were too much excited not to turn a deaf
+ear to it.
+
+Suddenly, however, just as Giles was preparing for a master-stroke,
+he was seized roughly by the shoulder and bidden to give over.  He
+looked round.  It was an alderman, not his master, but Sir John
+Mundy, an unpopular, harsh man.
+
+"Wherefore?" demanded Giles.
+
+"Thou shalt know," said the alderman, seizing his arm to drag him to
+the Counter prison, but Giles resisted.  Wat Ball struck at Sir
+John's arm with his wooden sword, and as the alderman shouted for
+the watch and city-guard, the lads on their side raised their cry,
+"Prentices and Clubs!  Flat-caps and Clubs!"  Master Headley,
+struggling along, met his colleague, with his gown torn into shreds
+from his back, among a host of wildly yelling lads, and panting,
+"Help, help, brother Headley!"  With great difficulty the two
+aldermen reached the door of the Dragon, whence Smallbones sallied
+out to rescue them, and dragged them in.
+
+"The boys!--the boys!" was Master Headley's first cry, but he might
+as well have tried to detach two particular waves from a surging
+ocean as his own especial boys from the multitude on that wild
+evening.  There was no moon, and the twilight still prevailed, but
+it was dark enough to make the confusion greater, as the cries
+swelled and numbers flowed into the open space of Cheapside.  In the
+words of Hall, the chronicler, "Out came serving-men, and watermen,
+and courtiers, and by XI of the chock there were VI or VII hundreds
+in Cheap.  And out of Pawle's Churchyard came III hundred which wist
+not of the others."  For the most part all was invoked in the semi-
+darkness of the summer night, but here and there light came from an
+upper window on some boyish face, perhaps full of mischief, perhaps
+somewhat bewildered and appalled.  Here and there were torches,
+which cast a red glare round them, but whose smoke blurred
+everything, and seemed to render the darkness deeper.
+
+Perhaps if the tumult had only been of the apprentices, provoked by
+Alderman Mundy's interference, they would soon have dispersed, but
+the throng was pervaded by men with much deeper design, and a cry
+arose--no one knew from whence--that they would break into Newgate
+and set free Studley and Bates.
+
+By this time the torrent of young manhood was quite irresistible by
+any force that had yet been opposed to it.  The Mayor and Sheriffs
+stood at the Guildhall, and read the royal proclamation by the light
+of a wax candle, held in the trembling hand of one of the clerks;
+but no one heard or heeded them, and the uproar was increased as the
+doors of Newgate fell, and all the felons rushed out to join the
+rioters.
+
+At the same time another shout rose, "Down with the aliens!" and
+there was a general rush towards St. Martin's gate, in which
+direction many lived.  There was, however, a pause here, for Sir
+Thomas More, Recorder of London, stood in the way before St.
+Martin's gate, and with his full sweet voice began calling out and
+entreating the lads to go home, before any heads were broken more
+than could be mended again.  He was always a favourite, and his good
+humour seemed to be making some impression, when, either from the
+determination of the more evil disposed, or because the inhabitants
+of St. Martin's Lane were beginning to pour down hot water, stones,
+and brickbats on the dense mass of heads below them, a fresh access
+of fury seized upon the mob.  Yells of "Down with the strangers!"
+echoed through the narrow streets, drowning Sir Thomas's voice.  A
+lawyer who stood with him was knocked down and much hurt, the doors
+were battered down, and the household stuff thrown from the windows.
+Here, Ambrose, who had hitherto been pushed helplessly about, and
+knocked hither and thither, was driven up against Giles, and, to
+avoid falling and being trampled down, clutched hold of him
+breathless and panting.
+
+"Thou here!" exclaimed Giles.  "Who would have thought of sober
+Ambrose in the midst of the fray?"  See here, Stevie!"
+
+"Poor old Ambrose!" cried Stephen, "keep close to us!  We'll see no
+harm comes to thee.  'Tis hot work, eh?"
+
+"Oh, Stephen! could I but get out of the throng to warn my master
+and Master Michael!"
+
+Those words seemed to strike Giles Headley.  He might have cared
+little for the fate of the old printer, but as he heard the screams
+of the women in the houses around, he exclaimed, "Ay! there's the
+old man and the little maid!  We will have her to the Dragon!"
+
+"Or to mine aunt's," said Ambrose.
+
+"Have with thee then," said Giles:  "Take his other arm, Steve;" and
+locking their arms together the three fought and forced their way
+from among the plunderers in St. Martin's with no worse mishap than
+a shower of hot water, which did not hurt them much through their
+stout woollen coats.  They came at last to a place where they could
+breathe, and stood still a moment to recover from the struggle, and
+vituperate the hot water.
+
+Then they heard fresh howls and yells in front as well as behind.
+
+"They are at it everywhere," exclaimed Stephen.  "I hear them
+somewhere out by Cornhill."
+
+"Ay, where the Frenchmen live that calender worsted," returned
+Giles.  "Come on; who knows how it is with the old man and little
+maid?"
+
+"There's a sort in our court that are ready for aught," said
+Ambrose.
+
+On they hurried in the darkness, which was now at the very deepest
+of the night; now and then a torch was borne across the street, and
+most of the houses had lights in the upper windows, for few
+Londoners slept on that strange night.  The stained glass of the
+windows of the Churches beamed in bright colours from the Altar
+lights seen through them, but the lads made slower progress than
+they wished, for the streets were never easy to walk in the dark,
+and twice they came on mobs assailing houses, from the windows of
+one of which, French shoes and boots were being hailed down.  Things
+were moderately quiet around St. Paul's, but as they came into
+Warwick Lane they heard fresh shouts and wild cries, and at the
+archway heading to the inner yard they could see that there was a
+huge bonfire in the midst of the court--of what composed they could
+not see for the howling figures that exulted round it.
+
+"George Bates, the villain!" cried Stephen, as his enemy in exulting
+ferocious delight was revealed for a moment throwing a book on the
+fire, and shouting, "Hurrah! there's for the old sorcerer, there's
+for the heretics!"
+
+That instant Giles was flying on Bates, and Stephen, with equal, if
+not greater fury, at one of his comrades; but Ambrose dashed through
+the outskirts of the wildly screaming and shouting fellows, many of
+whom were the miscreant population of the mews, to the black yawning
+doorway of his master.  He saw only a fellow staggering out with the
+screw of the press to feed the flame, and hurried on in the din to
+call "Master, art thou there?"
+
+There was no answer, and he moved on to the next door, calling again
+softly, while all the spoilers seemed absorbed in the fire and the
+combat.  "Master Michael!  'Tis I, Ambrose!"
+
+"Here, my son," cautiously answered a voice he knew for Lucas
+Hansen's.
+
+"Oh, master! master!" was his low, heart-stricken cry, as by the
+leaping light of a flame he saw the pale face of the old printer,
+who drew him in.
+
+"Yea! 'tis ruin, my son," said Lucas.  "And would that that were the
+worst."
+
+The light flashed and flickered through the broken window so that
+Ambrose saw that the hangings had been torn down and everything
+wrecked, and a low sound as of stifled weeping directed his eyes to
+a corner where Aldonza sat with her father's head on her lap.
+"Lives he?  Is he greatly hurt?" asked Ambrose, awe-stricken.
+
+"The life is yet in him, but I fear me greatly it is passing fast,"
+said Lucas, in a low voice.  "One of those lads smote him on the
+back with a club, and struck him down at the poor maid's feet, nor
+hath he moved since.  It was that one young Headley is fighting
+with," he added.
+
+"Bates! ah!  Would that we had come sooner!  What! more of this
+work--"
+
+For just then a tremendous outcry broke forth, and there was a rush
+and panic among those who had been leaping round the fire just
+before.  "The guard!--the King's men!" was the sound they presently
+distinguished.  They could hear rough abusive voices, shrieks and
+trampling of feet.  A few seconds more and all was still, only the
+fire remained, and in the stillness the suppressed sobs and moans of
+Aldonza were heard.
+
+"A light!  Fetch a light from the fire!" said Lucas.
+
+Ambrose ran out.  The flame was lessening, but he could see the dark
+bindings, and the blackened pages of the books he loved so well.  A
+corner of a page of St. Augustine's Confessions was turned towards
+him and lay on a singed fragment of Aldonza's embroidered curtain,
+while a little red flame was licking the spiral folds of the screw,
+trying, as it were, to gather energy to do more than blacken it.
+Ambrose could have wept over it at any other moment, but now he
+could only catch up a brand--it was the leg of his master's carved
+chair--and run back with it.  Lucas ventured to light a lamp, and
+they could then see the old man's face pale, but calm and still,
+with his long white beard flowing over his breast.  There was no
+blood, no look of pain, only a set look about the eyes; and Aldonza
+cried "Oh, father, thou art better!  Speak to me!  Let Master Lucas
+lift thee up!"
+
+"Nay, my child.  I cannot move hand or foot.  Let me be thus till
+the Angel of Death come for me.  He is very near."  He spoke in
+short sentences.  "Water--nay--no pain," he added then, and Ambrose
+ran for some water in the first battered fragment of a tin pot he
+could find.  They bathed his face and he gathered strength after a
+time to say "A priest!--oh for a priest to shrive and housel me."
+
+"I will find one," said Ambrose, speeding out into the court over
+fragments of the beautiful work for which Abenali was hated, and
+over the torn, half-burnt leaves of the beloved store of Lucas.  The
+fire had died down, but morning twilight was beginning to dawn, and
+all was perfectly still after the recent tumult, though for a moment
+or two Ambrose heard some distant cries.
+
+Where should he go?  Priests indeed were plentiful, but both his
+friends were in bad odour with the ordinary ones.  Lucas had avoided
+both the Lenten shrift and Easter Communion, and what Miguel might
+have done, Ambrose was uncertain.  Some young priests had actually
+been among the foremost in sacking the dwellings of the unfortunate
+foreigners, and Ambrose was quite uncertain whether he might not
+fall on one of that stamp--or on one who might vex the old man's
+soul--perhaps deny him the Sacraments altogether.  As he saw the
+pale lighted windows of St. Paul's, it struck him to see whether any
+one were within.  The light might be only from some of the tapers
+burning perpetually, but the pale light in the north-east, the
+morning chill, and the clock striking three, reminded him that it
+must be the hour of Prime, and he said to himself, "Sure, if a
+priest be worshipping at this hour, he will be a good and merciful
+man.  I can but try."
+
+The door of the transept yielded to his hand.  He came forward,
+lighted through the darkness by the gleam of the candles, which cast
+a huge and awful shadow from the crucifix of the rood-screen upon
+the pavement.  Before it knelt a black figure in prayer.  Ambrose
+advanced in some awe and doubt how to break in on these devotions,
+but the priest had heard his step, rose and said, "What is it, my
+son?  Dost thou seek sanctuary after these sad doings?"
+
+"Nay, reverend sir," said Ambrose.   "'Tis a priest for a dying man
+I seek;" and in reply to the instant question, where it was, he
+explained in haste who the sufferer was, and how he had received a
+fatal blow, and was begging for the Sacraments.  "And oh, sir!" he
+added, "he is a holy and God-fearing man, if ever one lived, and
+hath been cruelly and foully entreated by jealous and wicked folk,
+who hated him for his skill and industry."
+
+"Alack for the unhappy lads; and alack for those who egged them on,"
+said the priest.  "Truly they knew not what they did.  I will come
+with thee, my good youth.  Thou hast not been one of them?"
+
+"No, truly sir, save that I was carried along and could not break
+from the throng.  I work for Lucas Hansen, the Dutch printer, whom
+they have likewise plundered in their savage rage."
+
+"'Tis well.  Thou canst then bear this," said the priest, taking a
+thick wax candle.  Then reverently advancing to the Altar, whence he
+took the pyx, or gold case in which the Host was reserved, he
+lighted the candle, which he gave, together with his stole, to the
+youth to bear before him.
+
+Then, when the light fell full on his features, Ambrose with a
+strange thrill of joy and trust perceived that it was no other than
+Dean Colet, who had here been praying against the fury of the
+people.  He was very thankful, feeling intuitively that there was no
+fear but that Abenali would be understood, and for his own part, the
+very contact with the man whom he revered seemed to calm and soothe
+him, though on that solemn errand no word could be spoken.  Ambrose
+went on slowly before, his dark head uncovered, the priestly stole
+hanging over his arm, his hands holding aloft the tall candle of
+virgin wax, while the Dean followed closely with feeble steps,
+looking frail and worn, but with a grave, sweet solemnity on his
+face.  It was a perfectly still morning, and as they slowly paced
+along, the flame burnt steadily with little flickering, while the
+pure, delicately-coloured sky overhead was becoming every moment
+lighter, and only the larger stars were visible.  The houses were
+absolutely still, and the only person they met, a lad creeping
+homewards after the fray, fell on his knees bareheaded as he
+perceived their errand.  Once or twice again sounds came up from the
+city beneath, like shrieks or wailing breaking strangely on that
+fair peaceful May morn; but still that pair went on till Ambrose had
+guided the Dean to the yard, where, except that the daylight was
+revealing more and more of the wreck around, all was as he had left
+it.  Aldonza, poor child, with her black hair hanging loose like a
+veil, for she had been startled from her bed, still sat on the
+ground making her lap a pillow for the white-bearded head, nobler
+and more venerable than ever.  On it lay, in the absolute immobility
+produced by the paralysing blow, the fine features already in the
+solemn grandeur of death, and only the movement of the lips under
+the white flowing beard and of the dark eyes showing life.
+
+Dean Colet said afterwards that he felt as if he had been called to
+the death-bed of Israel, or of Barzillai the Gileadite, especially
+when the old man, in the Oriental phraseology he had never entirely
+lost, said, "I thank Thee, my God, and the God of my fathers, that
+Thou hast granted me that which I had prayed for."
+
+The Dutch printer was already slightly known to the Dean, having
+sold him many books.  A few words were exchanged with him, but it
+was plain that the dying man could not be moved, and that his
+confession must he made on the lap of the young girl.  Colet knelt
+over him so as to be able to hear, while Lucas and Ambrose withdraw,
+but were soon called back for the remainder of the service for the
+dying.  The old man's face showed perfect peace.  All worldly
+thought and care seemed to have been crushed out of him by the blow,
+and he did not even appear to think of the unprotected state of his
+daughter, although he blessed her with solemn fervour immediately
+after receiving the Viaticum--then lay murmuring to himself
+sentences which Ambrose, who had learnt much from him, knew to be
+from his Arabic breviary about palm-branches, and the twelve manner
+of fruits of the Tree of Life.
+
+It was a strange scene--the grand, calm, patriarchal old man, so
+peaceful on his dark-haired daughter's lap in the midst of the
+shattered home in the old feudal stable.  All were silent a while in
+awe, but the Dean was the first to move and speak, calling Lucas
+forward to ask sundry questions of him.
+
+"Is there no good woman," he asked, "who could be with this poor
+child and take her home, when her father shall have passed away?"
+
+"Mine uncle's wife, sir," said Ambrose, a little doubtfully.  "I
+trow she would come--since I can certify her that your reverence
+holds him for a holy man."
+
+"I had thy word for it," said the Dean.  "Ah! reply not, my son, I
+see well how it may be with you here.  But tell those who will take
+the word of John Colet that never did I mark the passing away of one
+who had borne more for the true holy Catholic faith, nor held it
+more to his soul's comfort."
+
+For the Dean, a man of vivid intelligence, knew enough of the
+Moresco persecutions to be able to gather from the words of Lucas
+and Ambrose, and the confession of the old man himself, a far more
+correct estimate of Abenali's sufferings, and constancy to the
+truth, than any of the more homebred wits could have divined.  He
+knew, too, that his own orthodoxy was so called in question by the
+narrower and more unspiritual section of the clergy that only the
+appreciative friendship of the King and the Cardinal kept him
+securely in his position.
+
+Ambrose sped away, knowing that Perronel would be quite satisfied.
+He was sure of her ready compassion and good-will, but she had so
+often bewailed his running after learning and possibly heretical
+doctrine, that he had doubted whether she would readily respond to a
+summons, on his own authority alone, to one looked on with so much
+suspicion as Master Michael.  Colet intimated his intention of
+remaining a little longer to pray with the dying man, and further
+wrote a few words on his tablets, telling Ambrose to leave them with
+one of the porters at his house as he went past St. Paul's.
+
+It was broad daylight now, a lovely May morning, such as generally
+called forth the maidens, small and great, to the meadows to rub
+their fresh cheeks with the silvery dew, and to bring home kingcups,
+cuckoo flowers, blue bottles, and cowslips for the Maypoles that
+were to be decked.  But all was silent now, not a house was open,
+the rising sun made the eastern windows of the churches a blaze of
+light, and from the west door of St. Paul's the city beneath seemed
+sleeping, only a wreath or two of smoke rising.  Ambrose found the
+porter looking out for his master in much perturbation.  He groaned
+as he looked at the tablets, and heard where the Dean was, and said
+that came of being a saint on earth.  It would be the death of him
+ere long!  What would old Mistress Colet, his mother, say?  He would
+have detained the youth with his inquiries, but Ambrose said he had
+to speed down to the Temple on an errand from the Dean, and hurried
+away.  All Ludgate Hill was now quiet, every house closed, but here
+and there lay torn shreds of garments, or household vessels.
+
+As he reached Fleet Street, however, there was a sound of horses'
+feet, and a body of men-at-arms with helmets glancing in the sun
+were seen.  There was a cry, "There's one!  That's one of the lewd
+younglings!  At him!"
+
+And Ambrose to his horror and surprise saw two horsemen begin to
+gallop towards him, as if to ride him down.  Happily he was close to
+a narrow archway leading to an alley down which no war-horse could
+possibly make its way, and dashing into it and round a corner, he
+eluded his pursuers, and reached the bank of the river, whence,
+being by this time experienced in the by-ways of London, he could
+easily reach Perronel's house.
+
+She was standing at her door looking out anxiously, and as she saw
+him she threw up her hands in thanksgiving to our Lady that here he
+was at last, and then turned to scold him.  "O lad, lad, what a
+night thou hast given me!  I trusted at least that thou hadst wit to
+keep out of a fray and to let the poor aliens alone, thou that art
+always running after yonder old Spaniard.  Hey! what now?  Did they
+fall on him!  Fie!  Shame on them!--a harmless old man like that."
+
+"Yea, good aunt, and what is more, they have slain him, I fear me,
+outright."
+
+Amidst many a "good lack" and exclamation of pity and indignation
+from Perronel, Ambrose told his tale of that strange night, and
+entreated her to come with him to do what was possible for Abenali
+and his daughter.  She hesitated a little; her kind heart was
+touched, but she hardly liked to leave her house, in case her
+husband should come in, as he generally contrived to do in the early
+morning, now that the Cardinal's household was lodged so near her.
+Sheltered as she was by the buildings of the Temple, she had heard
+little or nothing of the noise of the riot, though she had been
+alarmed at her nephew's absence, and an officious neighbour had run
+in to tell her first that the prentice lads were up and sacking the
+houses of the strangers, and next that the Tower was firing on them,
+and the Lord Mayor's guard and the gentlemen of the Inns of Court
+were up in arms to put them down.  She said several times, "Poor
+soul!" and "Yea, it were a shame to leave her to the old Dutchkin,"
+but with true Flemish deliberation she continued her household
+arrangements, and insisted that the bowl of broth, which she set on
+the table, should be partaken of by herself and Ambrose before she
+would stir a step.  "Not eat!  Now out on thee, lad! what good dost
+thou think thou or I can do if we come in faint and famished, where
+there's neither bite nor sup to be had?  As for me, not a foot will
+I budge, till I have seen thee empty that bowl.  So to it, my lad!
+Thou hast been afoot all night, and lookst so grimed and ill-
+favoured a varlet that no man would think thou camest from an honest
+wife's house.  Wash thee at the pail!  Get thee into thy chamber and
+put on clean garments, or I'll not walk the street with thee!  'Tis
+not safe--thou wilt be put in ward for one of the rioters."
+
+Everybody who entered that little house obeyed Mistress Randall, and
+Ambrose submitted, knowing it vain to resist, and remembering the
+pursuit he had recently escaped; yet the very refreshment of food
+and cleanliness revealed to him how stiff and weary were his limbs,
+though he was in no mood for rest.  His uncle appeared at the door
+just as he had hoped Perronel was ready.
+
+"Ah! there's one of you whole and safe!" he exclaimed.  "Where is
+the other?"
+
+"Stephen?" exclaimed Ambrose.  "I saw him last in Warwick Inner
+Yard."  And in a few words he explained.  Hal Randall shook his
+head.  "May all be well," he exclaimed, and then he told how Sir
+Thomas Parr had come at midnight and roused the Cardinal's household
+with tidings that all the rabble of London were up, plundering and
+murdering all who came in their way, and that he had then ridden on
+to Richmond to the King with the news.  The Cardinal had put his
+house into a state of defence, not knowing against whom the riot
+might be directed--and the jester had not been awakened till too
+late to get out to send after his wife, besides which, by that time,
+intelligence had come in that the attack was directed entirely on
+the French and Spanish merchants and artificers in distant parts of
+the city and suburbs, and was only conducted by lads with no better
+weapons than sticks, so that the Temple and its precincts were in no
+danger at all.
+
+The mob had dispersed of its own accord by about three or four
+o'clock, but by that hour the Mayor had got together a force, the
+Gentlemen of the Inns of Court and the Yeomen of the Tower were up
+in arms, and the Earl of Shrewsbury had come in with a troop of
+horse.  They had met the rioters, and had driven them in herds like
+sheep to the different prisons, after which Lord Shrewsbury had come
+to report to the Cardinal that all was quiet, and the jester having
+gathered as much intelligence as he could, had contrived to slip
+into the garments that concealed his motley, and to reach home.  He
+gave ready consent to Perronel's going to the aid of the sufferers
+in Warwick Inner Yard, especially at the summons of the Dean of St.
+Paul's, and even to her bringing home the little wench.  Indeed, he
+would escort her thither himself for he was very anxious about
+Stephen, and Ambrose was so dismayed by the account he gave as to
+reproach himself extremely for having parted company with his
+brother, and never having so much as thought of him as in peril,
+while absorbed in care for Abenali.  So the three set out together,
+when no doubt the sober, solid appearance which Randall's double
+suit of apparel and black gown gave him, together with his wife's
+matronly and respectable look, were no small protection to Ambrose,
+for men-at-arms were prowling about the streets, looking hungry to
+pick up straggling victims, and one actually stopped Randall to
+interrogate him as to who the youth was, and what was his errand.
+
+Before St. Paul's they parted, the husband and wife going towards
+Warwick Inner Yard, whither Ambrose, fleeter of foot, would follow,
+so soon as he had ascertained at the Dragon court whether Stephen
+was at home.
+
+Alas! at the gate he was hailed with the inquiry whether he had seen
+his brother or Giles.  The whole yard was disorganised, no work
+going on.  The lads had not been seen all night, and the master
+himself had in the midst of his displeasure and anxiety been
+summoned to the Guildhall.  The last that was known was Giles's
+rescue, and the assault on Alderman Mundy.  Smallbones and Steelman
+had both gone in different directions to search for the two
+apprentices, and Dennet, who had flown down unheeded and unchecked
+at the first hope of news, pulled Ambrose by the sleeve, and
+exclaimed, "Oh! Ambrose, Ambrose! they can never hurt them!  They
+can never do any harm to our lads, can they?"
+
+Ambrose hoped for the same security, but in his dismay, could only
+hurry after his uncle and aunt.
+
+He found the former at the door of the old stable--whence issued
+wild screams and cries.  Several priests and attendants were there
+now, and the kind Dean with Lucas was trying to induce Aldonza to
+relax the grasp with which she embraced the body, whence a few
+moments before the brave and constant spirit had departed.  Her
+black hair hanging over like a veil, she held the inanimate head to
+her bosom, sobbing and shrieking with the violence of her Eastern
+nature.  The priest who had been sent for to take care of the
+corpse, and bear it to the mortuary of the Minster, wanted to move
+her by force; but the Dean insisted on one more gentle experiment,
+and beckoned to the kindly woman, whom he saw advancing with eyes
+full of tears.  Perronel knelt down by her, persevered when the poor
+girl stretched out her hand to beat her off, crying, "Off! go!
+Leave me my father!  O father, father, joy of my life! my one only
+hope and stay, leave me not!  Wake! wake, speak to thy child, O my
+father!"
+
+Though the child had never seen or heard of Eastern wailings over
+the dead, yet hereditary nature prompted her to the lamentations
+that scandalised the priests and even Lucas, who broke in with "Fie,
+maid, thou mournest as one who hath no hope."  But Dr. Colet still
+signed to them to have patience, and Perronel somehow contrived to
+draw the girl's head on her breast and give her a motherly kiss,
+such as the poor child had never felt since she, when almost a babe,
+had been lifted from her dying mother's side in the dark stifling
+hold of the vessel in the Bay of Biscay.  And in sheer surprise and
+sense of being soothed she ceased her cries, listened to the tender
+whispers and persuasions about holy men who would care for her
+father, and his wishes that she should be a good maid--till at last
+she yielded, let her hands be loosed, allowed Perronel to lift the
+venerable head from her knee, and close the eyes--then to gather her
+in her arms, and lead her to the door, taking her, under Ambrose's
+guidance, into Lucas's abode, which was as utterly and mournfully
+dismantled as their own, but where Perronel, accustomed in her
+wandering days to all sorts of contrivances, managed to bind up the
+streaming hair, and, by the help of her own cloak, to bring the poor
+girl into a state in which she could be led through the streets.
+
+The Dean meantime had bidden Lucas to take shelter at his own house,
+and the old Dutchman had given a sort of doubtful acceptance.
+
+Ambrose, meanwhile, half distracted about his brother, craved
+counsel of the jester where to seek him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.  ILL MAY DAY
+
+
+
+"With two and two together tied,
+   Through Temple Bar and Strand they go,
+To Westminster, there to be tried,
+   With ropes about their necks also."
+
+Ill May Day.
+
+And where was Stephen?  Crouching, wretched with hunger, cold,
+weariness, blows, and what was far worse, sense of humiliation and
+disgrace, and terror for the future, in a corner of the yard of
+Newgate--whither the whole set of lads, surprised in Warwick Inner
+Court by the law students of the Inns of Court, had been driven like
+so many cattle, at the sword's point, with no attention or
+perception that he and Giles had been struggling AGAINST the
+spoilers.
+
+Yet this fact made them all the more forlorn.  The others, some
+forty in number, their companions in misfortune, included most of
+the Barbican prentices, who were of the Eagle faction, special
+enemies alike to Abenali and to the Dragon, and these held aloof
+from Headley and Birkenholt, nay, reviled them for the attack which
+they declared had caused the general capture.
+
+The two lads of the Dragon had, in no measured terms, denounced the
+cruelty to the poor old inoffensive man, and were denounced in their
+turn as friends of the sorcerer.  But all were too much exhausted by
+the night's work to have spirit for more than a snarling encounter
+of words, and the only effect was that Giles and Stephen were left
+isolated in their misery outside the shelter of the handsome arched
+gateway under which the others congregated.
+
+Newgate had been rebuilt by Whittington out of pity to poor
+prisoners and captives.  It must have been unspeakably dreadful
+before, for the foulness of the narrow paved court, shut in by
+strong walls, was something terrible.  Tired, spent, and aching all
+over, and with boyish callousness to dirt, still Giles and Stephen
+hesitated to sit down, and when at last they could stand no longer,
+they rested, leaning against one another.  Stephen tried to keep up
+hope by declaring that his master would soon get them released, and
+Giles alternated between despair, and declarations that he would
+have justice on those who so treated his father's son.  They dropped
+asleep--first one and then the other--from sheer exhaustion, waking
+from time to time to realise that it was no dream, and to feel all
+the colder and more camped.
+
+By and by there were voices at the gate.  Friends were there asking
+after their own Will, or John, or Thomas, as the case might be.  The
+jailer opened a little wicket-window in the heavy door, and, no
+doubt for a consideration, passed in food to certain lads whom he
+called out, but it did not always reach its destination.  It was
+often torn away as by hungry wolves.  For though the felons had been
+let out, when the doors were opened; the new prisoners were not by
+any means all apprentices.  There were watermen, husbandmen,
+beggars, thieves, among them, attracted by the scent of plunder; and
+even some of the elder lads had no scruple in snatching the morsel
+from the younger ones.
+
+Poor little Jasper Hope, a mischievous little curly-headed idle
+fellow, only thirteen, just apprenticed to his brother the draper,
+and rushing about with the other youths in the pride of his flat
+cap, was one of the sufferers.  A servant had been at the door,
+promising that his brother would speedily have him released, and
+handing in bread and meat, of which he was instantly robbed by
+George Bates and three or four more big fellows, and sent away
+reeling and sobbing, under a heavy blow, with all the mischief and
+play knocked out of him.  Stephen and Giles called "Shame!" but were
+unheeded, and they could only draw the little fellow up to them, and
+assure him that his brother would soon come for him.
+
+The next call at the gate was Headley and Birkenholt--"Master
+Headley's prentices--Be they here?"
+
+And at their answer, not only the window, but the door in the gate
+was opened, and stooping low to enter, Kit Smallbones came in, and
+not empty-handed.
+
+"Ay, ay, youngsters," said he, "I knew how it would be, by what I
+saw elsewhere, so I came with a fee to open locks.  How came ye to
+get into such plight as this?  And poor little Hope too!  A fine
+pass when they put babes in jail."
+
+"I'm prenticed!" said Jasper, though in a very weak little voice.
+
+"Have you had bite or sup?" asked Kit.
+
+And on their reply, telling how those who had had supplies from home
+had been treated, Smallbones observed, "Let them try it," and stood,
+at all his breadth, guarding the two youths and little Jasper, as
+they ate, Stephen at first with difficulty, in the faintness and
+foulness of the place, but then ravenously.  Smallbones lectured
+them on their folly all the time, and made them give an account of
+the night.  He said their master was at the Guildhall taking counsel
+with the Lord Mayor, and there were reports that it would go hard
+with the rioters, for murder and plunder had been done in many
+places, and he especially looked at Giles with pity, and asked how
+he came to embroil himself with Master Mundy?  Still his good-
+natured face cheered them, and he promised further supplies.  He
+also relieved Stephen's mind about his brother, telling of his
+inquiry at the Dragon in the morning.  All that day the condition of
+such of the prisoners as had well-to-do friends was improving.
+Fathers, brothers, masters, and servants, came in quest of them,
+bringing food and bedding, and by exorbitant fees to the jailers
+obtained for them shelter in the gloomy cells.  Mothers could not
+come, for a proclamation had gone out that none were to babble, and
+men were to keep their wives at home.  And though there were more
+material comforts, prospects were very gloomy.  Ambrose came when
+Kit Smallbones returned with what Mrs. Headley had sent the
+captives.  He looked sad and dazed, and clung to his brother, but
+said very little, except that they ought to be locked up together,
+and he really would have been left in Newgate, if Kit had not laid a
+great hand on his shoulder and almost forced him away.
+
+Master Headley himself arrived with Master Hope in the afternoon.
+Jasper sprang to his brother, crying, "Simon!  Simon! you are come
+to take me out of this dismal, evil place?"  But Master Hope--a
+tall, handsome, grave young man, who had often been much disturbed
+by his little brother's pranks--could only shake his head with tears
+in his eyes, and, sitting down on the roll of bedding, take him on
+his knee and try to console him with the hope of liberty in a few
+days.
+
+He had tried to obtain the boy's release on the plea of his extreme
+youth, but the authorities were hotly exasperated, and would hear of
+no mercy.  The whole of the rioters were to be tried three days
+hence, and there was no doubt that some would be made an example of,
+the only question was, how many?
+
+Master Headley closely interrogated his own two lads, and was
+evidently sorely anxious about his namesake, who, he feared, might
+be recognised by Alderman Mundy and brought forward as a ringleader
+of the disturbance; nor did he feel at all secure that the plea that
+he had no enmity to the foreigners, but had actually tried to defend
+Lucas and Abenali, would be attended to for a moment, though Lucas
+Hansen had promised to bear witness of it.  Giles looked perfectly
+stunned at the time, unable to take in the idea, but at night
+Stephen was wakened on the pallet that they shared with little
+Jasper, by hearing him weeping and sobbing for his mother at
+Salisbury.
+
+Time lagged on till the 4th of May.  Some of the poor boys whiled
+away their time with dreary games in the yard, sometimes wrestling,
+but more often gambling with the dice, that one or two happened to
+possess, for the dinners that were provided for the wealthier,
+sometimes even betting on what the sentences would be, and who would
+be hanged, or who escape.
+
+Poor lads, they did not, for the most part, realise their real
+danger, but Stephen was more and more beset with home-sick longing
+for the glades and thickets of his native forest, and would keep
+little Jasper and even Giles for an hour together telling of the
+woodland adventures of those happy times, shutting his eyes to the
+grim stone walls, and trying to think himself among the beeches,
+hollies, cherries, and hawthorns, shining in the May sun!  Giles and
+he were chose friends now, and with little Jasper, said their Paters
+and Aves together, that they might be delivered from their trouble.
+At last, on the 4th, the whole of the prisoners were summoned
+roughly into the court, where harsh-hooking men-at-arms proceeded to
+bind them together in pairs to be marched through the streets to the
+Guildhall.  Giles and Stephen would naturally have been put
+together, but poor little Jasper cried out so lamentably, when he
+was about to be bound to a stranger, that Stephen stepped forward in
+his stead, begging that the boy might go with Giles.  The soldier
+made a contemptuous sound, but consented, and Stephen found that his
+companion in misfortune, whose left elbow was tied to his right was
+George Bates.
+
+The two lads looked at each other in a strange, rueful manner, and
+Stephen said, "Shake hands, comrade.  If we are to die, let us bear
+no ill-will."
+
+George gave a cold, limp, trembling hand.  He looked wretched,
+subdued, tearful, and nearly starved, for he had no kinsfolk at
+hand, and his master was too angry with him, and too much afraid of
+compromising himself, to have sent him any supplies.  Stephen tried
+to unbutton his own pouch, but not succeeding with his left hand,
+bade George try with his right.  "There's a cake of bread there," he
+said.  "Eat that, and thou'lt be able better to stand up like a man,
+come what will."
+
+George devoured it eagerly.  "Ah!" he said, in a stronger voice,
+"Stephen Birkenholt, thou art an honest fellow.  I did thee wrong.
+If ever we get out of this plight!"
+
+Here they were ordered to march, and in a long and doleful
+procession they set forth.  The streets were lined with men-at-arms,
+for all the affections and sympathies of the people were with the
+unfortunate boys, and a rescue was apprehended.
+
+In point of fact, the Lord Mayor and aldermen were afraid of the
+King's supposing them to have organised the assault on their rivals,
+and each was therefore desirous to show severity to any one's
+apprentices save his own; while the nobility were afraid of
+contumacy on the part of the citizens, and were resolved to crush
+down every rioter among them, so that they had filled the city with
+their armed retainers.  Fathers and mothers, masters and dames,
+sisters and fellow prentices, found their doors closely guarded, and
+could only look with tearful, anxious eyes, at the processions of
+poor youths, many of them mere children, who were driven from each
+of the jails to the Guildhall.  There when all collected the entire
+number amounted to two hundred and seventy-eight, though a certain
+proportion of these were grown men, priests, wherrymen and beggars,
+who had joined the rabble in search of plunder.
+
+It did not look well for them that the Duke of Norfolk and his son,
+the Earl of Surrey, were joined in the commission with the Lord
+Mayor.  The upper end of the great hall was filled with aldermen in
+their robes and chains, with the sheriffs of London and the whole
+imposing array, and the Lord Mayor with the Duke sat enthroned above
+them in truly awful dignity.  The Duke was a hard and pitiless man,
+and bore the City a bitter grudge for the death of his retainer, the
+priest killed in Cheapside, and in spite of all his poetical fame,
+it may be feared that the Earl of Surrey was not of much more
+merciful mood, while their men-at-arms spoke savagely of hanging,
+slaughtering, or setting the City on fire.
+
+The arraignment was very long, as there were so large a number of
+names to be read, and, to the horror of all, it was not for a mere
+riot, but for high treason.  The King, it was declared, being in
+amity with all Christian princes, it was high treason to break the
+truce and league by attacking their subjects resident in England.
+The terrible punishment of the traitor would thus be the doom of all
+concerned, and in the temper of the Howards and their retainers,
+there was little hope of mercy, nor, in times like those, was there
+even much prospect that, out of such large numbers, some might
+escape.
+
+A few were more especially cited, fourteen in number, among them
+George Bates, Walter Ball, and Giles Headley, who had certainly
+given cause for the beginning of the affray.  There was no attempt
+to defend George Bates, who seemed to be stunned and bewildered
+beyond the power of speaking or even of understanding, but as Giles
+cast his eyes round in wild, terrified appeal, Master Headley rose
+up in his alderman's gown, and prayed leave to be heard in his
+defence, as he had witnesses to bring in his favour.
+
+"Is he thy son, good Armourer Headley?" demanded the Duke of
+Norfolk, who held the work of the Dragon court in high esteem.
+
+"Nay, my Lord Duke, but he is in the place of one, my near kinsman
+and godson, and so soon as his time be up, bound to wed my only
+child!  I pray you to hear his cause, ere cutting off the heir of an
+old and honourable house."
+
+Norfolk and his sons murmured something about the Headley skill in
+armour, and the Lord Mayor was willing enough for mercy, but Sir
+John Mundy here rose:  "My Lord Duke, this is the very young man who
+was first to lay hands on me!  Yea, my lords and sirs, ye have
+already heard how their rude sport, contrary to proclamation, was
+the cause of the tumult.  When I would have bidden them go home, the
+one brawler asks me insolently, 'Wherefore?' the other smote me with
+his sword, whereupon the whole rascaille set on me, and as Master
+Alderman Headley can testify, I scarce reached his house alive.  I
+ask should favour overcome justice, and a ringleader, who hath
+assaulted the person of an alderman, find favour above others?"
+
+"I ask not for favour," returned Headley, "only that witnesses be
+heard on his behalf, ere he be condemned."
+
+Headley, as a favourite with the Duke, prevailed to have permission
+to call his witnesses; Christopher Smallbones, who had actually
+rescued Alderman Mundy from the mob, and helped him into the Dragon
+court, could testify that the proclamation had been entirely unheard
+in the din of the youths looking on at the game.  And this was
+followed up by Lucas Hansen declaring that so far from having
+attacked or plundered him and the others in Warwick Inner Yard, the
+two, Giles Headley and Stephen Birkenholt, had come to their
+defence, and fallen on those who were burning their goods.
+
+On this a discussion followed between the authorities seated at the
+upper end of the hall.  The poor anxious watchers below could only
+guess by the gestures what was being agitated as to their fate, and
+Stephen was feeling it sorely hard that Giles should be pleaded for
+as the master's kinsman, and he left to so cruel a fate, no one
+saying a word for him but unheeded Lucas.  Finally, without giving
+of judgment, the whole of the miserable prisoners, who had been
+standing without food for hours, were marched back, still tied, to
+their several prisons, while their guards pointed out the gibbets
+where they were to suffer the next day.
+
+Master Headley was not quite so regardless of his younger apprentice
+as Stephen imagined.  There was a sort of little council held in his
+hall when he returned--sad, dispirited, almost hopeless--to find Hal
+Randall anxiously awaiting him.  The alderman said he durst not
+plead for Stephen, lest he should lose both by asking too much, and
+his young kinsman had the first right, besides being in the most
+peril as having been singled out by name; whereas Stephen might
+escape with the multitude if there were any mercy.  He added that
+the Duke of Norfolk was certainly inclined to save one who knew the
+secret of Spanish sword-blades; but that he was fiercely resolved to
+be revenged for the murder of his lewd priest in Cheapside, and that
+Sir John Mundy was equally determined that Giles should not escape.
+
+"What am I to say to his mother?  Have I brought him from her for
+this?" mourned Master Headley.  "Ay, and Master Randall, I grieve as
+much for thy nephew, who to my mind hath done nought amiss.  A brave
+lad!  A good lad, who hath saved mine own life.  Would that I could
+do aught for him!  It is a shame!"
+
+"Father," said Dennet, who had crept to the back of his chair, "the
+King would save him!  Mind you the golden whistle that the grandame
+keepeth?"
+
+"The maid hath hit it!" exclaimed Randall.  "Master alderman!  Let
+me but have the little wench and the whistle to-morrow morn, and it
+is done.  How sayest thou, pretty mistress?  Wilt thou go with me
+and ask thy cousin's life, and poor Stephen's, of the King?"
+
+"With all my heart, sir," said Dennet, coming to him with
+outstretched hands.  "Oh! sir, canst thou save them?  I have been
+vowing all I could think of to our Lady and the saints, and now they
+are going to grant it!"
+
+"Tarry a little," said the alderman.  "I must know more of this.
+Where wouldst thou take my child?  How obtain access to the King's
+Grace?"
+
+"Worshipful sir, trust me," said Randall.  "Thou know'st I am sworn
+servant to my Lord Cardinal, and that his folk are as free of the
+Court as the King's own servants.  If thine own folk will take us up
+the river to Richmond, and there wait for us while I lead the maid
+to the King, I can well-nigh swear to thee that she will prevail."
+
+The alderman looked greatly distressed.  Ambrose threw himself on
+his knees before him, and in an agony entreated him to consent,
+assuring him that Master Randall could do what he promised.  The
+alderman was much perplexed.  He knew that his mother, who was
+confined to her bed by rheumatism, would be shocked at the idea.  He
+longed to accompany his daughter himself, but for him to be absent
+from the sitting of the court might be fatal to Giles, and he could
+not bear to lose any chance for the poor youths.
+
+Meantime an interrogative glance and a nod had passed between Tibble
+and Randall, and when the alderman looked towards the former, always
+his prime minister, the answer was, "Sir, meseemeth that it were
+well to do as Master Randall counselleth.  I will go with Mistress
+Dennet, if such be your will.  The lives of two such youths as our
+prentices may not lightly be thrown away, while by God's providence
+there is any means of striving to save them."
+
+Consent then was given, and it was further arranged that Dennet and
+her escort should be ready at the early hour of half-past four, so
+as to elude the guards who were placed in the streets; and also
+because King Henry in the summer went very early to mass, and then
+to some out-of-door sport.  Randall said he would have taken his own
+good woman to have the care of the little mistress, but that the
+poor little orphan Spanish wench had wept herself so sick, that she
+could not be left to a stranger.
+
+Master Headley himself brought the child by back streets to the
+river, and thence down to the Temple stairs, accompanied by Tibble
+Steelman, and a maid-servant on whose presence her grandmother had
+insisted.  Dennet had hardly slept all night for excitement and
+perturbation, and she looked very white, small, and insignificant
+for her thirteen years, when Randall and Ambrose met her, and placed
+her carefully in the barge which was to take them to Richmond.  It
+was somewhat fresh in the very early morning, and no one was
+surprised that Master Randall wore a large dark cloak as they rowed
+up the river.  There was very little speech between the passengers;
+Dennet sat between Ambrose and Tibble.  They kept their heads bowed.
+Ambrose's brow was on one hand, his elbow on his knee, but he spared
+the other to hold Dennet.  He had been longing for the old assurance
+he would once have had, that to vow himself to a life of hard
+service in a convent would be the way to win his brother's life; but
+he had ceased to be able to feel that such bargains were the right
+course, or that a convent necessarily afforded sure way of service,
+and he never felt mere insecure of the way and means to prayer than
+in this hour of anguished supplication.
+
+When they came beyond the City, within sight of the trees of Sheen,
+as Richmond was still often called, Randall insisted that Dennet
+should eat some of the bread and meat that Tibble had brought in a
+wallet for her.  "She must look her best," he said aside to the
+foreman.  "I would that she were either more of a babe or better
+favoured!  Our Hal hath a tender heart for a babe and an eye for a
+buxom lass."
+
+He bade the maid trim up the child's cap and make the best of her
+array, and presently reached some stairs leading up to the park.
+There he let Ambrose lift her out of the boat.  The maid would fain
+have followed, but he prevented this, and when she spoke of her
+mistress having bidden her follow wherever the child went, Tibble
+interfered, telling her that his master's orders were that Master
+Randall should do with her as he thought meet.  Tibble himself
+followed until they reached a thicket entirely concealing them from
+the river.  Halting here, Randall, with his nephew's help, divested
+himself of his long gown and cloak, his beard and wig, produced
+cockscomb and bauble from his pouch, and stood before the astonished
+eyes of Dennet as the jester!
+
+She recoiled upon Tibble with a little cry, "Oh, why should he make
+sport of us?  Why disguise himself?"
+
+"Listen, pretty mistress," said Randall.  "'Tis no disguise, Tibble
+there can tell you, or my nephew.  My disguise lies there," pointing
+to his sober raiment.  "Thus only can I bring thee to the King's
+presence!  Didst think it was jest?  Nay, verily, I am as bound to
+try to save my sweet Stevie's life, my sister's own gallant son, as
+thou canst be to plead for thy betrothed."  Dennet winced.
+
+"Ay, Mistress Dennet," said Tibble, "thou mayst trust him, spite of
+his garb, and 'tis the sole hope.  He could only thus bring thee in.
+Go thou on, and the lad and I will fall to our prayers."
+
+Dennet's bosom heaved, but she looked up in the jesters dark eyes,
+saw the tears in them, made an effort, put her hand in his, and
+said, "I will go with him."
+
+Hal led her away, and they saw Tibble and Ambrose both fall on their
+knees behind the hawthorn bush, to speed them with their prayers,
+while all the joyous birds singing their carols around seemed to
+protest against the cruel captivity and dreadful doom of the young
+gladsome spirits pent up in the City prisons.
+
+One full gush of a thrush's song in especial made Dennet's eyes
+overflow, which the jester perceived and said, "Nay, sweet maid, no
+tears.  Kings brook not to be approached with blubbered faces.  I
+marvel not that it seems hard to thee to go along with such as I,
+but let me be what I will outside, mine heart is heavy enough, and
+thou wilt learn sooner or later, that fools are not the only folk
+who needs must smile when they have a load within."
+
+And then, as much to distract her thoughts and prevent tears as to
+reassure her, he told her what he had before told his nephews of the
+inducements that had made him Wolsey's jester, and impressed on her
+the forms of address.
+
+"Thou'lt hear me make free with him, but that's part of mine office,
+like the kitten I've seen tickling the mane of the lion in the
+Tower.  Thou must say, 'An it please your Grace,' and thou needst
+not speak of his rolling in the mire, thou wottest, or it may anger
+him."
+
+The girl showed that her confidence became warmer by keeping nearer
+to his side, and presently she said, "I must beg for Stephen first,
+for 'tis his whistle."
+
+"Blessings on thee, fair wench, for that, yet seest thou, 'tis the
+other springald who is in the greater peril, and he is closer to thy
+father and to thee."
+
+"He fled, when Stephen made in to the rescue of my father," said
+Dennet.
+
+"The saints grant we may so work with the King that he may spare
+them both," ejaculated Randall.
+
+By this time the strange pair were reaching the precincts of the
+great dwelling-house, where about the wide-open door loitered
+gentlemen, grooms, lacqueys, and attendants of all kinds.  Randall
+reconnoitred.
+
+"An we go up among all these," he said, "they might make their sport
+of us both, so that we might have time.  Let us see whether the
+little garden postern be open."
+
+Henry VIII. had no fears of his people, and kept his dwellings more
+accessible than were the castles of many a subject.  The door in the
+wall proved to be open, and with an exclamation of joy, Randall
+pointed out two figures, one in a white silken doublet and hose,
+with a short crimson cloak over his shoulder, the other in scarlet
+and purple robes, pacing the walk under the wall--Henry's way of
+holding a cabinet council with his prime minister on a summer's
+morning.
+
+"Come on, mistress, put a brave face on it!" the jester encouraged
+the girl, as he led her forward, while the king, catching sight of
+them, exclaimed, "Ha! there's old Patch.  What doth he there?"
+
+But the Cardinal, impatient of interruption, spoke imperiously,
+"What dost thou here, Merriman?  Away, this is no time for thy
+fooleries and frolics."
+
+But the King, with some pleasure in teasing, and some of the
+enjoyment of a schoolboy at a break in his tasks, called out, "Nay,
+come hither, quipsome one!  What new puppet hast brought hither to
+play off on us?"
+
+"Yea, brother Hal," said the jester, "I have brought one to let thee
+know how Tom of Norfolk and his crew are playing the fool in the
+Guildhall, and to ask who will be the fool to let them wreak their
+spite on the best blood in London, and leave a sore that will take
+many a day to heal."
+
+"How is this, my Lord Cardinal?" said Henry; "I bade them make an
+example of a few worthless hinds, such as might teach the lusty
+burghers to hold their lads in bounds and prove to our neighbours
+that their churlishness was by no consent of ours."
+
+"I trow," returned the Cardinal, "that one of these same hinds is a
+boon companion of the fool's--hinc illae lachrymae, and a speech
+that would have befitted a wise man's mouth."
+
+"There is work that may well make even a fool grave, friend Thomas,"
+replied the jester.
+
+"Nay, but what hath this little wench to say?" asked the King,
+looking down on the child from under his plumed cap with a face set
+in golden hair, the fairest and sweetest, as it seemed to her, that
+she had ever seen, as he smiled upon her.  "Methinks she is too
+small to be thy love.  Speak out, little one.  I love little maids,
+I have one of mine own.  Hast thou a brother among these misguided
+lads?"
+
+"Not so, an please your Grace," said Dennet, who fortunately was not
+in the least shy, and was still too young for a maiden's
+shamefastness.  "He is to be my betrothed.  I would say, one of them
+is, but the other--he saved my father's life once."
+
+The latter words were lost in the laughter of the King and Cardinal
+at the unblushing avowal of the small, prim-faced maiden.
+
+"Oh ho!  So 'tis a case of true love, whereto a King's face must
+needs show grace.  Who art thou, fair suppliant, and who may this
+swain of thine be?"
+
+"I am Dennet Headley, so please your Grace; my father is Giles
+Headley the armourer, Alderman of Cheap Ward," said Dennet, doing
+her part bravely, though puzzled by the King's tone of banter; "and
+see here, your Grace!"
+
+"Ha! the hawk's whistle that Archduke Philip gave me!  What of that?
+I gave it--ay, I gave it to a youth that came to mine aid, and
+reclaimed a falcon for me!  Is't he, child?"
+
+"Oh, sir, 'tis he who came in second at the butts, next to Barlow,
+'tis Stephen Birkenholt!  And he did nought!  They bore no ill-will
+to strangers!  No, they were falling on the wicked fellows who had
+robbed and slain good old Master Michael, who taught our folk to
+make the only real true Damascus blades welded in England.  But the
+lawyers of the Inns of Court fell on them all alike, and have driven
+them off to Newgate, and poor little Jasper Hope too.  And Alderman
+Mundy bears ill-will to Giles.  And the cruel Duke of Norfolk and
+his men swear they'll have vengeance on the Cheap, and there'll be
+hanging and quartering this very morn.  Oh! your Grace, your Grace,
+save our lads! for Stephen saved my father."
+
+"Thy tongue wags fast, little one," said the King, good-naturedly,
+"with thy Stephen and thy Giles.  Is this same Stephen, the knight
+of the whistle and the bow, thy betrothed, and Giles thy brother?"
+
+"Nay, your Grace," said Dennet, hanging her head, "Giles Headley is
+my betrothed--that is, when his time is served, he will be--father
+sets great store by him, for he is the only one of our name to keep
+up the armoury, and he has a mother, Sir, a mother at Salisbury.
+But oh, Sir, Sir!  Stephen is so good and brave a had!  He made in
+to save father from the robbers, and he draws the best bow in
+Cheapside, and he can grave steel as well as Tibble himself, and
+this is the whistle your Grace wots of."
+
+Henry listened with an amused smile that grew broader as Dennet's
+voice all unconsciously became infinitely more animated and earnest,
+when she began to plead Stephen's cause.
+
+"Well, well, sweetheart," he said, "I trow thou must have the twain
+of them, though," he added to the Cardinal, who smiled broadly, "it
+might perchance be more for the maid's peace than she wots of now,
+were we to leave this same knight of the whistle to be strung up at
+once, ere she have found her heart; but in sooth that I cannot do,
+owing well nigh a life to him and his brother.  Moreover, we may not
+have old Headley's skill in weapons lost!"
+
+Dennet held her hands close clasped while these words were spoken
+apart.  She felt as if her hope, half granted, were being snatched
+from her, as another actor appeared on the scene, a gentleman in a
+lawyer's gown, and square cap, which he doffed as he advanced and
+put his knee to the ground before the King, who greeted him with
+"Save you, good Sir Thomas, a fair morning to you."
+
+"They told me your Grace was in Council with my Lord Cardinal," said
+Sir Thomas More; "but seeing that there was likewise this merry
+company, I durst venture to thrust in, since my business is urgent."
+
+Dennet here forgot court manners enough to cry out, "O your Grace!
+your Grace, be pleased for pity's sake to let me have the pardon for
+them first, or they'll be hanged and dead.  I saw the gallows in
+Cheapside, and when they are dead, what good will your Grace's mercy
+do them?"
+
+"I see," said Sir Thomas.  "This little maid's errand jumps with
+mine own, which was to tell your Grace that unless there be speedy
+commands to the Howards to hold their hands, there will be wailing
+like that of Egypt in the City.  The poor boys, who were but
+shouting and brawling after the nature of mettled youth--the most
+with nought of malice--are penned up like sheep for the slaughter--
+ay, and worse than sheep, for we quarter not our mutton alive,
+whereas these poor younglings--babes of thirteen, some of them--be
+indicted for high treason!  Will the parents, shut in from coming to
+them by my Lord of Norfolk's men, ever forget their agonies, I ask
+your Grace?"
+
+Henry's face grew red with passion.  "If Norfolk thinks to act the
+King, and turn the city into a shambles,"--with a mighty oath--"he
+shall abye it.  Here, Lord Cardinal--more, let the free pardon be
+drawn up for the two lads.  And we will ourselves write to the Lord
+Mayor and to Norfolk that though they may work their will on the
+movers of the riot--that pestilent Lincoln and his sort--not a
+prentice lad shall be touched till our pleasure be known.  There
+now, child, thou hast won the lives of thy lads, as thou callest
+them.  Wilt thou rue the day, I marvel?  Why cannot some of their
+mothers pluck up spirit and beg them off as thou hast done?"
+
+"Yea," said Wolsey.  "That were the right course.  If the Queen were
+moved to pray your Grace to pity the striplings then could the
+Spaniards make no plaint of too much clemency being shown."
+
+They were all this time getting nearer the palace, and being now at
+a door opening into the hall, Henry turned round.  "There, pretty
+maid, spread the tidings among thy gossips, that they have a tender-
+hearted Queen, and a gracious King.  The Lord Cardinal will
+presently give thee the pardon for both thy lads, and by and by thou
+wilt know whether thou thankest me for it!"  Then putting his hand
+under her chin, he turned up her face to him, kissed her on each
+cheek, and touched his feathered cap to the others, saying, "See
+that my bidding be done," and disappeared.
+
+"It must be prompt, if it be to save any marked for death this
+morn," More in a how voice observed to the Cardinal.  "Lord Edmund
+Howard is keen as a blood-hound on his vengeance."
+
+Wolsey was far from being a cruel man, and besides, there was a
+natural antagonism between him and the old nobility, and he liked
+and valued his fool, to whom he turned, saying, "And what stake hast
+thou in this, sirrah?  Is't all pure charity?"
+
+"I'm scarce such a fool as that, Cousin Red Hat," replied Randall,
+rallying his powers.  "I leave that to Mr. More here, whom we all
+know to be a good fool spoilt.  But I'll make a clean breast of it.
+This same Stephen is my sister's son, an orphan lad of good birth
+and breeding--whom, my lord, I would die to save."
+
+"Thou shalt have the pardon instantly, Merriman," said the Cardinal,
+and beckoning to one of the attendants who clustered round the door,
+he gave orders that a clerk should instantly, and very briefly, make
+out the form.  Sir Thomas More, hearing the name of Headley, added
+that for him indeed the need of haste was great, since he was one of
+the fourteen sentenced to die that morning.
+
+Quipsome Hal was interrogated as to how he had come, and the
+Cardinal and Sir Thomas agreed that the river would be as speedy a
+way of returning as by land; but they decided that a King's
+pursuivant should accompany him, otherwise there would be no chance
+of forcing his way in time through the streets, guarded by the
+Howard retainers.
+
+As rapidly as was in the nature of a high officer's clerk to produce
+a dozen lines, the precious document was indicted, and it was
+carried at last to Dennet, bearing Henry's signature and seal.  She
+held it to her bosom, while, accompanied by the pursuivant, who--
+happily for them--was interested in one of the unfortunate fourteen,
+and therefore did not wait to stand on his dignity, they hurried
+across to the place where they had left the barge--Tibble and
+Ambrose joining them on the way.  Stephen was safe.  Of his life
+there could be no doubt, and Ambrose almost repented of feeling his
+heart so light while Giles's fate hung upon their speed.
+
+The oars were plied with hearty good-will, but the barge was
+somewhat heavy, and by and by coming to a landing-place where two
+watermen had a much smaller and lighter boat, the pursuivant advised
+that he should go forward with the more necessary persons, leaving
+the others to follow.  After a few words, the light weights of
+Tibble and Dennet prevailed in their favour, and they shot forward
+in the little boat.
+
+They passed the Temple--on to the stairs nearest Cheapside--up the
+street.  There was an awful stillness, only broken by heavy knells
+sounding at intervals from the churches.  The back streets were
+thronged by a trembling, weeping people, who all eagerly made way
+for the pursuivant, as he called "Make way, good people--a pardon!"
+
+They saw the broader space of Cheapside.  Horsemen in armour guarded
+it, but they too opened a passage for the pursuivant.  There was to
+be seen above the people's heads a scaffold.  A fire burnt on it--
+the gallows and noosed rope hung above.
+
+A figure was mounting the ladder.  A boy!  Oh, Heavens! would it be
+too late?  Who was it?  They were still too far off to see.  They
+might only be cruelly holding out hope to one of the doomed.
+
+The pursuivant shouted aloud--"In the King's name, Hold!"  He lifted
+Dennet on his shoulder, and bade her wave her parchment.  An
+overpowering roar arose.  "A pardon! a pardon!  God save the King!"
+
+Every hand seemed to be forwarding the pursuivant and the child, and
+it was Giles Headley, who, loosed from the hold of the executioner,
+stared wildly about him, like one distraught.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.  PARDON
+
+
+
+"What if;' quoth she, 'by Spanish blood
+Have London's stately streets been wet,
+Yet will I seek this country's good
+And pardon for these young men get.'"
+
+CHURCHILL.
+
+The night and morning had been terrible to the poor boys, who only
+had begun to understand what awaited them.  The fourteen selected
+had little hope, and indeed a priest came in early morning to hear
+the confessions of Giles Headley and George Bates, the only two who
+were in Newgate.
+
+George Bates was of the stolid, heavy disposition that seems armed
+by outward indifference, or mayhap pride.  He knew that his case was
+hopeless, and he would not thaw even to the priest.  But Giles had
+been quite unmanned, and when he found that for the doleful
+procession to the Guildhall he was to be coupled with George Bates,
+instead of either of his room-fellows, he flung himself on Stephen's
+neck, sobbing out messages for his mother, and entreaties that, if
+Stephen survived, he would be good to Aldonza.  "For you will wed
+Dennet, and--"
+
+There the jailers roughly ordered him to hold his peace, and dragged
+him off to be pinioned to his fellow-sufferer.  Stephen was not
+called till some minutes later, and had not seen him since.  He
+himself was of course overshadowed by the awful gloom of
+apprehension for himself, and pity for his comrades, and he was
+grieved at not having seen or heard of his brother or master, but he
+had a very present care in Jasper, who was sickening in the prison
+atmosphere, and when fastened to his arm, seemed hardly able to
+walk.  Leashed as they were, Stephen could only help him by holding
+the free hand, and when they came to the hall, supporting him as
+much as possible, as they stood in the miserable throng during the
+conclusion of the formalities, which ended by the horrible sentence
+of the traitor being pronounced on the whole two hundred and
+seventy-eight.  Poor little Jasper woke for an interval from the
+sense of present discomfort to hear it, he seemed to stiffen all
+over with the shock of horror, and then hung a dead weight on
+Stephen's arm.  It would have dragged him down, but there was no
+room to fall, and the wretchedness of the lad against whom he
+staggered found vent in a surly imprecation, which was lost among
+the cries and the entreaties of some of the others.  The London
+magistracy were some of them in tears, but the indictment for high
+treason removed the poor lads from their jurisdiction to that of the
+Earl Marshal, and thus they could do nothing to save the fourteen
+foremost victims.  The others were again driven out of the hall to
+return to their prisons; the nearest pair of lads doing their best
+to help Stephen drag his burthen along.  In the halt outside, to
+arrange the sad processions, one of the guards, of milder mood, cut
+the cord that bound the lifeless weight to Stephen, and permitted
+the child to be laid on the stones of the court, his collar
+unbuttoned, and water to be brought.  Jasper was just reviving when
+the word came to march, but still he could not stand, and Stephen
+was therefore permitted the free use of his arms, in order to carry
+the poor little fellow.  Thirteen years made a considerable load for
+seventeen, though Stephen's arms were exercised in the smithy, and
+it was a sore pull from the Guildhall.  Jasper presently recovered
+enough to walk with a good deal of support.  When he was laid on the
+bed he fell unto an exhausted sleep, while Stephen kneeling, as the
+strokes of the knell smote on his ear, prayed--as he had never
+prayed before--for his comrade, for his enemy, and for all the
+unhappy boys who were being led to their death wherever the outrages
+had been committed.
+
+Once indeed there was a strange sound coming across that of the
+knell.  It almost sounded like an acclamation of joy.  Could people
+be so cruel, thought Stephen, as to mock poor Giles's agonies?
+There were the knells still sounding.  How long he did not know, for
+a beneficent drowsiness stole over him as he knelt, and he was only
+awakened, at the same time as Jasper, by the opening of his door.
+
+He looked up to see three figures--his brother, his uncle, his
+master.  Were they come to take leave of him?  But the one
+conviction that their faces beamed with joy was all that he could
+gather, for little Jasper sprang up with a scream of terror,
+"Stephen, Stephen, save me!  They will cut out my heart," and clung
+trembling to his breast, with arms round his neck.
+
+"Poor child! poor child!" sighed Master Headley.  "Would that I
+brought him the same tidings as to thee!"
+
+"Is it so?" asked Stephen, reading confirmation as he looked from
+the one to the other.  Though he was unable to rise under the weight
+of the boy, life and light were coming to his eye, while Ambrose
+clasped his hand tightly, chocked by the swelling of his heart in
+almost an agony of joy and thankfulness.
+
+"Yea, my good lad," said the alderman.  "Thy good kinsman took my
+little wench to bear to the King the token he gave thee."
+
+"And Giles?" Stephen asked, "and the rest?"
+
+"Giles is safe.  For the rest--may God have mercy on their souls."
+
+These words passed while Stephen rocked Jasper backwards and
+forwards, his face hidden on his neck.
+
+"Come home," added Master Headley.  "My little Dennet and Giles
+cannot yet rejoice till thou art with them.  Giles would have come
+himself, but he is sorely shaken, and could scarce stand."
+
+Jasper caught the words, and loosing his friend's neck, looked up.
+"Oh! are we going home?  Come, Stephen.  Where's brother Simon?  I
+want my good sister!  I want nurse!  Oh! take me home!"  For as he
+tried to sit up, he fell back sick and dizzy on the bed.
+
+"Alack! alack!" mourned Master Headley; and the jester, muttering
+that it was not the little wench's fault, turned to the window, and
+burst into tears.  Stephen understood it all, and though he felt a
+passionate longing for freedom, he considered in one moment whether
+there were any one of his fellow prisoners to whom Jasper could be
+left, or who would be of the least comfort to him, but could find no
+one, and resolved to cling to him as once to old Spring.
+
+"Sir," he said, as he rose to his master, "I fear me he is very
+sick.  Will they--will your worship give me licence to bide with him
+till this ends?"
+
+"Thou art a good-hearted lad," said the alderman with a hand on his
+shoulder.  "There is no further danger of life to the prentice lads.
+The King hath sent to forbid all further dealing with them, and hath
+bidden my little maid to set it about that if their mothers beg them
+grace from good Queen Katherine, they shall have it.  But this poor
+child!  He can scarce be left.  His brother will take it well of
+thee if thou wilt stay with him till some tendance can be had.  We
+can see to that.  Thanks be to St. George and our good King, this
+good City is our own again!"
+
+The alderman turned away, and Ambrose and Stephen exchanged a
+passionate embrace, feeling what it was to be still left to one
+another.  The jester too shook his nephew's hand, saying, "Boy, boy,
+the blessing of such as I is scarce worth the having, but I would
+thy mother could see thee this day."
+
+Stephen was left with these words and his brother's look to bear him
+through a trying time.
+
+For the "Captain of Newgate" was an autocrat, who looked on his
+captives as compulsory lodgers, out of whom he was entitled to wring
+as much as possible--as indeed he had no other salary, nor means of
+maintaining his underlings, a state of things which lasted for two
+hundred years longer, until the days of James Oglethorpe and John
+Howard.  Even in the rare cases of acquittals, the prisoner could
+not be released till he had paid his fees, and that Giles Headley
+should have been borne off from the scaffold itself in debt to him
+was an invasion of his privileges, which did not dispose him to be
+favourable to any one connected with that affair; and he liked to
+show his power and dignity even to an alderman.
+
+He was found sitting in a comfortable tapestried chamber, handsomely
+dressed in orange and brown, and with a smooth sleek countenance and
+the appearance of a good-natured substantial citizen.
+
+He only half rose from his big carved chair, and touched without
+removing his cap, to greet the alderman, as he observed, without the
+accustomed prefix of your worship--"So, you are come about your
+prentice's fees and dues.  By St. Peter of the Fetters, 'tis an
+irksome matter to have such a troop of idle, mischievous, dainty
+striplings thrust on one, giving more trouble, and making more call
+and outcry than twice as many honest thieves and pickpurses."
+
+"Be assured, sir, they will scarce trouble you longer than they can
+help," said Master Headley.
+
+"Yea, the Duke and my Lord Edmund are making brief work of them,"
+quoth the jailer.  "Ha!" with an oath, "what's that?  Nought will
+daunt those lads till the hangman is at their throats."
+
+For it was a real hurrah that reached his ears.  The jester had got
+all the boys round him in the court, and was bidding them keep up a
+good heart, for their lives were safe, and their mothers would beg
+them off.  Their shouts did not tend to increase the captain's good
+humour, and though he certainly would not have let out Alderman
+Headley's remaining apprentice without his fee, he made as great a
+favour of permission, and charged as exorbitantly, for a pardoned
+man to remain within his domains as if they had been the most costly
+and delightful hostel in the kingdom.
+
+Master Hope, who presently arrived, had to pay a high fee for leave
+to bring Master Todd, the barber-surgeon, with him to see his
+brother; but though he offered a mark a day (a huge amount at that
+time) the captain was obdurate in refusing to allow the patient to
+be attended by his own old nurse, declaring that it was contrary to
+discipline, and (what probably affected him much more) one such
+woman could cause more trouble than a dozen felons.  No doubt it was
+true, for she would have insisted on moderate cleanliness and
+comfort.  No other attendant whom Mr. Hope could find would endure
+the disgrace, the discomfort, and alarm of a residence in Newgate
+for Jasper's sake; so that the drapers gratitude to Stephen
+Birkenholt, for voluntarily sharing the little fellow's captivity,
+was great, and he gave payment to one or two of the officials to
+secure the two lads being civilly treated, and that the provisions
+sent in reached them duly.
+
+Jasper did not in general seem very ill by day, only heavy, listless
+and dull, unable to eat, too giddy to sit up, and unable to help
+crying like a babe, if Stephen left him for a moment; but he never
+fell asleep without all the horror and dread of the sentence coming
+over him.  Like all the boys in London, he had gazed at executions
+with the sort of curiosity that leads rustic lads to run to see pigs
+killed, and now the details came over him in semi-delirium, as acted
+out on himself, and he shrieked and struggled in an anguish which
+was only mitigated by Stephen's reassurances, caresses, even
+scoldings.  The other youths, relieved from the apprehension of
+death, agreed to regard their detention as a holiday, and not being
+squeamish, turned the yard into a playground, and there they
+certainly made uproar, and played pranks, enough to justify the
+preference of the captain for full grown criminals.  But Stephen
+could not join them, for Jasper would not spare him for an instant,
+and he himself, though at first sorely missing employment and
+exercise, was growing drowsy and heavy limbed in his cramped life
+and the evil atmosphere, even the sick longings for liberty were
+gradually passing away from him, so that sometimes he felt as if he
+had lived here for ages and known no other life, though no sooner
+did he lie down to rest, and shut his eyes, than the trees and green
+glades of the New Forest rose before him, with all the hollies
+shining in the summer light, or the gorse making a sheet of gold.
+
+The time was not in reality so very long.  On the 7th of May, John
+Lincoln, the broker, who had incited Canon Peale to preach against
+the foreigners, was led forth with several others of the real
+promoters of the riot to the centre of Cheapside, where Lincoln was
+put death, but orders were brought to respite the rest; and, at the
+same time, all the armed men were withdrawn, the City began to
+breathe, and the women who had been kept within doors to go abroad
+again.
+
+The Recorder of London and several aldermen were to meet the King at
+his manor at Greenwich.  This was the mothers' opportunity.  The
+civic dignitaries rode in mourning robes, but the wives and mothers,
+sweethearts and sisters, every woman who had a youth's life at
+stake, came together, took boat, and went down the river, a strange
+fleet of barges, all containing white caps, and black gowns and
+hoods, for all were clad in the most correct and humble citizen's
+costume.
+
+"Never was such a sight," said Jester Randall, who had taken care to
+secure a view, and who had come with his report to the Dragon court.
+"It might have been Ash Wednesday for the look of them, when they
+landed and got into order.  One would think every prentice lad had
+got at least three mothers, and four or five aunts and sisters!  I
+trow, verily, that half of them came to look on at the other half,
+and get a sight of Greenwich and the three queens.  However, be that
+as it might, not one of them but knew how to open the sluices.
+Queen Katharine noted well what was coming, and she and the Queens
+of Scotland and France sat in the great chamber with the doors open.
+And immediately there's a knock at the door, and so soon as the
+usher opens it, in they come, three and three, every good wife of
+them with her napkin to her eyes, and working away with her sobs.
+Then Mistress Todd, the barber-surgeon's wife, she spoke for all,
+being thought to have the more courtly tongue, having been tirewoman
+to Queen Mary ere she went to France.  Verily her husband must have
+penned the speech for her--for it began right scholarly, and
+flowery, with a likening of themselves to the mothers of Bethlehem
+(lusty innocents theirs, I trow!), but ere long the good woman
+faltered and forgot her part, and broke out 'Oh! madam, you that are
+a mother yourself, for the sake of your own sweet babe, give us back
+our sons.' And therewith they all fell on their knees, weeping and
+wringing their hands, and crying out, 'Mercy, mercy!  For our
+Blessed Lady's sake, have pity on our children!' till the good
+Queen, with the tears running down her cheeks for very ruth, told
+them that the power was not in her hands, but the will was for them
+and their poor sons, and that she would strive so to plead for them
+with the King as to win their freedom.  Meantime, there were the
+aldermen watching for the King in his chamber of presence, till
+forth he came, when all fell on their knees, and the Recorder spake
+for them, casting all the blame on the vain and light persons who
+had made that enormity.  Thereupon what does our Hal but make
+himself as stern as though he meant to string them all up in a line.
+'Ye ought to wail and be sorry,' said he, 'whereas ye say that
+substantial persons were not concerned, it appeareth to the
+contrary.  You did wink at the matter,' quoth he, 'and at this time
+we will grant you neither favour nor good-will.'  However, none who
+knew Hal's eye but could tell that 'twas all very excellent fooling,
+when he bade them get to the Cardinal.  Therewith, in came the three
+queens, hand in hand, with tears in their eyes, so as they might
+have been the three queens that bore away King Arthur, and down they
+went on their knees, and cried aloud 'Dear sir, we who are mothers
+ourselves, beseech you to set the hearts at ease of all the poor
+mothers who are mourning for their sons.'  Whereupon, the door being
+opened, came in so piteous a sound of wailing and lamentation as our
+Harry's name must have been Herod to withstand!  'Stand up, Kate,'
+said he, 'stand up, sisters, and hark in your ear.  Not a hair of
+the silly lads shall be touched, but they must bide lock and key
+long enough to teach them and their masters to keep better ward.'
+And then when the queens came back with the good tidings, such a
+storm of blessings was never heard, laughings and cryings, and the
+like, for verily some of the women seemed as distraught for joy as
+ever they had been for grief and fear.  Moreover, Mistress Todd
+being instructed of her husband, led up Mistress Hope to Queen Mary,
+and told her the tale of how her husband's little brother, a mere
+babe, lay sick in prison--a mere babe, a suckling as it were--and
+was like to die there, unless the sooner delivered, and how our
+Steve was fool enough to tarry with the poor child, pardoned though
+he be.  Then the good lady wept again, and 'Good woman,' saith she
+to Mistress Hope, 'the King will set thy brother free anon.  His
+wrath is not with babes, nor with lads like this other of whom thou
+speakest.'
+
+"So off was she to the King again, and though he and his master
+pished and pshawed, and said if one and another were to be set free
+privily in this sort, there would be none to come and beg for mercy
+as a warming to all malapert youngsters to keep within bounds, 'Nay,
+verily,' quoth I, seeing the moment for shooting a fool's bolt among
+them, 'methinks Master Death will have been a pick-lock before you
+are ready for them, and then who will stand to cry mercy?'
+
+The narrative was broken off short by a cry of jubilee in the court.
+Workmen, boys, and all were thronging together, Kit Smallbones' head
+towering in the midst.  Vehement welcomes seemed in progress.
+"Stephen!  Stephen!" shouted Dennet, and flew out of the hall and
+down the steps.
+
+"The lad himself!" exclaimed the jester, leaping down after her.
+
+"Stephen, the good boy!" said Master Headley, descending more
+slowly, but not less joyfully.
+
+Yes, Stephen himself it was, who had quietly walked into the court.
+Master Hope and Master Todd had brought the order for Jasper's
+release, had paid the captain's exorbitant fees for both, and, while
+the sick boy was carried home in a litter, Stephen had entered the
+Dragon court through the gates, as if he were coming home from an
+errand; though the moment he was recognised by the little four-year
+old Smallbones, there had been a general rush and shout of ecstatic
+welcome, led by Giles Headley, who fairly threw himself on Stephen's
+neck, as they met like comrades after a desperate battle.  Not one
+was there who did not claim a grasp of the boy's hand, and who did
+not pour out welcomes and greetings, while in the midst, the
+released captive looked, to say the truth, very spiritless, faded,
+dusty, nay dirty.  The court seemed spinning round with him, and the
+loud welcomes roared in his ears.  He was glad that Dennet took one
+hand, and Giles the other, declaring that he must be led to the
+grandmother instantly.
+
+He muttered something about being in too foul trim to go near her,
+but Dennet held him fast, and he was too dizzy to make much
+resistance.  Old Mrs. Headley was better again, though not able to
+do much but sit by the fire kept burning to drive away the plague
+which was always smouldering in London.
+
+She held out her hands to Stephen, as he knelt down by her.  "Take
+an old woman's blessing, my good youth," she said.  "Right glad am I
+to see thee once more.  Thou wilt not be the worse for the pains
+thou hast spent on the little lad, though they have tried thee
+sorely."
+
+Stephen, becoming somewhat less dazed, tried to fulfil his long
+cherished intention of thanking Dennet for her intercession, but the
+instant he tried to speak, to his dismay and indignation, tears
+choked his voice, and he could do nothing but weep, as if, thought
+he, his manhood had been left behind in the jail.
+
+"Vex not thyself," said the old dame, as she saw him struggling with
+his sobs.  "Thou art worn out--Giles here was not half his own man
+when he came out, nor is he yet.  Nay, beset him not, children.  He
+should go to his chamber, change these garments, and rest ere
+supper-time."
+
+Stephen was fain to obey, only murmuring an inquiry for his brother,
+to which his uncle responded that if Ambrose were at home, the
+tidings would send him to the Dragon instantly; but he was much with
+his old master, who was preparing to leave England, his work here
+being ruined.
+
+The jester then took leave, accepting conditionally an invitation to
+supper.  Master Headley, Smallbones, and Tibble now knew who he was,
+but the secret was kept from all the rest of the household, lest
+Stephen should be twitted with the connection.
+
+Cold water was not much affected by the citizens of London, but
+smiths' and armourers' work entailed a freer use of it than less
+grimy trades; and a bath and Sunday garments made Stephen more like
+himself, though still he felt so weary and depressed that he missed
+the buoyant joy of release to which he had been looking forward.
+
+He was sitting on the steps, leaning against the rail, so much tired
+that he hoped none of his comrades would notice that he had come
+out, when Ambrose hurried into the court, having just heard tidings
+of his freedom, and was at his side at once.  The two brothers sat
+together, leaning against one another as if they had all that they
+could wish or long for.  They had not met for more than a week, for
+Ambrose's finances had not availed to fee the turnkeys to give him
+entrance.
+
+"And what art thou doing, Ambrose?" asked Stephen, rousing a little
+from his lethargy.  "Methought I heard mine uncle say thine
+occupation was gone?"
+
+"Even so," replied Ambrose.  "Master Lucas will sail in a week's
+time to join his brother at Rotterdam, bearing with him what he hath
+been able to save out of the havoc.  I wot not if I shall ever see
+the good man more."
+
+"I am glad thou dost not go with him," said Stephen, with a hand on
+his brother's leather-covered knee.
+
+"I would not put seas between us," returned Ambrose.  "Moreover,
+though I grieve to lose my good master, who hath been so scurvily
+entreated here, yet, Stephen, this trouble and turmoil hath brought
+me that which I longed for above all, even to have speech with the
+Dean of St. Paul's."
+
+He then told Stephen how he had brought Dean Colet to administer the
+last rites to Abenali, and how that good man had bidden Lucas to
+take shelter at the Deanery, in the desolation of his own abode.
+This had led to conversation between the Dean and the printer;
+Lucas, who distrusted all ecclesiastics, would accept no patronage.
+He had a little hoard, buried in the corner of his stall, which
+would suffice to carry him to his native home and he wanted no more;
+but he had spoken of Ambrose, and the Dean was quite ready to be
+interested in the youth who had led him to Abenali.
+
+"He had me to his privy chamber," said Ambrose, "and spake to me as
+no man hath yet spoken--no, not even Tibble.  He let me utter all my
+mind, nay, I never wist before even what mine own thoughts were till
+he set them before me--as it were in a mirror."
+
+"Thou wast ever in a harl," said Stephen, drowsily using the
+Hampshire word for whirl or entanglement.
+
+"Yea.  On the one side stood all that I had ever believed or learnt
+before I came hither of the one true and glorious Mother-Church to
+whom the Blessed Lord had committed the keys of His kingdom, through
+His holy martyrs and priests to give us the blessed host and lead us
+in the way of salvation.  And on the other side, I cannot but see
+the lewd and sinful and worldly lives of the most part, and hear the
+lies whereby they amass wealth and turn men from the spirit of truth
+and holiness to delude them into believing that wilful sin can be
+committed without harm, and that purchase of a parchment is as good
+as repentance.  That do I see and hear.  And therewith my master
+Lucas and Dan Tindall, and those of the new light, declare that all
+has been false even from the very outset, and that all the pomp and
+beauty is but Satan's bait, and that to believe in Christ alone is
+all that needs to justify us, casting all the rest aside.  All
+seemed a mist, and I was swayed hither and thither till the more I
+read and thought, the greater was the fog.  And this--I know not
+whether I told it to yonder good and holy doctor, or whether he knew
+it, for his eyes seemed to see into me, and he told me that he had
+felt and thought much the same.  But on that one great truth, that
+faith in the Passion is salvation, is the Church built, though
+sinful men have hidden it by their errors and lies as befell before
+among the Israelites, whose law, like ours, was divine.  Whatever is
+entrusted to man, he said, will become stained, soiled, and twisted,
+though the power of the Holy Spirit will strive to renew it.  And
+such an outpouring of cleansing and renewing power is, he saith,
+abroad in our day.  When he was a young man, this good father, so he
+said, hoped great things, and did his best to set forth the truth,
+both at Oxford and here, as indeed he hath ever done, he and the
+good Doctor Erasmus striving to turn men's eyes back to the
+simplicity of God's Word rather than to the arguments and deductions
+of the schoolmen.  And for the abuses of evil priests that have
+sprung up, my Lord Cardinal sought the Legatine Commission from our
+holy father at Rome to deal with them.  But Dr. Colet saith that
+there are other forces at work, and he doubteth greatly whether this
+same cleansing can be done without some great and terrible rending
+and upheaving, that may even split the Church as it were asunder--
+since judgment surely awaiteth such as will not be reformed.  But,
+quoth he, 'our Mother-Church is God's own Church and I will abide by
+her to the end, as the means of oneness with my Lord and Head, and
+do thou the same, my son, for thou art like to be more sorely tried
+than will a frail old elder like me, who would fain say his Nunc
+Dimittis, if such be the Lord's will, ere the foundations be cast
+down.'"
+
+Ambrose had gone on rehearsing all these words with the absorption
+of one to whom they were everything, till it occurred to him to
+wonder that Stephen had listened to so much with patience and
+assent, and then, looking at the position of head and hands, he
+perceived that his brother was asleep, and came to a sudden halt.
+This roused Stephen to say, "Eh?  What?  The Dean, will he do aught
+for thee?"
+
+"Yea," said Ambrose, recollecting that there was little use in
+returning to the perplexities which Stephen could not enter into.
+"He deemed that in this mood of mine, yea, and as matters now be at
+the universities, I had best not as yet study there for the
+priesthood.  But he said he would commend me to a friend whose life
+would better show me how the new gives life to the old than any man
+he wots of."
+
+"One of thy old doctors in barnacles, I trow," said Stephen.
+
+"Nay, verily.  We saw him t'other night perilling his life to stop
+the poor crazy prentices, and save the foreigners.  Dennet and our
+uncle saw him pleading for them with the King."
+
+"What!  Sir Thomas More?"
+
+"Ay, no other.  He needs a clerk for his law matters, and the Dean
+said he would speak of me to him.  He is to sup at the Deanery to-
+morrow, and I am to be in waiting to see him.  I shall go with a
+lighter heart now that thou art beyond the clutches of the captain
+of Newgate."
+
+"Speak no more of that!" said Stephen, with a shudder.  "Would that
+I could forget it!"
+
+In truth Stephen's health had suffered enough to change the bold,
+high-spirited, active had, so that he hardly knew himself.  He was
+quite incapable of work all the next day, and Mistress Headley began
+to dread that he had brought home jail fever, and insisted on his
+being inspected by the barber-surgeon, Todd, who proceeded to bleed
+the patient, in order, as he said, to carry off the humours
+contracted in the prison.  He had done the same by Jasper Hope, and
+by Giles, but he followed the treatment up with better counsel,
+namely, that the lads should all be sent out of the City to some
+farm where they might eat curds and whey, until their strength
+should be restored.  Thus they would be out of reach of the sweating
+sickness which was already in some of the purlieus of St.
+Katharine's Docks, and must be specially dangerous in their lowered
+condition.
+
+Master Hope came in just after this counsel had been given.  He had
+a sister married to the host of a large prosperous inn near Windsor,
+and he proposed to send not only Jasper but Stephen thither, feeling
+how great a debt of gratitude he owed to the lad.  Remembering well
+the good young Mistress Streatfield, and knowing that the Antelope
+was a large old house of excellent repute, where she often lodged
+persons of quality attending on the court or needing country air,
+Master Headley added Giles to the party at his own expense, and
+wished also to send Dennet for greater security, only neither her
+grandmother nor Mrs. Hope could leave home.
+
+It ended, however, in Perronel Randall being asked to take charge of
+the whole party, including Aldonza.  That little damsel had been in
+a manner confided to her both by the Dean of St. Paul's and by
+Tibble Steelman--and indeed the motherly woman, after nursing and
+soothing her through her first despair at the loss of her father,
+was already loving her heartily, and was glad to give her a place in
+the home which Ambrose was leaving on being made an attendant on Sir
+Thomas More.
+
+For the interview at the Deanery was satisfactory.  The young man,
+after a good supper, enlivened by the sweet singing of some chosen
+pupils of St. Paul's school, was called up to where the Dean sat,
+and with him, the man of the peculiarly sweet countenance, with the
+noble and deep expression, yet withal, something both tender and
+humorous in it.
+
+They made him tell his whole life, and asked many questions about
+Abenali, specially about the fragment of Arabic scroll which had
+been clutched in his hand even as he lay dying.  They much regretted
+never having known of his existence till too late.  "Jewels lie
+before the unheeding!" said More.  Then Ambrose was called on to
+show a specimen of his own penmanship, and to write from Sir
+Thomas's dictation in English and in Latin.  The result was that he
+was engaged to act as one of the clerks Sir Thomas employed in his
+occupations alike as lawyer, statesman, and scholar.
+
+"Methinks I have seen thy face before," said Sir Thomas, looking
+keenly at him.  "I have beheld those black eyes, though with a
+different favour."
+
+Ambrose blushed deeply.  "Sir, it is but honest to tell you that my
+mother's brother is jester to my Lord Cardinal."
+
+"Quipsome Hal Merriman!  Patch as the King calleth him!" exclaimed
+Sir Thomas.  "A man I have ever thought wore the motley rather from
+excess, than infirmity, of wit."
+
+"Nay, sir, so please you, it was his good heart that made him a
+jester," said Ambrose, explaining the story of Randall and his
+Perronel in a few words, which touched the friends a good deal, and
+the Dean remembered that she was in charge of the little Moresco
+girl.  He lost nothing by dealing thus openly with his new master,
+who promised to keep his secret for him, then gave him handsel of
+his salary, and bade him collect his possessions, and come to take
+up his abode in the house of the More family at Chelsea.
+
+He would still often see his brother in the intervals of attending
+Sir Thomas to the courts of law, but the chief present care was to
+get the boys into purer air, both to expedite their recovery and to
+ensure them against being dragged into the penitential company who
+were to ask for their lives on the 22nd of May, consisting of such
+of the prisoners who could still stand or go--for jail-fever was
+making havoc among them, and some of the better-conditioned had been
+released by private interest.  The remainder, not more than half of
+the original two hundred and seventy-eight, were stripped to their
+shirts, had halters hung round their necks, and then, roped together
+as before, were driven through the streets to Westminster, where the
+King sat enthroned.  There, looking utterly miserable, they fell on
+their knees before him, and received his pardon for their
+misdemeanours.  They returned to their masters, and so ended that
+Ill May-day, which was the longer remembered because one Churchill,
+a ballad-monger in St. Paul's Churchyard, indited a poem on it,
+wherein he swelled the number of prentices to two thousand, and of
+the victims to two hundred.  Will Wherry, who escaped from among the
+prisoners very forlorn, was recommended by Ambrose to the work of a
+carter at the Dragon, which he much preferred to printing.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.  AT THE ANTELOPE
+
+
+
+"Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen
+   Full many a sprightly race,
+Disporting on thy margent green,
+   The paths of pleasure trace."
+--GRAY
+
+Master Hope took all the guests by boat to Windsor, and very soon
+the little party at the Antelope was in a state of such perfect
+felicity as became a proverb with them all their lives afterwards.
+It was an inn wherein to take one's ease, a large hostel full of
+accommodation for man and horse, with a big tapestried room of
+entertainment below, where meals were taken, with an oriel window
+with a view of the Round Tower, and above it a still more charming
+one, known as the Red Rose, because one of the Dukes of Somerset had
+been wont to lodge there.  The walls were tapestried with the story
+of St. Genoveva of Brabant, fresh and new on Mrs. Streatfield's
+marriage; there was a huge bed with green curtains of that dame's
+own work, where one might have said
+
+
+"Above, below, the rose of snow,
+Twined with her blushing foe we spread."
+
+
+so as to avoid all offence.  There was also a cupboard or sideboard
+of the choicer plate belonging to the establishment, and another
+awmry containing appliances for chess and backgammon, likewise two
+large chairs, several stools, and numerous chests.
+
+This apartment was given up to Mistress Randall and the two girls,
+subject however to the chance of turning out for any very
+distinguished guests.  The big bed held all three, and the chamber
+was likewise their sitting-room, though they took their meals down
+stairs, and joined the party in the common room in the evening
+whenever they were not out of doors, unless there were guests whom
+Perronel did not think desirable company for her charges.  Stephen
+and Giles were quartered in a small room known as the Feathers,
+smelling so sweet of lavender and woodruff that Stephen declared it
+carried him back to the Forest.  Mrs. Streatfield would have taken
+Jasper to tend among her children, but the boy could not bear to be
+without Stephen, and his brother advised her to let it be so, and
+not try to make a babe of him again.
+
+The guest-chamber below stairs opened at one end into the innyard, a
+quadrangle surrounded with stables, outhouses, and offices, with a
+gallery running round to give access to the chambers above, where,
+when the Court was at Windsor, two or three great men's trains of
+retainers might be crowded together.
+
+One door, however, in the side of the guest-chamber had steps down
+to an orchard, full of apple and pear trees in their glory of pink
+bud and white blossom, borders of roses, gillyflowers, and lilies of
+the valley running along under the grey walls.  There was a broad
+space of grass near the houses, whence could be seen the Round Tower
+of the Castle looking down in protection, while the background of
+the view was filled up with a mass of the foliage of Windsor forest,
+in the spring tints.
+
+Stephen never thought of its being beautiful, but he revelled in the
+refreshment of anything so like home, and he had nothing to wish for
+but his brother, and after all he was too contented and happy even
+to miss him much.
+
+Master Streatfield was an elderly man, fat and easygoing, to whom
+talking seemed rather a trouble than otherwise, though he was very
+good-natured.  His wife was a merry, lively, active woman, who had
+been handed over to him by her father like a piece of Flanders
+cambric, but who never seemed to regret her position, managed men
+and maids, farm and guests, kept perfect order without seeming to do
+so, and made great friends with Perronel, never guessing that she
+had been one of the strolling company, who, nine or ten years
+before, had been refused admission to the Antelope, then crowded
+with my Lord of Oxford's followers.
+
+At first, it was enough for the prentices to spend most of their
+time in lying about on the grass under the trees.  Giles, who was in
+the best condition, exerted himself so far as to try to learn chess
+from Aldonza, who seemed to be a proficient in the game, and even
+defeated the good-natured burly parson who came every evening to the
+Antelope, to imbibe slowly a tankard of ale, and hear any news there
+stirring.
+
+She and Giles were content to spend hours over her instructions in
+chess on that pleasant balcony in the shade of the house.  Though
+really only a year older than Dennet Headley, she looked much more,
+and was so in all her ways.  It never occurred to her to run
+childishly wild with delight in the garden and orchard as did
+Dennet, who, with little five-years-old Will Streatfield for her
+guide and playfellow, rushed about hither and thither, making
+acquaintance with hens and chickens, geese and goslings, seeing cows
+and goats milked, watching butter churned, bringing all manner of
+animal and vegetable curiosities to Stephen to be named and
+explained, and enjoying his delight in them, a delight which after
+the first few days became more and more vigorous.
+
+By and by there was punting and fishing on the river, strawberry
+gathering in the park, explorations of the forest, expeditions of
+all sorts and kinds, Jasper being soon likewise well enough to share
+in them.  The boys and girls were in a kind of fairy hand under
+Perronel's kind wing, the wandering habits of whose girlhood made
+the freedom of the country far more congenial to her than it would
+have been to any regular Londoner.
+
+Stephen was the great oracle, of course, as to the deer respectfully
+peeped at in the park, or the squirrels, the hares and rabbits, in
+the forest, and the inhabitants of the stream above or below.  It
+was he who secured and tamed the memorials of their visit--two
+starlings for Dennet and Aldonza.  The birds were to be taught to
+speak, and to do wonders of all kinds, but Aldonza's bird was found
+one morning dead, and Giles consoled her by the promise of something
+much bigger, and that would talk much better.  Two days after he
+brought her a young jackdaw.  Aldonza clasped her hands and admired
+its glossy back and queer blue eye, and was in transports when it
+uttered something between "Jack" and "good lack."  But Dennet looked
+in scorn at it, and said, "That's a bird tamed already.  He didn't
+catch it.  He only bought it!  I would have none such!  An ugsome
+great thieving bird!"
+
+"Nay now, Mistress Dennet," argued Perronel.  "Thou hast thy bird,
+and Alice has lost hers.  It is not meet to grudge it to her."
+
+"I!  Grudge it to her!" said Dennet, with a toss of the head.  "I
+grudge her nought from Giles Headley, so long as I have my Goldspot
+that Stephen climbed the wall for, his very self."
+
+And Dennet turned majestically away with her bird--Goldspot only in
+the future--perched on her finger; while Perronel shook her head
+bodingly.
+
+But they were all children still, and Aldonza was of a nature that
+was slow to take offence, while it was quite true that Dennet had
+been free from jealousy of the jackdaw, and only triumphant in
+Stephen's prowess and her own starling.
+
+The great pleasure of all was a grand stag-hunt, got up for the
+diversion of the French ambassadors, who had come to treat for the
+espousals of the infant Princess Mary with the baby "Dolphyne."
+Probably these illustrious personages did not get half the pleasure
+out of it that the Antelope party had.  Were they not, by special
+management of a yeoman pricker who had recognised in Stephen a
+kindred spirit, and had a strong admiration for Mistress Randall,
+placed where there was the best possible view of hunters, horses,
+and hounds, lords and ladies, King and ambassadors, in their
+gorgeous hunting trim?  Did not Stephen, as a true verdurer's son,
+interpret every note on the horn, and predict just what was going to
+happen, to the edification of all his hearers?  And when the final
+rush took place, did not the prentices, with their gowns rolled up,
+dart off headlong in pursuit?  Dennet entertained some hope that
+Stephen would again catch some runaway steed, or come to the King's
+rescue in some way or other, but such chances did not happen every
+day.  Nay, Stephen did not even follow up the chase to the death,
+but left Giles to do that, turning back forsooth because that little
+Jasper thought fit to get tired and out of breath, and could not
+find his way back alone.  Dennet was quite angry with Stephen and
+turned her back on him, when Giles came in all glorious, at having
+followed up staunchly all day, having seen the fate of the poor
+stag, and having even beheld the King politely hand the knife to
+Monsieur de Montmorency to give the first stroke to the quarry!
+
+That was the last exploit.  There was to be a great tilting match in
+honour of the betrothal, and Master Alderman Headley wanted his
+apprentices back again, and having been satisfied by a laborious
+letter from Dennet, sent per carrier, that they were in good health,
+despatched orders by the same means, that they were to hire horses
+at the Antelope and return--Jasper coming back at the same time,
+though his aunt would fain have kept him longer.
+
+Women on a journey almost always rode double, and the arrangement
+came under debate.  Perronel, well accustomed to horse, ass, or
+foot, undertook to ride behind the child, as she called Jasper, who-
+-as a born Londoner--knew nothing of horses, though both the other
+prentices did.  Giles, who, in right of his name, kindred, and
+expectations, always held himself a sort of master, declared that
+"it was more fitting that Stephen should ride before Mistiness
+Dennet."  And to this none of the party made any objection, except
+that Perronel privately observed to him that she should have thought
+he would have preferred the company of his betrothed.
+
+"I shall have quite enough of her by and by," returned Giles; then
+adding, "She is a good little wench, but it is more for her honour
+that her father's servant should ride before her."
+
+Perronel held her tongue, and they rode merrily back to London, and
+astonished their several homes by the growth and healthful looks of
+the young people.  Even Giles was grown, though he did not like to
+be told so, and was cherishing the down on his chin.  But the most
+rapid development had been in Aldonza, or Alice, as Perronel
+insisted on calling her to suit the ears of her neighbours.  The
+girl was just reaching the borderland of maidenhood, which came all
+the sooner to one of southern birth and extraction, when the great
+change took her from being her father's childish darling to be
+Perronel's companion and assistant.  She had lain down on that fatal
+May Eve a child, she rose in the little house by the Temple Gardens,
+a maiden, and a very lovely one, with delicate, refined, beautifully
+cut features of a slightly aquiline cast, a bloom on her soft
+brunette cheek, splendid dark liquid eyes shaded by long black
+lashes, under brows as regular and well arched as her Eastern
+cousins could have made them artificially, magnificent black hair,
+that could hardly be contained in the close white cap, and a lithe
+beautiful figure on which the plainest dress sat with an Eastern
+grace.  Perronel's neighbours did not admire her.  They were not
+sure whether she were most Saracen, gipsy, or Jew.  In fact, she was
+as like Rachel at the well as her father had been to a patriarch,
+and her descent was of the purest Saracen lineage, but a Christian
+Saracen was an anomaly the London mind could not comprehend, and her
+presence in the family tended to cast suspicion that Master Randall
+himself, with his gipsy eyes, and mysterious comings and goings,
+must have some strange connections.  For this, however, Perronel
+cared little.  She had made her own way for many years past, and had
+won respect and affection by many good offices to her neighbours,
+one of whom had taken her laundry work in her absence.
+
+Aldonza was by no means indocile or incapable.  She shared in
+Perronel's work without reluctance, making good use of her slender,
+dainty brown fingers, whether in cooking, household work, washing,
+ironing, plaiting, making or mending the stiff lawn collars and
+cuffs in which her hostess's business lay.  There was nothing that
+she would not do when asked, or when she saw that it would save
+trouble to good mother Perronel, of whom she was very fond, and she
+seemed serene and contented, never wanting to go abroad; but she was
+very silent, and Perronel declared herself never to have seen any
+living woman so perfectly satisfied to do nothing.  The good dame
+herself was industrious, not only from thrift but from taste, and if
+not busy in her vocation or in household business, was either using
+her distaff or her needle, or chatting with her neighbours--often
+doing both at once; but though Aldonza could spin, sew, and
+embroider admirably, and would do so at the least request from her
+hostess, it was always a sort of task, and she never seemed so happy
+as when seated on the floor, with her dark eyes dreamily fixed on
+the narrow window, where hung her jackdaw's cage, and the beads of
+her rosary passing through her fingers.  At first Mistress Randall
+thought she was praying, but by and by came to the conviction that
+most of the time "the wench was bemused."  There was nothing to
+complain of in one so perfectly gentle and obedient, and withal,
+modest and devout; but the good woman, after having for some time
+given her the benefit of the supposition that she was grieving for
+her father, began to wonder at such want of activity and animation,
+and to think that on the whole Jack was the more talkative
+companion.
+
+Aldonza had certainly not taught him the phrases he was so fond of
+repeating.  Giles Headley had undertaken his education, and made it
+a reason for stealing down to the Temple many an evening after work
+was done, declaring that birds never learnt so well as after dark.
+Moreover, he had possessed himself of a chess board, and insisted
+that Aldonza should carry on her instructions in the game; he
+brought her all his Holy Cross Day gain of nuts, and he used all his
+blandishments to persuade Mrs. Randall to come and see the shooting
+at the popinjay, at Mile End.
+
+All this made the good woman uneasy.  Her husband was away, for the
+dread of sweating sickness had driven the Court from London, and she
+could only take counsel with Tibble Steelman.  It was Hallowmas Eve,
+and Giles had been the bearer of an urgent invitation from Dennet to
+her friend Aldonza to come and join the diversions of the evening.
+There was a large number of young folk in the hall--Jasper Hope
+among them--mostly contemporaries of Dennet, and almost children,
+all keen upon the sports of the evening, namely, a sort of indoor
+quintain, where the revolving beam was decorated with a lighted
+candle at one end, and at the other an apple to be caught at by the
+players with their mouths, their hands being tied behind them.
+
+Under all the uproarious merriment that each attempt occasioned,
+Tibble was about to steal off to his own chamber and his beloved
+books, when, as he backed out of the group of spectators, he was
+arrested by Mistress Randall, who had made her way into the rear of
+the party at the same time.
+
+"Can I have a word with you, privily, Master Steelman?" she asked.
+
+Unwillingly he muttered, "Yea, so please you;" and they retreated to
+a window at the dark end of the hall, where Perronel began--"The
+alderman's daughter is contracted to young Giles, her kinsman, is
+she not?"
+
+"Not as yet in form, but by the will of the parents," returned
+Tibble, impatiently, as he thought of the half-hour's reading which
+he was sacrificing to woman's gossip.
+
+"An it be so," returned Perronel, "I would fain--were I Master
+Headley--that he spent not so many nights in gazing at mine Alice."
+
+"Forbid him the house, good dame."
+
+"Easier spoken than done," returned Perronel.  "Moreover, 'tis
+better to let the matter, such as it is, be open in my sight than to
+teach them to run after one another stealthily, whereby worse might
+ensue."
+
+"Have they spoken then to one another?" asked Tibble, beginning to
+take alarm.
+
+"I trow not.  I deem they know not yet what draweth them together."
+
+"Pish, they are mere babes!" quoth Tib, hoping he might cast it off
+his mind.
+
+"Look!" said Perronel; and as they stood on the somewhat elevated
+floor of the bay window, they could look over the heads of the other
+spectators to the seats where the young girls sat.
+
+Aldonza's beautiful and peculiar contour of head and face rose among
+the round chubby English faces like a jessamine among daisies, and
+at that moment she was undertaking, with an exquisite smile, the
+care of the gown that Giles laid at her feet, ere making his
+venture.
+
+"There!" said Perronel.  "Mark that look on her face!  I never see
+it save for that same youngster.  The children are simple and
+guileless thus far, it may be.  I dare be sworn that she is, but
+they wot not where they will be led on."
+
+"You are right, dame; you know best, no doubt," said Tib, in
+helpless perplexity.  "I wot nothing of such gear.  What would you
+do?"
+
+"Have the maid wedded at once, ere any harm come of it," returned
+Perronel promptly.  "She will make a good wife--there will be no
+complaining of her tongue, and she is well instructed in all good
+housewifery."
+
+"To whom then would you give her?" asked Tibble.
+
+"Ay, that's the question.  Comely and good she is, but she is
+outlandish, and I fear me 'twould take a handsome portion to get her
+dark skin and Moorish blood o'erlooked.  Nor hath she aught, poor
+maid, save yonder gold and pearl earrings, and a cross of gold that
+she says her father bade her never part with."
+
+"I pledged my word to her father," said Tibble, "that I would have a
+care of her.  I have not cared to hoard, having none to come after
+me, but if a matter of twenty or five-and-twenty marks would avail--
+"
+
+"Wherefore not take her yourself?" said Perronel, as he stood
+aghast.  "She is a maid of sweet obedient conditions, trained by a
+scholar even like yourself.  She would make your chamber fair and
+comfortable, and tend you dutifully."
+
+"Whisht, good woman.  'Tis too dark to see, or you could not speak
+of wedlock to such as I.  Think of the poor maid!"
+
+"That is all folly!  She would soon know you for a better husband
+than one of those young feather-pates, who have no care but of
+themselves."
+
+"Nay, mistress," said Tibble, gravely, "your advice will not serve
+here.  To bring that fair young wench hither, to this very court,
+mind you, with a mate loathly to behold as I be, and with the lad
+there ever before her, would be verily to give place to the devil."
+
+"But you are the best sword-cutler in London.  You could make a
+living without service."
+
+"I am bound by too many years of faithful kindness to quit my master
+or my home at the Dragon," said Tibble.  "Nay, that will not serve,
+good friend."
+
+"Then what can be done?" asked Perronel, somewhat in despair.
+"There are the young sparks at the Temple.  One or two of them are
+already beginning to cast eyes at her, so that I dare not let her
+help me carry home my basket, far less go alone.  'Tis not the
+wench's fault.  She shrinks from men's eyes more than any maid I
+ever saw, but if she bide long with me, I wot not what may come of
+it.  There be rufflers there who would not stick to carry her off!"
+
+Tibble stood considering, and presently said, "Mayhap the Dean might
+aid thee in this matter.  He is free of hand and kind of heart, and
+belike he would dower the maid, and find an honest man to wed her."
+
+Perronel thought well of the suggestion, and decided that after the
+mass on All Soul's Day, and the general visiting of the graves of
+kindred, she would send Aldonza home with Dennet, whom they were
+sure to meet in the Pardon Churchyard, since her mother, as well as
+Abenali and Martin Fulford lay there; and herself endeavour to see
+Dean Colet, who was sure to be at home, as he was hardly recovered
+from an attack of the prevalent disorder.
+
+Then Tibble escaped, and Perronel drew near to the party round the
+fire, where the divination of the burning of nuts was going on, but
+not successfully, since no pair hitherto put in would keep together.
+However, the next contribution was a snail, which had been captured
+on the wall, and was solemnly set to crawl on the hearth by Dennet,
+"to see whether it would trace a G or an H."
+
+However, the creature proved sullen or sleepy, and no jogging of
+hands, no enticing, would induce it to crawl an inch, and the
+alderman, taking his daughter on his knee, declared that it was a
+wise beast, who knew her hap was fixed.  Moreover, it was time for
+the rere supper, for the serving-men with the lanterns would be
+coming for the young folk.
+
+London entertainments for women or young people had to finish very
+early unless they had a strong escort to go home with, for the
+streets were far from safe after dark.  Giles's great desire to
+convoy her home, added to Perronel's determination, and on All
+Souls' Day, while knells were ringing from every church in London,
+she roused Aldonza from her weeping devotions at her father's grave,
+and led her to Dennet, who had just finished her round of prayers at
+the grave of the mother she had never known, under the protection of
+her nurse, and two or three of the servants.  The child, who had
+thought little of her mother, while her grandmother was alert and
+supplied the tenderness and care she needed, was beginning to yearn
+after counsel and sympathy, and to wonder, as she told her beads,
+what might have been, had that mother lived.  She took Aldonza's
+hand, and the two girls threaded their way out of the crowded
+churchyard together, while Perronel betook herself to the Deanery of
+St. Paul's.
+
+Good Colet was always accessible to the meanest, but he had been
+very ill, and the porter had some doubts about troubling him
+respecting the substantial young matron whose trim cap and bodice,
+and full petticoats, showed no tokens of distress.  However, when
+she begged him to take in her message, that she prayed the Dean to
+listen to her touching the child of the old man who was slain on May
+Eve, he consented; and she was at once admitted to an inner chamber,
+where Colet, wrapped in a gown lined with lambskin, sat by the fire,
+looking so wan and feeble that it went to the good woman's heart and
+she began by an apology for troubling him.
+
+"Heed not that, good dame," said the Dean, courteously, "but sit
+thee down and let me hear of the poor child."
+
+"Ah, reverend sir, would that she were still a child--" and Perronel
+proceeded to tell her difficulties, adding, that if the Dean could
+of his goodness promise one of the dowries which were yearly given
+to poor maidens of good character, she would inquire among her
+gossips for some one to marry the girl.  She secretly hoped he would
+take the hint, and immediately portion Aldonza himself, perhaps
+likewise find the husband.  And she was disappointed that he only
+promised to consider the matter and let her hear from him.  She went
+back and told Tibble that his device was nought, an old scholar with
+one foot in the grave knew less of women than even he did!
+
+However it was only four days later, that, as Mrs. Randall was
+hanging out her collars to dry, there came up to her from the Temple
+stairs a figure whom for a moment she hardly knew, so different was
+the long, black garb, and short gown of the lawyer's clerk from the
+shabby old green suit that all her endeavours had not been able to
+save from many a stain of printer's ink.  It was only as he
+exclaimed, "Good aunt, I am fain to see thee here!" that she
+answered, "What, thou, Ambrose!  What a fine fellow thou art!  Truly
+I knew not thou wast of such good mien!  Thou thrivest at Chelsea!"
+
+"Who would not thrive there?" said Ambrose.  "Nay, aunt, tarry a
+little, I have a message for thee that I would fain give before we
+go in to Aldonza."
+
+"From his reverence the Dean?  Hath he bethought himself of her?"
+
+"Ay, that hath he done," said Ambrose.  "He is not the man to halt
+when good may be done.  What doth he do, since it seems thou hadst
+speech of him, but send for Sir Thomas More, then sitting at
+Westminster, to come and see him as soon as the Court brake up, and
+I attended my master.  They held council together, and by and by
+they sent for me to ask me of what conditions and breeding the maid
+was, and what I knew of her father?"
+
+"Will they wed her to thee?  That were rarely good, so they gave
+thee some good office!" cried his aunt.
+
+"Nay, nay," said Ambrose.  "I have much to learn and understand ere
+I think of a wife--if ever.  Nay!  But when they had heard all I
+could tell them, they looked at one another, and the Dean said, 'The
+maid is no doubt of high blood in her own land--scarce a mate for a
+London butcher or currier."
+
+"'It were matching an Arab mare with a costard monger's colt,' said
+my master, 'or Angelica with Ralph Roisterdoister.'"
+
+"I'd like to know what were better for the poor outlandish maid than
+to give her to some honest man," put in Perronel.
+
+"The end of it was," said Ambrose, "that Sir Thomas said he was to
+be at the palace the next day, and he would strive to move the Queen
+to take her countrywoman into her service.  Yea, and so he did, but
+though Queen Katharine was moved by hearing of a fatherless maid of
+Spain, and at first spake of taking her to wait on herself, yet when
+she heard the maid's name, and that she was of Moorish blood, she
+would none of her.  She said that heresy lurked in them all, and
+though Sir Thomas offered that the Dean or the Queen's own chaplain
+should question her on the faith, it was all lost labour.  I heard
+him tell the Dean as much, and thus it is that they bade me come for
+thee, and for the maid, take boat, and bring you down to Chelsea,
+where Sir Thomas will let her be bred up to wait on his little
+daughters till he can see what best may be done for her.  I trow his
+spirit was moved by the Queen's hardness!  I heard the Dean mutter,
+'Et venient ab Oriente et Occidente.'"
+
+Perronel hooked alarmed.  "The Queen deemed her heretic in grain!
+Ah!  She is a good wench, and of kind conditions.  I would have no
+ill befall her, but I am glad to be rid of her.  Sir Thomas--he is a
+wise man, ay, and a married man, with maidens of his own, and he may
+have more wit in the business than the rest of his kind.  Be the
+matter instant?"
+
+"Methinks Sir Thomas would have it so, since this being a holy day,
+the courts be not sitting, and he is himself at home, so that he can
+present the maid to his lady.  And that makes no small odds."
+
+"Yea, but what the lady is makes the greater odds to the maid, I
+trow," said Perronel anxiously.
+
+"Fear not on that score.  Dame Alice More is of kindly conditions,
+and will be good to any whom her lord commends to her; and as to the
+young ladies, never saw I any so sweet or so wise as the two elder
+ones, specially Mistress Margaret."
+
+"Well-a-day!  What must be must!" philosophically observed Perronel.
+"Now I have my wish, I could mourn over it.  I am loth to part with
+the wench; and my man, when he comes home, will make an outcry for
+his pretty Ally; but 'tis best so.  Come, Alice, girl, bestir
+thyself.  Here's preferment for thee."
+
+Aldonza raised her great soft eyes in slow wonder, and when she had
+heard what was to befall her, declared that she wanted no
+advancement, and wished only to remain with mother Perronel.  Nay,
+she clung to the kind woman, beseeching that she might not be sent
+away from the only motherly tenderness she had ever known, and
+declaring that she would work all day and all night rather than
+leave her; but the more reluctance she showed, the more determined
+was Perronel, and she could not but submit to her fate, only adding
+one more entreaty that she might take her jackdaw, which was now a
+spruce grey-headed bird.  Perronel said it would be presumption in a
+waiting-woman, but Ambrose declared that at Chelsea there were all
+manner of beasts and birds, beloved by the children and by their
+father himself, and that he believed the daw would be welcome.  At
+any rate, if the lady of the house objected to it, it could return
+with Mistress Randall.
+
+Perronel hurried the few preparations, being afraid that Giles might
+take advantage of the holiday to appear on the scene, and presently
+Aldonza was seated in the boat, making no more lamentations after
+she found that her fate was inevitable, but sitting silent, with
+downcast head, now and then brushing away a stray tear as it stole
+down under her long eyelashes.
+
+Meantime Ambrose, hoping to raise her spirits, talked to his aunt of
+the friendly ease and kindliness of the new home, where he was
+evidently as thoroughly happy as it was in his nature to be.  He was
+much, in the position of a barrister's clerk, superior to that of
+the mere servants, but inferior to the young gentlemen of larger
+means, though not perhaps of better birth, who had studied law
+regularly, and aspired to offices or to legal practice.
+
+But though Ambrose was ranked with the three or four other clerks,
+his functions had more relation to Sir Thomas's literary and
+diplomatic avocations than his legal ones.  From Lucas Hansen he had
+learnt Dutch and French, and he was thus available for copying and
+translating foreign correspondence.  His knowledge of Latin and
+smattering of Greek enabled him to be employed in copying into a
+book some of the inestimable letters of Erasmus which arrived from
+time to time, and Sir Thomas promoted his desire to improve himself,
+and had requested Mr. Clements, the tutor of the children of the
+house, to give him weekly lessons in Latin and Greek.
+
+Sir Thomas had himself pointed out to him books calculated to settle
+his mind on the truth and catholicity of the Church, and had warned
+him against meddling with the fiery controversial tracts which,
+smuggled in often through Lucas's means, had set his mind in
+commotion.  And for the present at least beneath the shadow of the
+great man's intelligent devotion, Ambrose's restless spirit was
+tranquil.
+
+Of course, he did not explain his state of mind to his aunt, but she
+gathered enough to be well content, and tried to encourage Aldonza,
+when at length they landed near Chelsea Church, and Ambrose led the
+way to an extensive pleasaunce or park, full of elms and oaks, whose
+yellow leaves were floating like golden rain in the sunshine.
+
+Presently children's voices guided them to a large chestnut tree.
+"Lo you now, I hear Mistress Meg's voice, and where she is, his
+honour will ever be," said Ambrose.
+
+And sure enough, among a group of five girls and one boy, all
+between fourteen and nine years old, was the great lawyer, knocking
+down the chestnuts with a long pole, while the young ones flew about
+picking up the burrs from the grass, exclaiming joyously when they
+found a full one.
+
+Ambrose explained that of the young ladies, one was Mistress
+Middleton, Lady More's daughter by a former marriage, another a
+kinswoman.  Perronel was for passing by unnoticed; but Ambrose knew
+better; and Sir Thomas, leaning on the pole, called out, "Ha, my
+Birkenholt, a forester born, knowst thou any mode of bringing down
+yonder chestnuts, which being the least within reach, seem in course
+the meetest of all."
+
+"I would I were my brother, your honour," said Ambrose, "then would
+I climb the thee."
+
+"Thou shouldst bring him one of these days," said Sir Thomas.  "But
+thou hast instead brought in a fair maid.  See, Meg, yonder is the
+poor young girl who lost her father on Ill May day.  Lead her on and
+make her good cheer, while I speak to this good dame."
+
+Margaret More, a slender, dark-eyed girl of thirteen, went forward
+with a peculiar gentle grace to the stranger, saying, "Welcome,
+sweet maid!  I hope we shall make thee happy," and seeing the
+mournful countenance, she not only took Aldonza's hand, but kissed
+her cheek.
+
+Sir Thomas had exchanged a word or two with Perronel, when there was
+a cry from the younger children, who had detected the wicker cage
+which Perronel was trying to keep in the background.
+
+"A daw! a daw!" was the cry.  "Is't for us?"
+
+"Oh, mistress," faltered Aldonza, "'tis mine--there was one who
+tamed it for me, and I promised ever to keep it, but if the good
+knight and lady forbid it, we will send it back."
+
+"Nay now, John, Cicely," was Margaret saying, "'tis her own bird!
+Wot ye not our father will let us take nought of them that come to
+him?  Yea, Al-don-za--is not that thy name?--I am sure my father
+will have thee keep it."
+
+She led up Aldonza, making the request for her.  Sir Thomas smiled.
+
+"Keep thy bird?  Nay, that thou shalt.  Look at him, Meg, is he not
+in fit livery for a lawyer's house?  Mark his trim legs, sable
+doublet and hose, and grey hood--and see, he hath the very eye of a
+councillor seeking for suits, as he looketh at the chestnuts John
+holdeth to him.  I warrant he hath a tongue likewise.  Canst plead
+for thy dinner, bird?"
+
+"I love Giles!" uttered the black beak, to the confusion and
+indignation of Perronel.
+
+The perverse bird had heard Giles often dictate this avowal, but had
+entirely refused to repeat it, till, stimulated by the new
+surroundings, it had for the first time uttered it.
+
+"Ah! thou foolish daw!  Crow that thou art!  Had I known thou hadst
+such a word in thy beak, I'd have wrung thy neck sooner than have
+brought thee," muttered Perronel.  "I had best take thee home
+without more ado."
+
+It was too late, however, the children were delighted, and perfectly
+willing that Aldonza should own the bird, so they might hear it
+speak, and thus the introduction was over.  Aldonza and her daw were
+conveyed to Dame Alice More, a stout, good-tempered woman, who had
+too many dependents about her house to concern herself greatly about
+the introduction of another.
+
+And thus Aldonza was installed in the long, low, two-storied red
+house which was to be her place of home-like service.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.  CLOTH OF GOLD ON THE SEAMY SIDE
+
+
+
+      "Then you lost
+The view of earthly glory:  men might say
+Till this time pomp was single; but now married
+To one above itself."--SHAKESPEARE.
+
+If Giles Headley murmured at Aldonza's removal, it was only to
+Perronel, and that discreet woman kept it to herself.
+
+In the summer of 1519 he was out of his apprenticeship, and though
+Dennet was only fifteen, it was not uncommon for brides to be even
+younger.  However, the autumn of that year was signalised by a fresh
+outbreak of the sweating sickness, apparently a sort of influenza,
+and no festivities could be thought of.  The King and Queen kept at
+a safe distance from London, and escaped, so did the inmates of the
+pleasant house at Chelsea; but the Cardinal, who, as Lord
+Chancellor, could not entirely absent himself from Westminster, was
+four times attacked by it, and Dean Colet, a far less robust man,
+had it three times, and sank at last under it.  Sir Thomas More went
+to see his beloved old friend, and knowing Ambrose's devotion, let
+the young man be his attendant.  Nor could those who saw the good
+man ever forget his peaceful farewells, grieving only for the old
+mother who had lived with him in the Deanery, and in the ninetieth
+year of her age, thus was bereaved of the last of her twenty-one
+children.  For himself, he was thankful to be taken away from the
+evil times he already beheld threatening his beloved St. Paul's, as
+well as the entire Church both in England and abroad; looking back
+with a sad sweet smile to the happy Oxford days, when he, with More
+and Erasmus,
+
+
+"Strained the watchful eye
+If chance the golden hours were nigh
+By youthful hope seen gleaming round her walls."
+
+
+"But," said he, as he laid his hand in blessing for the last time on
+Ambrose's head, "let men say what they will, do thou cling fast to
+the Church, nor let thyself be swept away.  There are sure promises
+to her, and grace is with her to purify herself, even though it be
+obscured for a time.  Be not of little faith, but believe that
+Christ is with us in the ship, though He seem to be asleep."
+
+He spoke as much to his friend as to the youth, and there can be no
+doubt that this consideration was the restraining force with many
+who have been stigmatised as half-hearted Reformers, because though
+they loved truth, they feared to lose unity.
+
+He was a great loss at that especial time, as a restraining power,
+trusted by the innovators, and a personal friend both of King and
+Cardinal, and his preaching and catechising were sorely missed at
+St. Paul's.
+
+Tibble Steelman, though thinking he did not go far enough, deplored
+him deeply; but Tibble himself was laid by for many days.  The
+epidemic went through the Dragon court, though some had it lightly,
+and only two young children actually died of it.  It laid a heavy
+hand on Tibble, and as his distaste for women rendered his den
+almost inaccessible to Bet Smallbones, who looked after most of the
+patients, Stephen Birkenholt, whose nursing capacities had been
+developed in Newgate, spent his spare hours in attending him, sat
+with him in the evenings, slept on a pallet by his side, carried him
+his meals and often administered them, and finally pulled him
+through the illness and its effects, which left him much broken and
+never likely to be the same man again.
+
+Old Mistress Headley, who was already failing, did not have the
+actual disease severely, but she never again left her bed, and died
+just after Christmas, sinking slowly away with little pain, and her
+memory having failed from the first.
+
+Household affairs had thus shipped so gradually into Dennet's hands
+that no change of government was perceptible, except that the keys
+hung at the maiden's girdle.  She had grown out of the child during
+this winter of trouble, and was here, there, and everywhere, the
+busy nurse and housewife, seldom pausing to laugh or play except
+with her father, and now and then to chat with her old friend and
+playfellow, Kit Smallbones.  Her childish freedom of manner had
+given way to grave discretion, not to say primness, in her behaviour
+to her father's guests, and even the apprentices.  It was, of
+course, the unconscious reaction of the maidenly spirit, aware that
+she had nothing but her own modesty to protect her.  She was on a
+small scale, with no pretensions to beauty, but with a fresh,
+honest, sensible young face, a clear skin, and dark eyes that could
+be very merry when she would let them, and her whole air and dress
+were trimness itself, with an inclination to the choicest materials
+permitted to an alderman's daughter.
+
+Things were going on so smoothly that the alderman was taken by
+surprise when all the good wives around began to press on him that
+it was incumbent on him to lose no time in marrying his daughter to
+her cousin, if not before Lent, yet certainly in the Easter
+holidays.
+
+Dennet looked very grave thereon.  Was it not over soon after the
+loss of the good grandmother?  And when her father said, as the
+gossips had told him, that she and Giles need only walk quietly down
+some morning to St Faith's and plight their troth, she broke out
+into her girlish wilful manner, "Would she be married at all without
+a merry wedding?  No, indeed!  She would not have the thing done in
+a corner!  What was the use of her being wedded, and having to
+consort with the tedious old wives instead of the merry wrenches?
+Could she not guide the house, and rule the maids, and get in the
+stores, and hinder waste, and make the pasties, and brew the
+possets?  Had her father found the crust hard, or missed his roasted
+crab, or had any one blamed her for want of discretion?  Nay, as to
+that, she was like to be more discreet as she was, with only her
+good old father to please, than with a husband to plague her."
+
+On the other hand, Giles's demeanour was rather that of one prepared
+for the inevitable than that of an eager bridegroom; and when orders
+began to pour in for accoutrements of unrivalled magnificence for
+the King and the gentlemen who were to accompany him to Ardres,
+there to meet the young King of France just after Whitsuntide,
+Dennet was the first to assure her father that there would be no
+time to think of weddings till all this was over, especially as some
+of the establishment would have to be in attendance to repair
+casualties at the jousts.
+
+At this juncture there arrived on business Master Tiptoff, husband
+to Giles's sister, bringing greetings from Mrs. Headley at
+Salisbury, and inquiries whether the wedding was to take place at
+Whitsuntide, in which case she would hasten to be present, and to
+take charge of the household, for which her dear daughter was far
+too young.  Master Tiptoff showed a suspicious alacrity in
+undertaking the forwarding of his mother-in-law and her stuff.
+
+The faces of Master Headley and Tib Steelman were a sight, both
+having seen only too much of what the housewifery at Salisbury had
+been.  The alderman decided on the spot that there could be no
+marriage till after the journey to France, since Giles was certainly
+to go upon it; and lest Mrs. Headley should be starting on her
+journey, he said he should despatch a special messenger to stay her.
+Giles, who had of course been longing for the splendid pageant,
+cheered up into great amiability, and volunteered to write to his
+mother, that she had best not think of coming, till he sent word to
+her that matters were forward.  Even thus, Master Headley was
+somewhat insecure.  He thought the dame quite capable of coming and
+taking possession of his house in his absence, and therefore
+resolved upon staying at home to garrison it; but there was then the
+further difficulty that Tibble was in no condition to take his place
+on the journey.  If the rheumatism seized his right arm, as it had
+done in the winter, he would be unable to drive a rivet, and there
+would be every danger of it, high summer though it were; for though
+the party would carry their own tent and bedding, the knights and
+gentlemen would be certain to take all the best places, and they
+might be driven into a damp corner.  Indeed it was not impossible
+that their tent itself might be seized, for many a noble or his
+attendants might think that beggarly artisans had no right to
+comforts which he had been too improvident to afford, especially if
+the alderman himself were absent.
+
+Not only did Master Headley really love his trusty foreman too well
+to expose him to such chances, but Tibble knew too well that there
+were brutal young men to whom his contorted-visage would be an
+incitement to contempt and outrage, and that if racked with
+rheumatism, he would only be an incumbrance.  There was nothing for
+it but to put Kit Smallbones at the head of the party.  His imposing
+presence would keep off wanton insults, but on the other hand, he
+had not the moral weight of authority possessed by Tibble, and
+though far from being a drunkard, he was not proof against a
+carouse, especially when out of reach of his Bet and of his master,
+and he was not by any means Tib's equal in fine and delicate
+workmanship.  But on the other hand, Tib pronounced that Stephen
+Birkenholt was already well skilled in chasing metal and the
+difficult art of restoring inlaid work, and he showed some black and
+silver armour, that was in hand for the King, which fully bore out
+his words.
+
+"And thou thinkst Kit can rule the lads!" said the alderman, scarce
+willingly.
+
+"One of them at least can rule himself," said Tibble.  "They have
+both been far more discreet since the fright they got on Ill May
+day; and, as for Stephen, he hath seemed to me to have no eyes nor
+thought save for his work of late."
+
+"I have marked him," said the master, "and have marvelled what ailed
+the lad.  His merry temper hath left him.  I never hear him singing
+to keep time with his hammer, nor keeping the court in a roar with
+his gibes.  I trust he is not running after the new doctrine of the
+hawkers and pedlars.  His brother was inclined that way."
+
+"There be worse folk than they, your worship," protested Tib, but he
+did not pursue their defence, only adding, "but 'tis not that which
+ails young Stephen.  I would it were!" he sighed to himself,
+inaudibly.
+
+"Well," said the good-natured alderman, "it may be he misseth his
+brother.  The boys will care for this raree-show more than thou or
+I, Tib!  We've seen enough of them in our day, though verily they
+say this is to surpass all that ever were beheld!"
+
+The question of who was to go had not been hitherto decided, and
+Giles and Stephen were both so excited at being chosen that all low
+spirits and moodiness were dispelled, and the work which went on
+almost all night was merrily got through.  The Dragon court was in a
+perpetual commotion with knights, squires, and grooms, coming in
+with orders for new armour, or for old to be furbished, and the
+tent-makers, lorimers, mercers, and tailors had their hands equally
+full.  These lengthening mornings heard the hammer ringing at
+sunrise, and in the final rush, Smallbones never went to bed at all.
+He said he should make it up in the waggon on the way to Dover.
+Some hinted that he preferred the clang of his hammer to the good
+advice his Bet lavished on him at every leisure moment to forewarn
+him against French wine-pots.
+
+The alderman might be content with the party he sent forth, for Kit
+had hardly his equal in size, strength, and good humour.  Giles had
+developed into a tall, comely young man, who had got rid of his
+country slouch, and whose tall figure, light locks, and ruddy cheeks
+looked well in the new suit which gratified his love of finery,
+sober-hued as it needs must be.  Stephen was still bound to the old
+prentice garb, though it could not conceal his good mien, the bright
+sparkling dark eyes, crisp black hair, healthy brown skin, and lithe
+active figure.  Giles had a stout roadster to ride on, the others
+were to travel in their own waggon, furnished with four powerful
+horses, which, if possible, they were to take to Calais, so as to be
+independent of hiring.  Their needments, clothes, and tools, were
+packed in the waggon, with store of lances, and other appliances of
+the tourney.  A carter and Will Wherry, who was selected as being
+supposed to be conversant with foreign tongues, were to attend on
+them; Smallbones, as senior journeyman, had the control of the
+party, and Giles had sufficiently learnt subordination not to be
+likely to give himself dangerous airs of mastership.
+
+Dennet was astir early to see them off, and she had a little gift
+for each.  She began with her oldest friend.  "See here, Kit," she
+said, "here's a wallet to hold thy nails and rivets.  What wilt thou
+say to me for such a piece of stitchery?"
+
+"Say, pretty mistress?  Why this!" quoth the giant, and he picked
+her up by the slim waist in his great hands, and kissed her on the
+forehead.  He had done the like many a time nine or ten years ago,
+and though Master Headley laughed, Dennet was not one bit
+embarrassed, and turned to the next traveller.  "Thou art no more a
+prentice, Giles, and canst wear this in thy bonnet," she said,
+holding out to him a short silver chain and medal of St. George and
+the Dragon.
+
+"Thanks, gentle maid," said Giles, taking the handsome gift a little
+sheepishly.  "My bonnet will make a fair show," and he bent down as
+she stood on the step, and saluted her lips, then began eagerly
+fastening the chain round his cap, as one delighted with the
+ornament.
+
+Stephen was some distance off.  He had turned aside when she spoke
+to Giles, and was asking of Tibble last instructions about the
+restoration of enamel, when he felt a touch on his arm, and saw
+Dennet standing by him.  She looked up in his face, and held up a
+crimson silken purse, with S. B embroidered on it with a wreath of
+oak and holly leaves.
+
+With the air that ever showed his gentle blood, Stephen put a knee
+to the ground, and kissed the fingers that held it to him, whereupon
+Dennet, a sudden burning blush overspreading her face under her
+little pointed hood, turned suddenly round and ran into the house.
+She was out again on the steps when the waggon finally got under
+weigh, and as her eyes met Stephen's, he doffed his flat cap with
+one hand, and laid the other on his heart, so that she knew where
+her purse had taken up its abode.
+
+Of the Field of the Cloth of Gold not much need be said.  To the end
+of the lives of the spectators, it was a tale of wonder.  Indeed
+without that, the very sight of the pavilions was a marvel in
+itself, the blue dome of Francis spangled in imitation of the sky,
+with sun, moon, and stars; and the feudal castle of Henry, a three
+months' work, each surrounded with tents of every colour and pattern
+which fancy could devise, with the owners' banners or pennons
+floating from the summits, and every creature, man, and horse,
+within the enchanted precincts, equally gorgeous.  It was the
+brightest and the last full display of magnificent pseudo chivalry,
+and to Stephen's dazzled eye, seeing it beneath the slant rays of
+the setting sun of June, it was a fairy tale come to life.  Hal
+Randall, who was in attendance on the Cardinal, declared that it was
+a mere surfeit of jewels and gold and silver, and that a frieze
+jerkin or leathern coat was an absolute refreshment to the sight.
+He therefore spent all the time he was off duty in the forge far in
+the rear, where Smallbones and his party had very little but hard
+work, mending, whetting, furbishing, and even changing devices.
+Those six days of tilting when "every man that stood, showed like a
+mine," kept the armourers in full occupation night and day, and only
+now and then could the youths try to make their way to some spot
+whence they could see the tournament.
+
+Smallbones was more excited by the report of fountains of good red
+and white wines of all sorts, flowing perpetually in the court of
+King Henry's splended mock castle; but fortunately one gulp was
+enough for an English palate nurtured on ale and mead, and he was
+disgusted at the heaps of country folk, men-at-arms, beggars and
+vagabonds of all kinds, who swilled the liquor continually, and, in
+loathsome contrast to the external splendours, lay wallowing on the
+ground so thickly that it was sometimes hardly possible to move
+without treading on them.
+
+"I stumbled over a dozen," said the jester, as he strolled into the
+little staked inclosure that the Dragon party had arranged round
+their tent for the prosecution of their labours, which were too
+important to all the champions not to be respected.  "Lance and
+sword have not laid so many low in the lists as have the doughty
+Baron Burgundy and the heady knight Messire Sherris Sack."
+
+"Villain Verjuice and Varlet Vinegar is what Kit there calls them,"
+said Stephen, looking up from the work he was carrying on over a pan
+of glowing charcoal.
+
+"Yea," said Smallbones, intermitting his noisy operations, "and the
+more of swine be they that gorge themselves on it.  I told Jack and
+Hob that 'twould be shame for English folk to drown themselves like
+French frogs or Flemish hogs."
+
+"Hogs!" returned Randall.  "A decent Hampshire hog would scorn to be
+lodged as many a knight and squire and lady too is now, pigging it
+in styes and hovels and haylofts by night, and pranking it by day
+with the best!"
+
+"Sooth enough," said Smallbones.  "Yea, we have had two knights and
+their squires beseeching us for leave to sleep under our waggon!
+Not an angel had they got among the four of them either, having all
+their year's income on their backs, and more too.  I trow they and
+their heirs will have good cause to remember this same Field of
+Gold."
+
+"And what be'st thou doing, nevvy?" asked the jester.  "Thy trade
+seems as brisk as though red blood were flowing instead of red
+wine."
+
+"I am doing my part towards making the King into Hercules," said
+Stephen, "though verily the tailor hath more part therein than we
+have; but he must needs have a breastplate of scales of gold, and
+that by to-morrow's morn.  As Ambrose would say, 'if he will be a
+pagan god, he should have what's-his-name, the smith of the gods, to
+work for him.'"
+
+"I heard of that freak," said the jester.  "There be a dozen tailors
+and all the Queen's tirewomen frizzling up a good piece of cloth of
+gold for the lion's mane, covering a club with green damask with
+pricks, cutting out green velvet and gummed silk for his garland!
+In sooth, these graces have left me so far behind in foolery that I
+have not a jest left in my pouch!  So here I be, while my Lord
+Cardinal is shut up with Madame d'Angouleme in the castle--the real
+old castle, mind you--doing the work, leaving the kings and queens
+to do their own fooling."
+
+"Have you spoken with the French King, Hal?" asked Smallbones, who
+had become a great crony of his, since the anxieties of May Eve.
+
+"So far as I may when I have no French, and he no English!  He is a
+comely fellow, with a blithe tongue and a merry eye, I warrant you a
+chanticleer who will lose nought for lack of crowing.  He'll crow
+louder than ever now he hath given our Harry a fall."
+
+"No! hath he?" and Giles, Stephen, and Smallbones, all suspended
+their work to listen in concern.
+
+"Ay marry, hath he!  The two took it into their royal noddles to try
+a fall, and wrestled together on the grass, when by some ill hap,
+this same Francis tripped up our Harry, so that he was on the sward
+for a moment.  He was up again forthwith, and in full heart for
+another round, when all the Frenchmen burst in gabbling; and, though
+their King was willing to play the match out fairly, they wouldn't
+let him, and my Lord Cardinal said something about making ill blood,
+whereat our King laughed and was content to leave it.  As I told
+him, we have given the French falls enough to let them make much of
+this one."
+
+"I hope he will yet give the mounseer a good shaking," muttered
+Smallbones.
+
+"How now, Will!  Who's that at the door?  We are on his grace's work
+and can touch none other man's were it the King of France himself,
+or his Constable, who is finer still."
+
+By way of expressing "No admittance except on business," Smallbones
+kept Will Wherry in charge of the door of his little territory,
+which having a mud wall on two sides, and a broad brook with quaking
+banks on a third, had been easily fenced on the fourth, so as to
+protect tent, waggon, horses, and work from the incursions of
+idlers.  Will however answered, "The gentleman saith he hath kindred
+here."
+
+"Ay!" and there pushed in, past the lad a tall, lean form, with a
+gay but soiled short cloak over one shoulder, a suit of worn buff, a
+cap garnished with a dilapidated black and yellow feather, and a
+pair of gilt spurs.  "If this be as they told me, where Armourer
+Headley's folk lodge--I have here a sort of a cousin.  Yea, yonder's
+the brave lad who had no qualms at the flash of a good Toledo in a
+knight's fist.  How now, my nevvy!  Is not my daughter's nevvy--
+mine?"
+
+"Save your knighthood!" said Smallbones.  "Who would have looked to
+see you here, Sir John?  Methought you were in the Emperor's
+service!"
+
+"A stout man-at-arms is of all services," returned Fulford.  "I'm
+here with half Flanders to see this mighty show, and pick up a few
+more lusty Badgers at this encounter of old comrades.  Is old
+Headley here?"
+
+"Nay, he is safe at home, where I would I were," sighed Kit.
+
+"And you are my young master his nephew, who knew where to purvey me
+of good steel," added Fulford, shaking Giles's hand.  "You are fain,
+doubtless, you youngsters, to be forth without the old man.  Ha! and
+you've no lack of merry company."
+
+Harry Randall's first impulse had been to look to the right and left
+for the means of avoiding this encounter, but there was no escape;
+and he was moreover in most fantastic motley, arrayed in one of the
+many suits provided for the occasion.  It was in imitation of a
+parrot, brilliant grass-green velvet, touched here and there with
+scarlet, yellow, or blue.  He had been only half disguised on the
+occasion of Fulford's visit to his wife, and he perceived the start
+of recognition in the eyes of the Condottiere, so that he knew it
+would be vain to try to conceal his identity.
+
+"You sought Stephen Birkenholt," he said.  "And you've lit on
+something nearer, if so be you'll acknowledge the paraquito that
+your Perronel hath mated with."
+
+The Condottiere burst into a roar of laughter so violent that he had
+to lean against the mud wall, and hold his sides.  "Ha, ha! that I
+should be father-in-law to a fool!" and then he set off again.
+"That the sober, dainty little wench should have wedded a fool!  Ha!
+ha! ha!"
+
+"Sir," cried Stephen hotly, "I would have you to know that mine
+uncle here, Master Harry Randall, is a yeoman of good birth, and
+that he undertook his present part to support your own father and
+child!  Methinks you are the last who should jeer at and insult
+him!"
+
+"Stephen is right," said Giles.  "This is my kinsman's tent, and no
+man shall say a word against Master Harry Randall therein."
+
+"Well crowed, my young London gamebirds," returned Fulford, coolly.
+"I meant no disrespect to the gentleman in green.  Nay, I am
+mightily beholden to him for acting his part out and taking on
+himself that would scarce befit a gentleman of a company--
+impedimenta, as we used to say in the grammar school.  How does the
+old man?--I must find some token to send him."
+
+"He is beyond the reach of all tokens from you save prayers and
+masses," returned Randall, gravely.
+
+"Ay?  You say not so?  Old gaffer dead?"  And when the soldier was
+told how the feeble thread of life had been snapped by the shock of
+joy on his coming, a fit of compunction and sorrow seized him.  He
+covered his face with his hands and wept with a loudness of grief
+that surprised and touched his hearers; and presently began to
+bemoan himself that he had hardly a mark in his purse to pay for a
+mass; but therewith he proceeded to erect before him the cross hilt
+of poor Abenali's sword, and to vow thereupon that the first spoil
+and the first ransom, that it should please the saints to send him,
+should be entirely spent in masses for the soul of Martin Fulford.
+This tribute apparently stilled both grief and remorse, for looking
+up at the grotesque figure of Randall, he said, "Methought they told
+me, master son, that you were in the right quarters for beads and
+masses and all that gear--a varlet of Master Butcher-Cardinal's, or
+the like--but mayhap 'twas part of your fooling."
+
+"Not so," replied Randall.  "'Tis to the Cardinal that I belong,"
+holding out his sleeve, where the scarlet hat was neatly worked,
+"and I'll brook no word against his honour."
+
+"Ho! ho!  Maybe you looked to have the hat on your own head," quoth
+Fulford, waxing familiar, "if your master comes to be Pope after his
+own reckoning.  Why, I've known a Cardinal get the scarlet because
+an ape had danced on the roof with him in his arms!"
+
+"You forget!  I'm a wedded man," said Randall, who certainly, in
+private life, had much less of the buffoon about him than his
+father-in-law.
+
+"Impedimentum again," whistled the knight.  "Put a halter round her
+neck, and sell her for a pot of beer."
+
+"I'd rather put a halter round my own neck for good and all," said
+Hal, his face reddening; but among other accomplishments of his
+position, he had learnt to keep his temper, however indignant he
+felt.
+
+"Well--she's a knight's daughter, and preferments will be plenty.
+Thou'lt make me captain of the Pope's guard, fair son--there's no
+post I should like better.  Or I might put up with an Italian
+earldom or the like.  Honour would befit me quite as well as that
+old fellow, Prosper Colonna; and the Badgers would well become the
+Pope's scarlet and yellow liveries."
+
+The Badgers, it appeared, were in camp not far from Gravelines,
+whence the Emperor was watching the conference between his uncle-in-
+law and his chief enemy; and thence Fulford, who had a good many
+French acquaintance, having once served under Francis I., had come
+over to see the sport.  Moreover, he contrived to attach himself to
+the armourer's party, in a manner that either Alderman Headley
+himself, or Tibble Steelman, would effectually have prevented; but
+which Kit Smallbones had not sufficient moral weight to hinder, even
+if he had had a greater dislike to being treated as a boon companion
+by a knight who had seen the world, could appreciate good ale, and
+tell all manner of tales of his experiences.
+
+So the odd sort of kindred that the captain chose to claim with
+Stephen Birkenholt was allowed, and in right of it, he was permitted
+to sleep in the waggon; and thereupon his big raw-boned charger was
+found sharing the fodder of the plump broad-backed cart horses,
+while he himself, whenever sport was not going forward for him, or
+work for the armourers, sat discussing with Kit the merits or
+demerits of the liquors of all nations, either in their own yard or
+in some of the numerous drinking booths that had sprung up around.
+
+To no one was this arrangement so distasteful as to Quipsome Hal,
+who felt himself in some sort the occasion of the intrusion, and yet
+was quite unable to prevent it, while everything he said was treated
+as a joke by his unwelcome father-in-law.  It was a coarse time, and
+Wolsey's was not a refined or spiritual establishment, but it was
+decorous, and Randall had such an affection and respect for the
+innocence of his sister's young son, that he could not bear to have
+him exposed to the company of one habituated to the licentiousness
+of the mercenary soldier.  At first the jester hoped to remove the
+lads from the danger, for the brief remainder of their stay, by
+making double exertion to obtain places for them at any diversion
+which might be going on when their day's work was ended, and of
+these, of course, there was a wide choice, subordinate to the
+magnificent masquing of kings and queens.  On the last midsummer
+evening, while their majesties were taking leave of one another, a
+company of strolling players were exhibiting in an extemporary
+theatre, and here Hal incited both the youths to obtain seats.  The
+drama was on one of the ordinary and frequent topics of that, as of
+all other times, and the dumb show and gestures were far more
+effective than the words, so that even those who did not understand
+the language of the comedians, who seemed to be Italians, could
+enter into it, especially as it was interspersed with very
+expressive songs.
+
+An old baron insists on betrothing his daughter and heiress to her
+kinsman freshly knighted.  She is reluctant, weeps, and is
+threatened, singing afterwards her despair (of course she really was
+a black-eyed boy).  That song was followed by a still more
+despairing one from the baron's squire, and a tender interview
+between them followed.
+
+Then came discovery, the baron descending as a thunderbolt, the
+banishment of the squire, the lady driven at last to wed the young
+knight, her weeping and bewailing herself under his ill-treatment,
+which extended to pulling her about by the hair, the return of the
+lover, notified by a song behind the scenes, a dangerously
+affectionate meeting, interrupted by the husband, a fierce clashing
+of swords, mutual slaughter by the two gentlemen, and the lady dying
+of grief on the top of her lover.
+
+Such was the argument of this tragedy, which Giles Headley
+pronounced to be very dreary pastime, indeed he was amusing himself
+with an exchange of comfits with a youth who sat next him all the
+time--for he had found Stephen utterly deaf to aught but the
+tragedy, following every gesture with eager eyes, lips quivering,
+and eyes filling at the strains of the love songs, though they were
+in their native Italian, of which he understood not a word.  He rose
+up with a heavy groan when all was over, as if not yet disenchanted,
+and hardly answered when his uncle spoke to him afterwards.  It was
+to ask whether the Dragon party were to return at once to London, or
+to accompany the Court to Gravelines, where, it had just been
+announced, the King intended to pay a visit to his nephew, the
+Emperor.
+
+Neither Stephen nor Giles knew, but when they reached their own
+quarters they found that Smallbones had received an intimation that
+there might be jousts, and that the offices of the armourers would
+be required.  He was very busy packing up his tools, but loudly
+hilarious, and Sir John Fulford, with a flask of wine beside him,
+was swaggering and shouting orders to the men as though he were the
+head of the expedition.
+
+Revelations come in strange ways.  Perhaps that Italian play might
+be called Galeotto to Stephen Birkenholt.  It affected him all the
+more because he was not distracted by the dialogue, but was only
+powerfully touched by the music, and, in the gestures of the lovers,
+felt all the force of sympathy.  It was to him like a kind of
+prophetic mirror, revealing to him the true meaning of all he had
+ever felt for Dennet Headley, and of his vexation and impatience at
+seeing her bestowed upon a dull and indifferent lout like her
+kinsman, who not only was not good enough for her, but did not even
+love her, or accept her as anything but his title to the Dragon
+court.  He now thrilled and tingled from head to foot with the
+perceptions that all this meant love--love to Dennet; and in every
+act of the drama he beheld only himself, Giles, and Dennet.
+Watching at first with a sweet fascination, his feelings changed,
+now to strong yearning, now to hot wrath, and then to horror and
+dismay.  In his troubled sleep after the spectacle, he identified
+himself with the lover, sang, wooed, and struggled in his person,
+woke with a start of relief, to find Giles snoring safely beside
+him, and the watch-dog on his chest instead of an expiring lady.  He
+had not made unholy love to sweet Dennet, nor imperilled her good
+name, nor slain his comrade.  Nor was she yet wedded to that oaf,
+Giles!  But she would be in a few weeks, and then!  How was he to
+brook the sight, chained as he was to the Dragon court--see Giles
+lord it over her, and all of them, see her missing the love that was
+burning for her elsewhere.  Stephen lost his boyhood on that
+evening, and, though force of habit kept him like himself outwardly,
+he never was alone, without feeling dazed, and torn in every
+direction at once.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.  SWORD OR SMITHY
+
+
+
+"Darest thou be so valiant as to play the coward with thy indenture,
+and to show it a fair pair of heels and run from it?"
+
+SHAKESPEARE.
+
+Tidings came forth on the parting from the French King that the
+English Court was about to move to Gravelines to pay a visit to the
+Emperor and his aunt, the Duchess of Savoy.  As it was hoped that
+jousts might make part of the entertainment, the attendance of the
+Dragon party was required.  Giles was unfeignedly delighted at this
+extension of holiday, Stephen felt that it deferred the day--would
+it be of strange joy or pain?--of standing face to face with Dennet;
+and even Kit had come to tolerate foreign parts more with Sir John
+Fulford to show him the way to the best Flemish ale!
+
+The knight took upon himself the conduct of the Dragons.  He
+understood how to lead them by routes where all provisions and ale
+had not been consumed; and he knew how to swagger and threaten so as
+to obtain the best of liquor and provisions at each kermesse--at
+least so he said, though it might be doubted whether the Flemings
+might not have been more willing to yield up their stores to Kit's
+open, honest face and free hand.
+
+However, Fulford seemed to consider himself one with the party; and
+he beguiled the way by tales of the doings of the Badgers in Italy
+and Savoy, which were listened to with avidity by the lads,
+distracting Stephen from the pain at his heart, and filling both
+with excitement.  They were to have the honour of seeing the Badgers
+at Gravelines, where they were encamped outside the city to serve as
+a guard to the great inclosure that was being made of canvas
+stretched on the masts of ships to mark out the space for a great
+banquet and dance.
+
+The weather broke however just as Henry, his wife and his sister,
+entered Gravelines; it rained pertinaciously, a tempestuous wind
+blew down the erection, and as there was no time to set it up again,
+the sports necessarily took place in the castle and town hall.
+There was no occasion for the exercise of the armourer's craft, and
+as Charles had forbidden the concourse of all save invited guests,
+everything was comparatively quiet and dull, though the
+entertainment was on the most liberal scale.  Lodgings were provided
+in the city at the Emperor's expense, and wherever an Englishman was
+quartered each night, the imperial officers brought a cast of fine
+manchet bread, two great silver pots with wine, a pound of sugar,
+white and yellow candles, and a torch.  As Randall said, "Charles
+gave solid pudding where Francis gave empty praise"!
+
+Smallbones and the two youths had very little to do, save to consume
+these provisions and accept the hospitality freely offered to them
+at the camp of the Badgers, where Smallbones and the Ancient of the
+troop sat fraternising over big flagons of Flemish ale, which did
+not visibly intoxicate the honest smith, but kept him in the dull
+and drowsy state, which was his idea of the dolce far niente of a
+holiday.  Meanwhile the two youths were made much of by the
+warriors, Stephen's dexterity with the bow and back-sword were shown
+off and lauded, Giles's strength was praised, and all manner of new
+feats were taught them, all manner of stories told them; and the
+shrinking of well-trained young citizens from these lawless me "full
+of strange oaths and bearded like the pard," and some very
+truculent-looking, had given way to judicious flattery, and to the
+attractions of adventure and of a free life, where wealth and honour
+awaited the bold.
+
+Stephen was told that the gentleman in him was visible, that he
+ought to disdain the flat cap and blue gown, that here was his
+opportunity, and that among the Badgers he would soon be so rich,
+famous, glorious, as to wonder that he had ever tolerated the greasy
+mechanical life of a base burgher.  Respect to his oaths to his
+master--Sir John laughed the scruple to scorn; nay, if he were so
+tender, he could buy his absolution the first time he had his pouch
+full of gold.
+
+"What shall I do?" was the cry of Stephen's heart.  "My honour and
+my oath.  They bind me.  SHE would weep.  My master would deem me
+ungrateful, Ambrose break his heart.  And yet who knows but I should
+do worse if I stayed, I shall break my own heart if I do.  I shall
+not see--I may forget.  No, no, never! but at least I shall never
+know the moment when the lubber takes the jewel he knows not how to
+prize!  Marches--sieges--there shall I quell this wild beating!  I
+may die there.  At least they will allay this present frenzy of my
+blood."
+
+And he listened when Fulford and Will Marden, a young English man-
+at-arms with whom he had made friends, concerted how he should meet
+them at an inn--the sign of the Seven Stars--in Gravelines, and
+there exchange his prentice's garb for the buff coat and corslet of
+a Badger, with the Austrian black and yellow scarf.  He listened,
+but he had not promised.  The sense of duty to his master, the
+honour to his word, always recurred like "first thoughts," though
+the longing to escape, the restlessness of hopeless love, the
+youthful eagerness for adventure and freedom, swept it aside again
+and again.
+
+He had not seen his uncle since the evening of the comedy, for Hal
+had travelled in the Cardinal's suite, and the amusements being all
+within doors, jesters were much in request, as indeed Charles V. was
+curious in fools, and generally had at least three in attendance.
+Stephen, moreover, always shrank from his uncle when acting
+professionally.  He had learnt to love and esteem the man during his
+troubles, but this only rendered the sight of his buffoonery more
+distressing, and as Randall had not provided himself with his home
+suit, they were the more cut off from one another.  Thus there was
+all the less to counteract or show the fallacy of Fulford's
+recruiting blandishments.
+
+The day had come on the evening of which Stephen was to meet Fulford
+and Marden at the Seven Stars and give them his final answer, in
+time to allow of their smuggling him out of the city, and sending
+him away into the country, since Smallbones would certainly suspect
+him to be in the camp, and as he was still an apprentice, it was
+possible, though not probable, that the town magistrates might be
+incited to make search on inquiry, as they were very jealous of the
+luring away of their apprentices by the Free Companies, and moreover
+his uncle might move the Cardinal and the King to cause measures to
+be taken for his recovery.
+
+Ill at ease, Stephen wandered away from the hostel where Smallbones
+was entertaining his friend, the Ancient.  He had not gone far down
+the street when a familiar figure met his eye, no other than that of
+Lucas Hansen, his brother's old master, walking along with a pack on
+his back.  Grown as Stephen was, the old man's recognition was as
+rapid as his own, and there was a clasp of the hand, an exchange of
+greeting, while Lucas eagerly asked after his dear pupil, Ambrose.
+
+"Come in hither, and we can speak more at ease," said Lucas, leading
+the way up the common staircase of a tall house, whose upper stories
+overhung the street.  Up and up, Lucas led the way to a room in the
+high peaked roof, looking out at the back.  Here Stephen recognised
+a press, but it was not at work, only a young friar was sitting
+there engaged in sewing up sheets so as to form a pamphlet.  Lucas
+spoke to him in Flemish to explain his own return with the English
+prentice.
+
+"Dost thou dwell here, sir?" asked Stephen.  "I thought Rotterdam
+was thine home."
+
+"Yea," said Lucas, "so it be, but I am sojourning here to aid in
+bearing about the seed of the Gospel, for which I walk through these
+lands of ours.  But tell me of thy brother, and of the little
+Moorish maiden?"
+
+Stephen replied with an account of both Ambrose and Aldonza, and
+likewise of Tibble Steelman, explaining how ill the last had been in
+the winter, and that therefore he could not be with the party.
+
+"I would I had a token to send him," said Lucas; "but I have nought
+here that is not either in the Dutch or the French, and neither of
+those tongues doth he understand.  But thy brother, the good
+Ambrose, can read the Dutch.  Wilt thou carry him from me this fresh
+tractate, showing how many there be that make light of the Apostle
+Paul's words not to do evil that good may come?"
+
+Stephen had been hearing rather listlessly, thinking how little the
+good man suspected how doubtful it was that he should bear messages
+to Ambrose.  Now, on that sore spot in his conscience, that sentence
+darted like an arrow, the shaft finding "mark the archer little
+meant," and with a start, not lost on Lucas, he exclaimed "Saith the
+holy Saint Paul that?"
+
+"Assuredly, my son.  Brother Cornelis, who is one whose eyes have
+been opened, can show you the very words, if thou hast any Latin."
+
+Perhaps to gain time, Stephen assented, and the young friar, with a
+somewhat inquisitive look, presently brought him the sentence "Et
+non faciamus mala ut veniant bona."
+
+Stephen's Latin was not very fresh, and he hardly comprehended the
+words, but he stood gazing with a frown of distress on his brow,
+which made Lucas say, "My son, thou art sorely bestead.  Is there
+aught in which a plain old man can help thee, for thy brother's
+sake?  Speak freely.  Brother Cornelis knows not a word of English.
+Dost thou owe aught to any man?"
+
+"Nay, nay--not that," said Stephen, drawn in his trouble and
+perplexity to open his heart to this incongruous confidant, "but,
+sir, sir, which be the worst, to break my pledge to my master, or to
+run into a trial which--which will last from day to day, and may be
+too much for me--yea, and for another--at last?"
+
+The colour, the trembling of limb, the passion of voice, revealed
+enough to Lucas to make him say, in the voice of one who, dried up
+as he was, had once proved the trial, "'Tis love, thou wouldst say?"
+
+"Ay, sir," said Stephen, turning away, but in another moment
+bursting forth, "I love my master's daughter, and she is to wed her
+cousin, who takes her as her father's chattel!  I wist not why the
+world had grown dark to me till I saw a comedy at Ardres, where, as
+in a mirror, 'twas all set forth--yea, and how love was too strong
+for him and for her, and how shame and death came thereof."
+
+"Those players are good for nought but to wake the passions!"
+muttered Lucas.
+
+"Nay, methought they warned me," said Stephen.  "For, sir,"--he hid
+his burning face in his hands as he leant on the back of a chair--"I
+wot that she has ever liked me better, far better than him.  And
+scarce a night have I closed an eye without dreaming it all, and
+finding myself bringing evil on her, till I deemed 'twere better I
+never saw her more, and left her to think of me as a forsworn
+runagate rather than see her wedded only to be flouted--and maybe--
+do worse."
+
+"Poor lad!" said Lucas; "and what wouldst thou do?"
+
+"I have not pledged myself--but I said I would consider of--service
+among Fulford's troop," faltered Stephen.
+
+"Among those ruffians--godless, lawless men!" exclaimed Lucas.
+
+"Yea, I know what you would say," returned Stephen, "but they are
+brave men, better than you deem, sir."
+
+"Were they angels or saints," said Lucas, rallying his forces, "thou
+hast no right to join them.  Thine oath fetters thee.  Thou hast no
+right to break it and do a sure and certain evil to avoid one that
+may never befall!  How knowst thou how it may be?  Nay, if the trial
+seem to thee over great, thine apprenticeship will soon be at an
+end."
+
+"Not for two years"
+
+"Or thy master, if thou spakest the whole truth, would transfer
+thine indentures.  He is a good man, and if it be as thou sayest,
+would not see his child tried too sorely.  God will make a way for
+the tempted to escape.  They need not take the devil's way."
+
+"Sir," said Stephen, lifting up his head, "I thank you.  Thus was
+what I needed.  I will tell Sir John Fulford that I ought never to
+have heeded him."
+
+"Must thou see him again?"
+
+"I must.  I am to give him his answer at the Seven Stars.  But fear
+not me, Master Lucas, he shall not lead me away."  And Stephen took
+a grateful leave of the little Dutchman, and charged himself with
+more messages for Ambrose and Tibble than his overburdened spirit
+was likely to retain.
+
+Lucas went down the stairs with him, and as a sudden thought, said
+at the foot of them, "'Tis at the Seven Stars thou meetest this
+knight.  Take an old man's counsel.  Taste no liquor there."
+
+"I am no ale bibber," said Stephen.
+
+"Nay, I deemed thee none--but heed my words--captains of
+landsknechts in kermesses are scarce to be trusted.  Taste not."
+
+Stephen gave a sort of laugh at the precaution, and shook himself
+loose.  It was still an hour to the time of meeting, and the Ave-
+bell was ringing.  A church door stood open, and for the first time
+since he had been at Gravelines he felt that there would be the calm
+he needed to adjust the conflict of his spirits, and comprehend the
+new situation, or rather the recurrence to the old one.  He seemed
+to have recovered his former self, and to be able to perceive that
+things might go on as before, and his heart really leapt at finding
+he might return to the sight of Dennet and Ambrose and all he loved.
+
+His wishes were really that way; and Fulford's allurements had
+become very shadowy when he made his way to the Seven Stars, whose
+vine-covered window allowed many loud voices and fumes of beer and
+wine to escape into the summer evening air.
+
+The room was perhaps cleaner than an English one would have been,
+but it was reeking with heat and odours, and the forest-bred youth
+was unwilling to enter, but Fulford and two or three Badgers greeted
+him noisily and called on him to partake of the supper they had
+ready prepared.
+
+"No, sir knight, I thank you," said Stephen.  "I am bound for my
+quarters, I came but to thank you for your goodness to me, and to
+bid you farewell."
+
+"And how as to thy pledge to join us, young man?" demanded Fulford
+sternly.
+
+"I gave no pledge," said Stephen.  "I said I would consider of it."
+
+"Faint-hearted! ha! ha!" and the English Badgers translated the word
+to the Germans, and set them shouting with derision.
+
+"I am not faint-hearted," said Stephen; "but I will not break mine
+oath to my master."
+
+"And thine oath to me?  Ha!" said Fulford.
+
+"I sware you no oath, I gave you no word," said Stephen.
+
+"Ha!  Thou darest give me the lie, base prentice.  Take that!"
+
+And therewith he struck Stephen a crushing blow on the head, which
+felled him to the ground.  The host and all the company, used to
+pot-house quarrels, and perhaps playing into his hands, took little
+heed; Stephen was dragged insensible into another room, and there
+the Badgers began hastily to divest him of his prentice's gown, and
+draw his arms into a buff coat.
+
+Fulford had really been struck with his bravery, and knew besides
+that his skill in the armourer's craft would be valuable, so that it
+had been determined beforehand that he should--by fair means or
+foul--leave the Seven Stars a Badger.
+
+"By all the powers of hell, you have struck too hard, sir.  He is
+sped," said Marden anxiously.
+
+"Ass! tut!" said Fulford.  "Only enough to daze him till he be safe
+in our quarters--and for that the sooner the better.  Here, call
+Anton to take his heels.  We'll get him forth now as a fellow of our
+own."
+
+"Hark!  What's that?"
+
+"Gentlemen," said the host hurrying in, "here be some of the
+gentlemen of the English Cardinal, calling for a nephew of one of
+them, who they say is in this house."
+
+With an imprecation, Fulford denied all connection with gentlemen of
+the Cardinal; but there was evidently an invasion, and in another
+moment, several powerful-looking men in the crimson and black velvet
+of Wolsey's train had forced their way into the chamber, and the
+foremost, seeing Stephen's condition at a glance, exclaimed loudly,
+"Thou villain! traitor! kidnapper!  This is thy work."
+
+"Ha! ha!" shouted Fulford, "whom have we here?  The Cardinal's fool
+a masquing!  Treat us to a caper, quipsome sir?"
+
+"I'm more like to treat you to the gyves," returned Randall.  "Away
+with you!  The watch are at hand.  Were it not for my wife's sake,
+they should bear you off to the city jail; the Emperor should know
+how you fill your ranks."
+
+It was quite true.  The city guard were entering at the street door,
+and the host hurried Fulford and his men, swearing and raging, out
+at a back door provided for such emergencies.  Stephen was beginning
+to recover by this time.  His uncle knelt down, took his head on his
+shoulder, and Lucas washed off the blood and administered a drop of
+wine.  His first words were:
+
+"Was it Giles?  Where is she?"
+
+"Still going over the play!" thought Lucas.  "Nay, nay, lad.  'Twas
+one of the soldiers who played thee this scurvy trick!  All's well
+now.  Thou wilt soon be able to quit this place."
+
+"I remember now," said Stephen, "Sir John said I gave him the lie
+when I said I had given no pledge.  But I had not!"
+
+"Thou hast been a brave fellow, and better broken head than broken
+troth," said his uncle.
+
+"But how came you here," asked Stephen.  "In the nick of time?"
+
+It was explained that Lucas, not doubting Stephen's resolution, but
+quite aware of the tricks of landsknecht captains with promising
+recruits in view, had gone first in search of Smallbones, but had
+found him and the Ancient so deeply engaged in potations from the
+liberal supply of the Emperor to all English guests, that there was
+no getting him apart, and he was too much muddled to comprehend if
+he could have been spoken with.
+
+Lucas then, in desperation, betook himself to the convent where
+Wolsey was magnificently lodged.  Ill May Day had made him, as well
+as others, well acquainted with the relationship between Stephen and
+Randall, though he was not aware of the further connection with
+Fulford.  He hoped, even if unable to see Randall, to obtain help on
+behalf of an English lad in danger, and happily he arrived at a
+moment when State affairs were going on, and Randall was refreshing
+himself by a stroll in the cloister.  When Lucas had made him
+understand the situation, his dismay was only equalled by his
+promptitude.  He easily obtained the loan of one of the splendid
+suits of scarlet and crimson, guarded with black velvet a hand
+broad, which were worn by the Cardinal's secular attendants--for he
+was well known by this time in the household to be very far from an
+absolute fool, and indeed had done many a good turn to his comrades.
+Several of the gentlemen, indignant at the threatened outrage on a
+young Englishman, and esteeming the craftsmen of the Dragon,
+volunteered to accompany him, and others warned the watch.
+
+There was some difficulty still, for the burgher guards, coming up
+puffing and blowing, wanted to carry off the victim and keep him in
+ward to give evidence against the mercenaries, whom they regarded as
+a sort of wolves, so that even the Emperor never durst quarter them
+within one of the cities.  The drawn swords of Randall's friends
+however settled that matter, and Stephen, though still dizzy, was
+able to walk.  Thus leaning on his uncle, he was escorted back to
+the hostel.
+
+"The villain!" the jester said on the way, "I mistrusted him, but I
+never thought he would have abused our kindred in this fashion.  I
+would fain have come down to look after thee, nevvy, but these kings
+and queens are troublesome folk.  The Emperor--he is a pale, shame-
+faced, solemn lad.  Maybe he museth, but he had scarce a word to say
+for himself.  Our Hal tried clapping on the shoulder, calling him
+fair coz, and the like, in his hearty fashion.  Behold, what doth he
+but turn round with such a look about the long lip of him as my Lord
+of Buckingham might have if his scullion made free with him.  His
+aunt, the Duchess of Savoy, is a merry dame, and a wise!  She and
+our King can talk by the ell, but as for the Emperor, he speaketh to
+none willingly save Queen Katharine, who is of his own stiff Spanish
+humour, and he hath eyes for none save Queen Mary, who would have
+been his empress had high folk held to their word.  And with so
+tongue-tied a host, and the rain without, what had the poor things
+to do by way of disporting themselves with but a show of fools.
+I've had to go through every trick and quip I learnt when I was with
+old Nat Fire-eater.  And I'm stiffer in the joints and weightier in
+the heft than I was in those days when I slept in the fields, and
+fasted more than ever Holy Church meant.  But, heigh ho!  I ought to
+be supple enough after the practice of these three days.  Moreover,
+if it could loose a fool's tongue to have a king and queen for
+interpreters, I had them--for there were our Harry and Moll catching
+at every gibe as fast as my brain could hatch it, and rendering it
+into French as best thy might, carping and quibbling the while
+underhand at one another's renderings, and the Emperor sitting by in
+his black velvet, smiling about as much as a felon at the hangman's
+jests.  All his poor fools moreover, and the King's own, ready to
+gnaw their baubles for envy!  That was the only sport I had!  I'm
+wearier than if I'd been plying Smallbones' biggest hammer.  The
+worst of it is that my Lord Cardinal is to stay behind and go on to
+Bruges as ambassador, and I with him, so thou must bear my greetings
+to thy naunt, and tell her I'm keeping from picking up a word of
+French or Flemish lest this same Charles should take a fancy to me
+and ask me of my master, who would give away his own head to get the
+Pope's fool's cap."
+
+"Wer da?  Qui va la?" asked a voice, and the summer twilight
+revealed two figures with cloaks held high and drooping Spanish
+hats; one of whom, a slender, youthful figure, so far as could be
+seen under his cloak, made inquiries, first in Flemish, then in
+French, as to what ailed the youth.  Lucas replied in the former
+tongue, and one of the Englishmen could speak French.  The gentleman
+seemed much concerned, asked if the watch had been at hand, and
+desired Lucas to assure the young Englishman that the Emperor would
+be much distressed at the tidings, asked where he was lodged, and
+passed on.
+
+"Ah ha!" muttered the jester, "if my ears deceive me now, I'll never
+trust them again!  Mynheer Charles knows a few more tricks than he
+is fain to show off in royal company.  Come on, Stevie!  I'll see
+thee to thy bed.  Old Kit is too far gone to ask after thee.  In
+sooth, I trow that my sweet father-in-law set his Ancient to nail
+him to the wine pot.  And Master Giles I saw last with some of the
+grooms.  I said nought to him, for I trow thou wouldst not have him
+know thy plight!  I'll be with thee in the morning ere thou partest,
+if kings, queens, and cardinals roar themselves hoarse for the
+Quipsome."
+
+With this promise Hal Randall bestowed his still dulled and half-
+stunned nephew carefully on the pallet provided by the care of the
+purveyors.  Stephen slept dreamily at first, then soundly, and woke
+at the sound of the bells of Gravelines to the sense that a great
+crisis in his life was over, a strange wild dream of evil dispelled,
+and that he was to go home to see, hear, and act as he could, with a
+heartache indeed, but with the resolve to do his best as a true and
+honest man.
+
+Smallbones was already afoot--for the start for Calais was to be
+made on that very day.  The smith was fully himself again, and was
+bawling for his subordinates, who had followed his example in
+indulging in the good cheer, and did not carry it off so easily.
+Giles, rather silent and surly, was out of bed, shouting answers to
+Smallbones, and calling on Stephen to truss his points.  He was in a
+mood not easy to understand, he would hardly speak, and never
+noticed the marks of the fray on Stephen's temple--only half hidden
+by the dark curly hair.  This was of course a relief, but Stephen
+could not help suspecting that he had been last night engaged in
+some revel about which he desired no inquiries.
+
+Randall came just as the operation was completed.  He was in a good
+deal of haste, having to restore the groom's dress he wore by the
+time the owner had finished the morning toilet of the Lord
+Cardinal's palfreys.  He could not wait to inquire how Stephen had
+contrived to fall into the hands of Fulford, his chief business
+being to put under safe charge a bag of coins, the largesse from the
+various princes and nobles whom he had diverted--ducats, crowns,
+dollars, and angels all jingling together--to be bestowed wherever
+Perronel kept her store, a matter which Hal was content not to know,
+though the pair cherished a hope some day to retire on it from
+fooling.
+
+"Thou art a good lad, Steve," said Hal.  "I'm right glad thou
+leavest this father of mine behind thee.  I would not see thee such
+as he--no, not for all the gold we saw on the Frenchmen's backs."
+
+This was the jester's farewell, but it was some time before the
+waggon was under way, for the carter and one of the smiths were
+missing, and were only at noon found in an alehouse, both very far
+gone in liquor, and one with a black eye.  Kit discoursed on
+sobriety in the most edifying manner, as at last he drove heavily
+along the street, almost the last in the baggage train of the king
+and queens--but still in time to be so included in it so as to save
+all difficulty at the gates.  It was, however, very late in the
+evening when they reached Calais, so that darkness was coming on as
+they waited their turn at the drawbridge, with a cart full of
+scullions and pots and pans before them, and a waggon-load of tents
+behind.  The warders in charge of the gateway had orders to count
+over all whom they admitted, so that no unauthorised person might
+enter that much-valued fortress.  When at length the waggon rolled
+forward into the shadow of the great towered gateway on the outer
+side of the moat, the demand was made, who was there?  Giles had
+always insisted, as leader of the party, on making reply to such
+questions, and Smallbones waited for his answer, but none was
+forthcoming.  Therefore Kit shouted in reply, "Alderman Headley's
+wain and armourers.  Two journeymen, one prentice, two smiths, two
+waggoners."
+
+"Seven!" rejoined the warder.  "One--two--three--four--five.  Ha!
+your company seems to be lacking."
+
+"Giles must have ridden on," suggested Stephen, while Kit, growling
+angrily, called on the lazy fellow, Will Wherry, to wake and show
+himself.  But the officials were greatly hurried, and as long as no
+dangerous person got into Calais, it mattered little to them who
+might be left outside, so they hurried on the waggon into the narrow
+street.
+
+It was well that it was a summer night, for lodgings there were
+none.  Every hostel was full and all the houses besides.  The
+earlier comers assured Kit that it was of no use to try to go on.
+The streets up to the wharf were choked, and he might think himself
+lucky to have his waggon to sleep in.  But the horses!  And food?
+However, there was one comfort--English tongues answered, if it was
+only with denials.
+
+Kit's store of travelling money was at a low ebb, and it was nearly
+exhausted by the time, at an exorbitant price, he had managed to get
+a little hay and water for the horses, and a couple of loaves and a
+haunch of bacon among the five hungry men.  They were quite content
+to believe that Master Giles had ridden on before and secured better
+quarters and viands, nor could they much regret the absence of Will
+Wherry's wide mouth.
+
+Kit called Stephen to council in the morning.  His funds would not
+permit waiting for the missing ones, if he were to bring home any
+reasonable proportion of gain to his master.  He believed that
+Master Headley would by no means risk the whole party loitering at
+Calais, when it was highly probable that Giles might have joined
+some of the other travellers, and embarked by himself.
+
+After all, Kit's store had to be well-nigh expended before the
+horses, waggon, and all, could find means to encounter the miseries
+of the transit to Dover.  Then, glad as he was to be on his native
+soil, his spirits sank lower and lower as the waggon creaked on
+under the hot sun towards London.  He had actually brought home only
+four marks to make over to his master; and although he could show a
+considerable score against the King and various nobles, these debts
+were not apt to be promptly discharged, and what was worse, two
+members of his party and one horse were missing.  He little knew how
+narrow an escape he had had of losing a third!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.  AN INVASION
+
+
+
+"What shall be the maiden's fate?
+Who shall be the maiden's mate?"
+
+SCOTT.
+
+No Giles Headley appeared to greet the travellers, though Kit
+Smallbones had halted at Canterbury, to pour out entreaties to St.
+Thomas, and the vow of a steel and gilt reliquary of his best
+workmanship to contain the old shoe, which a few years previously
+had so much disgusted Erasmus and his companion.
+
+Poor old fellow, he was too much crest-fallen thoroughly to enjoy
+even the gladness of his little children; and his wife made no
+secret of her previous conviction that he was too dunderheaded not
+to run into some coil, when she was not there to look after him.
+The alderman was more merciful.  Since there had been no invasion
+from Salisbury, he had regretted the not having gone himself to
+Ardres, and he knew pretty well that Kit's power lay more in his
+arms than in his brain.  He did not wonder at the small gain, nor at
+the having lost sight of the young man, and confidently expected the
+lost ones soon to appear.
+
+As to Dennet, her eyes shone quietly, and she took upon herself to
+send down to let Mistress Randall know of her nephew's return, and
+invite her to supper to hear the story of his doings.  The girl did
+not look at all like a maiden uneasy about her lost lover, but much
+more like one enjoying for the moment the immunity from a kind of
+burthen; and, as she smiled, called for Stephen's help in her little
+arrangements, and treated him in the friendly manner of old times,
+he could not but wonder at the panic that had overpowered him for a
+time like a fever of the mind.
+
+There was plenty to speak of in the glories of the Field of the
+Cloth of Gold, and the transactions with the knights and nobles; and
+Stephen held his peace as to his adventure, but Dennet's eyes were
+sharper than Kit's.  She spied the remains of the bruise under his
+black curly hair; and while her father and Tib were unravelling the
+accounts from Kit's brain and tally-sticks, she got the youth out
+into the gallery, and observed, "So thou hast a broken head.  See
+here are grandmother's lily-leaves in strong waters.  Let me lay one
+on for thee.  There, sit down on the step, then I can reach."
+
+"'Tis well nigh whole now, sweet mistress," said Stephen, complying
+however, for it was too sweet to have those little fingers busy
+about him, for the offer to be declined.
+
+"How gatst thou the blow?" asked Dennet.  "Was it at single-stick?
+Come, thou mayst tell me.  'Twas in standing up for some one."
+
+"Nay, mistress, I would it had been."
+
+"Thou hast been in trouble," she said, leaning on the baluster above
+him.  "Or did ill men set on thee?"
+
+"That's the nearest guess," said Stephen.  "'Twas that tall father
+of mine aunt's, the fellow that came here for armour, and bought
+poor Master Michael's sword."
+
+"And sliced the apple on thine hand.  Ay?"
+
+"He would have me for one of his Badgers."
+
+"Thee!  Stephen!"  It was a cry of pain as well as horror.
+
+"Yea, mistress; and when I refused, the fellow dealt me a blow, and
+laid me down senseless, to bear me off willy nilly, but that good
+old Lucas Hansen brought mine uncle to mine aid--"
+
+Dennet clasped her hands.  "O Stephen, Stephen!  Now I know how good
+the Lord is.  Wot ye, I asked of Tibble to take me daily to St.
+Faith's to crave of good St. Julian to have you all in his keeping,
+and saith he on the way, 'Methinks, mistress, our dear Lord would
+hear you if you spake to Him direct, with no go-between.'  I did as
+he bade me, Stephen, I went to the high Altar, and prayed there, and
+Tibble went with me, and lo, now, He hath brought you back safe.  We
+will have a mass of thanksgiving on the very morn."
+
+Stephen's heart could not but bound, for it was plain enough for
+whom the chief force of these prayers had been offered.
+
+"Sweet mistress," he said, "they have availed me indeed.  Certes,
+they warded me in the time of sore trial and temptation."
+
+"Nay," said Dennet, "thou COULDST not have longed to go away from
+hence with those ill men who live by slaying and plundering?"
+
+The present temptation was to say that he had doubted whether this
+course would not have been for the best both for himself and for
+her; but he recollected that Giles might be at the gate, and if so,
+he should feel as if he had rather have bitten out his tongue than
+have let Dennet know the state of the case, so he only answered -
+
+"There be sorer temptations in the world for us poor rogues than
+little home-biding house crickets like thee wot of, mistress.  Well
+that ye can pray for us without knowing all!"
+
+Stephen had never consciously come so near love-making, and his
+honest face was all one burning glow with the suppressed feeling,
+while Dennet lingered till the curfew warned them of the lateness of
+the hour, both with a strange sense of undefined pleasure in the
+being together in the summer twilight.
+
+Day after day passed on with no news of Giles or Will Wherry.  The
+alderman grew uneasy, and sent Stephen to ask his brother to write
+to Randall, or to some one else in Wolsey's suite, to make inquiries
+at Bruges.  But Ambrose was found to have gone abroad in the train
+of Sir Thomas More, and nothing was heard till their return six
+weeks later, when Ambrose brought home a small packet which had been
+conveyed to him through one of the Emperor's suite.  It was tied up
+with a long tough pale wisp of hair, evidently from the mane or tail
+of some Flemish horse, and was addressed, "To Master Ambrose
+Birkenholt, menial clerk to the most worshipful Sir Thomas More,
+Knight, Under Sheriff of the City of London.  These greeting--"
+
+Within, when Ambrose could open the missive, was another small
+parcel, and a piece of brown coarse paper, on which was scrawled -
+
+"Good Ambrose Birkenholt,--I pray thee to stand my friend, and let
+all know whom it may concern, that when this same billet comes to
+hand, I shall be far on the march to High Germany, with a company of
+lusty fellows in the Emperor's service.  They be commanded by the
+good knight, Sir John Fulford.
+
+"If thou canst send tidings to my mother, bid her keep her heart up,
+for I shall come back a captain, full of wealth and honour, and that
+will be better than hammering for life--or being wedded against mine
+own will.  There never was troth plight between my master's daughter
+and me, and my time is over, so I be quit with them, and I thank my
+master for his goodness.  They shall all hear of me some of these
+days.  Will Wherry is my groom, and commends him to his mother.  And
+so, commending thee and all the rest to Our Lady and the saints,
+
+"Thine to command,
+
+"GILES HEADLEY,
+
+"Man-at-Arms in the Honourable Company of Sir John Fulford, Knight."
+
+
+On a separate strip was written -
+
+
+"Give this packet to the little Moorish maid, and tell her that I
+will bring her better by and by, and mayhap make her a knight's
+lady; but on thy life, say nought to any other."
+
+
+It was out now!  Ambrose's head was more in Sir Thomas's books than
+in real life at all times, or he would long ago have inferred
+something--from the jackdaw's favourite phrase--from Giles's modes
+of haunting his steps, and making him the bearer of small tokens--an
+orange, a simnel cake, a bag of walnuts or almonds to Mistress
+Aldonza, and of the smiles, blushes, and thanks with which she
+greeted them.  Nay, had she not burst into tears and entreated to be
+spared when Lady More wanted to make a match between her and the big
+porter, and had not her distress led Mistress Margaret to appeal to
+her father, who had said he should as soon think of wedding the
+silver-footed Thetis to Polyphemus.  "Tilley valley!  Master More,"
+the lady had answered, "will all your fine pagan gods hinder the
+wench from starving on earth, and leading apes in hell."
+
+Margaret had answered that Aldonza should never do the first, and
+Sir Thomas had gravely said that he thought those black eyes would
+lead many a man on earth before they came to the latter fate.
+
+Ambrose hid the parcel for her deep in his bosom before he asked
+permission of his master to go to the Dragon court with the rest of
+the tidings.
+
+"He always was an unmannerly cub," said Master Headley, as he read
+the letter.  "Well, I've done my best to make a silk purse of a
+sow's ear!  I've done my duty by poor Robert's son, and if he will
+be such a fool as to run after blood and wounds, I have no more to
+say!  Though 'tis pity of the old name!  Ha! what's this?  'Wedded
+against my will--no troth plight.'  Forsooth, I thought my young
+master was mighty slack.  He hath some other matter in his mind,
+hath he?  Run into some coil mayhap with a beggar wench!  Well, we
+need not be beholden to him.  Ha, Dennet, my maid!"
+
+Dennet screwed up her little mouth, and looked very demure, but she
+twinkled her bright eyes, and said, "My heart will not break, sir; I
+am in no haste to be wed."
+
+Her father pinched her cheek and said she was a silly wench; but
+perhaps he marked the dancing step with which the young mistress
+went about her household cares, and how she was singing to herself
+songs that certainly were not "Willow! willow!"
+
+Ambrose had no scruple in delivering to Aldonza the message and
+token, when he overtook her on the stairs of the house at Chelsea,
+carrying up a lapful of roses to the still-room, where Dame Alice
+More was rejoicing in setting her step-daughters to housewifely
+tasks.
+
+There came a wonderful illumination and agitation over the girl's
+usually impassive features, giving all that they needed to make them
+surpassingly beautiful.
+
+"Woe is me!" was, however, her first exclamation.  "That he should
+have given up all for me!  Oh! if I had thought it!"  But while she
+spoke as if she were shocked and appalled, her eyes belied her
+words.  They shone with the first absolute certainty of love, and
+there was no realising as yet the years of silent waiting and
+anxiety that must go by, nay, perhaps an entire lifetime of
+uncertainty of her lover's truth or untruth, life or death.
+
+Dame Alice called her, and in a rambling, maundering way, charged
+her with loitering and gadding with the young men; and Margaret saw
+by her colour and by her eyes that some strange thing had happened
+to her.  Margaret had, perhaps, some intuition; for was not her
+heart very tender towards a certain young barrister by name Roper
+whom her father doubted as yet, because of his Lutheran
+inclinations.  By and by she discovered that she needed Aldonza to
+comb out her long dark hair, and ere long, she had heard all the
+tale of the youth cured by the girl's father, and all his gifts, and
+how Aldonza deemed him too great and too good for her (poor Giles!)
+though she knew she should never do more than look up to him with
+love and gratitude from afar.  And she never so much as dreamt that
+he would cast an eye on her save in kindness.  Oh yes, she knew what
+he had taught the daw to say, but then she was a child, she durst
+not deem it more.  And Margaret More was more kind and eager than
+worldly wise, and she encouraged Aldonza to watch and wait, promised
+protection from all enforced suits and suitors, and gave assurances
+of shelter as her own attendant as long as the girl should need it.
+
+Master Headley, with some sighing and groaning, applied himself to
+write to the mother at Salisbury what had become of her son; but he
+had only spent one evening over the trying task, when just as the
+supper bell was ringing, with Master Hope and his wife as guests,
+there were horses' feet in the court, and Master Tiptoff appeared,
+with a servant on another horse, which carried besides a figure in
+camlet, on a pillion.  No sooner was this same figure lifted from
+her steed and set down on the steps, while the master of the house
+and his daughter came out to greet her, than she began, "Master
+Alderman Headley, I am here to know what you have done with my poor
+son!"
+
+"Alack, good cousin!"
+
+"Alack me no alacks," she interrupted, holding up her riding rod.
+"I'll have no dissembling, there hath been enough of that, Giles
+Headley.  Thou hast sold him, soul and body, to one of yon cruel,
+bloodthirsty plundering, burning captains, that the poor child may
+be slain and murthered!  Is this the fair promises you made to his
+father--wiling him away from his poor mother, a widow, with talking
+of teaching him the craft, and giving him your daughter!  My son,
+Tiptoff here, told me the spousal was delayed and delayed, and he
+doubted whether it would ever come off, but I thought not of this
+sending him beyond seas, to make merchandise of him.  And you call
+yourself an alderman!  The gown should be stript off the back of
+you, and shall be, if there be any justice in London for a widow
+woman."
+
+"Nay, cousin, you have heard some strange tale," said Master
+Headley, who, much as he would have dreaded the attack beforehand,
+faced it the more calmly and manfully because the accusation was so
+outrageous.
+
+"Ay, so I told her," began her son-in-law, "but she hath been
+neither to have nor to hold since the--"
+
+"And how should I be to have or to hold by a nincompoop like thee,"
+she said, turning round on him, "that would have me sit down and be
+content forsooth, when mine only son is kidnapped to be sold to the
+Turks or to work in the galleys, for aught I know."
+
+"Mistress!" here Master Hope's voice came in, "I would counsel you
+to speak less loud, and hear before you accuse.  We of the City of
+London know Master Alderman Headley too well to hear him railed
+against."
+
+"Ah! you're all of a piece," she began; but by this time Master
+Tiptoff had managed at least to get her into the hall, and had
+exchanged words enough with the alderman to assure himself that
+there was an explanation, nay, that there was a letter from Giles
+himself.  This the indignant mother presently was made to
+understand--and as the alderman had borrowed the letter in order to
+copy it for her, it was given to her.  She could not read, and would
+trust no one but her son-in-law to read it to her.  "Yea, you have
+it very pat," she said, "but how am I to be assured 'tis not all
+writ here to hoodwink a poor woman like me."
+
+"'Tis Giles's hand," averred Tiptoff.
+
+"And if you will," added the alderman, with wonderful patience, "to-
+morrow you may speak with the youth who received it.  Come, sit down
+and sup with us, and then you shall learn from Smallbones how this
+mischance befel, all from my sending two young heads together, and
+one who, though a good fellow, could not hold all in rule."
+
+"Ay--you've your reasons for anything," she muttered, but being both
+weary and hungry, she consented to eat and drink, while Tiptoff, who
+was evidently ashamed of her violence, and anxious to excuse it,
+managed to explain that a report had been picked up at Romsey, by a
+bare-footed friar from Salisbury, that young Giles Headley had been
+seen at Ghent by one of the servants of a wool merchant, riding with
+a troop of Free Companions in the Emperor's service.  All the rest
+was deduced from this intelligence by the dame's own imagination.
+
+After supper she was invited to interrogate Kit and Stephen, and her
+grief and anxiety found vent in fierce scolding at the misrule which
+had permitted such a villain as Fulford to be haunting and tempting
+poor fatherless lads.  Master Headley had reproached poor Kit for
+the same thing, but he could only represent that Giles, being a
+freeman, was no longer under his authority.  However, she stormed
+on, being absolutely convinced that her son's evasion was every
+one's fault but his own.  Now it was the alderman for misusing him,
+overtasking the poor child, and deferring the marriage, now it was
+that little pert poppet, Dennet, who had flouted him, now it was the
+bad company he had been led into--the poor babe who had been bred to
+godly ways.
+
+The alderman was really sorry for her, and felt himself to blame so
+far as that he had shifted the guidance of the expedition to such an
+insufficient head as poor Smallbones, so he let her rail on as much
+as she would, till the storm exhausted itself, and she settled into
+the trust that Giles would soon grow weary and return.  The good man
+felt bound to show her all hospitality, and the civilities to
+country cousins were in proportion to the rarity of their visits.
+So Mrs. Headley stayed on after Tiptoff's return to Salisbury, and
+had the best view feasible of all the pageants and diversions of
+autumn.  She saw some magnificent processions of clergy, she was
+welcomed at a civic banquet and drank of the loving cup, and she
+beheld the Lord Mayor's Show in all its picturesque glory of
+emblazoned barges on the river.  In fact, she found the position of
+denizen of an alderman's household so very agreeable that she did
+her best to make it a permanency.  Nay, Dennet soon found that she
+considered herself to be waiting there and keeping guard till her
+son's return should establish her there, and that she viewed the
+girl already as a daughter--for which Dennet was by no means obliged
+to her!  She lavished counsel on her hostess, found fault with the
+maidens, criticised the cookery, walked into the kitchen and still-
+room with assistance and directions, and even made a strong effort
+to possess herself of the keys.
+
+It must be confessed that Dennet was saucy!  It was her weapon of
+self-defence, and she considered herself insulted in her own house.
+
+There she stood, exalted on a tall pair of pattens before the stout
+oaken table in the kitchen where a glowing fire burned; pewter, red
+and yellow earthenware, and clean scrubbed trenchers made a goodly
+show, a couple of men-cooks and twice as many scullions obeyed her
+behests--only the superior of the two first ever daring to argue a
+point with her.  There she stood, in her white apron, with sleeves
+turned up, daintily compounding her mincemeat for Christmas, when in
+stalked Mrs. Headley to offer her counsel and aid--but this was lost
+in a volley of barking from the long-backed, bandy-legged, turnspit
+dog, which was awaiting its turn at the wheel, and which ran
+forward, yapping with malign intentions towards the dame's scarlet-
+hosed ankles.
+
+She shook her petticoats at him, but Dennet tittered even while
+declaring that Tray hurt nobody.  Mrs. Headley reviled the dog, and
+then proceeded to advise Dennet that she should chop her citron
+finer.  Dennet made answer "that father liked a good stout piece of
+it."  Mistress Headley offered to take the chopper and instruct her
+how to compound all in the true Sarum style.
+
+"Grammercy, mistress, but we follow my grand-dame's recipe!" said
+Dennet, grasping her implement firmly.
+
+"Come, child, be not above taking a lesson from thine elders!
+Where's the goose?  What?" as the girl looked amazed, "where hast
+thou lived not to know that a live goose should be bled into the
+mincemeat?"
+
+"I have never lived with barbarous, savage folk," said Dennet--and
+therewith she burst into an irrepressible fit of laughter, trying in
+vain to check it, for a small and mischievous elf, freshly promoted
+to the office of scullion, had crept up and pinned a dish-cloth to
+the substantial petticoats, and as Mistress Headley whisked round to
+see what was the matter, like a kitten after its tail, it followed
+her like a train, while she rushed to box the ears of the offender,
+crying,
+
+"You set him on, you little saucy vixen!  I saw it in your eyes.
+Let the rascal be scourged."
+
+"Not so," said Dennet, with prim mouth and laughing eyes.  "Far be
+it from me!  But 'tis ever the wont of the kitchen, when those come
+there who have no call thither."
+
+Mistress Headley flounced away, dish-cloth and all, to go whimpering
+to the alderman with her tale of insults.  She trusted that her
+cousin would give the pert wench a good beating.  She was not a whit
+too old for it.
+
+"How oft did you beat Giles, good kinswoman?" said Dennet demurely,
+as she stood by her father.
+
+"Whisht, whisht, child," said her father, "this may not be!  I
+cannot have my guest flouted."
+
+"If she act as our guest, I will treat her with all honour and
+courtesy," said the maiden; "but when she comes where we look not
+for guests, there is no saying what the black guard may take it on
+them to do."
+
+Master Headley was mischievously tickled at the retort, and not
+without hope that it might offend his kinswoman into departing; but
+she contented herself with denouncing all imaginable evils from
+Dennet's ungoverned condition, with which she was prevented in her
+beneficence from interfering by the father's foolish fondness.  He
+would rue the day!
+
+Meantime if the alderman's peace on one side was disturbed by his
+visitor, on the other, suitors for Dennet's hand gave him little
+rest.  She was known to be a considerable heiress, and though
+Mistress Headley gave every one to understand that there was a
+contract with Giles, and that she was awaiting his return, this did
+not deter more wooers than Dennet ever knew of, from making
+proposals to her father.  Jasper Hope was offered, but he was too
+young, and besides, was a mercer--and Dennet and her father were
+agreed that her husband must go on with the trade.  Then there was a
+master armourer, but he was a widower with sons and daughters as old
+as Dennet, and she shook her head and laughed at the bare notion.
+There also came a young knight who would have turned the Dragon
+court into a tilt-yard, and spent all the gold that long years of
+prudent toil had amassed.
+
+If Mistress Headley deemed each denial the result of her vigilance
+for her son's interests, she was the more impelled to expatiate on
+the folly of leaving a maid of sixteen to herself, to let the
+household go to rack and ruin; while as to the wench, she might
+prank herself in her own conceit, but no honest man would soon look
+at her for a wife, if her father left her to herself, without giving
+her a good stepmother, or at least putting a kinswoman in authority
+over her.
+
+The alderman was stung.  He certainly had warmed a snake on his
+hearth, and how was he to be rid of it?  He secretly winked at the
+resumption of a forge fire that had been abandoned, because the
+noise and smoke incommoded the dwelling-house, and Kit Smallbones
+hammered his loudest there, when the guest might be taking her
+morning nap; but this had no effect in driving her away, though it
+may have told upon her temper; and good-humoured Master Headley was
+harassed more than he had ever been in his life.
+
+"It puts me past my patience," said he, turning into Tibble's
+special workshop one afternoon.  "Here hath Mistress Hillyer of the
+Eagle been with me full of proposals that I would give my poor wench
+to that scapegrace lad of hers, who hath been twice called to
+account before the guild, but who now, forsooth, is to turn over a
+new leaf."
+
+"So I wis would the Dragon under him," quoth Tibble.
+
+"I told her 'twas not to be thought of, and then what does the dame
+but sniff the air and protest that I had better take heed, for there
+may not be so many who would choose a spoilt, misruled maid like
+mine.  There's the work of yonder Sarum woman.  I tell thee, Tib,
+never was bull in the ring more baited than am I."
+
+"Yea, sir," returned Tib, "there'll be no help for it till our young
+mistress be wed."
+
+"Ay! that's the rub!  But I've not seen one whom I could mate with
+her--let alone one who would keep up the old house.  Giles would
+have done that passably, though he were scarce worthy of the wench,
+even without--"  An expressive shake of the head denoted the rest.
+"And now if he ever come home at all, 'twill be as a foul-mouthed,
+plundering scarecrow, like the kites of men-at-arms, who, if they
+lose not their lives, lose all that makes an honest life in the
+Italian wars.  I would have writ to Edmund Burgess, but I hear his
+elder brother is dead, and he is driving a good traffic at York.
+Belike too he is wedded."
+
+"Nay," said Tibble, "I could tell of one who would be true and
+faithful to your worship, and a loving husband to Mistress Dennet,
+ay, and would be a master that all of us would gladly cleave to.
+For he is godly after his lights, and sound-hearted, and wots what
+good work be, and can do it."
+
+"That were a son-in-law, Tib!  Of who speakest thou?  Is he of good
+birth?"
+
+"Yea, of gentle birth and breeding."
+
+"And willing?  But that they all are.  Wherefore then hath he never
+made suit?"
+
+"He hath not yet his freedom."
+
+"Who be it then?"
+
+"He that made this elbow-piece for the suit that Queen Margaret
+ordered for the little King of Scots," returned Tibble, producing an
+exquisite miniature bit of workmanship.
+
+"Stephen Birkenholt!  The fool's nephew!  Mine own prentice!"
+
+"Yea, and the best worker in steel we have yet turned out.  Since
+the sickness of last winter hath stiffened my joints and dimmed mine
+eyes, I had rather trust dainty work such as this to him than to
+myself."
+
+"Stephen!  Tibble, hath he set thee on to this?"
+
+"No, sir.  We both know too well what becometh us; but when you were
+casting about for a mate for my young mistress, I could not but
+think how men seek far, and overlook the jewel at their feet."
+
+"He hath nought!  That brother of his will give him nought."
+
+"He hath what will be better for the old Dragon and for your
+worship's self, than many a bag of gold, sir."
+
+"Thou sayst truly there, Tib.  I know him so far that he would not
+be the ingrate Jack to turn his back on the old master or the old
+man.  He is a good lad.  But--but--I've ever set my face against the
+prentice wedding the master's daughter, save when he is of her own
+house, like Giles.  Tell me, Tibble, deemst thou that the varlet
+hath dared to lift his eyes to the lass?"
+
+"I wot nothing of love!" said Tibble, somewhat grimly.  "I have seen
+nought.  I only told your worship where a good son and a good master
+might be had.  Is it your pleasure, sir, that we take in a freight
+of sea-coal from Simon Collier for the new furnace?  His is purest,
+if a mark more the chaldron."
+
+He spoke as if he put the recommendation of the son and master on
+the same line as that of the coal.  Mr. Headley answered the
+business matters absently, and ended by saying he would think on the
+council.
+
+In Tibble's workroom, with the clatter of a forge close to them,
+they had not heard a commotion in the court outside.  Dennet had
+been standing on the steps cleaning her tame starling's cage, when
+Mistress Headley had suddenly come out on the gallery behind her,
+hotly scolding her laundress, and waving her cap to show how ill-
+starched it was.
+
+The bird had taken fright and flown to the tree in the court; Dennet
+hastened in pursuit, but all the boys and children in the court
+rushing out after her, her blandishments had no chance, and
+"Goldspot" had fluttered on to the gateway.  Stephen had by this
+time come out, and hastened to the gate, hoping to turn the truant
+back from escaping into Cheapside; but all in vain, it flew out
+while the market was in full career, and he could only call back to
+her that he would not lose sight of it.
+
+Out he hurried, Dennet waiting in a sort of despair by the tree for
+a time that seemed to her endless, until Stephen reappeared under
+the gate, with a signal that all was well.  She darted to meet him.
+"Yea, mistress, here he is, the little caitiff.  He was just knocked
+down by this country lad's cap--happily not hurt.  I told him you
+would give him a tester for your bird."
+
+"With all my heart!" and Dennet produced the coin.  "Oh!  Stephen,
+are you sure he is safe?  Thou bad Goldspot, to fly away from me!
+Wink with thine eye--thou saucy rogue!  Wottest thou not but for
+Stephen they might be blinding thy sweet blue eyes with hot
+needles?"
+
+"His wing is grown since the moulting," said Stephen.  "It should be
+cut to hinder such mischances."
+
+"Will you do it?  I will hold him," said Dennet.  "Ah! 'tis pity,
+the beauteous green gold-bedropped wing--that no armour of thine can
+equal, Stephen, not even that for the little King of Scots.  But
+shouldst not be so silly a bird, Goldie, even though thou hast thine
+excuse.  There!  Peck not, ill birdling.  Know thy friends, Master
+Stare."
+
+And with such pretty nonsense the two stood together, Dennet in her
+white cap, short crimson kirtle, little stiff collar, and white bib
+and apron, holding her bird upside down in one hand, and with the
+other trying to keep his angry beak from pecking Stephen, who, in
+his leathern coat and apron, grimed, as well as his crisp black
+hair, with soot, stood towering above her, stooping to hold out the
+lustrous wing with one hand while he used his smallest pair of
+shears with the other to clip the pen-feathers.
+
+"See there, Master Alderman," cried Mistress Headley, bursting on
+him from the gallery stairs.  "Be that what you call fitting for
+your daughter and your prentice, a beggar lad from the heath?  I
+ever told you she would bring you to shame, thus left to herself.
+And now you see it."
+
+Their heads had been near together over the starling, but at this
+objurgation they started apart, both crimson in the cheeks, and
+Dennet flew up to her father, bird in hand, crying, "O father,
+father! suffer her not.  He did no wrong.  He was cutting my bird's
+wing."
+
+"I suffer no one to insult my child in her own house," said the
+alderman, so much provoked as to be determined to put an end to it
+all at once.  "Stephen Birkenholt, come here."
+
+Stephen came, cap in hand, red in the face, with a strange tumult in
+his heart, ready to plead guilty, though he had done nothing, but
+imagining at the moment that his feelings had been actions.
+
+"Stephen," said the alderman, "thou art a true and worthy lad!
+Canst thou love my daughter?"
+
+"I--I crave your pardon, sir, there was no helping it," stammered
+Stephen, not catching the tone of the strange interrogation, and
+expecting any amount of terrible consequences for his presumption.
+
+"Then thou wilt be a faithful spouse to her, and son to me?  And
+Dennet, my daughter, hast thou any distaste to this youth--though he
+bring nought but skill and honesty"
+
+"O, father, father!  I--I had rather have him than any other!"
+
+"Then, Stephen Birkenholt and Dennet Headley, ye shall be man and
+wife, so soon as the young man's term be over, and he be a freeman--
+so he continue to be that which he seems at present.  Thereto I give
+my word, I, Giles Headley, Alderman of the Chepe Ward, and thereof
+ye are witnesses, all of you.  And God's blessing on it."
+
+A tremendous hurrah arose, led by Kit Smallbones, from every workman
+in the court, and the while Stephen and Dennet, unaware of anything
+else, flew into one another's arms, while Goldspot, on whom the
+operation had been fortunately completed, took refuge upon Stephen's
+head.
+
+"O, Mistress Dennet, I have made you black all over!" was Stephen's
+first word.
+
+"Heed not, I ever loved the black!" she cried, as her eyes sparkled.
+
+"So I have done what was to thy mind, my lass?" said Master Headley,
+who, without ever having thought of consulting his daughter, was
+delighted to see that her heart was with him.
+
+"Sir, I did not know fully--but indeed I should never have been so
+happy as I am now."
+
+"Sir," added Stephen, putting his knee to the ground, "it nearly
+wrung my heart to think of her as belonging to another, though I
+never durst utter aught"--and while Dennet embraced her father,
+Stephen sobbed for very joy, and with difficulty said in broken
+words something about a "son's duty and devotion."
+
+They were broken in upon by Mistress Headley, who, after standing in
+mute consternation, fell on them in a fury.  She understood the
+device now!  All had been a scheme laid amongst them for defrauding
+her poor fatherless child, driving him away, and taking up this
+beggarly brat.  She had seen through the little baggage from the
+first, and she pitied Master Headley.  Rage was utterly ungovernable
+in those days, and she actually was flying to attack Dennet with her
+nails when the alderman caught her by the wrists; and she would have
+been almost too much for him, had not Kit Smallbones come to his
+assistance, and carried her, kicking and screaming like a naughty
+child, into the house.  There was small restraint of temper in those
+days even in high life, and below it, there was some reason for the
+employment of the padlock and the ducking stool.
+
+Floods of tears restored the dame to some sort of composure; but she
+declared she could stay no longer in a house where her son had been
+ill-used and deceived, and she had been insulted.  The alderman
+thought the insult had been the other way, but he was too glad to be
+rid of her on any terms to gainsay her, and at his own charge,
+undertook to procure horse and escort to convey her safely to
+Salisbury the next morning.  He advised Stephen to keep out of her
+sight for the rest of the day, giving leave of absence, so that the
+youth, as one treading on air, set forth to carry to his brother,
+his aunt, and if possible, his uncle, the intelligence that he could
+as yet hardly believe was more than a happy dream.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.  UNWELCOME PREFERMENT
+
+
+
+"I am a poor fallen man, unworthy now
+To be thy lord and master.  Seek the king!
+That sun I pray may never set."
+SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+Matters flowed on peaceably with Stephen and Dennet.  The alderman
+saw no reason to repent his decision, hastily as it had been made.
+Stephen gave himself no unseemly airs of presumption, but worked on
+as one whose heart was in the business, and Dennet rewarded her
+father's trust by her discretion.
+
+They were happily married in the summer of 1522, as soon as
+Stephen's apprenticeship was over; and from that time, he was in the
+position of the master's son, with more and more devolving on him as
+Tibble became increasingly rheumatic every winter, and the alderman
+himself grew in flesh and in distaste to exertion.
+
+Ambrose meanwhile prospered with his master, and could easily have
+obtained some office in the law courts that would have enabled him
+to make a home of his own; but if he had the least inclination to
+the love of women, it was all merged in a silent distant worship of
+"sweet pale Margaret, rare pale Margaret," the like-minded daughter
+of Sir Thomas More--an affection which was so entirely devotion at a
+shrine, that it suffered no shock when Sir Thomas at length
+consented to his daughter's marriage with William Roper.
+
+Ambrose was the only person who ever received any communication from
+Giles Headley.  They were few and far between, but when Stephen
+Gardiner returned from his embassy to Pope Clement VII., who was
+then at Orvieto, one of the suite reported to Ambrose how astonished
+he had been by being accosted in good English by one of the imperial
+men-at-arms, who were guarding his Holiness in actual though
+unconfessed captivity.  This person had sent his commendations to
+Ambrose, and likewise a laborious bit of writing, which looked as if
+he were fast forgetting the art.  It bade Ambrose inform his mother
+and all his friends and kin that he was well and coming to
+preferment, and inclosed for Aldonza a small mother-of-pearl cross
+blessed by the Pope.  Giles added that he should bring her finer
+gifts by and by.
+
+Seven years' constancy!  It gave quite a respectability to Giles's
+love, and Aldonza was still ready and patient while waiting in
+attendance on her beloved mistress.
+
+Ambrose lived on in the colony at Chelsea, sometimes attending his
+master, especially on diplomatic missions, and generally acting as
+librarian and foreign secretary, and obtaining some notice from
+Erasmus on the great scholar's visit to Chelsea.  Under such
+guidance, Ambrose's opinions had settled down a good deal; and he
+was a disappointment to Tibble, whose views advanced proportionably
+as he worked less, and read and thought more.  He so bitterly
+resented and deplored the burning of Tindal's Bible that there was
+constant fear that he might bring on himself the same fate,
+especially as he treasured his own copy and studied it constantly.
+The reform that Wolsey had intended to effect when he obtained the
+legatine authority seemed to fall into the background among
+political interests, and his efforts had as yet no result save the
+suppression of some useless and ill-managed small religious houses
+to endow his magnificent project of York College at Oxford, with a
+feeder at Ipswich, his native town.
+
+He was waiting to obtain the papacy, when he would deal better with
+the abuses.  Randall once asked him if he were not waiting to be
+King of Heaven, when he could make root and branch work at once.
+Hal had never so nearly incurred a flogging!
+
+And in the meantime another influence was at work, an influence only
+heard of at first in whispered jests, which made loyal-hearted
+Dennet blush and look indignant, but which soon grew to sad earnest,
+as she could not but avow, when she beheld the stately pomp of the
+two Cardinals, Wolsey and Campeggio, sweep up to the Blackfriars
+Convent to sit in judgment on the marriage of poor Queen Katharine.
+
+"Out on them!" she said.  "So many learned men to set their wits
+against one poor woman!"  And she heartily rejoiced when they came
+to no decision, and the Pope was appealed to.  As to understanding
+all the explanations that Ambrose brought from time to time, she
+called them quirks and quiddities, and left them to her father and
+Tibble to discuss in their chimney corners.
+
+They had seen nothing of the jester for a good while, for he was
+with Wolsey, who was attending the King on a progress through the
+midland shires.  When the Cardinal returned to open the law courts
+as Chancellor at the beginning of the autumn term, still Randall
+kept away from home, perhaps because he had forebodings that he
+could not bear to mention.
+
+On the evening of that very day, London rang with the tidings that
+the Great Seal had been taken from the Cardinal, and that he was
+under orders to yield up his noble mansion of York House and to
+retire to Esher; nay, it was reported that he was to be imprisoned
+in the Tower, and the next day the Thames was crowded with more than
+a thousand boats filled with people, expecting to see him landed at
+the Traitors' Gate, and much disappointed when his barge turned
+towards Putney.
+
+In the afternoon, Ambrose came to the Dragon court.  Even as Stephen
+figured now as a handsome prosperous young freeman of the City,
+Ambrose looked well in the sober black apparel and neat ruff of a
+lawyer's clerk--clerk indeed to the first lawyer in the kingdom, for
+the news had spread before him that Sir Thomas More had become Lord
+Chancellor.
+
+"Thou art come to bear us word of thy promotion--for thy master's is
+thine own," said the alderman heartily as he entered, shaking hands
+with him.  "Never was the Great Seal in better hands."
+
+"'Tis true indeed, your worship," said Ambrose, "though it will lay
+a heavy charge on him, and divert him from much that he loveth
+better still.  I came to ask of my sister Dennet a supper and a bed
+for the night, as I have been on business for him, and can scarce
+get back to Chelsea."
+
+"And welcome," said Dennet.  "Little Giles and Bess have been
+wearying for their uncle."
+
+"I must not toy with them yet," said Ambrose, "I have a message for
+my aunt.  Brother, wilt thou walk down to the Temple with me before
+supper?"
+
+"Yea, and how is it with Master Randall?" asked Dennet.  "Be he gone
+with my Lord Cardinal?"
+
+"He is made over to the King," said Ambrose briefly.  "'Tis that
+which I must tell his wife."
+
+"Have with thee, then," said Stephen, linking his arm into that of
+his brother, for to be together was still as great an enjoyment to
+them as in Forest days.  And on the way, Ambrose told what he had
+not been willing to utter in full assembly in the hall.  He had been
+sent by his master with a letter of condolence to the fallen
+Cardinal, and likewise of inquiry into some necessary business
+connected with the chancellorship.  Wolsey had not time to answer
+before embarking, but as Sir Thomas had vouched for the messenger's
+ability and trustiness, he had bidden Ambrose come into his barge,
+and receive his instructions.  Thus Ambrose had landed with him,
+just as a messenger came riding in haste from the King, with a kind
+greeting, assuring his old friend that his seeming disgrace was only
+for a time, and for political reasons, and sending him a ring in
+token thereof.  The Cardinal had fallen on his knees to receive the
+message, had snatched a gold chain and precious relic from his own
+neck to reward the messenger, and then, casting about for some gift
+for the King, "by ill luck," said Ambrose, "his eye lit upon our
+uncle, and he instantly declared that he would bestow Patch, as the
+Court chooses to call him, on the King.  Well, as thou canst guess,
+Hal is hotly wroth at the treatment of his lord, whom he truly
+loveth; and he flung himself before the Cardinal, and besought that
+he might not be sent from his good lord.  But the Cardinal was only
+chafed at aught that gainsaid him; and all he did was to say he
+would have no more ado, he had made his gift.  'Get thee gone,' he
+said, as if he had been ordering off a horse or dog.  Well-a-day! it
+was hard to brook the sight, and Hal's blood was up.  He flatly
+refused to go, saying he was the Cardinal's servant, but no villain
+nor serf to be thus made over without his own will."
+
+"He was in the right there," returned Stephen, hotly.
+
+"Yea, save that by playing the fool, poor fellow, he hath yielded up
+the rights of a wise man.  Any way, all he gat by it was that the
+Cardinal bade two of the yeomen lay hands on him and bear him off.
+Then there came on him that reckless mood, which, I trow, banished
+him long ago from the Forest, and brought him to the motley.  He
+fought with them with all his force, and broke away once--as if that
+were of any use for a man in motley!--but he was bound at last, and
+borne off by six of them to Windsor!"
+
+"And thou stoodst by, and beheld it!" cried Stephen.
+
+"Nay, what could I have done, save to make his plight worse, and
+forfeit all chance of yet speaking to him?"
+
+"Thou wert ever cool!  I wot that I could not have borne it," said
+Stephen.
+
+They told the story to Perronel, who was on the whole elated by her
+husband's promotion, declaring that the King loved him well, and
+that he would soon come to his senses, though for a wise man, he
+certainly had too much of the fool, even as he had too much of the
+wise man for the fool.
+
+She became anxious, however, as the weeks passed by without hearing
+of or from him, and at length Ambrose confessed his uneasiness to
+his kind master, and obtained leave to attend him on the next
+summons to Windsor.
+
+Ambrose could not find his uncle at first.  Randall, who used to
+pervade York House, and turn up everywhere when least expected, did
+not appear among the superior serving-men and secretaries with whom
+his nephew ranked, and of course there was no access to the state
+apartments.  Sir Thomas, however, told Ambrose that he had seen
+Quipsome Hal among the other jesters, but that he seemed dull and
+dejected.  Then Ambrose beheld from a window a cruel sight, for the
+other fools, three in number, were surrounding Hal, baiting and
+teasing him, triumphing over him in fact, for having formerly
+outshone them, while he stood among them like a big dog worried by
+little curs, against whom he disdained to use his strength.
+Ambrose, unable to bear this, ran down stairs to endeavour to
+interfere; but before he could find his way to the spot, an arrival
+at the gate had attracted the tormentors, and Ambrose found his
+uncle leaning against the wall alone.  He looked thin and wan, the
+light was gone out of his black eyes, and his countenance was in sad
+contrast to his gay and absurd attire.  He scarcely cheered up when
+his nephew spoke to him, though he was glad to hear of Perronel.  He
+said he knew not when he should see her again, for he had been
+unable to secure his suit of ordinary garments, so that even if the
+King came to London, or if he could elude the other fools, he could
+not get out to visit her.  He was no better than a prisoner here, he
+only marvelled that the King retained so wretched a jester, with so
+heavy a heart.
+
+"Once thou wast in favour," said Ambrose.  "Methought thou couldst
+have availed thyself of it to speak for the Lord Cardinal."
+
+"What?  A senseless cur whom he kicked from him," said Randall.
+"'Twas that took all spirit from me, boy.  I, who thought he loved
+me, as I love him to this day.  To send me to be sport for his foes!
+I think of it day and night, and I've not a gibe left under my
+belt!"
+
+"Nay," said Ambrose, "it may have been that the Cardinal hoped to
+secure a true friend at the King's ear, as well as to provide for
+thee."
+
+"Had he but said so--"
+
+"Nay, perchance he trusted to thy sharp wit."
+
+A gleam came into Hal's eyes.  "It might be so.  Thou always wast a
+toward lad, Ambrose, and if so, I was cur and fool indeed to baulk
+him."
+
+Therewith one of the other fools danced back exhibiting a silver
+crown that had just been flung to him, mopping and mowing, and
+demanding when Patch would have wit to gain the like.  Whereto Hal
+replied by pointing to Ambrose and declaring that that gentleman had
+given him better than fifty crowns.  And that night, Sir Thomas told
+Ambrose that the Quipsome one had recovered himself, had been more
+brilliant than ever and had quite eclipsed the other fools.
+
+On the next opportunity, Ambrose contrived to pack in his cloak-bag,
+the cap and loose garment in which his uncle was wont to cover his
+motley.  The Court was still at Windsor; but nearly the whole of Sir
+Thomas's stay elapsed without Ambrose being able to find his uncle.
+Wolsey had been very ill, and the King had relented enough to send
+his own physician to attend him.  Ambrose began to wonder if Hal
+could have found any plea for rejoining his old master; but in the
+last hour of his stay, he found Hal curled up listlessly on a window
+seat of a gallery, his head resting on his hand.
+
+"Uncle, good uncle!  At last!  Thou art sick?"
+
+"Sick at heart, lad," said Hal, looking up.  "Yea, I took thy
+counsel.  I plucked up a spirit, I made Harry laugh as of old,
+though my heart smote me, as I thought how he was wont to be
+answered by my master.  I even brooked to jest with the night-crow,
+as my own poor lord called this Nan Boleyn.  And lo you now, when
+his Grace was touched at my lord's sickness, I durst say there was
+one sure elixir for such as he, to wit a gold Harry; and that a
+King's touch was a sovereign cure for other disorders than the
+King's evil.  Harry smiled, and in ten minutes more would have taken
+horse for Esher, had not Madam Nan claimed his word to ride out
+hawking with her.  And next, she sendeth me a warning by one of her
+pert maids, that I should be whipped, if I spoke to his Grace of
+unfitting matters.  My flesh could brook no more, and like a born
+natural, I made answer that Nan Boleyn was no mistress of mine to
+bid me hold a tongue that had spoken sooth to her betters.
+Thereupon, what think you, boy?  The grooms came and soundly flogged
+me for uncomely speech of my Lady Anne!  I that was eighteen years
+with my Lord Cardinal, and none laid hand on me!  Yea, I was beaten;
+and then shut up in a dog-hole for three days on bread and water,
+with none to speak to, but the other fools jeering at me like a
+rogue in a pillory."
+
+Ambrose could hardly speak for hot grief and indignation, but he
+wrung his uncle's hand, and whispered that he had hid the loose gown
+behind the arras of his chamber, but he could do no more, for he was
+summoned to attend his master, and a servant further thrust in to
+say, "Concern yourself not for that rogue, sir, he hath been saucy,
+and must mend his manners, or he will have worse."
+
+"Away, kind sir," said Hal, "you can do the poor fool no further
+good! but only bring the pack about the ears of the mangy hound."
+And he sang a stave appropriated by a greater man than he -
+
+
+"Then let the stricken deer go weep,
+The hart ungalled play."
+
+
+The only hope that Ambrose or his good master could devise for poor
+Randall was that Sir Thomas should watch his opportunity and beg the
+fool from the King, who might part with him as a child gives away
+the once coveted toy that has failed in its hands; but the request
+would need circumspection, for all had already felt the change that
+had taken place in the temper of the King since Henry had resolutely
+undertaken that the wrong should be the right; and Ambrose could not
+but dread the effect of desperation on a man whose nature had in it
+a vein of impatient recklessness.
+
+It was after dinner, and Dennet, with her little boy and girl, was
+on the steps dispensing the salt fish, broken bread, and pottage of
+the Lenten meal to the daily troop who came for her alms, when,
+among them, she saw, somewhat to her alarm, a gipsy man, who was
+talking to little Giles.  The boy, a stout fellow of six, was
+astride on the balustrade, looking up eagerly into the face of the
+man, who began imitating the note of a blackbird.  Dennet,
+remembering the evil propensities of the gipsy race, called hastily
+to her little son to come down and return to her side; but little
+Giles was unwilling to move, and called to her, "O mother, come!  He
+hath a bird-call!"  In some perturbation lest the man might be
+calling her bird away, Dennet descended the steps.  She was about to
+utter a sharp rebuke, but Giles held out his hand imploringly, and
+she paused a moment to hear the sweet full note of the "ouzel cock,
+with orange tawny bill" closely imitated on a tiny bone whistle.
+"He will sell it to me for two farthings," cried the boy, "and teach
+me to sing on it like all the birds--"
+
+"Yea, good mistress," said the gipsy, "I can whistle a tune that the
+little master, ay, and others, might be fain to hear."
+
+Therewith, spite of the wild dress, Dennet knew the eyes and the
+voice.  And perhaps the blackbird's note had awakened echoes in
+another mind, for she saw Stephen, in his working dress, come out to
+the door of the shop where he continued to do all the finer work
+which had formerly fallen to Tibble's share.
+
+She lifted her boy from his perch, and bade him take the stranger to
+his father, who would no doubt give him the whistle.  And thus,
+having without exciting attention, separated the fugitive from the
+rest of her pensioners, she made haste to dismiss them.
+
+She was not surprised that little Giles came running back to her,
+producing unearthly notes on the instrument, and telling her that
+father had taken the gipsy into his workshop, and said they would
+teach him bird's songs by and by.
+
+"Steve, Steve," had been the first words uttered when the boy was
+out of hearing, "hast thou a smith's apron and plenty of smut to
+bestow on me?  None can tell what Harry's mood may be, when he finds
+I've given him the slip.  That is the reason I durst not go to my
+poor dame."
+
+"We will send to let her know.  I thought I guessed what black ouzel
+'twas!  I mind how thou didst make the like notes for us when we
+were no bigger than my Giles!"
+
+"Thou hast a kind heart, Stephen.  Here!  Is thy furnace hot enough
+to make a speedy end of this same greasy gipsy doublet?  I trust not
+the varlet with whom I bartered it for my motley.  And a fine
+bargain he had of what I trust never to wear again to the end of my
+days.  Make me a smith complete, Stephen, and then will I tell thee
+my story."
+
+"We must call Kit into counsel, ere we can do that fully," said
+Stephen.
+
+In a few minutes Hal Randall was, to all appearance, a very shabby
+and grimy smith, and then he took breath to explain his anxiety and
+alarm.  Once again, hearing that the Cardinal was to be exiled to
+York, he had ventured on a sorry jest about old friends and old wine
+being better than new; but the King, who had once been open to plain
+speaking, was now incensed, threatened and swore at him!  Moreover,
+one of the other fools had told him, in the way of boasting, that he
+had heard Master Cromwell, formerly the Cardinal's secretary,
+informing the King that this rogue was no true "natural" at all, but
+was blessed (or cursed) with as good an understanding as other
+folks, as was well known in the Cardinal's household, and that he
+had no doubt been sent to serve as a spy, so that he was to be
+esteemed a dangerous person, and had best be put under ward.
+
+Hal had not been able to discover whether Cromwell had communicated
+his name, but he suspected that it might be known to that acute
+person, and he could not tell whether his compeer spoke out of a
+sort of good-natured desire to warn him, or simply to triumph in his
+disgrace, and leer at him for being an impostor.  At any rate, being
+now desperate, he covered his parti-coloured raiment with the gown
+Ambrose had brought, made a perilous descent from a window in the
+twilight, scaled a wall with the agility that seemed to have
+returned to him, and reached Windsor Forest.
+
+There, falling on a camp of gipsies, he had availed himself of old
+experiences in his wild Shirley days, and had obtained an exchange
+of garb, his handsome motley being really a prize to the wanderers.
+Thus he had been able to reach London; but he did not feel any
+confidence that if he were pursued to the gipsy tent he would not be
+betrayed.
+
+In this, his sagacity was not at fault, for he had scarcely made his
+explanation, when there was a knocking at the outer gate, and a
+demand to enter in the name of the King, and to see Alderman Sir
+Giles Headley.  Several of the stout figures of the yeomen of the
+King's guard were seen crossing the court, and Stephen, committing
+the charge of his uncle to Kit, threw off his apron, washed his face
+and went up to the hall, not very rapidly, for he suspected that
+since his father-in-law knew nothing of the arrival, he would best
+baffle the inquiries by sincere denials.
+
+And Dennet, with her sharp woman's wit, scenting danger, had whisked
+herself and her children out of the hall at the first moment, and
+taken them down to the kitchen, where modelling with a batch of
+dough occupied both of them.
+
+Meantime the alderman flatly denied the presence of the jester, or
+the harbouring of the gipsy.  He allowed that the jester was of kin
+to his son-in-law, but the good man averred in all honesty that he
+knew nought of any escape, and was absolutely certain that no such
+person was in the court.  Then, as Stephen entered, doffing his cap
+to the King's officer, the alderman continued, "There, fair son,
+this is what these gentlemen have come about.  Thy kinsman, it
+seemeth, hath fled from Windsor, and his Grace is mightily incensed.
+They say he changed clothes with a gipsy, and was traced hither this
+morn, but I have told them the thing is impossible."
+
+"Will the gentlemen search?" asked Stephen.  The gentlemen did
+search, but they only saw the smiths in full work; and in
+Smallbones' forge, there was a roaring glowing furnace, with a bare-
+armed fellow feeding it with coals, so that it fairly scorched them,
+and gave them double relish for the good wine and beer that was put
+out on the table to do honour to them.
+
+Stephen had just with all civility seen them off the premises when
+Perronel came sobbing into the court.  They had visited her first,
+for Cromwell had evidently known of Randall's haunts; they had
+turned her little house upside down, and had threatened her hotly in
+case she harboured a disloyal spy, who deserved hanging.  She came
+to consult Stephen, for the notion of her husband wandering about,
+as a sort of outlaw, was almost as terrible as the threat of his
+being hanged.
+
+Stephen beckoned her to a store-room full of gaunt figures of armour
+upon blocks, and there brought up to her his extremely grimy new
+hand!
+
+There was much gladness between them, but the future had to be
+considered.  Perronel had a little hoard, the amount of which she
+was too shrewd to name to any one, even her husband, but she
+considered it sufficient to enable him to fulfil the cherished
+scheme of his life, of retiring to some small farm near his old
+home, and she was for setting off at once.  But Harry Randall
+declared that he could not go without having offered his services to
+his old master.  He had heard of his "good lord" as sick, sad, and
+deserted by those whom he had cherished, and the faithful heart was
+so true in its loyalty that no persuasion could prevail in making it
+turn south.
+
+"Nay," said the wife, "did he not cast thee off himself, and serve
+thee like one of his dogs?  How canst thou be bound to him?"
+
+"There's the rub!" sighed Hal.  "He sent me to the King deeming that
+he should have one full of faithful love to speak a word on his
+behalf, and I, brutish oaf as I was, must needs take it amiss, and
+sulk and mope till the occasion was past, and that viper Cromwell
+was there to back up the woman Boleyn and poison his Grace's ear."
+
+"As if a man must not have a spirit to be angered by such
+treatment."
+
+"Thou forgettest, good wife.  No man, but a fool, and to be
+entreated as such!  Be that as it may, to York I must.  I have eaten
+of my lord's bread too many years, and had too much kindness from
+him in the days of his glory, to seek mine own ease now in his
+adversity.  Thou wouldst have a poor bargain of me when my heart is
+away."
+
+Perronel saw that thus it would be, and that this was one of the
+points on which, to her mind, her husband was more than half a
+veritable fool after all.
+
+There had long been a promise that Stephen should, in some time of
+slack employment, make a visit to his old comrade, Edmund Burgess,
+at York; and as some new tools and patterns had to be conveyed
+thither, a sudden resolution was come to, in family conclave, that
+Stephen himself should convey them, taking his uncle with him as a
+serving-man, to attend to the horses.  The alderman gave full
+consent, he had always wished Stephen to see York, while he himself,
+with Tibble Steelman, was able to attend to the business; and while
+he pronounced Randall to have a heart of gold, well worth guarding,
+he still was glad when the risk was over of the King's hearing that
+the runaway jester was harboured at the Dragon.  Dennet did not like
+the journey for her husband, for to her mind it was perilous, but
+she had had a warm affection for his uncle ever since their
+expedition to Richmond together, and she did her best to reconcile
+the murmuring and wounded Perronel by praises of Randall, a true and
+noble heart; and that as to setting her aside for the Cardinal, who
+had heeded him so little, such faithfulness only made her more
+secure of his true-heartedness towards her.  Perronel was moreover
+to break up her business, dispose of her house, and await her
+husband's return at the Dragon.
+
+Stephen came back after a happy month with his friend, stored with
+wondrous tales and descriptions which would last the children for a
+month.  He had seen his uncle present himself to the Cardinal at
+Cawood Castle.  It had been a touching meeting.  Hal could hardly
+restrain his tears when he saw how Wolsey's sturdy form had wasted,
+and his round ruddy cheeks had fallen away, while the attitude in
+which he sat in his chair was listless and weary, though he fitfully
+exerted himself with his old vigour.
+
+Hal on his side, in the dark plain dress of a citizen, was hardly
+recognisable, for not only had he likewise grown thinner, and his
+brown cheeks more hollow, but his hair had become almost white
+during his miserable weeks at Windsor, though he was not much over
+forty years old.
+
+He came up the last of a number who presented themselves for the
+Archiepiscopal blessing, as Wolsey sat under a large tree in Cawood
+Park.  Wolsey gave it with his raised fingers, without special heed,
+but therewith Hal threw himself on the ground, kissed his feet, and
+cried, "My lord, my dear lord, your pardon."
+
+"What hast done, fellow?  Speak!" said the Cardinal.  "Grovel not
+thus.  We will be merciful."
+
+"Ah! my lord," said Randall, lifting himself up, but with clasped
+hands and tearful eyes, "I did not serve you as I ought with the
+King, but if you will forgive me and take me back--"
+
+"How now?  How couldst thou serve me?  What!"--as Hal made a
+familiar gesture--"thou art not the poor fool; Quipsome Patch?  How
+comest thou here?  Methought I had provided well for thee in making
+thee over to the King."
+
+"Ah! my lord, I was fool, fool indeed, but all my jests failed me.
+How could I make sport for your enemies?"
+
+"And thou hast come, thou hast left the King to follow my fallen
+fortunes?" said Wolsey.  "My poor boy, he who is sitting in
+sackcloth and ashes needs no jester."
+
+"Nay, my lord, nor can I find one jest to break!  Would you but let
+me be your meanest horse-boy, your scullion!"  Hal's voice was cut
+short by tears as the Cardinal abandoned to him one hand.  The other
+was drying eyes that seldom wept.
+
+"My faithful Hal!" he said, "this is love indeed!"
+
+And Stephen ere he came away had seen his uncle fully established,
+as a rational creature, and by his true name, as one of the personal
+attendants on the Cardinal's bed-chamber, and treated with the
+affection he well deserved.  Wolsey had really seemed cheered by his
+affection, and was devoting himself to the care of his hitherto
+neglected and even unvisited diocese, in a way that delighted the
+hearts of the Yorkshiremen.
+
+The first idea was that Perronel should join her husband at York,
+but safe modes of travelling were not easy to be found, and before
+any satisfactory escort offered, there were rumours that made it
+prudent to delay.  As autumn advanced, it was known that the Earl of
+Northumberland had been sent to attach the Cardinal of High Treason.
+Then ensued other reports that the great Cardinal had sunk and died
+on his way to London for trial; and at last, one dark winter
+evening, a sorrowful man stumbled up the steps of the Dragon, and as
+he came into the bright light of the fire, and Perronel sprang to
+meet him, he sank into a chair and wept aloud.
+
+He had been one of those who had lifted the broken-hearted Wolsey
+from his mule in the cloister of Leicester Abbey, he had carried him
+to his bed, watched over him, and supported him, as the Abbot of
+Leicester gave him the last Sacraments.  He had heard and treasured
+up those mournful words which are Wolsey's chief legacy to the
+world, "Had I but served my God, as I have served my king, He would
+not have forsaken me in my old age."  For himself, he had the dying
+man's blessing, and assurance that nothing had so much availed to
+cheer in these sad hours as his faithful love.
+
+Now, Perronel might do what she would with him--he cared not.
+
+And what she did was to set forth with him for Hampshire, on a pair
+of stout mules with a strong serving-man behind them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.  THE SOLDIER
+
+
+
+"Of a worthy London prentice
+   My purpose is to speak,
+And tell his brave adventures
+   Done for his country's sake.
+Seek all the world about
+   And you shall hardly find
+A man in valour to exceed
+   A prentice' gallant mind."
+
+The Homes of a London Prentice.
+
+Six more years had passed over the Dragon court, when, one fine
+summer evening, as the old walls rang with the merriment of the
+young boys at play, there entered through the gateway a tall, well-
+equipped, soldierly figure, which caught the eyes of the little
+armourer world in a moment.  "Oh, that's a real Milan helmet!"
+exclaimed the one lad.
+
+"And oh, what a belt and buff coat!" cried another.
+
+The subject of their admiration advanced muttering, "As if I'd not
+been away a week," adding, "I pray you, pretty lads, doth Master
+Alderman Headley still dwell here?"
+
+"Yea, sir, he is our grandfather," said the elder boy, holding a
+lesser one by the shoulder as he spoke.
+
+"Verily!  And what may be your names?"
+
+"I am Giles Birkenholt, and this is my little brother, Dick."
+
+"Even as I thought.  Wilt thou run in to your grandsire, and tell
+him?"
+
+The bigger boy interrupted, "Grandfather is going to bed.  He is old
+and weary, and cannot see strangers so late.  'Tis our father who
+heareth all the orders."
+
+"And," added the little one, with wide open grave eyes, "Mother bade
+us run out and play and not trouble father, because uncle Ambrose is
+so downcast because they have cut off the head of good Sir Thomas
+More."
+
+"Yet," said the visitor, "methinks your father would hear of an old
+comrade.  Or stay, where be Tibble Steelman and Kit Smallbones?"
+
+"Tibble is in the hall, well-nigh as sad as uncle Ambrose," began
+Dick; but Giles, better able to draw conclusions, exclaimed,
+"Tibble!  Kit!  You know them, sir!  Oh! are you the Giles Headley
+that ran away to be a soldier ere I was born?  Kit!  Kit! see here--
+" as the giant, broader and perhaps a little more bent, but with
+little loss of strength, came forward out of his hut, and taking up
+the matter just where it had been left fourteen years before,
+demanded as they shook hands, "Ah!  Master Giles, how couldst thou
+play me such a scurvy trick?"
+
+"Nay, Kit, was it not best for all that I turned my back to make way
+for honest Stephen?"
+
+By this time young Giles had rushed up the stair to the hall, where,
+as he said truly, Stephen was giving his brother such poor comfort
+as could be had from sympathy, when listening to the story of the
+cheerful, brave resignation of the noblest of all the victims of
+Henry VIII.  Ambrose had been with Sir Thomas well-nigh to the last,
+had carried messages between him and his friends during his
+imprisonment, had handed his papers to him at his trial, had been
+with Mrs. Roper when she broke through the crowd and fell on his
+neck as he walked from Westminster Hall with the axe-edge turned
+towards him; had received his last kind farewell, counsel, and
+blessing, and had only not been with him on the scaffold because Sir
+Thomas had forbidden it, saying, in the old strain of mirth, which
+never forsook him, "Nay, come not, my good friend.  Thou art of a
+queasy nature, and I would fain not haunt thee against thy will."
+
+All was over now, the wise and faithful head had fallen, because it
+would not own the wrong for the right; and Ambrose had been brought
+home by his brother, a being confounded, dazed, seeming hardly able
+to think or understand aught save that the man whom he had above all
+loved and looked up to was taken from him, judicially murdered, and
+by the King.  The whole world seemed utterly changed to him, and as
+to thinking or planning for himself, he was incapable of it; indeed,
+he looked fearfully ill.  His little nephew came up to his father's
+knee, pausing, though open-mouthed, and at the first token of
+permission, bursting out, "Oh! father!  Here's a soldier in the
+court!  Kit is talking to him.  And he is Giles Headley that ran
+away.  He has a beauteous Spanish leathern coat, and a belt with
+silver bosses--and a morion that Phil Smallbones saith to be of
+Milan, but I say it is French."
+
+Stephen had no sooner gathered the import of this intelligence than
+he sprang down almost as rapidly as his little boy, with his
+welcome.  Nor did Giles Headley return at all in the dilapidated
+condition that had been predicted.  He was stout, comely, and well
+fleshed, and very handsomely clad and equipped in a foreign style,
+with nothing of the lean wolfish appearance of Sir John Fulford.
+The two old comrades heartily shook one another by the hand in real
+gladness at the meeting.  Stephen's welcome was crossed by the
+greeting and inquiry whether all was well.
+
+"Yea.  The alderman is hale and hearty, but aged.  Your mother is
+tabled at a religious house at Salisbury."
+
+"I know.  I landed at Southampton and have seen her."
+
+"And Dennet," Stephen added with a short laugh, "she could not wait
+for you."
+
+"No, verily.  Did I not wot well that she cared not a fico for me?
+I hoped when I made off that thou wouldst be the winner, Steve, and
+I am right glad thou art, man."
+
+"I can but thank thee, Giles," said Stephen, changing to the
+familiar singular pronoun.  "I have oft since thought what a foolish
+figure I should have cut had I met thee among the Badgers, after
+having given leg bail because I might not brook seeing thee wedded
+to her.  For I was sore tempted--only thou wast free, and mine
+indenture held me fast."
+
+"Then it was so!  And I did thee a good turn!  For I tell thee,
+Steve, I never knew how well I liked thee till I was wounded and
+sick among those who heeded neither God nor man!  But one word more,
+Stephen, ere we go in.  The Moor's little maiden, is she still
+unwedded?"
+
+"Yea," was Stephen's answer.  "She is still waiting-maid to Mistress
+Roper, daughter to good Sir Thomas More; but alack, Giles, they are
+in sore trouble, as it may be thou hast heard--and my poor brother
+is like one distraught."
+
+Ambrose did indeed meet Giles like one in a dream.  He probably
+would have made the same mechanical greeting, if the Emperor or the
+Pope had been at that moment presented to him; but Dennet, who had
+been attending to her father, made up all that was wanting in
+cordiality.  She had always had a certain sense of shame for having
+flouted her cousin, and, as his mother told her, driven him to death
+and destruction, and it was highly satisfactory to see him safe and
+sound, and apparently respectable and prosperous.
+
+Moreover, grieved as all the family were for the fate of the
+admirable and excellent More, it was a relief to those less closely
+connected with him to attend to something beyond poor Ambrose's
+sorrow and his talk, the which moreover might be perilous if any
+outsider listened and reported it to the authorities as disaffection
+to the King.  So Giles told his story, sitting on the gallery in the
+cool of the summer evening, and marvelling over and over again how
+entirely unchanged all was since his first view of the Dragon court
+as a proud, sullen, raw lad twenty summers ago.  Since that time he
+had seen so much that the time appeared far longer to him than to
+those who had stayed at home.
+
+It seemed that Fulford had from the first fascinated him more than
+any of the party guessed, and that each day of the free life of the
+expedition, and of contact with the soldiery, made a return to the
+monotony of the forge, the decorous life of a London citizen, and
+the bridal with a child, to whom he was indifferent, seem more
+intolerable to him.  Fulford imagining rightly that the knowledge of
+his intentions might deter young Birkenholt from escaping, enjoined
+strict secrecy on either lad, not intending them to meet till it
+should be too late to return, and therefore had arranged that Giles
+should quit the party on the way to Calais, bringing with him Will
+Wherry, and the horse he rode.
+
+Giles had then been enrolled among the Badgers.  He had little to
+tell about his life among them till the battle of Pavia, where he
+had had the good fortune to take three French prisoners; but a stray
+shot from a fugitive had broken his leg during the pursuit, and he
+had been laid up in a merchant's house at Pavia for several months.
+He evidently looked back to the time with gratitude, as having
+wakened his better associations, which had been well-nigh stifled
+during the previous years of the wild life of a soldier of fortune.
+His host's young daughter had eyes like Aldonza, and the almost
+forgotten possibility of returning to his love a brave and
+distinguished man awoke once more.  His burgher thrift began to
+assert itself again, and he deposited a nest-egg from the ransoms of
+his prisoners in the hands of his host, who gave him bonds by which
+he could recover the sum from Lombard correspondents in London.
+
+He was bound by his engagements to join the Badgers again, or he
+would have gone home on his recovery; and he had shared in the
+terrible taking of Rome, of which he declared that he could not
+speak--with a significant look at Dennet and her children, who were
+devouring his words.  He had, however, stood guard over a lady and
+her young children whom some savage Spaniards were about to murder,
+and the whole family had overpowered him with gratitude, lodged him
+sumptuously in their house, and shown themselves as grateful to him
+as if he had given them all the treasure which he had abstained from
+seizing.
+
+The sickness brought on by their savage excesses together with the
+Roman summer had laid low many of the Badgers.  When the Prince of
+Orange drew off the army from the miserable city, scarce seven score
+of that once gallant troop were in marching order, and Sir John
+Fulford himself was dying.  He sent for Giles, as less of a demon
+than most of the troop, and sent a gold medal, the only fragment of
+spoil remaining to him, to his daughter Perronel.  To Giles himself
+Fulford bequeathed Abenali's well-tested sword, and he died in the
+comfortable belief--so far as he troubled himself about the matter
+at all--that there were special exemptions for soldiers.
+
+The Badgers now incorporated themselves with another broken body of
+Landsknechts, and fell under the command of a better and more
+conscientious captain.  Giles, who had been horrified rather than
+hardened by the experiences of Rome, was found trustworthy and rose
+in command.  The troop was sent to take charge of the Pope at
+Orvieto, and thus it was that he had fallen in with the Englishmen
+of Gardiner's suite, and had been able to send his letter to
+Ambrose.  Since he had found the means of rising out of the slough,
+he had made up his mind to continue to serve till he had won some
+honour, and had obtained enough to prevent his return as a hungry
+beggar.
+
+His corps became known for discipline and valour.  It was trusted
+often, was in attendance on the Emperor, and was fairly well paid.
+Giles was their "ancient" and had charge of the banner, nor could it
+be doubted that he had flourished.  His last adventure had been the
+expedition to Tunis, when 20,000 Christian captives had been set
+free from the dungeons and galleys, and so grand a treasure had been
+shared among the soldiery that Giles, having completed the term of
+service for which he was engaged, decided on returning to England,
+before, as he said, he grew any older, to see how matters were
+going.
+
+"For the future," he said, "it depended on how he found things.  If
+Aldonza would none of him, he should return to the Emperor's
+service.  If she would go with him, he held such a position that he
+could provide for her honourably.  Or he could settle in England.
+For he had a good sum in the hands of Lombard merchants; having made
+over to them spoils of war, ransoms, and arrears when he obtained
+them; and having at times earned something by exercising his craft,
+which he said had been most valuable to him.  Indeed he thought he
+could show Stephen and Tibble a few fresh arts he had picked up at
+Milan.
+
+Meantime his first desire was to see Aldonza.  She was still at
+Chelsea with her mistress, and Ambrose, to his brother's regret,
+went thither every day, partly because he could not keep away, and
+partly to try to be of use to the family.  Giles might accompany
+him, though he still looked so absorbed in his trouble that it was
+doubtful whether he had really understood what was passing, or that
+he was wanted to bring about an interview between his companion and
+Aldonza.
+
+The beautiful grounds at Chelsea, in their summer beauty, looked
+inexpressibly mournful, deprived of him who had planted and
+cherished the trees and roses.  As they passed along in the barge,
+one spot after another recalled More's bright jests or wise words;
+above all, the very place where he had told his son-in-law Roper
+that he was merry, not because he was safe, but because the fight
+was won, and his conscience had triumphed against the King he loved
+and feared.
+
+Giles told of the report that the Emperor had said he would have
+given a hundred of his nobles for one such councillor as More, and
+the prospect of telling this to the daughters had somewhat cheered
+Ambrose.  They found a guard in the royal livery at the stairs to
+the river, and at the door of the house, but these had been there
+ever since Sir Thomas's apprehension.  They knew Ambrose Birkenholt,
+and made no objection to his passing in and leaving his companion to
+walk about among the borders and paths, once so trim, but already
+missing their master's hand and eye.
+
+Very long it seemed to Giles, who was nearly despairing, when a
+female figure in black came out of one of the side doors, which were
+not guarded, and seemed to be timidly looking for him.  Instantly he
+was at her side.
+
+"Not here," she said, and in silence led the way to a pleached alley
+out of sight of the windows.  There they stood still.  It was a
+strange meeting of two who had not seen each other for fourteen
+years, when the one was a tall, ungainly youth, the other well-nigh
+a child.  And now Giles was a fine, soldierly man in the prime of
+life, with a short, curled beard, and powerful, alert bearing, and
+Aldonza, though the first flower of her youth had gone by, yet,
+having lived a sheltered and far from toilsome life, was a really
+beautiful woman, gracefully proportioned, and with the delicate
+features and clear olive skin of the Andalusian Moor.  Her eyes,
+always her finest feature, were sunken with weeping, but their soft
+beauty could still be seen.  Giles threw himself on his knee and
+grasped at her hand.
+
+"My love!--my only love!" he cried.
+
+"Oh! how can I think of such matters now--now, when it is thus with
+my dear mistress," said Aldonza, in a mournful voice, as though her
+tears were all spent--yet not withholding her hand.
+
+"You knew me before you knew her," said Giles.  "See, Aldonza, what
+I have brought back to you."
+
+And he half drew the sword her father had made.  She gave a gasp of
+delight, for well she knew every device in the gold inlaying of the
+blade, and she looked at Giles with eyes fall of gratitude.
+
+"I knew thou wouldst own me," said Giles.  "I have fought and gone
+far from thee, Aldonza.  Canst not spare one word for thine old
+Giles?"
+
+"Ah, Giles--there is one thing which if you will do for my mistress,
+I would be yours from--from my heart of hearts."
+
+"Say it, sweetheart, and it is done."
+
+"You know not.  It is perilous, and may be many would quail.  Yet it
+may be less perilous for you than for one who is better known."
+
+"Peril and I are well acquainted, my heart."  She lowered her voice
+as her eyes dilated, and she laid her hand on his arm.  "Thou
+wottest what is on London Bridge gates?"
+
+"I saw it, a sorry sight."
+
+"My mistress will not rest till that dear and sacred head, holy as
+any blessed relic, be taken down so as not to be the sport of sun
+and wind, and cruel men gaping beneath.  She cannot sleep, she
+cannot sit or stand still, she cannot even kiss her child for
+thinking of it.  Her mind is set on taking it down, yet she will not
+peril her husband.  Nor verily know I how any here could do the
+deed."
+
+"Ha!  I have scaled a wall ere now.  I bare our banner at Goletta,
+with the battlements full of angry Moors, not far behind the
+Emperor's."
+
+"You would?  And be secret?  Then indeed nought would be overmuch
+for you.  And this very night--"
+
+"The sooner the better."
+
+She not only clasped his hand in thanks, but let him raise her face
+to his, and take the reward he felt his due.  Then she said she must
+return, but Ambrose would bring him all particulars.  Ambrose was as
+anxious as herself and her mistress that the thing should be done,
+but was unfit by all his habits, and his dainty, scholarly niceness,
+to render such effectual assistance as the soldier could do.  Giles
+offered to scale the gate by night himself, carry off the head, and
+take it to any place Mrs. Roper might appoint, with no assistance
+save such as Ambrose could afford.  Aldonza shuddered a little at
+this, proving that her heart had gone out to him already, but with
+this he had to be contented, for she went back into the house, and
+he saw her no more.  Ambrose came back to him, and, with something
+more like cheerfulness than he had yet seen, said, "Thou art happy,
+Giles."
+
+"More happy than I durst hope--to find her--"
+
+"Tush!  I meant not that.  But to be able to do the work of the holy
+ones of old who gathered the remnants of the martyrs, while I have
+indeed the will, but am but a poor craven!  It is gone nearer to
+comfort that sad-hearted lady than aught else."
+
+It appeared that Mrs. Roper would not be satisfied unless she
+herself were present at the undertaking, and this was contrary to
+the views of Giles, who thought the further off women were in such a
+matter the better.  There was a watch at the outer entrance of
+London Bridge, the trainbands taking turns to supply it, but it was
+known by experience that they did not think it necessary to keep
+awake after belated travellers had ceased to come in; and Sir Thomas
+More's head was set over the opposite gateway, looking inwards at
+the City.  The most suitable hour would be between one and two
+o'clock, when no one would be stirring, and the summer night would
+be at the shortest.  Mrs. Roper was exceedingly anxious to implicate
+no one, and to prevent her husband and brother from having any
+knowledge of an act that William Roper might have prohibited, as if
+she could not absolutely exculpate him, it might be fatal to him.
+She would therefore allow no one to assist save Ambrose, and a few
+more devoted old servants, of condition too low for anger to be
+likely to light upon them.  She was to be rowed with muffled oars to
+the spot, to lie hid in the shadow of the bridge till a signal like
+the cry of the pee-wit was exchanged from the bridge, then approach
+the stairs at the inner angle of the bridge where Giles and Ambrose
+would meet her.
+
+Giles's experience as a man-at-arms stood him in good stead.  He
+purchased a rope as he went home, also some iron ramps.  He took a
+survey of the arched gateway in the course of the afternoon, and
+shutting himself into one of the worksheds with Ambrose, he
+constructed such a rope ladder as was used in scaling fortresses,
+especially when seized at night by surprise.  He beguiled the work
+by a long series of anecdotes of adventures of the kind, of all of
+which Ambrose heard not one word.  The whole court, and especially
+Giles number three, were very curious as to their occupation, but
+nothing was said even to Stephen, for it was better, if Ambrose
+should be suspected, that he should be wholly ignorant, but he had--
+they knew not how--gathered somewhat.  Only Ambrose was, at parting
+for the night, obliged to ask him for the key of the gate.
+
+"Brother," then he said, "what is this work I see?  Dost think I can
+let thee go into a danger I do not partake?  I will share in this
+pious act towards the man I have ever reverenced."
+
+So at dead of night the three men stole out together, all in the
+plainest leathern suits.  The deed was done in the perfect stillness
+of the sleeping City, and without mishap or mischance.  Stephen's
+strong hand held the ladder securely and aided to fix it to the
+ramps, and just as the early dawn was touching the summit of St.
+Paul's spire with a promise of light, Giles stepped into the boat,
+and reverently placed his burden within the opening of a velvet
+cushion that had been ripped up and deprived of part of the
+stuffing, so as to conceal it effectually.  The brave Margaret
+Roper, the English Antigone, well knowing that all depended on her
+self-control, refrained from aught that might shake it.  She only
+raised her face to Giles and murmured from dry lips, "Sir, God must
+reward you!"  And Aldonza, who sat beside her, held out her hand.
+
+Ambrose was to go with them to the priest's house, where Mrs. Roper
+was forced to leave her treasure, since she durst not take it to
+Chelsea, as the royal officers were already in possession, and the
+whole family were to depart on the ensuing day.  Stephen and Giles
+returned safely to Cheapside.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.  OLD HAUNTS
+
+
+
+"O the oak, and the birch, and the bonny holly tree,
+They flourish best at home in my own countree."
+
+When the absence of the barbarous token of the execution was
+discovered, suspicion instantly fell on the More family, and
+Margaret, her husband, and her brother, were all imprisoned.  The
+brave lady took all upon herself, and gave no names of her
+associates in the deed, and as Henry VIII. still sometimes had
+better moods, all were soon released.
+
+But that night had given Ambrose a terrible cough, so that Dennet
+kept him in bed two days.  Indeed he hardly cared to rise from it.
+His whole nature, health, spirits, and mind, had been so cruelly
+strained, and he was so listless, so weak, so incapable of rousing
+himself, or turning to any fresh scheme of life, that Stephen
+decided on fulfilling a long-cherished plan of visiting their native
+home and seeing their uncle, who had, as he had contrived to send
+them word, settled down on a farm which he had bought with
+Perronel's savings, near Romsey.  Headley, who was lingering till
+Aldonza could leave her mistress and decide on any plan, undertook
+to attend to the business, and little Giles, to his great delight,
+was to accompany them.
+
+So the brothers went over the old ground.  They slept in the hostel
+at Dogmersfield where the Dragon mark and the badge of the
+Armourers' Company had first appeared before them.  They found the
+very tree where the alderman had been tied, and beneath which Spring
+lay buried, while little Giles gazed with ecstatic, almost religious
+veneration, and Ambrose seemed to draw in new life with the fresh
+air of the heath, now becoming rich with crimson bells.  They
+visited Hyde Abbey, and the well-clothed, well-mounted travellers
+received a better welcome than had fallen to the lot of the hungry
+lads.  They were shown the grave of old Richard Birkenholt in the
+cloister, and Stephen left a sum to be expended in masses for his
+behoof.  They looked into St. Elizabeth's College, but the kind
+warden was dead, and a trembling old man who looked at them through
+the wicket hoped they were not sent from the Commissioners.  For the
+visitation of the lesser religious houses was going on, and St.
+Elizabeth's was already doomed.  Stephen inquired at the White Hart
+for Father Shoveller, and heard that he had grown too old to perform
+the office of a bailiff, and had retired to the parent abbey.  The
+brothers therefore renounced their first scheme of taking Silkstede
+in their way, and made for Romsey.  There, under the shadow of the
+magnificent nunnery, they dined pleasantly by the waterside at the
+sign of Bishop Blaise, patron of the woolcombers of the town, and
+halted long enough to refresh Ambrose, who was equal to very little
+fatigue.  It amused Stephen to recollect how mighty a place he had
+once thought the little town.
+
+Did mine host know Master Randall?  What, Master Randall of
+Baddesley?  He should think so!  Was not the good man or his good
+wife here every market day, with a pleasant word for every one!  Men
+said he had had some good office about the Court, as steward or the
+like--for he was plainly conversant with great men, though he made
+no boast.  If these guests were kin of his, they were welcome for
+his sake.
+
+So the brothers rode on amid the gorse and heather till they came to
+a broad-spreading oak tree, sheltering a farmhouse built in frames
+of heavy timber, filled up with bricks set in zigzag patterns, with
+a high-pitched roof and tall chimneys.  Barns and stacks were near
+it, and fields reclaimed from the heath were waving with corn just
+tinged with the gold of harvest.  Three or four cows, of the tawny
+hue that looked so home-like to the brothers, were being released
+from the stack-yard after being milked, and conducted to their field
+by a tall, white-haired man in a farmer's smock with a little child
+perched on his shoulder, who gave a loud jubilant cry at the sight
+of the riders.  Stephen, pushing on, began the question whether
+Master Randall dwelt there, but it broke off half way into a cry of
+recognition on either side, Harry's an absolute shout.  "The lads,
+the lads!  Wife, wife! 'tis our own lads!"
+
+And as Perronel, more buxom and rosy than London had ever made her,
+came forth from her dairy, and there was a melee of greetings, and
+Stephen would have asked what homeless little one the pair had
+adopted, he was cut short by an exulting laugh.  "No more adopted
+than thy Giles there, Stephen.  'Tis our own boy, Thomas Randall!
+Yea, and if he have come late, he is the better loved, though I trow
+Perronel there will ever look on Ambrose as her eldest son."
+
+"And by my troth, he needs good country diet and air!" cried
+Perronel.  "Thou hast had none to take care of thee, Ambrose.  They
+have let thee pine and dwine over thy books.  I must take thee in
+hand."
+
+"'Tis what I brought him to thee for, good aunt," said Stephen,
+smiling.
+
+Great was the interchange of news over the homely hearty meal.  It
+was plain that no one could be happier, or more prosperous in a
+humble way, than the ex-jester and his wife; and if anything could
+restore Ambrose it would surely be the homely plenty and motherly
+care he found there.
+
+Stephen heard another tale of his half-brother.  His wife had soon
+been disgusted by the loneliness of the verdurer's lodge, and was
+always finding excuses for going to Southampton, where she and her
+daughter had both caught the plague, imported in some Eastern
+merchandise, and had died.  The only son had turned out wild and
+wicked, and had been killed in a broil which he had provoked:  and
+John, a broken-down man, with no one to enjoy the wealth he had
+accumulated, had given up his office as verdurer, and retired to an
+estate which he had purchased on the skirts of the Forest.
+
+Stephen rode thither to see him, and found him a dying man,
+tyrannised over and neglected by his servants, and having often
+bitterly regretted his hardness towards his young brothers.  All
+that Stephen did for him he received as tokens of pardon, and it was
+not possible to leave him until, after a fortnight's watching, he
+died in his brother's arms.  He had made no will, and Ambrose thus
+inherited a property which made his future maintenance no longer an
+anxiety to his brother.
+
+He himself seemed to care very little for the matter.  To be allowed
+to rest under Perronel's care, to read his Erasmus' Testament, and
+attend mass on Sundays at the little Norman church, seemed all that
+he wished.  Stephen tried to persuade him that he was young enough
+at thirty-five to marry and begin life again on the fair woodland
+river-bordered estate that was his portion, but he shook his head.
+"No, Stephen, my work is over.  I could only help my dear master,
+and that is at an end.  Dean Colet is gone, Sir Thomas is gone, what
+more have I to do here?  Old ties are broken, old bonds severed.
+Crime and corruption were protested against in vain; and, now that
+judgment is beginning at the house of God, I am thankful that I am
+not like to live to see it."
+
+Perronel scolded and exhorted him, and told him he would be stronger
+when the hot weather was over, but Ambrose only smiled, and Stephen
+saw a change in him, even in this fortnight, which justified his
+forebodings.
+
+Stephen and his uncle found a trustworthy bailiff to manage the
+estate, and Ambrose remained in the house where he could now be no
+burthen.  Stephen was obliged to leave him and take home young
+Giles, who had, he found, become so completely a country lad,
+enjoying everything to the utmost, that he already declared that he
+would much rather be a yeoman and forester than an armourer, and
+that he did not want to be apprenticed to that black forge.
+
+This again made Ambrose smile with pleasure as he thought of the boy
+as keeping up the name of Birkenholt in the Forest.  The one wish he
+expressed was that Stephen would send down Tibble Steelman to be
+with him.  For in truth they both felt that in London Tib might at
+any time be laid hands on, and suffer at Smithfield for his
+opinions.  The hope of being a comfort to Ambrose was perhaps the
+only idea that could have counterbalanced the sense that he ought
+not to fly from martyrdom; and as it proved, the invitation came
+only just in time.  Three days after Tibble had been despatched by
+the Southampton carrier in charge of all the comforts Dennet could
+put together, Bishop Stokesley's grim "soumpnour" came to summon him
+to the Bishop's court, and there could be little question that he
+would have courted the faggot and stake.  But as he was gone out of
+reach, no further inquiries were made after him.
+
+Dennet had told her husband that she had been amazed to find how, in
+spite of a very warm affection for her, her husband, and children,
+her father hankered after the old name, and grieved that he could
+not fulfil his old engagement to his cousin Robert.  Giles Headley
+had managed the business excellently during Stephen's absence, had
+shown himself very capable, and gained good opinions from all.
+Rubbing about in the world had been very good for him; and she
+verily believed that nothing would make her father so happy as for
+them to offer to share the business with Giles.  She would on her
+part make Aldonza welcome, and had no fears of not agreeing with
+her.  Besides--if little Giles were indeed to be heir to Testside
+was not the way made clear?
+
+So thus it was.  The alderman was very happy in the arrangement, and
+Giles Headley had not forfeited his rights to be a freeman of London
+or a member of the Armourers' Guild.  He married Aldonza at
+Michaelmas, and all went well and peacefully in the household.
+Dennet never quitted her father while he lived; but Stephen
+struggled through winter roads and floods, and reached Baddesley in
+time to watch his brother depart in peace, his sorrow and
+indignation for his master healed by the sense of his martyrdom, and
+his trust firm and joyful.  "If this be, as it is, dying of grief,"
+said Hal Randall, "surely it is a blessed way to die!"
+
+A few winters later Stephen and Dennet left Giles Headley in sole
+possession of the Dragon, with their second son as an apprentice,
+while they themselves took up the old forest life as Master and
+Mistress Birkenholt of Testside, where they lived and died honoured
+and loved.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE ARMOURER'S PRENTICES ***
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+<a href="#startoftext">The Armourer's Prentices, by Charlotte Mary Yonge</a>
+</h2>
+<pre>
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Armourer's Prentices, by Charlotte M. Yonge
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+
+
+Title: The Armourer's Prentices
+
+Author: Charlotte Mary Yonge
+
+Release Date: February, 2006  [EBook #9959]
+[This file was first posted on November 5, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+</pre>
+<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p>
+<p>Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h1>THE ARMOURER&rsquo;S PRENTICES</h1>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>I have attempted here to sketch citizen life in the early Tudor days,
+aided therein by Stowe&rsquo;s <i>Survey of London</i>, supplemented
+by Mr. Loftie&rsquo;s excellent history, and Dr. Burton&rsquo;s <i>English
+Merchants</i>.</p>
+<p>Stowe gives a full account of the relations of apprentices to their
+masters; though I confess that I do not know whether Edmund Burgess
+could have become a citizen of York after serving an apprenticeship
+in London.&nbsp; Evil May Day is closely described in Hall&rsquo;s <i>Chronicle</i>.&nbsp;
+The ballad, said to be by Churchill, a contemporary, does not agree
+with it in all respects; but the story-teller may surely have license
+to follow whatever is most suitable to the purpose.&nbsp; The sermon
+is exactly as given by Hall, who is also responsible for the description
+of the King&rsquo;s sports and of the Field of the Cloth of Gold and
+of Ardres.&nbsp; Knight&rsquo;s admirable <i>Pictorial History of England</i>
+tells of Barlow, the archer, dubbed by Henry VIII. the King of Shoreditch.</p>
+<p><i>Historic Winchester</i> describes both St. Elizabeth College and
+the Archer Monks of Hyde Abbey.&nbsp; The tales mentioned as told by
+Ambrose to Dennet are really New Forest legends.</p>
+<p>The Moresco&rsquo;s Arabic Gospel and Breviary are mentioned in Lady
+Calcott&rsquo;s <i>History of Spain</i>, but she does not give her authority.&nbsp;
+Nor can I go further than Knight&rsquo;s <i>Pictorial History</i> for
+the King&rsquo;s adventure in the marsh.&nbsp; He does not say where
+it happened, but as in Stowe&rsquo;s map &ldquo;Dead Man&rsquo;s Hole&rdquo;
+appears in what is now Regent&rsquo;s Park, the marsh was probably deep
+enough in places for the adventure there.&nbsp; Brand&rsquo;s <i>Popular
+Antiquities</i> are the authority for the nutting in St. John&rsquo;s
+Wood on Holy Cross Day.&nbsp; Indeed, in some country parishes I have
+heard that boys still think they have a license to crack nuts at church
+on the ensuing Sunday.</p>
+<p>Seebohm&rsquo;s <i>Oxford Reformers</i> and the <i>Life of Sir Thomas
+More</i>, written by William Roper, are my other authorities, though
+I touched somewhat unwillingly on ground already lighted up by Miss
+Manning in her <i>Household of Sir Thomas More</i>.</p>
+<p>Galt&rsquo;s <i>Life of Cardinal Wolsey</i> afforded the description
+of his household taken from his faithful Cavendish, and likewise the
+story of Patch the Fool.&nbsp; In fact, a large portion of the whole
+book was built on that anecdote.</p>
+<p>I mention all this because I have so often been asked my authorities
+in historical tales, that I think people prefer to have what the French
+appropriately call <i>pi&egrave;ces justificatives</i>.</p>
+<p>C. M. YONGE.</p>
+<p><i>August</i> 1<i>st</i>, 1884</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER I.&nbsp; THE VERDURER&rsquo;S LODGE</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;Give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament,
+with that I will go buy me fortunes.&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Get you with
+him, you old dog.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><i>As You Like It</i>.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>The officials of the New Forest have ever since the days of the Conqueror
+enjoyed some of the pleasantest dwellings that southern England can
+boast.</p>
+<p>The home of the Birkenholt family was not one of the least delightful.&nbsp;
+It stood at the foot of a rising ground, on which grew a grove of magnificent
+beeches, their large silvery boles rising majestically like columns
+into a lofty vaulting of branches, covered above with tender green foliage.&nbsp;
+Here and there the shade beneath was broken by the gilding of a ray
+of sunshine on a lower twig, or on a white trunk, but the floor of the
+vast arcades was almost entirely of the russet brown of the fallen leaves,
+save where a fern or holly bush made a spot of green.&nbsp; At the foot
+of the slope lay a stretch of pasture ground, some parts covered by
+&ldquo;lady-smocks, all silver white,&rdquo; with the course of the
+little stream through the midst indicated by a perfect golden river
+of shining kingcups interspersed with ferns.&nbsp; Beyond lay tracts
+of brown heath and brilliant gorse and broom, which stretched for miles
+and miles along the flats, while the dry ground was covered with holly
+brake, and here and there woods of oak and beech made a sea of verdure,
+purpling in the distance.</p>
+<p>Cultivation was not attempted, but hardy little ponies, cows, goats,
+sheep, and pigs were feeding, and picking their way about in the marshy
+mead below, and a small garden of pot-herbs, inclosed by a strong fence
+of timber, lay on the sunny side of a spacious rambling forest lodge,
+only one story high, built of solid timber and roofed with shingle.&nbsp;
+It was not without strong pretensions to beauty, as well as to picturesqueness,
+for the posts of the door, the architecture of the deep porch, the frames
+of the latticed windows, and the verge boards were all richly carved
+in grotesque devices.&nbsp; Over the door was the royal shield, between
+a pair of magnificent antlers, the spoils of a deer reported to have
+been slain by King Edward IV., as was denoted by the &ldquo;glorious
+sun of York&rdquo; carved beneath the shield.</p>
+<p>In the background among the trees were ranges of stables and kennels,
+and on the grass-plat in front of the windows was a row of beehives.&nbsp;
+A tame doe lay on the little green sward, not far from a large rough
+deer-hound, both close friends who could be trusted at large.&nbsp;
+There was a mournful dispirited look about the hound, evidently an aged
+animal, for the once black muzzle was touched with grey, and there was
+a film over one of the keen beautiful eyes, which opened eagerly as
+he pricked his ears and lifted his head at the rattle of the door latch.&nbsp;
+Then, as two boys came out, he rose, and with a slowly waving tail,
+and a wistful appealing air, came and laid his head against one of the
+pair who had appeared in the porch.&nbsp; They were lads of fourteen
+and fifteen, clad in suits of new mourning, with the short belted doublet,
+puffed hose, small ruffs and little round caps of early Tudor times.&nbsp;
+They had dark eyes and hair, and honest open faces, the younger ruddy
+and sunburnt, the elder thinner and more intellectual&mdash;and they
+were so much the same size that the advantage of age was always supposed
+to be on the side of Stephen, though he was really the junior by nearly
+a year.&nbsp; Both were sad and grave, and the eyes and cheeks of Stephen
+showed traces of recent floods of tears, though there was more settled
+dejection on the countenance of his brother.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, Spring,&rdquo; said the lad, &ldquo;&rsquo;tis winter
+with thee now.&nbsp; A poor old rogue!&nbsp; Did the new housewife talk
+of a halter because he showed his teeth when her ill-nurtured brat wanted
+to ride on him?&nbsp; Nay, old Spring, thou shalt share thy master&rsquo;s
+fortunes, changed though they be.&nbsp; Oh, father! father! didst thou
+guess how it would be with thy boys!&rdquo;&nbsp; And throwing himself
+on the grass, he hid his face against the dog and sobbed.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Come, Stephen, Stephen; &rsquo;tis time to play the man!&nbsp;
+What are we to do out in the world if you weep and wail?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;She might have let us stay for the month&rsquo;s mind,&rdquo;
+was heard from Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, and though we might be more glad to go, we might carry
+bitterer thoughts along with us.&nbsp; Better be done with it at once,
+say I.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There would still be the Forest!&nbsp; And I saw the moorhen
+sitting yester eve!&nbsp; And the wild ducklings are out on the pool,
+and the woods are full of song.&nbsp; Oh!&nbsp; Ambrose!&nbsp; I never
+knew how hard it is to part&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, now, Steve, where be all your plots for bravery?&nbsp;
+You always meant to seek your fortune&mdash;not bide here like an acorn
+for ever.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I never thought to be thrust forth the very day of our poor
+father&rsquo;s burial, by a shrewish town-bred vixen, and a base narrow-souled&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hist! hist!&rdquo; said the more prudent Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Let him hear who will!&nbsp; He cannot do worse for us than
+he has done!&nbsp; All the Forest will cry shame on him for a mean-hearted
+skinflint to turn his brothers from their home, ere their father and
+his, be cold in his grave,&rdquo; cried Stephen, clenching the grass
+with his hands, in his passionate sense of wrong.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s womanish,&rdquo; said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Who&rsquo;ll be the woman when the time comes for drawing
+cold steel?&rdquo; cried Stephen, sitting up.</p>
+<p>At that moment there came through the porch a man, a few years over
+thirty, likewise in mourning, with a paler, sharper countenance than
+the brothers, and an uncomfortable pleading expression of self-justification.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How now, lads!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;what means this passion?&nbsp;
+You have taken the matter too hastily.&nbsp; There was no thought that
+ye should part till you had some purpose in view.&nbsp; Nay, we should
+be fain for Ambrose to bide on here, so he would leave his portion for
+me to deal with, and teach little Will his primer and accidence.&nbsp;
+You are a quiet lad, Ambrose, and can rule your tongue better than Stephen.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thanks, brother John,&rdquo; said Ambrose, somewhat sarcastically,
+&ldquo;but where Stephen goes I go.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I would&mdash;I would have found Stephen a place among the
+prickers or rangers, if&mdash;&rdquo; hesitated John.&nbsp; &ldquo;In
+sooth, I would yet do it, if he would make it up with the housewife.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My father looked higher for his son than a pricker&rsquo;s
+office,&rdquo; returned Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That do I wot,&rdquo; said John, &ldquo;and therefore, &rsquo;tis
+for his own good that I would send him forth.&nbsp; His godfather, our
+uncle Birkenholt, he will assuredly provide for him, and set him forth&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The door of the house was opened, and a shrewish voice cried, &ldquo;Mr.
+Birkenholt&mdash;here, husband!&nbsp; You are wanted.&nbsp; Here&rsquo;s
+little Kate crying to have yonder smooth pouch to stroke, and I cannot
+reach it for her.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Father set store by that otter-skin pouch, for poor Prince
+Arthur slew the otter,&rdquo; cried Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;Surely, John,
+you&rsquo;ll not let the babes make a toy of that?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>John made a helpless gesture, and at a renewed call, went indoors.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You are right, Ambrose,&rdquo; said Stephen, &ldquo;this is
+no place for us.&nbsp; Why should we tarry any longer to see everything
+moiled and set at nought?&nbsp; I have couched in the forest before,
+and &rsquo;tis summer time.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;we must make up our fardels
+and have our money in our pouches before we can depart.&nbsp; We must
+tarry the night, and call John to his reckoning, and so might we set
+forth early enough in the morning to lie at Winchester that night and
+take counsel with our uncle Birkenholt.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I would not stop short at Winchester,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;London for me, where uncle Randall will find us preferment!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And what wilt do for Spring!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Take him with me, of course!&rdquo; exclaimed Stephen.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;What! would I leave him to be kicked and pinched by Will, and
+hanged belike by Mistress Maud?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I doubt me whether the poor old hound will brook the journey.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then I&rsquo;ll carry him!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose looked at the big dog as if he thought it would be a serious
+undertaking, but he had known and loved Spring as his brother&rsquo;s
+property ever since his memory began, and he scarcely felt that they
+could be separable for weal or woe.</p>
+<p>The verdurers of the New Forest were of gentle blood, and their office
+was well-nigh hereditary.&nbsp; The Birkenholts had held it for many
+generations, and the reversion passed as a matter of course to the eldest
+son of the late holder, who had newly been laid in the burial ground
+of Beaulieu Abbey.&nbsp; John Birkenholt, whose mother had been of knightly
+lineage, had resented his father&rsquo;s second marriage with the daughter
+of a yeoman on the verge of the Forest, suspected of a strain of gipsy
+blood, and had lived little at home, becoming a sort of agent at Southampton
+for business connected with the timber which was yearly cut in the Forest
+to supply material for the shipping.&nbsp; He had wedded the daughter
+of a person engaged in law business at Southampton, and had only been
+an occasional visitor at home, ever after the death of his stepmother.&nbsp;
+She had left these two boys, unwelcome appendages in his sight.&nbsp;
+They had obtained a certain amount of education at Beaulieu Abbey, where
+a school was kept, and where Ambrose daily studied, though for the last
+few months Stephen had assisted his father in his forest duties.</p>
+<p>Death had come suddenly to break up the household in the early spring
+of 1515, and John Birkenholt had returned as if to a patrimony, bringing
+his wife and children with him.&nbsp; The funeral ceremonies had been
+conducted at Beaulieu Abbey on the extensive scale of the sixteenth
+century, the requiem, the feast, and the dole, all taking place there,
+leaving the Forest lodge in its ordinary quiet.</p>
+<p>It had always been understood that on their father&rsquo;s death
+the two younger sons must make their own way in the world; but he had
+hoped to live until they were a little older, when he might himself
+have started them in life, or expressed his wishes respecting them to
+their elder brother.&nbsp; As it was, however, there was no commendation
+of them, nothing but a strip of parchment, drawn up by one of the monks
+of Beaulieu, leaving each of them twenty crowns, with a few small jewels
+and properties left by their own mother, while everything else went
+to their brother.</p>
+<p>There might have been some jealousy excited by the estimation in
+which Stephen&rsquo;s efficiency&mdash;boy as he was&mdash;was evidently
+held by the plain-spoken underlings of the verdurer; and this added
+to Mistress Birkenholt&rsquo;s dislike to the presence of her husband&rsquo;s
+half-brothers, whom she regarded as interlopers without a right to exist.&nbsp;
+Matters were brought to a climax by old Spring&rsquo;s resentment at
+being roughly teased by her spoilt children.&nbsp; He had done nothing
+worse than growl and show his teeth, but the town-bred dame had taken
+alarm, and half in terror, half in spite, had insisted on his instant
+execution, since he was too old to be valuable.&nbsp; Stephen, who loved
+the dog only less than he loved his brother Ambrose, had come to high
+words with her; and the end of the altercation had been that she had
+declared that she would suffer no great lubbers of the half-blood to
+devour her children&rsquo;s inheritance, and teach them ill manners,
+and that go they must, and that instantly.&nbsp; John had muttered a
+little about &ldquo;not so fast, dame,&rdquo; and &ldquo;for very shame,&rdquo;
+but she had turned on him, and rated him with a violence that demonstrated
+who was ruler in the house, and took away all disposition to tarry long
+under the new dynasty.</p>
+<p>The boys possessed two uncles, one on each side of the house.&nbsp;
+Their father&rsquo;s elder brother had been a man-at-arms, having preferred
+a stirring life to the Forest, and had fought in the last surges of
+the Wars of the Roses.&nbsp; Having become disabled and infirm, he had
+taken advantage of a corrody, or right of maintenance, as being of kin
+to a benefactor of Hyde Abbey at Winchester, to which Birkenholt some
+generations back had presented a few roods of land, in right of which,
+one descendant at a time might be maintained in the Abbey.&nbsp; Intelligence
+of his brother&rsquo;s death had been sent to Richard Birkenholt, but
+answer had been returned that he was too evil-disposed with the gout
+to attend the burial.</p>
+<p>The other uncle, Harry Randall, had disappeared from the country
+under a cloud connected with the king&rsquo;s deer, leaving behind him
+the reputation of a careless, thriftless, jovial fellow, the best company
+in all the Forest, and capable of doing every one&rsquo;s work save
+his own.</p>
+<p>The two brothers, who were about seven and six years old at the time
+of his flight, had a lively recollection of his charms as a playmate,
+and of their mother&rsquo;s grief for him, and refusal to believe any
+ill of her Hal.&nbsp; Rumours had come of his attainment to vague and
+unknown greatness at court, under the patronage of the Lord Archbishop
+of York, which the Verdurer laughed to scorn, though his wife gave credit
+to them.&nbsp; Gifts had come from time to time, passed through a succession
+of servants and officials of the king, such as a coral and silver rosary,
+a jewelled bodkin, an agate carved with St. Catherine, an ivory pouncet
+box with a pierced gold coin as the lid; but no letter with them, as
+indeed Hal Randall had never been induced to learn to read or write.&nbsp;
+Master Birkenholt looked doubtfully at the tokens and hoped Hal had
+come honestly by them; but his wife had thoroughly imbued her sons with
+the belief that Uncle Hal was shining in his proper sphere, where he
+was better appreciated than at home.&nbsp; Thus their one plan was to
+go to London to find Uncle Hal, who was sure to put Stephen on the road
+to fortune, and enable Ambrose to become a great scholar, his favourite
+ambition.</p>
+<p>His gifts would, as Ambrose observed, serve them as tokens, and with
+the purpose of claiming them, they re-entered the hall, a long low room,
+with a handsome open roof, and walls tapestried with dressed skins,
+interspersed with antlers, hung with weapons of the chase.&nbsp; At
+one end of the hall was a small polished barrel, always replenished
+with beer, at the other a hearth with a wood fire constantly burning,
+and there was a table running the whole length of the room; at one end
+of this was laid a cloth, with a few trenchers on it, and horn cups,
+surrounding a barley loaf and a cheese, this meagre irregular supper
+being considered as a sufficient supplement to the funeral baked meats
+which had abounded at Beaulieu.&nbsp; John Birkenholt sat at the table
+with a trencher and horn before him, uneasily using his knife to crumble,
+rather than cut, his bread.&nbsp; His wife, a thin, pale, shrewish-looking
+woman, was warming her child&rsquo;s feet at the fire, before putting
+him to bed, and an old woman sat spinning and nodding on a settle at
+a little distance.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Brother,&rdquo; said Stephen, &ldquo;we have thought on what
+you said.&nbsp; We will put our stuff together, and if you will count
+us out our portions, we will be afoot by sunrise to-morrow.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, nay, lad, I said not there was such haste; did I, mistress
+housewife?&rdquo;&mdash;(she snorted); &ldquo;only that thou art a well-grown
+lusty fellow, and &rsquo;tis time thou wentest forth.&nbsp; For thee,
+Ambrose, thou wottest I made thee a fair offer of bed and board.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That is,&rdquo; called out the wife, &ldquo;if thou wilt make
+a fair scholar of little Will.&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis a mighty good offer.&nbsp;
+There are not many who would let their child be taught by a mere stripling
+like thee!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Ambrose, who could not bring himself to thank
+her, &ldquo;I go with Stephen, mistress; I would mend my scholarship
+ere I teach.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;As you please,&rdquo; said Mistress Maud, shrugging her shoulders,
+&ldquo;only never say that a fair offer was not made to you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And,&rdquo; said Stephen, &ldquo;so please you, brother John,
+hand us over our portions, and the jewels as bequeathed to us, and we
+will be gone.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Portions, quotha?&rdquo; returned John.&nbsp; &ldquo;Boy,
+they be not due to you till you be come to years of discretion.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The brothers looked at one another, and Stephen said, &ldquo;Nay,
+now, brother, I know not how that may be, but I do know that you cannot
+drive us from our father&rsquo;s house without maintenance, and detain
+what belongs to us.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And Ambrose muttered something about &ldquo;my Lord of Beaulieu.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Look you, now,&rdquo; said John, &ldquo;did I ever speak of
+driving you from home without maintenance?&nbsp; Hath not Ambrose had
+his choice of staying here, and Stephen of waiting till some office
+be found for him?&nbsp; As for putting forty crowns into the hands of
+striplings like you, it were mere throwing it to the robbers.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That being so,&rdquo; said Ambrose turning to Stephen, &ldquo;we
+will to Beaulieu, and see what counsel my lord will give us.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, do, like the vipers ye are, and embroil us with my Lord
+of Beaulieu,&rdquo; cried Maud from the fire.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;See,&rdquo; said John, in his more caressing fashion, &ldquo;it
+is not well to carry family tales to strangers, and&mdash;and&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He was disconcerted by a laugh from the old nurse, &ldquo;Ho!&nbsp;
+John Birkenholt, thou wast ever a lad of smooth tongue, but an thou,
+or madam here, think that thy brothers can be put forth from thy father&rsquo;s
+door without their due before the good man be cold in his grave, and
+the Forest not ring with it, thou art mightily out in thy reckoning!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Peace, thou old hag; what matter is&rsquo;t of thine?&rdquo;
+began Mistress Maud, but again came the harsh laugh.&nbsp; &ldquo;Matter
+of mine!&nbsp; Why, whose matter should it be but mine, that have nursed
+all three of the lads, ay, and their father before them, besides four
+more that lie in the graveyard at Beaulieu?&nbsp; Rest their sweet souls!&nbsp;
+And I tell thee, Master John, an thou do not righteously by these thy
+brothers, thou mayst back to thy parchments at Southampton, for not
+a man or beast in the Forest will give thee good day.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>They all felt the old woman&rsquo;s authority.&nbsp; She was able
+and spirited in her homely way, and more mistress of the house than
+Mrs. Birkenholt herself; and such were the terms of domestic service,
+that there was no peril of losing her place.&nbsp; Even Maud knew that
+to turn her out was an impossibility, and that she must be accepted
+like the loneliness, damp, and other evils of Forest life.&nbsp; John
+had been under her dominion, and proceeded to persuade her.&nbsp; &ldquo;Good
+now, Nurse Joan, what have I denied these rash striplings that my father
+would have granted them?&nbsp; Wouldst thou have them carry all their
+portion in their hands, to be cozened of it at the first ale-house,
+or robbed on the next heath?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I would have thee do a brother&rsquo;s honest part, John Birkenholt.&nbsp;
+A loving part I say not.&nbsp; Thou wert always like a very popple for
+hardness, and smoothness, ay, and slipperiness.&nbsp; Heigh ho!&nbsp;
+But what is right by the lads, thou <i>shalt</i> do.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>John cowered under her eye as he had done at six years old, and faltered,
+&ldquo;I only seek to do them right, nurse.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Nurse Joan uttered an emphatic grunt, but Mistress Maud broke in,
+&ldquo;They are not to hang about here in idleness, eating my poor child&rsquo;s
+substance, and teaching him ill manners.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We would not stay here if you paid us for it,&rdquo; returned
+Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And whither would you go?&rdquo; asked John.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;To Winchester first, to seek counsel with our uncle Birkenholt.&nbsp;
+Then to London, where uncle Randall will help us to our fortunes.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Gipsy Hal!&nbsp; He is more like to help you to a halter,&rdquo;
+sneered John, <i>sotto voce</i>, and Joan herself observed, &ldquo;Their
+uncle at Winchester will show them better than to run after that there
+go-by-chance.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>However, as no one wished to keep the youths, and they were equally
+determined to go, an accommodation was come to at last.&nbsp; John was
+induced to give them three crowns apiece and to yield them up the five
+small trinkets specified, though not without some murmurs from his wife.&nbsp;
+It was no doubt safer to leave the rest of the money in his hands than
+to carry it with them, and he undertook that it should be forthcoming,
+if needed for any fit purpose, such as the purchase of an office, an
+apprentice&rsquo;s fee, or an outfit as a squire.&nbsp; It was a vague
+promise that cost him nothing just then, and thus could be readily made,
+and John&rsquo;s great desire was to get them away so that he could
+aver that they had gone by their own free will, without any hardship,
+for he had seen enough at his father&rsquo;s obsequies to show him that
+the love and sympathy of all the scanty dwellers in the Forest was with
+them.</p>
+<p>Nurse Joan had fought their battles, but with the sore heart of one
+who was parting with her darlings never to see them again.&nbsp; She
+bade them doff their suits of mourning that she might make up their
+fardels, as they would travel in their Lincoln-green suits.&nbsp; To
+take these she repaired to the little rough shed-like chamber where
+the two brothers lay for the last time on their pallet bed, awake, and
+watching for her, with Spring at their feet.&nbsp; The poor old woman
+stood over them, as over the motherless nurslings whom she had tended,
+and she should probably never see more, but she was a woman of shrewd
+sense, and perceived that &ldquo;with the new madam in the hall&rdquo;
+it was better that they should be gone before worse ensued.</p>
+<p>She advised leaving their valuables sealed up in the hands of my
+Lord Abbot, but they were averse to this&mdash;for they said their uncle
+Randall, who had not seen them since they were little children, would
+not know them without some pledge.</p>
+<p>She shook her head.&nbsp; &ldquo;The less you deal with Hal Randall
+the better,&rdquo; she said.&nbsp; &ldquo;Come now, lads, be advised
+and go no farther than Winchester, where Master Ambrose may get all
+the book-learning he is ever craving for, and you, Master Steevie, may
+prentice yourself to some good trade.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Prentice!&rdquo; cried Stephen, scornfully.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, ay.&nbsp; As good blood as thine has been prenticed,&rdquo;
+returned Joan.&nbsp; &ldquo;Better so than be a cut-throat sword-and-buckler
+fellow, ever slaying some one else or getting thyself slain&mdash;a
+terror to all peaceful folk.&nbsp; But thine uncle will see to that&mdash;a
+steady-minded lad always was he&mdash;was Master Dick.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Consoling herself with this hope, the old woman rolled up their new
+suits with some linen into two neat knapsacks; sighing over the thought
+that unaccustomed fingers would deal with the shirts she had spun, bleached,
+and sewn.&nbsp; But she had confidence in &ldquo;Master Dick,&rdquo;
+and concluded that to send his nephews to him at Winchester gave a far
+better chance of their being cared for, than letting them be flouted
+into ill-doing by their grudging brother and his wife.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.&nbsp; THE GRANGE OF SILKSTEDE</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;All Itchen&rsquo;s valley
+lay,<br />St. Catherine&rsquo;s breezy side and the woodlands far away,<br />The
+huge Cathedral sleeping in venerable gloom,<br />The modest College
+tower, and the bedesmen&rsquo;s Norman home.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>LORD SELBORNE.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>Very early in the morning, even according to the habits of the time,
+were Stephen and Ambrose Birkenholt astir.&nbsp; They were full of ardour
+to enter on the new and unknown world beyond the Forest, and much as
+they loved it, any change that kept them still to their altered life
+would have been distasteful.</p>
+<p>Nurse Joan, asking no questions, folded up their fardels on their
+backs, and packed the wallets for their day&rsquo;s journey with ample
+provision.&nbsp; She charged them to be good lads, to say their Pater,
+Credo, and Ave daily, and never omit Mass on a Sunday.&nbsp; They kissed
+her like their mother and promised heartily&mdash;and Stephen took his
+crossbow.&nbsp; They had had some hope of setting forth so early as
+to avoid all other human farewells, except that Ambrose wished to begin
+by going to Beaulieu to take leave of the Father who had been his kind
+master, and get his blessing and counsel.&nbsp; But Beaulieu was three
+miles out of their way, and Stephen had not the same desire, being less
+attached to his schoolmaster and more afraid of hindrances being thrown
+in their way.</p>
+<p>Moreover, contrary to their expectation, their elder brother came
+forth, and declared his intention of setting them forth on their way,
+bestowing a great amount of good advice, to the same purport as that
+of nurse Joan, namely, that they should let their uncle Richard Birkenholt
+find them some employment at Winchester, where they, or at least Ambrose,
+might even obtain admission into the famous college of St. Mary.</p>
+<p>In fact, this excellent elder brother persuaded himself that it would
+be doing them an absolute wrong to keep such promising youths hidden
+in the Forest.</p>
+<p>The purpose of his going thus far with them made itself evident.&nbsp;
+It was to see them past the turning to Beaulieu.&nbsp; No doubt he wished
+to tell the story in his own way, and that they should not present themselves
+there as orphans expelled from their father&rsquo;s house.&nbsp; It
+would sound much better that he had sent them to ask counsel of their
+uncle at Winchester, the fit person to take charge of them.&nbsp; And
+as he represented that to go to Beaulieu would lengthen their day&rsquo;s
+journey so much that they might hardly reach Winchester that night,
+while all Stephen&rsquo;s wishes were to go forward, Ambrose could only
+send his greetings.&nbsp; There was another debate over Spring, who
+had followed his master as usual.&nbsp; John uttered an exclamation
+of vexation at perceiving it, and bade Stephen drive the dog back.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Or give me the leash to drag him.&nbsp; He will never follow
+me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He goes with us,&rdquo; said Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He!&nbsp; Thou&rsquo;lt never have the folly!&nbsp; The old
+hound is half blind and past use.&nbsp; No man will take thee in with
+him after thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then they shall not take me in,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll not leave him to be hanged by thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Who spoke of hanging him!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thy wife will soon, if she hath not already.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou wilt be for hanging him thyself ere thou have made a
+day&rsquo;s journey with him on the king&rsquo;s highway, which is not
+like these forest paths, I would have thee to know.&nbsp; Why, he limps
+already.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then I&rsquo;ll carry him,&rdquo; said Stephen, doggedly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What hast thou to say to that device, Ambrose?&rdquo; asked
+John, appealing to the elder and wiser.</p>
+<p>But Ambrose only answered &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll help,&rdquo; and as John
+had no particular desire to retain the superannuated hound, and preferred
+on the whole to be spared sentencing him, no more was said on the subject
+as they went along, until all John&rsquo;s stock of good counsel had
+been lavished on his brothers&rsquo; impatient ears.&nbsp; He bade them
+farewell, and turned back to the lodge, and they struck away along the
+woodland pathway which they had been told led to Winchester, though
+they had never been thither, nor seen any town save Southampton and
+Romsey at long intervals.&nbsp; On they went, sometimes through beech
+and oak woods of noble, almost primeval, trees, but more often across
+tracts of holly underwood, illuminated here and there with the snowy
+garlands of the wild cherry, and beneath with wide spaces covered with
+young green bracken, whose soft irregular masses on the undulating ground
+had somewhat the effect of the waves of the sea.&nbsp; These alternated
+with stretches of yellow gorse and brown heather, sheets of cotton-grass,
+and pools of white crowfoot, and all the vegetation of a mountain side,
+only that the mountain was not there.</p>
+<p>The brothers looked with eyes untaught to care for beauty, but with
+a certain love of the home scenes, tempered by youth&rsquo;s impatience
+for something new.&nbsp; The nightingales sang, the thrushes flew out
+before them, the wild duck and moorhen glanced on the pools.&nbsp; Here
+and there they came on the furrows left by the snout of the wild swine,
+and in the open tracts rose the graceful heads of the deer, but of inhabitants
+or travellers they scarce saw any, save when they halted at the little
+hamlet of Minestead, where a small alehouse was kept by one Will Purkiss,
+who claimed descent from the charcoal-burner who had carried William
+Rufus&rsquo;s corpse to burial at Winchester&mdash;the one fact in history
+known to all New Foresters, though perhaps Ambrose and John were the
+only persons beyond the walls of Beaulieu who did not suppose the affair
+to have taken place in the last generation.</p>
+<p>A draught of ale and a short rest were welcome as the heat of the
+day came on, making the old dog plod wearily on with his tongue out,
+so that Stephen began to consider whether he should indeed have to be
+his bearer&mdash;a serious matter, for the creature at full length measured
+nearly as much as he did.&nbsp; They met hardly any one, and they and
+Spring were alike too well known and trained, for difficulties to arise
+as to leading a dog through the Forest.&nbsp; Should they ever come
+to the term of the Forest?&nbsp; It was not easy to tell when they were
+really beyond it, for the ground was much of the same kind.&nbsp; Only
+the smooth, treeless hills, where they had always been told Winchester
+lay, seemed more defined; and they saw no more deer, but here and there
+were inclosures where wheat and barley were growing, and black timbered
+farm-houses began to show themselves at intervals.&nbsp; Herd boys,
+as rough and unkempt as their charges, could be seen looking after little
+tawny cows, black-faced sheep, or spotted pigs, with curs which barked
+fiercely at poor weary Spring, even as their masters were more disposed
+to throw stones than to answer questions.</p>
+<p>By and by, on the further side of a green valley, could be seen buildings
+with an encircling wall of flint and mortar faced with ruddy brick,
+the dark red-tiled roofs rising among walnut-trees, and an orchard in
+full bloom spreading into a long green field.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Winchester must be nigh.&nbsp; The sun is getting low,&rdquo;
+said Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We will ask.&nbsp; The good folk will at least give us an
+answer,&rdquo; said Ambrose wearily.</p>
+<p>As they reached the gate, a team of plough horses was passing in
+led by a peasant lad, while a lay brother, with his gown tucked up,
+rode sideways on one, whistling.&nbsp; An Augustinian monk, ruddy, burly,
+and sunburnt, stood in the farm-yard, to receive an account of the day&rsquo;s
+work, and doffing his cap, Ambrose asked whether Winchester were near.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Three mile or thereaway, my good lad,&rdquo; said the monk;
+&ldquo;thou&rsquo;lt see the towers an ye mount the hill.&nbsp; Whence
+art thou?&rdquo; he added, looking at the two young strangers.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Scholars?&nbsp; The College elects not yet a while.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We be from the Forest, so please your reverence,&rdquo; and
+are bound for Hyde Abbey, where our uncle, Master Richard Birkenholt,
+dwells.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And oh, sir,&rdquo; added Stephen, &ldquo;may we crave a drop
+of water for our dog?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The monk smiled as he looked at Spring, who had flung himself down
+to take advantage of the halt, hanging out his tongue, and panting spasmodically.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;A noble beast,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;of the Windsor breed, is&rsquo;t
+not?&rdquo;&nbsp; Then laying his hand on the graceful head, &ldquo;Poor
+old hound, thou art o&rsquo;er travelled.&nbsp; He is aged for such
+a journey, if you came from the Forest since morn.&nbsp; Twelve years
+at the least, I should say, by his muzzle.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Your reverence is right,&rdquo; said Stephen, &ldquo;he is
+twelve years old.&nbsp; He is two years younger than I am, and my father
+gave him to me when he was a little whelp.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;So thou must needs take him to seek thy fortune with thee,&rdquo;
+said the good-natured Augustinian, not knowing how truly he spoke.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Come in, my lads, here&rsquo;s a drink for him.&nbsp; What said
+you was your uncle&rsquo;s name?&rdquo; and as Ambrose repeated it,
+&ldquo;Birkenholt!&nbsp; Living on a corrody at Hyde!&nbsp; Ay! ay!&nbsp;
+My lads, I have a call to Winchester to-morrow, you&rsquo;d best tarry
+the night here at Silkstede Grange, and fare forward with me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The tired boys were heartily glad to accept the invitation, more
+especially as Spring, happy as he was with the trough of water before
+him, seemed almost too tired to stand over it, and after the first,
+tried to lap, lying down.&nbsp; Silkstede was not a regular convent,
+only a grange or farm-house, presided over by one of the monks, with
+three or four lay brethren under him, and a little colony of hinds,
+in the surrounding cottages, to cultivate the farm, and tend a few cattle
+and numerous sheep, the special care of the Augustinians.</p>
+<p>Father Shoveller, as the good-natured monk who had received the travellers
+was called, took them into the spacious but homely chamber which served
+as refectory, kitchen, and hall.&nbsp; He called to the lay brother
+who was busy over the open hearth to fry a few more rashers of bacon;
+and after they had washed away the dust of their journey at the trough
+where Spring had slaked his thirst, they sat down with him to a hearty
+supper, which smacked more of the grange than of the monastery, spread
+on a large solid oak table, and washed down with good ale.&nbsp; The
+repast was shared by the lay brethren and farm servants, and also by
+two or three big sheep dogs, who had to be taught their manners towards
+Spring.</p>
+<p>There was none of the formality that Ambrose was accustomed to at
+Beaulieu in the great refectory, where no one spoke, but one of the
+brethren read aloud some theological book from a stone pulpit in the
+wall.&nbsp; Here Brother Shoveller conversed without stint, chiefly
+with the brother who seemed to be a kind of bailiff, with whom he discussed
+the sheep that were to be taken into market the next day, and the prices
+to be given for them by either the college, the castle, or the butchers
+of Boucher Row.&nbsp; He however found time to talk to the two guests,
+and being sprung from a family in the immediate neighbourhood, he knew
+the verdurer&rsquo;s name, and ere he was a monk, had joined in the
+chase in the Forest.</p>
+<p>There was a little oratory attached to the hall, where he and the
+lay brethren kept the hours, to a certain degree, putting two or three
+services into one, on a liberal interpretation of <i>laborare est orare</i>.&nbsp;
+Ambrose&rsquo;s responses made their host observe as they went out,
+&ldquo;Thou hast thy Latin pat, my son, there&rsquo;s the making of
+a scholar in thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Then they took their first night&rsquo;s rest away from home, in
+a small guest-chamber, with a good bed, though bare in all other respects.&nbsp;
+Brother Shoveller likewise had a cell to himself, but the lay brethren
+slept promiscuously among their sheep-dogs on the floor of the refectory.</p>
+<p>All were afoot in the early morning, and Stephen and Ambrose were
+awakened by the tumultuous bleatings of the flock of sheep that were
+being driven from their fold to meet their fate at Winchester market.&nbsp;
+They heard Brother Shoveller shouting his orders to the shepherds in
+tones a great deal more like those of a farmer than of a monk, and they
+made haste to dress themselves and join him as he was muttering a morning
+abbreviation of his obligatory devotions in the oratory, observing that
+they might be in time to hear mass at one of the city churches, but
+the sheep might delay them, and they had best break their fast ere starting.</p>
+<p>It was Wednesday, a day usually kept as a moderate fast, so the breakfast
+was of oatmeal porridge, flavoured with honey, and washed down with
+mead, after which Brother Shoveller mounted his mule, a sleek creature,
+whose long ears had an air of great contentment, and rode off, accommodating
+his pace to that of his young companions up a stony cart-track which
+soon led them to the top of a chalk down, whence, as in a map, they
+could see Winchester, surrounded by its walls, lying in a hollow between
+the smooth green hills.&nbsp; At one end rose the castle, its fortifications
+covering its own hill, beneath, in the valley, the long, low massive
+Cathedral, the college buildings and tower with its pinnacles, and nearer
+at hand, among the trees, the Almshouse of Noble Poverty at St. Cross,
+beneath the round hill of St. Catherine.&nbsp; Churches and monastic
+buildings stood thickly in the town, and indeed, Brother Shoveller said,
+shaking his head, that there were well-nigh as many churches as folk
+to go to them; the place was decayed since the time he remembered when
+Prince Arthur was born there.&nbsp; Hyde Abbey he could not show them,
+from where they stood, as it lay further off by the river side, having
+been removed from the neighbourhood of the Minster, because the brethren
+of St. Grimbald could not agree with those of St. Swithun&rsquo;s belonging
+to the Minster, as indeed their buildings were so close together that
+it was hardly possible to pass between them, and their bells jangled
+in each other&rsquo;s ears.</p>
+<p>Brother Shoveller did not seem to entertain a very high opinion of
+the monks of St. Grimbald, and he asked the boys whether they were expected
+there.&nbsp; &ldquo;No,&rdquo; they said; &ldquo;tidings of their father&rsquo;s
+death had been sent by one of the woodmen, and the only answer that
+had been returned was that Master Richard Birkenholt was ill at ease,
+but would have masses said for his brother&rsquo;s soul.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hem!&rdquo; said the Augustinian ominously; but at that moment
+they came up with the sheep, and his attention was wholly absorbed by
+them, as he joined the lay brothers in directing the shepherds who were
+driving them across the downs, steering them over the high ground towards
+the arched West Gate close to the royal castle.&nbsp; The street sloped
+rapidly down, and Brother Shoveller conducted his young companions between
+the overhanging houses, with stalls between serving as shops, till they
+reached the open space round the Market Cross, on the steps of which
+women sat with baskets of eggs, butter, and poultry, raised above the
+motley throng of cattle and sheep, with their dogs and drivers, the
+various cries of man and beast forming an incongruous accompaniment
+to the bells of the churches that surrounded the market-place.</p>
+<p>Citizens&rsquo; wives in hood and wimple were there, shrilly bargaining
+for provision for their households, squires and grooms in quest of hay
+for their masters&rsquo; stables, purveyors seeking food for the garrison,
+lay brethren and sisters for their convents, and withal, the usual margin
+of begging friars, wandering gleemen, jugglers and pedlars, though in
+no great numbers, as this was only a Wednesday market-day, not a fair.&nbsp;
+Ambrose recognised one or two who made part of the crowd at Beaulieu
+only two days previously, when he had &ldquo;seen through tears the
+juggler leap,&rdquo; and the jingling tune one of them was playing on
+a rebeck brought back associations of almost unbearable pain.&nbsp;
+Happily, Father Shoveller, having seen his sheep safely bestowed in
+a pen, bethought him of bidding the lay brother in attendance show the
+young gentlemen the way to Hyde Abbey, and turning up a street at right
+angles to the principal one, they were soon out of the throng.</p>
+<p>It was a lonely place, with a decayed uninhabited appearance, and
+Brother Peter told them it had been the Jewry, whence good King Edward
+had banished all the unbelieving dogs of Jews, and where no one chose
+to dwell after them.</p>
+<p>Soon they came in sight of a large extent of monastic buildings,
+partly of stone, but the more domestic offices of flint and brick or
+mortar.&nbsp; Large meadows stretched away to the banks of the Itchen,
+with cattle grazing in them, but in one was a set of figures to whom
+the lay brother pointed with a laugh of exulting censure.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Long bows!&rdquo; exclaimed Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;Who be they?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Brethren of St. Grimbald, sir.&nbsp; Such rule doth my Lord
+of Hyde keep, mitred abbot though he be.&nbsp; They say the good bishop
+hath called him to order, but what recks he of bishops?&nbsp; Good-day,
+Brother Bulpett, here be two young kinsmen of Master Birkenholt to visit
+him; and so <i>benedicite</i>, fair sirs.&nbsp; St. Austin&rsquo;s grace
+be with you!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Through a gate between two little red octagonal towers, Brother Bulpett
+led the two visitors, and called to another of the monks, &ldquo;<i>Benedicite</i>,
+Father Segrim, here be two striplings wanting speech of old Birkenholt.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Looking after dead men&rsquo;s shoes, I trow,&rdquo; muttered
+father Segrim, with a sour look at the lads, as he led them through
+the outer court, where some fine horses were being groomed, and then
+across a second court surrounded with a beautiful cloister, with flower
+beds in front of it.&nbsp; Here, on a stone bench, in the sun, clad
+in a gown furred with rabbit skin, sat a decrepit old man, both his
+hands clasped over his staff.&nbsp; Into his deaf ears their guide shouted,
+&ldquo;These boys say they are your kindred, Master Birkenholt.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Anan?&rdquo; said the old man, trembling with palsy.&nbsp;
+The lads knew him to be older than their father, but they were taken
+by surprise at such feebleness, and the monk did not aid them, only
+saying roughly, &ldquo;There he is.&nbsp; Tell your errand.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How fares it with you, uncle?&rdquo; ventured Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Who be ye?&nbsp; I know none of you,&rdquo; muttered the old
+man, shaking his head still more.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We are Ambrose and Stephen from the Forest,&rdquo; shouted
+Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah!&nbsp; Steve! poor Stevie!&nbsp; The accursed boar has
+rent his goodly face so as I would never have known him.&nbsp; Poor
+Steve!&nbsp; Best his soul!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The old man began to weep, while his nephews recollected that they
+had heard that another uncle had been slain by the tusk of a wild boar
+in early manhood.&nbsp; Then to their surprise, his eyes fell on Spring,
+and calling the hound by name, he caressed the creature&rsquo;s head&mdash;&ldquo;Spring,
+poor Spring!&nbsp; Stevie&rsquo;s faithful old dog.&nbsp; Hast lost
+thy master?&nbsp; Wilt follow me now?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He was thinking of a Spring as well as of a Stevie of sixty years
+ago, and he babbled on of how many fawns were in the Queen&rsquo;s Bower
+this summer, and who had best shot at the butts at Lyndhurst, as if
+he were excited by the breath of his native Forest, but there was no
+making him understand that he was speaking with his nephews.&nbsp; The
+name of his brother John only set him repeating that John loved the
+greenwood, and would be content to take poor Stevie&rsquo;s place and
+dwell in the verdurer&rsquo;s lodge; but that he himself ought to be
+abroad, he had seen brave Lord Talbot&rsquo;s ships ready at Southampton,
+John might stay at home, but he would win fame and honour in Gascony.</p>
+<p>And while he thus wandered, and the boys stood by perplexed and distressed,
+Brother Segrim came back, and said, &ldquo;So, young sirs, have you
+seen enough of your doting kinsman?&nbsp; The sub-prior bids me say
+that we harbour no strange, idling, lubber lads nor strange dogs here.&nbsp;
+&rsquo;Tis enough for us to be saddled with dissolute old men-at-arms
+without all their idle kin making an excuse to come and pay their devoirs.&nbsp;
+These corrodies are a heavy charge and a weighty abuse, and if there
+be the visitation the king&rsquo;s majesty speaks of, they will be one
+of the first matters to be amended.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Wherewith Stephen and Ambrose found themselves walked out of the
+cloister of St. Grimbald, and the gates shut behind them.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.&nbsp; KINSMEN AND STRANGERS</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;The reul of St. Maure and of St. Beneit<br />Because that
+it was old and some deale streit<br />This ilke monk let old things
+pace;<br />He held ever of the new world the trace.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>CHAUCER.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;The churls!&rdquo; exclaimed Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Poor old man!&rdquo; said Ambrose; &ldquo;I hope they are
+good to him!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;To think that thus ends all that once was gallant talk of
+fighting under Talbot&rsquo;s banner,&rdquo; sighed Stephen, thoughtful
+for a moment.&nbsp; &ldquo;However, there&rsquo;s a good deal to come
+first.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, and what next?&rdquo; said the elder brother.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;On to uncle Hal.&nbsp; I ever looked most to him.&nbsp; He
+will purvey me to a page&rsquo;s place in some noble household, and
+get thee a clerk&rsquo;s or scholar&rsquo;s place in my Lord of York&rsquo;s
+house.&nbsp; Mayhap there will be room for us both there, for my Lord
+of York hath a goodly following of armed men.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Which way lies the road to London?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We must back into the town and ask, as well as fill our stomachs
+and our wallets,&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;Talk of their rule!&nbsp;
+The entertaining of strangers is better understood at Silkstede than
+at Hyde.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Tush!&nbsp; A grudged crust sticks in the gullet,&rdquo; returned
+Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;Come on, Ambrose, I marked the sign of the White
+Hart by the market-place.&nbsp; There will be a welcome there for foresters.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>They returned on their steps past the dilapidated buildings of the
+old Jewry, and presently saw the market in full activity; but the sounds
+and sights of busy life where they were utter strangers, gave Ambrose
+a sense of loneliness and desertion, and his heart sank as the bolder
+Stephen threaded the way in the direction of a broad entry over which
+stood a slender-bodied hart with gold hoofs, horns, collar, and chain.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How now, my sons?&rdquo; said a full cheery voice, and to
+their joy, they found themselves pushed up against Father Shoveller.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Returned already!&nbsp; Did you get scant welcome at Hyde?&nbsp;
+Here, come where we can get a free breath, and tell me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>They passed through the open gateway of the White Hart, into the
+court, but before listening to them, the monk exchanged greetings with
+the hostess, who stood at the door in a broad hat and velvet bodice,
+and demanded what cheer there was for noon-meat.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A jack, reverend sir, eels and a grampus fresh sent up from
+Hampton; also fresh-killed mutton for such lay folk as are not curious
+of the Wednesday fast.&nbsp; They are laying the board even now.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Lay platters for me and these two young gentlemen,&rdquo;
+said the Augustinian.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ye be my guests, ye wot,&rdquo; he
+added, &ldquo;since ye tarried not for meat at Hyde.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nor did they ask us,&rdquo; exclaimed Stephen; &ldquo;lubbers
+and idlers were the best words they had for us.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ho! ho!&nbsp; That&rsquo;s the way with the brethren of St
+Grimbald!&nbsp; And your uncle?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Alas, sir, he doteth with age,&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;He took Stephen for his own brother, dead under King Harry of
+Windsor.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;So!&nbsp; I had heard somewhat of his age and sickness.&nbsp;
+Who was it who thrust you out?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A lean brother with a thin red beard, and a shrewd, puckered
+visage.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ha!&nbsp; By that token &rsquo;twas Segrim the bursar.&nbsp;
+He wots how to drive a bargain.&nbsp; St. Austin! but he deemed you
+came to look after your kinsman&rsquo;s corrody.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He said the king spake of a visitation to abolish corrodies
+from religious houses,&rdquo; said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll abolish the long bow from them first,&rdquo; said
+Father Shoveller.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ay, and miniver from my Lord Abbot&rsquo;s
+hood.&nbsp; I&rsquo;d admonish you, my good brethren of S.&nbsp; Grimbald,
+to be in no hurry for a visitation which might scarce stop where you
+would fain have it.&nbsp; Well, my sons, are ye bound for the Forest
+again?&nbsp; An ye be, we&rsquo;ll wend back together, and ye can lie
+at Silkstede to-night.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Alack, kind father, there&rsquo;s no more home for us in the
+Forest,&rdquo; said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Methought ye had a brother?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea; but our brother hath a wife.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ho! ho!&nbsp; And the wife will none of you?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;She would have kept Ambrose to teach her boy his primer,&rdquo;
+said Stephen; &ldquo;but she would none of Spring nor of me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We hoped to receive counsel from our uncle at Hyde,&rdquo;
+added Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Have ye no purpose now?&rdquo; inquired the Father, his jolly
+good-humoured face showing much concern.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea,&rdquo; manfully returned Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;&rsquo;Twas
+what I ever hoped to do, to fare on and seek our fortune in London.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ha!&nbsp; To pick up gold and silver like Dick Whittington.&nbsp;
+Poor old Spring here will scarce do you the part of his cat,&rdquo;
+and the monk&rsquo;s hearty laugh angered Stephen into muttering, &ldquo;We
+are no fools,&rdquo; but Father Shoveller only laughed the more, saying,
+&ldquo;Fair and softly, my son, ye&rsquo;ll never pick up the gold if
+ye cannot brook a kindly quip.&nbsp; Have you friends or kindred in
+London?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, that have we, sir,&rdquo; cried Stephen; &ldquo;our mother&rsquo;s
+own brother, Master Randall, hath come to preferment there in my Lord
+Archbishop of York&rsquo;s household, and hath sent us tokens from time
+to time, which we will show you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not while we be feasting,&rdquo; said Father Shoveller, hastily
+checking Ambrose, who was feeling in his bosom.&nbsp; &ldquo;See, the
+knaves be bringing their grampus across the court.&nbsp; Here, we&rsquo;ll
+clean our hands, and be ready for the meal;&rdquo; and he showed them,
+under a projecting gallery in the inn yard a stone trough, through which
+flowed a stream of water, in which he proceeded to wash his hands and
+face, and to wipe them in a coarse towel suspended nigh at hand.&nbsp;
+Certainly after handling sheep freely there was need, though such ablutions
+were a refinement not indulged in by all the company who assembled round
+the well-spread board of the White Hart for the meal after the market.&nbsp;
+They were a motley company.&nbsp; By the host&rsquo;s side sat a knight
+on his way home from pilgrimage to Compostella, or perhaps a mission
+to Spain, with a couple of squires and other attendants, and converse
+of political import seemed to be passing between him and a shrewd-looking
+man in a lawyer&rsquo;s hood and gown, the recorder of Winchester, who
+preferred being a daily guest at the White Hart to keeping a table of
+his own.&nbsp; Country franklins and yeomen, merchants and men-at-arms,
+palmers and craftsmen, friars and monks, black, white, and grey, and
+with almost all, Father Shoveller had greeting or converse to exchange.&nbsp;
+He knew everybody, and had friendly talk with all, on canons or crops,
+on war or wool, on the prices of pigs or prisoners, on the news of the
+country side, or on the perilous innovations in learning at Oxford,
+which might, it was feared, even affect St. Mary&rsquo;s College at
+Winchester.</p>
+<p>He did not affect outlandish fishes himself, and dined upon pike,
+but observing the curiosity of his guests, he took good care to have
+them well supplied with grampus; also in due time with varieties of
+the pudding and cake kind which had never dawned on their forest-bred
+imagination, and with a due proportion of good ale&mdash;the same over
+which the knight might be heard rejoicing, and lauding far above the
+Spanish or French wines, on which he said he had been half starved.</p>
+<p>Father Shoveller mused a good deal over his pike and its savoury
+stuffing.&nbsp; He was not by any means an ideal monk, but he was equally
+far from being a scandal.&nbsp; He was the shrewd man of business and
+manager of his fraternity, conducting the farming operations and making
+all the bargains, following his rule respectably according to the ordinary
+standard of his time, but not rising to any spirituality, and while
+duly observing the fast day, as to the quality of his food, eating with
+the appetite of a man who lived in the open fields.</p>
+<p>But when their hunger was appeased, with many a fragment given to
+Spring, the young Birkenholts, wearied of the endless talk that was
+exchanged over the tankard, began to grow restless, and after exchanging
+signs across Father Shoveller&rsquo;s solid person, they simultaneously
+rose, and began to thank him and say they must pursue their journey.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How now, not so fast, my sons,&rdquo; said the Father; &ldquo;tarry
+a bit, I have more to say to thee.&nbsp; Prayers and provender, thou
+knowst&mdash;I&rsquo;ll come anon.&nbsp; So, sir, didst say yonder beggarly
+Flemings haggle at thy price for thy Southdown fleeces.&nbsp; Weight
+of dirt forsooth!&nbsp; Do not we wash the sheep in the Poolhole stream,
+the purest water in the shire?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Manners withheld Ambrose from responding to Stephen&rsquo;s hot impatience,
+while the merchant in the sleek puce-coloured coat discussed the Flemish
+wool market with the monk for a good half-hour longer.</p>
+<p>By this time the knight&rsquo;s horses were brought into the yard,
+and the merchant&rsquo;s men had made ready his palfrey, his pack-horse
+being already on the way; the host&rsquo;s son came round with the reckoning,
+and there was a general move.&nbsp; Stephen expected to escape, and
+hardly could brook the good-natured authority with which Father Shoveller
+put Ambrose aside, when he would have discharged their share of the
+reckoning, and took it upon himself.&nbsp; &ldquo;Said I not ye were
+my guests?&rdquo; quoth he.&nbsp; &ldquo;We missed our morning mass,
+it will do us no harm to hear Nones in the Minster.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sir, we thank you, but we should be on our way,&rdquo; said
+Ambrose, incited by Stephen&rsquo;s impatient gestures.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Tut, tut.&nbsp; Fair and softly, my son, or more haste may
+be worse speed.&nbsp; Methought ye had somewhat to show me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen&rsquo;s youthful independence might chafe, but the habit
+of submission to authorities made him obediently follow the monk out
+at the back entrance of the inn, behind which lay the Minster yard,
+the grand western front rising in front of them, and the buildings of
+St. Swithun&rsquo;s Abbey extending far to their right.&nbsp; The hour
+was nearly noon, and the space was deserted, except for an old woman
+sitting at the great western doorway with a basket of rosaries made
+of nuts and of snail shells, and a workman or two employed on the bishop&rsquo;s
+new reredos.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Now for thy tokens,&rdquo; said Father Shoveller.&nbsp; &ldquo;See
+my young foresters, ye be new to the world.&nbsp; Take an old man&rsquo;s
+counsel, and never show, nor speak of such gear in an hostel.&nbsp;
+Mine host of the White Hart is an old gossip of mine, and indifferent
+honest, but who shall say who might be within earshot?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen had a mind to say that he did not see why the meddling monk
+should wish to see them at all, and Ambrose looked a little reluctant,
+but Father Shoveller said in his good-humoured way, &ldquo;As you please,
+young sirs.&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis but an old man&rsquo;s wish to see whether
+he can do aught to help you, that you be not as lambs among wolves.&nbsp;
+Mayhap ye deem ye can walk into London town, and that the first man
+you meet can point you to your uncle&mdash;Randall call ye him?&mdash;as
+readily as I could show you my brother, Thomas Shoveller of Granbury.&nbsp;
+But you are just as like to meet with some knave who might cozen you
+of all you have, or mayhap a beadle might take you up for vagabonds,
+and thrust you in the stocks, or ever you get to London town; so I would
+fain give you some commendation, an I knew to whom to make it, and ye
+be not too proud to take it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You are but too good to us, sir,&rdquo; said Ambrose, quite
+conquered, though Stephen only half believed in the difficulties.&nbsp;
+The Father took them within the west door of the Minster, and looking
+up and down the long arcade of the southern aisle to see that no one
+was watching, he inspected the tokens, and cross-examined them on their
+knowledge of their uncle.</p>
+<p>His latest gift, the rosary, had come by the hand of Friar Hurst,
+a begging Minorite of Southampton, who had it from another of his order
+at Winchester, who had received it from one of the king&rsquo;s archers
+at the Castle, with a message to Mistress Birkenholt that it came from
+her brother, Master Randall, who had good preferment in London, in the
+house of my Lord Archbishop of York, without whose counsel King Henry
+never stirred.&nbsp; As to the coming of the agate and the pouncet box,
+the minds of the boys were very hazy.&nbsp; They knew that the pouncet
+box had been conveyed through the attendants of the Abbot of Beaulieu,
+but they were only sure that from that time the belief had prevailed
+with their mother that her brother was prospering in the house of the
+all-powerful Wolsey.&nbsp; The good Augustinian, examining the tokens,
+thought they gave colour to that opinion.&nbsp; The rosary and agate
+might have been picked up in an ecclesiastical household, and the lid
+of the pouncet box was made of a Spanish coin, likely to have come through
+some of the attendants of Queen Katharine.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It hath an appearance,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp; &ldquo;I marvel
+whether there be still at the Castle this archer who hath had speech
+with Master Randall, for if ye know no more than ye do at present, &rsquo;tis
+seeking a needle in a bottle of hay.&nbsp; But see, here come the brethren
+that be to sing Nones&mdash;sinner that I am, to have said no Hours
+since the morn, being letted with lawful business.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Again the unwilling Stephen had to submit.&nbsp; There was no feeling
+for the incongruous in those days, and reverence took very different
+directions from those in which it now shows itself, so that nobody had
+any objection to Spring&rsquo;s pacing gravely with the others towards
+the Lady Chapel, where the Hours were sung, since the Choir was in the
+hands of workmen, and the sound of chipping stone could be heard from
+it, where Bishop Fox&rsquo;s elaborate lace-work reredos was in course
+of erection.&nbsp; Passing the shrine of St. Swithun, and the grand
+tomb of Cardinal Beaufort, where his life-coloured effigy filled the
+boys with wonder, they followed their leader&rsquo;s example, and knelt
+within the Lady Chapel, while the brief Latin service for the ninth
+hour was sung through by the canon, clerks, and boys.&nbsp; It really
+was the Sixth, but cumulative easy-going treatment of the Breviary had
+made this the usual time for it, as the name of noon still testifies.&nbsp;
+The boys&rsquo; attention, it must be confessed, was chiefly expended
+on the wonderful miracles of the Blessed Virgin in fresco on the walls
+of the chapel, all tending to prove that here was hope for those who
+said their Ave in any extremity of fire or flood.</p>
+<p>Nones ended, Father Shoveller, with many a halt for greeting or for
+gossip, took the lads up the hill towards the wide fortified space where
+the old Castle and royal Hall of Henry of Winchester looked down on
+the city, and after some friendly passages with the warder at the gate,
+Father Shoveller explained that he was in quest of some one recently
+come from court, of whom the striplings in his company could make inquiry
+concerning a kinsman in the household of my Lord Archbishop of York.&nbsp;
+The warder scratched his head, and bethinking himself that Eastcheap
+Jockey was the reverend.&nbsp; Father&rsquo;s man, summoned a horse-boy
+to call that worthy.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Where was he?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sitting over his pottle in the Hall,&rdquo; was the reply,
+and the monk, with a laugh savouring little of asceticism, said he would
+seek him there, and accordingly crossed the court to the noble Hall,
+with its lofty dark marble columns, and the Round Table of King Arthur
+suspended at the upper end.&nbsp; The governor of the Castle had risen
+from his meal long ago, but the garrison in the piping times of peace
+would make their ration of ale last as far into the afternoon as their
+commanders would suffer.&nbsp; And half a dozen men still sat there,
+one or two snoring, two playing at dice on a clear corner of the board,
+and another, a smart well-dressed fellow in a bright scarlet jerkin,
+laying down the law to a country bumpkin, who looked somewhat dazed.&nbsp;
+The first of these was, as it appeared, Eastcheap Jockey, and there
+was something both of the readiness and the impudence of the Londoner
+in his manner, when he turned to answer the question.&nbsp; He knew
+many in my Lord of York&rsquo;s house&mdash;as many as a man was like
+to know where there was a matter of two hundred folk between clerks
+and soldiers, he had often crushed a pottle with them.&nbsp; No; he
+had never heard of one called Randall, neither in hat nor cowl, but
+he knew more of them by face than by name, and more by byname than surname
+or christened name.&nbsp; He was certainly not the archer who had brought
+a token for Mistress Birkenholt, and his comrades all avouched equal
+ignorance on the subject.&nbsp; Nothing could be gained there, and while
+Father Shoveller rubbed his bald head in consideration, Stephen rose
+to take leave.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Look you here, my fair son,&rdquo; said the monk.&nbsp; &ldquo;Starting
+at this hour, though the days be long, you will not reach any safe halting
+place with daylight, whereas by lying a night in this good city, you
+might reach Alton to-morrow, and there is a home where the name of Brother
+Shoveller will win you free lodging and entertainment.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And to-night, good Father?&rdquo; inquired Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That will I see to, if ye will follow me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen was devoured with impatience during the farewells in the
+Castle, but Ambrose represented that the good man was giving them much
+of his time, and that it would be unseemly and ungrateful to break from
+him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What matter is it of his?&nbsp; And why should he make us
+lose a whole day?&rdquo; grumbled Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What special gain would a day be to us?&rdquo; sighed Ambrose.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I am thankful that any should take heed for us.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, you love leading-strings,&rdquo; returned Stephen.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Where is he going now?&nbsp; All out of our way!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Father Shoveller, however, as he went down the Castle hill, explained
+that the Warden of St. Elizabeth&rsquo;s Hospital was his friend, and
+knowing him to have acquaintance among the clergy of St. Paul&rsquo;s,
+it would be well to obtain a letter of commendation from him, which
+might serve them in good stead in case they were disappointed of finding
+their uncle at once.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It would be better for Spring to have a little more rest,&rdquo;
+thought Stephen, thus mitigating his own longing to escape from the
+monks and friars, of whom Winchester seemed to be full.</p>
+<p>They had a kindly welcome in the pretty little college of St. Elizabeth
+of Hungary, lying in the meadows between William of Wykeham&rsquo;s
+College and the round hill of St. Catharine.&nbsp; The Warden was a
+more scholarly and ecclesiastical-looking person than his friend, the
+good-natured Augustinian.&nbsp; After commending them to his care, and
+partaking of a drink of mead, the monk of Silkstede took leave of the
+youths, with a hearty blessing and advice to husband their few crowns,
+not to tell every one of their tokens, and to follow the counsel of
+the Warden of St. Elizabeth&rsquo;s, assuring them that if they turned
+back to the Forest, they should have a welcome at Silkstede.&nbsp; Moreover
+he patted Spring pitifully, and wished him and his master well through
+the journey.</p>
+<p>St. Elizabeth&rsquo;s College was a hundred years older than its
+neighbour St. Mary&rsquo;s, as was evident to practised eyes by its
+arches and windows, but it had been so entirely eclipsed by Wykeham&rsquo;s
+foundation that the number of priests, students, and choir-boys it was
+intended to maintain, had dwindled away, so that it now contained merely
+the Warden, a superannuated priest, and a couple of big lads who acted
+as servants.&nbsp; There was an air of great quietude and coolness about
+the pointed arches of its tiny cloister on that summer&rsquo;s day,
+with the old monk dozing in his chair over the manuscript he thought
+he was reading, not far from the little table where the Warden was eagerly
+studying Erasmus&rsquo;s <i>Praise of Folly</i>.&nbsp; But the Birkenholts
+were of the age at which quiet means dulness, at least Stephen was,
+and the Warden had pity both on them and on himself; and hearing joyous
+shouts outside, he opened a little door in the cloister wall, and revealed
+a multitude of lads with their black gowns tucked up &ldquo;a playing
+at the ball&rdquo;&mdash;these being the scholars of St. Mary&rsquo;s.&nbsp;
+Beckoning to a pair of elder ones, who were walking up and down more
+quietly, he consigned the strangers to their care, sweetening the introduction
+by an invitation to supper, for which he would gain permission from
+their Warden.</p>
+<p>One of the young Wykehamists was shy and churlish, and sheered off
+from the brothers, but the other catechised them on their views of becoming
+scholars in the college.&nbsp; He pointed out the cloister where the
+studies took place in all weathers, showed them the hall, the chapel,
+and the chambers, and expatiated on the chances of attaining to New
+College.&nbsp; Being moreover a scholarly fellow, he and Ambrose fell
+into a discussion over the passage of Virgil, copied out on a bit of
+paper, which he was learning by heart.&nbsp; Some other scholars having
+finished their game, and become aware of the presence of a strange dog
+and two strange boys, proceeded to mob Stephen and Spring, whereupon
+the shy boy stood forth and declared that the Warden of St. Elizabeth&rsquo;s
+had brought them in for an hour&rsquo;s sport.</p>
+<p>Of course, in such close quarters, the rival Warden was esteemed
+a natural enemy, and went by the name of &ldquo;Old Bess,&rdquo; so
+that his recommendation went for worse than nothing, and a dash at Spring
+was made by the inhospitable young savages.&nbsp; Stephen stood to the
+defence in act to box, and the shy lad stood by him, calling for fair
+play and one at a time.&nbsp; Of course a fight ensued, Stephen and
+his champion on the one side, and two assailants on the other, till
+after a fall on either side, Ambrose&rsquo;s friend interfered with
+a voice as thundering as the manly crack would permit, peace was restored,
+Stephen found himself free of the meads, and Spring was caressed instead
+of being tormented.</p>
+<p>Stephen was examined on his past, present, and future, envied for
+his Forest home, and beguiled into magnificent accounts, not only of
+the deer that had fallen to his bow and the boars that had fallen to
+his father&rsquo;s spear, but of the honours to which his uncle in the
+Archbishop&rsquo;s household would prefer him&mdash;for he viewed it
+as an absolute certainty that his kinsman was captain among the men-at-arms,
+whom he endowed on the spot with scarlet coats faced with black velvet,
+and silver medals and chains.</p>
+<p>Whereat one of the other boys was not behind in telling how his father
+was pursuivant to my Lord Duke of Norfolk, and never went abroad save
+with silver lions broidered on back and breast, and trumpets going before;
+and another dwelt on the splendours of the mayor and aldermen of Southampton
+with their chains and cups of gold.&nbsp; Stephen felt bound to surpass
+this with the last report that my Lord of York&rsquo;s men rode Flemish
+steeds in crimson velvet housings, passmented with gold and gems, and
+of course his uncle had the leading of them.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Who be thine uncle?&rdquo; demanded a thin, squeaky voice.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I have brothers likewise in my Lord of York&rsquo;s meim&eacute;.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mine uncle is Captain Harry Randall, of Shirley,&rdquo; quoth
+Stephen magnificently, scornfully surveying the small proportions of
+the speaker, &ldquo;What is thy brother?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Head turnspit,&rdquo; said a rude voice, provoking a general
+shout of laughter; but the boy stood his ground, and said hotly: &ldquo;He
+is page to the comptroller of my lord&rsquo;s household, and waits at
+the second table, and I know every one of the captains.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll say next he knows every one of the Seven Worthies,&rdquo;
+cried another boy, for Stephen was becoming a popular character.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And all the paladins to boot.&nbsp; Come on, little Rowley!&rdquo;
+was the cry.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I tell you my brother is page to the comptroller of the household,
+and my mother dwells beside the Gate House, and I know every man of
+them,&rdquo; insisted Rowley, waxing hot.&nbsp; &ldquo;As for that Forest
+savage fellow&rsquo;s uncle being captain of the guard, &rsquo;tis more
+like that he is my lord&rsquo;s fool, Quipsome Hal!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Whereat there was a cry, in which were blended exultation at the
+hit, and vituperation of the hitter.&nbsp; Stephen flew forward to avenge
+the insult, but a big bell was beginning to ring, a whole wave of black
+gowns rushed to obey it, sweeping little Rowley away with them; and
+Stephen found himself left alone with his brother and the two lads who
+had been invited to St. Elizabeth&rsquo;s, and who now repaired thither
+with them.</p>
+<p>The supper party in the refectory was a small one, and the rule of
+the foundation limited the meal to one dish and a pittance, but the
+dish was of savoury eels, and the Warden&rsquo;s good nature had added
+to it some cates and comfits in consideration of his youthful guests.</p>
+<p>After some conversation with the elder Wykehamist, the Warden called
+Ambrose and put him through an examination on his attainments, which
+proved so satisfactory, that it ended in an invitation to the brothers
+to fill two of the empty scholarships of the college of the dear St.
+Elizabeth.&nbsp; It was a good offer, and one that Ambrose would fain
+have accepted, but Stephen had no mind for the cloister or for learning.</p>
+<p>The Warden had no doubt that he could be apprenticed in the city
+of Winchester, since the brother at home had in keeping a sum sufficient
+for the fee.&nbsp; Though the trade of &ldquo;capping&rdquo; had fallen
+off, there were still good substantial burgesses who would be willing
+to receive an active lad of good parentage, some being themselves of
+gentle blood.&nbsp; Stephen, however, would not brook the idea.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Out upon you, Ambrose!&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;to desire to bind
+your own brother to base mechanical arts.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&rsquo;Tis what Nurse Joan held to be best for us both,&rdquo;
+said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Joan!&nbsp; Yea, like a woman, who deems a man safest when
+he is a tailor, or a perfumer.&nbsp; An you be minded to stay here with
+a black gown and a shaven crown, I shall on with Spring and come to
+preferment.&nbsp; Maybe thou&rsquo;lt next hear of me when I have got
+some fat canonry for thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, I quit thee not,&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;If
+thou fare forward, so do I.&nbsp; But I would thou couldst have brought
+thy mind to rest there.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What! wouldst thou be content with this worn-out place, with
+more churches than houses, and more empty houses than full ones?&nbsp;
+No! let us on where there is something doing!&nbsp; Thou wilt see that
+my Lord of York will have room for the scholar as well as the man-at-arms.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>So the kind offer was declined, but Ambrose was grieved to see that
+the Warden thought him foolish, and perhaps ungrateful.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless the good man gave them a letter to the Reverend Master
+Alworthy, singing clerk at St. Paul&rsquo;s Cathedral, telling Ambrose
+it might serve them in case they failed to find their uncle, or if my
+Lord of York&rsquo;s household should not be in town.&nbsp; He likewise
+gave them a recommendation which would procure them a night&rsquo;s
+lodging at the Grange, and after the morning&rsquo;s mass and meat,
+sped them on their way with his blessing, muttering to himself, &ldquo;That
+elder one might have been the staff of mine age!&nbsp; Pity on him to
+be lost in the great and evil City!&nbsp; Yet &rsquo;tis a good lad
+to follow that fiery spark his brother.&nbsp; <i>Tanquam agnus inter
+lupos</i>.&nbsp; Alack!&rdquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.&nbsp; A HERO&rsquo;S FALL</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;These four came all afront and mainly made at me.&nbsp; I
+made no more ado, but took their seven points on my target&mdash;thus&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>SHAKESPEARE.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>The journey to Alton was eventless.&nbsp; It was slow, for the day
+was a broiling one, and the young foresters missed their oaks and beeches,
+as they toiled over the chalk downs that rose and sank in endless succession;
+though they would hardly have slackened their pace if it had not been
+for poor old Spring, who was sorely distressed by the heat and the want
+of water on the downs.&nbsp; Every now and then he lay down, panting
+distressfully, with his tongue hanging out, and his young masters always
+waited for him, often themselves not sorry to rest in the fragment of
+shade from a solitary thorn or juniper.</p>
+<p>The track was plain enough, and there were hamlets at long intervals.&nbsp;
+Flocks of sheep fed on the short grass, but there was no approaching
+the shepherds, as they and their dogs regarded Spring as an enemy, to
+be received with clamour, stones, and teeth, in spite of the dejected
+looks which might have acquitted him of evil intentions.</p>
+<p>The travellers reached Alton in the cool of the evening, and were
+kindly received by a monk, who had charge of a grange just outside the
+little town, near one of the springs of the River Wey.</p>
+<p>The next day&rsquo;s journey was a pleasanter one, for there was
+more of wood and heather, and they had to skirt round the marshy borders
+of various bogs.&nbsp; Spring was happier, being able to stop and lap
+whenever he would, and the whole scene was less unfriendly to them.&nbsp;
+But they scarcely made speed enough, for they were still among tall
+whins and stiff scrub of heather when the sun began to get low, gorgeously
+lighting the tall plumes of golden broom, and they had their doubts
+whether they might not be off the track; but in such weather, there
+was nothing alarming in spending a night out of doors, if only they
+had something for supper.&nbsp; Stephen took a bolt from the purse at
+his girdle, and bent his crossbow, so as to be ready in case a rabbit
+sprang out, or a duck flew up from the marshes.</p>
+<p>A small thicket of trees was in sight, and they were making for it,
+when sounds of angry voices were heard, and Spring, bristling up the
+mane on his neck, and giving a few premonitory fierce growls like thunder,
+bounded forward as though he had been seven years younger.&nbsp; Stephen
+darted after him, Ambrose rushed after Stephen, and breaking through
+the trees, they beheld the dog at the throat of one of three men.&nbsp;
+As they came on the scene, the dog was torn down and hurled aside, giving
+a howl of agony, which infuriated his master.&nbsp; Letting fly his
+crossbow bolt full at the fellow&rsquo;s face, he dashed on, reckless
+of odds, waving his knotted stick, and shouting with rage.&nbsp; Ambrose,
+though more aware of the madness of such an assault, still hurried to
+his support, and was amazed as well as relieved to find the charge effectual.&nbsp;
+Without waiting to return a blow, the miscreants took to their heels,
+and Stephen, seeing nothing but his dog, dropped on his knees beside
+the quivering creature, from whose neck blood was fast pouring.&nbsp;
+One glance of the faithful wistful eyes, one feeble movement of the
+expressive tail, and Spring had made his last farewell!&nbsp; That was
+all Stephen was conscious of; but Ambrose could hear the cry, &ldquo;Good
+sirs, good lads, set me free!&rdquo; and was aware of a portly form
+bound to a tree.&nbsp; As he cut the rope with his knife, the rescued
+traveller hurried out thanks and demands&mdash;&ldquo;Where are the
+rest of you?&rdquo; and on the reply that there were no more, proceeded,
+&ldquo;Then we must on, on at once, or the villains will return!&nbsp;
+They must have thought you had a band of hunters behind you.&nbsp; Two
+furlongs hence, and we shall be safe in the hostel at Dogmersfield.&nbsp;
+Come on, my boy,&rdquo; to Stephen, &ldquo;the brave hound is quite
+dead, more&rsquo;s the pity.&nbsp; Thou canst do no more for him, and
+we shall soon be in his case if we dally here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I cannot, cannot leave him thus,&rdquo; sobbed Stephen, who
+had the loving old head on his knees.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ambrose! stay, we
+must bring him.&nbsp; There, his tail wagged!&nbsp; If the blood were
+staunched&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Stephen!&nbsp; Indeed he is stone dead!&nbsp; Were he our
+brother we could not do otherwise,&rdquo; reasoned Ambrose, forcibly
+dragging his brother to his feet.&nbsp; &ldquo;Go on we must.&nbsp;
+Wouldst have us all slaughtered for his sake?&nbsp; Come!&nbsp; The
+rogues will be upon us anon.&nbsp; Spring saved this good man&rsquo;s
+life.&nbsp; Undo not his work.&nbsp; See!&nbsp; Is yonder your horse,
+sir?&nbsp; This way, Stevie!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The instinct of catching the horse roused Stephen, and it was soon
+accomplished, for the steed was a plump, docile, city-bred palfrey,
+with dapple-grey flanks like well-stuffed satin pincushions, by no means
+resembling the shaggy Forest ponies of the boys&rsquo; experience, but
+quite astray in the heath, and ready to come at the master&rsquo;s whistle,
+and call of &ldquo;Soh!&nbsp; Soh!&mdash;now Poppet!&rdquo;&nbsp; Stephen
+caught the bridle, and Ambrose helped the burgess into the saddle.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Now, good boys,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;each of you lay a hand
+on my pommel.&nbsp; We can make good speed ere the rascals find out
+our scant numbers.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You would make better speed without us, sir,&rdquo; said Stephen,
+hankering to remain beside poor Spring.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;D&rsquo;ye think Giles Headley the man to leave two children,
+that have maybe saved my life as well as my purse, to bear the malice
+of the robbers?&rdquo; demanded the burgess angrily.&nbsp; &ldquo;That
+were like those fellows of mine who have shown their heels and left
+their master strapped to a tree!&nbsp; Thou! thou! what&rsquo;s thy
+name, that hast the most wit, bring thy brother, unless thou wouldst
+have him laid by the side of his dog.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen was forced to comply, and run by Poppet&rsquo;s side, though
+his eyes were so full of tears that he could not see his way, even when
+the pace slackened, and in the twilight they found themselves among
+houses and gardens, and thus in safety, the lights of an inn shining
+not far off.</p>
+<p>A figure came out in the road to meet them, crying, &ldquo;Master!
+master! is it you? and without scathe?&nbsp; Oh, the saints be praised!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, Tibble, &rsquo;tis I and no other, thanks to the saints
+and to these brave lads!&nbsp; What, man, I blame thee not, I know thou
+canst not strike; but where be the rest?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;In the inn, sir.&nbsp; I strove to call up the hue and cry
+to come to the rescue, but the cowardly hinds were afraid of the thieves,
+and not one would come forth.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I wish they may not be in league with them,&rdquo; said Master
+Headley.&nbsp; &ldquo;See! I was delivered&mdash;ay, and in time to
+save my purse, by these twain and their good dog.&nbsp; Are ye from
+these parts, my fair lads?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We be journeying from the New Forest to London,&rdquo; said
+Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;The poor dog heard the tumult, and leapt to your
+aid, sir, and we made after him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&rsquo;Twas the saints sent him!&rdquo; was the fervent answer.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;And&rdquo; (with a lifting of the cap) &ldquo;I hereby vow to
+St. Julian a hound of solid bronze a foot in length, with a collar of
+silver, to his shrine in St. Faith&rsquo;s, in token of my deliverance
+in body and goods!&nbsp; To London are ye bound?&nbsp; Then will we
+journey on together!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>They were by this time near the porch of a large country hostel,
+from the doors and large bay window of which light streamed out.&nbsp;
+And as the casement was open, those without could both see and hear
+all that was passing within.</p>
+<p>The table was laid for supper, and in the place of honour sat a youth
+of some seventeen or eighteen years, gaily dressed, with a little feather
+curling over his crimson cap, and thus discoursing:&mdash;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, my good host, two of the rogues bear my tokens, besides
+him whom I felled to the earth.&nbsp; He came on at me with his sword,
+but I had my point ready for him; and down he went before me like an
+ox.&nbsp; Then came on another, but him I dealt with by the back stroke
+as used in the tilt-yard at Clarendon.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I trow we shall know him again, sir.&nbsp; Holy saints! to
+think such rascals should haunt so nigh us,&rdquo; the hostess was exclaiming.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Pity for the poor goodman, Master Headley.&nbsp; A portly burgher
+was he, friendly of tongue and free of purse.&nbsp; I well remember
+him when he went forth on his way to Salisbury, little thinking, poor
+soul, what was before him.&nbsp; And is he truly sped?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I tell thee, good woman, I saw him go down before three of
+their pikes.&nbsp; What more could I do but drive my horse over the
+nearest rogue who was rifling him?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If he were still alive&mdash;which Our Lady grant!&mdash;the
+knaves will hold him to ransom,&rdquo; quoth the host, as he placed
+a tankard on the table.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am afraid he is past ransom,&rdquo; said the youth, shaking
+his head.&nbsp; &ldquo;But an if he be still in the rogues&rsquo; hands
+and living, I will get me on to his house in Cheapside, and arrange
+with his mother to find the needful sum, as befits me, I being his heir
+and about to wed his daughter.&nbsp; However, I shall do all that in
+me lies to get the poor old seignior out of the hands of the rogues.&nbsp;
+Saints defend me!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The poor old seignior is much beholden to thee,&rdquo; said
+Master Headley, advancing amid a clamour of exclamations from three
+or four serving-men or grooms, one protesting that he thought his master
+was with him, another that his horse ran away with him, one showing
+an arm which was actually being bound up, and the youth declaring that
+he rode off to bring help.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well wast thou bringing it,&rdquo; Master Headley answered.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I might be still standing bound like an eagle displayed, against
+yonder tree, for aught you fellows recked.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, sir, the odds&mdash;&rdquo; began the youth.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Odds! such odds as were put to rout&mdash;by what, deem you?&nbsp;
+These two striplings and one poor hound.&nbsp; Had but one of you had
+the heart of a sparrow, ye had not furnished a tale to be the laugh
+of the Barbican and Cheapside.&nbsp; Look well at them.&nbsp; How old
+be you, my brave lads?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I shall be sixteen come Lammas day, and Stephen fifteen at
+Martinmas day, sir,&rdquo; said Ambrose; &ldquo;but verily we did nought.&nbsp;
+We could have done nought had not the thieves thought more were behind
+us.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There are odds between going forward and backward,&rdquo;
+said Master Headley, dryly.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ha!&nbsp; Art hurt?&nbsp; Thou
+bleedst,&rdquo; he exclaimed, laying his hand on Stephen&rsquo;s shoulder,
+and drawing him to the light.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&rsquo;Tis no blood of mine,&rdquo; said Stephen, as Ambrose
+likewise came to join in the examination.&nbsp; &ldquo;It is my poor
+Spring&rsquo;s.&nbsp; He took the coward&rsquo;s blow.&nbsp; His was
+all the honour, and we have left him there on the heath!&rdquo;&nbsp;
+And he covered his face with his hands.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Come, come, my good child,&rdquo; said Master Headley; &ldquo;we
+will back to the place by times to-morrow when rogues hide and honest
+men walk abroad.&nbsp; Thou shalt bury thine hound, as befits a good
+warrior, on the battle-field.&nbsp; I would fain mark his points for
+the effigy we will frame, honest Tibble, for St. Julian.&nbsp; And mark
+ye, fellows, thou godson Giles, above all, who &rsquo;tis that boast
+of their valour, and who &rsquo;tis that be modest of speech.&nbsp;
+Yea, thanks, mine host.&nbsp; Let us to a chamber, and give us water
+to wash away soil of travel and of fray, and then to supper.&nbsp; Young
+masters, ye are my guests.&nbsp; Shame were it that Giles Headley let
+go farther them that have, under Heaven and St. Julian, saved him in
+life, limb, and purse.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The inn was large, being the resort of many travellers from the south,
+often of nobles and knights riding to Parliament, and thus the brothers
+found themselves accommodated with a chamber, where they could prepare
+for the meal, while Ambrose tried to console his brother by representing
+that, after all, poor Spring had died gallantly, and with far less pain
+than if he had suffered a wasting old age, besides being honoured for
+ever by his effigy in St. Faith&rsquo;s, wherever that might be, the
+idea which chiefly contributed to console his master.</p>
+<p>The two boys appeared in the room of the inn looking so unlike the
+dusty, blood-stained pair who had entered, that Master Headley took
+a second glance to convince himself that they were the same, before
+beckoning them to seats on either side of him, saying that he must know
+more of them, and bidding the host load their trenchers well from the
+grand fabric of beef-pasty which had been set at the end of the board.&nbsp;
+The runaways, four or five in number, herded together lower down, with
+a few travellers of lower degree, all except the youth who had been
+boasting before their arrival, and who retained his seat at the board,
+thumping it with the handle of his knife to show his impatience for
+the commencement of supper; and not far off sat Tibble, the same who
+had hailed their arrival, a thin, slight, one-sided looking person,
+with a terrible red withered scar on one cheek, drawing the corner of
+his mouth awry.&nbsp; He, like Master Headley himself, and the rest
+of his party were clad in red, guarded with white, and wore the cross
+of St. George on the white border of their flat crimson caps, being
+no doubt in the livery of their Company.&nbsp; The citizen himself,
+having in the meantime drawn his conclusions from the air and gestures
+of the brothers, and their mode of dealing with their food, asked the
+usual question in an affirmative tone, &ldquo;Ye be of gentle blood,
+young sirs?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>To which they replied by giving their names, and explaining that
+they were journeying from the New Forest to find their uncle in the
+train of the Archbishop of York.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Birkenholt,&rdquo; said Tibble, meditatively.&nbsp; &ldquo;He
+beareth vert, a buck&rsquo;s head proper, on a chief argent, two arrows
+in saltire.&nbsp; Crest, a buck courant, pierced in the gorge by an
+arrow, all proper.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>To which the brothers returned by displaying the handles of their
+knives, both of which bore the pierced and courant buck.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, ay,&rdquo; said the man.&nbsp; &ldquo;&rsquo;Twill be
+found in our books, sir.&nbsp; We painted the shield and new-crested
+the morion the first year of my prenticeship, when the Earl of Richmond,
+the late King Harry of blessed memory, had newly landed at Milford Haven.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Verily,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;our uncle Richard Birkenholt
+fought at Bosworth under Sir Richard Pole&rsquo;s banner.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A tall and stalwart esquire, methinks,&rdquo; said Master
+Headley.&nbsp; &ldquo;Is he the kinsman you seek?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not so, sir.&nbsp; We visited him at Winchester, and found
+him sorely old and with failing wits.&nbsp; We be on our way to our
+mother&rsquo;s brother, Master Harry Randall.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is he clerk or layman?&nbsp; My Lord of York entertaineth
+enow of both,&rdquo; said Master Headley.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Lay assuredly, sir,&rdquo; returned Stephen; &ldquo;I trust
+to him to find me some preferment as page or the like.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Know&rsquo;st thou the man, Tibble?&rdquo; inquired the master.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not among the men-at-arms, sir,&rdquo; was the answer; &ldquo;but
+there be a many of them whose right names we never hear.&nbsp; However,
+he will be easily found if my Lord of York be returned from Windsor
+with his train.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then will we go forward together, my young Masters Birkenholt.&nbsp;
+I am not going to part with my doughty champions!&rdquo;&mdash;patting
+Stephen&rsquo;s shoulder.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ye&rsquo;d not think that these
+light-heeled knaves belonged to the brave craft of armourers?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Certainly not,&rdquo; thought the lads, whose notion of armourers
+was derived from the brawny blacksmith of Lyndhurst, who sharpened their
+boar spears and shod their horses.&nbsp; They made some kind of assent,
+and Master Headley went on.&nbsp; &ldquo;These be the times!&nbsp; This
+is what peace hath brought us to!&nbsp; I am called down to Salisbury
+to take charge of the goods, chattels, and estate of my kinsman, Robert
+Headley&mdash;Saints rest his soul!&mdash;and to bring home yonder spark,
+my godson, whose indentures have been made over to me.&nbsp; And I may
+not ride a mile after sunset without being set upon by a sort of robbers,
+who must have guessed over-well what a pack of cowards they had to deal
+with.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; cried the younger Giles, &ldquo;I swear to you
+that I struck right and left.&nbsp; I did all that man could do, but
+these rogues of serving-men, they fled, and dragged me along with them,
+and I deemed you were of our company till we dismounted.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Did you so?&nbsp; Methought anon you saw me go down with three
+pikes in my breast.&nbsp; Come, come, godson Giles, speech will not
+mend it!&nbsp; Thou art but a green, town-bred lad, a mother&rsquo;s
+darling, and mayst be a brave man yet, only don&rsquo;t dread to tell
+the honest truth that you were afeard, as many a better man might be.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The host chimed in with tales of the thieves and outlaws who then,
+and indeed for many later generations, infested Bagshot heath, and the
+wild moorland tracks around.&nbsp; He seemed to think that the travellers
+had had a hair&rsquo;s-breadth escape, and that a few seconds&rsquo;
+more delay might have revealed the weakness of the rescuers and have
+been fatal to them.</p>
+<p>However there was no danger so near the village in the morning, and,
+somewhat to Stephen&rsquo;s annoyance, the whole place turned out to
+inspect the spot, and behold the burial of poor Spring, who was found
+stretched on the heather, just as he had been left the night before.&nbsp;
+He was interred under the stunted oak where Master Headley had been
+tied.&nbsp; While the grave was dug with a spade borrowed at the inn,
+Ambrose undertook to cut out the dog&rsquo;s name on the bark, but he
+had hardly made the first incision when Tibble, the singed foreman,
+offered to do it for him, and made a much more sightly inscription than
+he could have done.&nbsp; Master Headley&rsquo;s sword was found honourably
+broken under the tree, and was reserved to form a base for his intended
+<i>ex voto</i>.&nbsp; He uttered the vow in due form like a funeral
+oration, when Stephen, with a swelling heart, had laid the companion
+of his life in the little grave, which was speedily covered in.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.&nbsp; THE DRAGON COURT</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;A citizen<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Of
+credit and renown;<br />A trainband captain eke was he<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Of
+famous London town.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>COWPER.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>In spite of his satisfaction at the honourable obsequies of his dog,
+Stephen Birkenholt would fain have been independent, and thought it
+provoking and strange that every one should want to direct his movements,
+and assume the charge of one so well able to take care of himself; but
+he could not escape as he had done before from the Warden of St. Elizabeth,
+for Ambrose had readily accepted the proposal that they should travel
+in Master Headley&rsquo;s company, only objecting that they were on
+foot; on which the good citizen hired a couple of hackneys for them.</p>
+<p>Besides the two Giles Headleys, the party consisted of Tibble, the
+scarred and withered foreman, two grooms, and two serving-men, all armed
+with the swords and bucklers of which they had made so little use.&nbsp;
+It appeared in process of time that the two namesakes, besides being
+godfather and godson, were cousins, and that Robert, the father of the
+younger one, had, after his apprenticeship in the paternal establishment
+at Salisbury, served for a couple of years in the London workshop of
+his kinsman to learn the latest improvements in weapons.&nbsp; This
+had laid the foundation of a friendship which had lasted through life,
+though the London cousin had been as prosperous as the country one had
+been the reverse.&nbsp; The provincial trade in arms declined with the
+close of the York and Lancaster wars.&nbsp; Men were not permitted to
+turn from one handicraft to another, and Robert Headley had neither
+aptitude nor resources.&nbsp; His wife was vain and thriftless, and
+he finally broke down under his difficulties, appointing by will his
+cousin to act as his executor, and to take charge of his only son, who
+had served out half his time as apprentice to himself.&nbsp; There had
+been delay until the peace with France had given the armourer some leisure
+for an expedition to Salisbury, a serious undertaking for a London burgess,
+who had little about him of the ancient northern weapon-smith, and had
+wanted to avail himself of the protection of the suite of the Bishop
+of Salisbury, returning from Parliament.&nbsp; He had spent some weeks
+in disposing of his cousin&rsquo;s stock in trade, which was far too
+antiquated for the London market; also of the premises, which were bought
+by an adjoining convent to extend its garden; and he had divided the
+proceeds between the widow and children.&nbsp; He had presided at the
+wedding of the last daughter, with whom the mother was to reside, and
+was on his way back to London with his godson, who had now become his
+apprentice.</p>
+<p>Giles Headley the younger was a fine tall youth, but clumsy and untrained
+in the use of his limbs, and he rode a large, powerful brown horse,
+which brooked no companionship, lashing out with its shaggy hoofs at
+any of its kind that approached it, more especially at poor, plump,
+mottled Poppet.&nbsp; The men said he had insisted on retaining that,
+and no other, for his journey to London, contrary to all advice, and
+he was obliged to ride foremost, alone in the middle of the road; while
+Master Headley seemed to have an immense quantity of consultation to
+carry on with his foreman, Tibble, whose quiet-looking brown animal
+was evidently on the best of terms with Poppet.&nbsp; By daylight Tibble
+looked even more sallow, lean, and sickly, and Stephen could not help
+saying to the serving-man nearest to him, &ldquo;Can such a weakling
+verily be an armourer?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, sir.&nbsp; Wry-mouthed Tibble, as they call him, was
+a sturdy fellow till he got a fell against the mouth of a furnace, and
+lay ten months in St. Bartholomew&rsquo;s Spital, scarce moving hand
+or foot.&nbsp; He cannot wield a hammer, but he has a cunning hand for
+gilding, and coloured devices, and is as good as Garter-king-at-arms
+himself for all bearings of knights and nobles.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;As we heard last night,&rdquo; said Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Moreover in the spital he learnt to write and cast accompts
+like a very scrivener, and the master trusts him more than any, except
+maybe Kit Smallbones, the head smith.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What will Smallbones think of the new prentice!&rdquo; said
+one of the other men.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Prentice!&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis plain enough what sort of prentice
+the youth is like to be who beareth the name of a master with one only
+daughter.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>An emphatic grunt was the only answer, while Ambrose pondered on
+the good luck of some people, who had their futures cut out for them
+with no trouble on their own part.</p>
+<p>This day&rsquo;s ride was through more inhabited parts, and was esteemed
+less perilous.&nbsp; They came in sight of the Thames at Lambeth, but
+Master Headley, remembering how ill his beloved Poppet had brooked the
+ferry, decided to keep to the south of the river by a causeway across
+Lambeth marsh, which was just passable in high and dry summers, and
+which conducted them to a raised road called Bankside, where they looked
+across to the towers of Westminster, and the Abbey in its beauty dawned
+on the imagination of Stephen and Ambrose.&nbsp; The royal standard
+floated over the palace, whence Master Headley perceived that the King
+was there, and augured that my Lord of York&rsquo;s mein&eacute; would
+not be far to seek.&nbsp; Then came broad green fields with young corn
+growing, or hay waving for the scythe, the tents and booths of May Fair,
+and the beautiful Market Cross in the midst of the village of Charing,
+while the Strand, immediately opposite, began to be fringed with great
+monasteries within their ample gardens, with here and there a nobleman&rsquo;s
+castellated house and terraced garden, with broad stone stairs leading
+to the Thames.</p>
+<p>Barges and wherries plied up and down, the former often gaily canopied
+and propelled by liveried oarsmen, all plying their arms in unison,
+so that the vessel looked like some brilliant many-limbed creature treading
+the water.&nbsp; Presently appeared the heavy walls inclosing the City
+itself, dominated by the tall openwork timber spire of St. Paul&rsquo;s,
+with the foursquare, four-turreted Tower acting, as it has been well
+said, as a padlock to a chain, and the river&rsquo;s breadth spanned
+by London bridge, a very street of houses built on the abutments.&nbsp;
+Now, Bankside had houses on each side of the road, and Wry-mouthed Tibble
+showed evident satisfaction when they turned to cross the bridge, where
+they had to ride in single file, not without some refractoriness on
+the part of young Headley&rsquo;s steed.</p>
+<p>On they went, now along streets where each story of the tall houses
+projected over the last, so that the gables seemed ready to meet; now
+beside walls of convent gardens, now past churches, while the country
+lads felt bewildered with the numbers passing to and fro, and the air
+was full of bells.</p>
+<p>Cap after cap was lifted in greeting to Master Headley by burgess,
+artisan, or apprentice, and many times did he draw Poppet&rsquo;s rein
+to exchange greetings and receive congratulations on his return.&nbsp;
+On reaching St. Paul&rsquo;s Minster, he halted and bade the servants
+take home the horses, and tell the mistress, with his dutiful greetings,
+that he should be at home anon, and with guests.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We must e&rsquo;en return thanks for our safe journey and
+great deliverance,&rdquo; he said to his young companions, and thrusting
+his arm into that of a russet-vested citizen, who met him at the door,
+he walked into the cathedral, recounting his adventure.</p>
+<p>The youths followed with some difficulty through the stream of loiterers
+in the nave, Giles the younger elbowing and pushing so that several
+of the crowd turned to look at him, and it was well that his kinsman
+soon astonished him by descending a stair into a crypt, with solid,
+short, clustered columns, and high-pitched vaulting, fitted up as a
+separate church, namely that of the parish of St. Faith.&nbsp; The great
+cathedral, having absorbed the site of the original church, had given
+this crypt to the parishioners.&nbsp; Here all was quiet and solemn,
+in marked contrast to the hubbub in &ldquo;Paul&rsquo;s Walk,&rdquo;
+above in the nave.&nbsp; Against the eastern pillar of one of the bays
+was a little altar, and the decorations included St. Julian, the patron
+of travellers, with his saltire doubly crossed, and his stag beside
+him.&nbsp; Little ships, trees, and wonderful enamelled representations
+of perils by robbers, field and flood, hung thickly on St. Julian&rsquo;s
+pillar, and on the wall and splay of the window beside it; and here,
+after crossing himself, Master Headley rapidly repeated a Paternoster,
+and ratified his vow of presenting a bronze image of the hound to whom
+he owed his rescue.&nbsp; One of the clergy came up to register the
+vow, and the good armourer proceeded to bespeak a mass of thanksgiving
+on the next morning, also ten for the soul of Master John Birkenholt,
+late Verdurer of the New Forest in Hampshire&mdash;a mode of showing
+his gratitude which the two sons highly appreciated.</p>
+<p>Then, climbing up the steps again, and emerging from the cathedral
+by the west door, the boys beheld a scene for which their experiences
+of Romsey, and even of Winchester, had by no means prepared them.&nbsp;
+It was five o&rsquo;clock on a summer evening, so that the place was
+full of stir.&nbsp; Old women sat with baskets of rosaries and little
+crosses, or images of saints, on the steps of the cathedral, while in
+the open space beyond, more than one horse was displaying his paces
+for the benefit of some undecided purchaser, who had been chaffering
+for hours in Paul&rsquo;s Walk.&nbsp; Merchants in the costume of their
+countries, Lombard, Spanish, Dutch, or French, were walking away in
+pairs, attended by servants, from their Exchange, likewise in the nave.&nbsp;
+Women, some alone, some protected by serving-men or apprentices, were
+returning from their orisons, or, it might be, from their gossipings.&nbsp;
+Priests and friars, as usual, pervaded everything, and round the open
+space were galleried buildings with stalls beneath them, whence the
+holders were removing their wares for the night.&nbsp; The great octagonal
+structure of Paul&rsquo;s Cross stood in the centre, and just beneath
+the stone pulpit, where the sermons were wont to be preached, stood
+a man with a throng round him, declaiming a ballad at the top of his
+sing-song voice, and causing much loud laughter by some ribaldry about
+monks and friars.</p>
+<p>Master Headley turned aside as quickly as he could, through Paternoster
+Row, which was full of stalls, where little black books, and larger
+sheets printed in black-letter, seemed the staple commodities, and thence
+the burgess, keeping a heedful eye on his young companions among all
+his greetings, entered the broader space of Cheapside, where numerous
+prentice lads seemed to be playing at different sports after the labours
+of the day.</p>
+<p>Passing under an archway surmounted by a dragon with shining scales,
+Master Headley entered a paved courtyard, where the lads started at
+the figures of two knights in full armour, their lances in rest, and
+their horses with housings down to their hoofs, apparently about to
+charge any intruder.&nbsp; But at that moment there was a shriek of
+joy, and out from the scarlet and azure petticoats of the nearest steed,
+there darted a little girl, crying, &ldquo;Father! father!&rdquo; and
+in an instant she was lifted in Master Headley&rsquo;s arms, and was
+clinging round his neck, while he kissed and blessed her, and as he
+set her on her feet, he said, &ldquo;Here, Dennet, greet thy cousin
+Giles Headley, and these two brave young gentlemen.&nbsp; Greet them
+like a courteous maiden, or they will think thee a little town mouse.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In truth the child had a pointed little visage, and bright brown
+eyes, somewhat like a mouse, but it was a very sweet face that she lifted
+obediently to be kissed not only by the kinsman, but by the two guests.&nbsp;
+Her father meantime was answering with nods to the respectful welcomes
+of the workmen, who thronged out below, and their wives looking down
+from the galleries above; while Poppet and the other horses were being
+rubbed down after their journey.</p>
+<p>The ground-floor of the buildings surrounding the oblong court seemed
+to be entirely occupied by forges, workshops, warehouses and stables.&nbsp;
+Above, were open railed galleries, with outside stairs at intervals,
+giving access to the habitations of the workpeople on three sides.&nbsp;
+The fourth, opposite to the entrance, had a much handsomer, broad, stone
+stair, adorned on one side with a stone figure of the princess fleeing
+from the dragon, and on the other of St. George piercing the monster&rsquo;s
+open mouth with his lance, the scaly convolutions of the two dragons
+forming the supports of the handrail on either side.&nbsp; Here stood,
+cap in hand, showing his thick curly hair, and with open front, displaying
+a huge hairy chest, a giant figure, whom his master greeted as Kit Smallbones,
+inquiring whether all had gone well during his absence.&nbsp; &ldquo;&rsquo;Tis
+time you were back, sir, for there&rsquo;s a great tilting match on
+hand for the Lady Mary&rsquo;s wedding.&nbsp; Here have been half the
+gentlemen in the Court after you, and my Lord of Buckingham sent twice
+for you since Sunday, and once for Tibble Steelman, and his squire swore
+that if you were not at his bidding before noon to-morrow, he would
+have his new suit of Master Hillyer of the Eagle.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He shall see me when it suiteth me,&rdquo; said Mr. Headley
+coolly.&nbsp; &ldquo;He wotteth well that Hillyer hath none who can
+burnish plate armour like Tibble here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Moreover the last iron we had from that knave Mepham is nought.&nbsp;
+It works short under the hammer.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That shall be seen to, Kit.&nbsp; The rest of the budget to-morrow.&nbsp;
+I must on to my mother.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>For at the doorway, at the head of the stairs, there stood the still
+trim and active figure of an old woman, with something of the mouse
+likeness seen in her grand-daughter, in the close cap, high hat, and
+cloth dress, that sumptuary opinion, if not law, prescribed for the
+burgher matron, a white apron, silver chain and bunch of keys at her
+girdle.&nbsp; Due and loving greetings passed between mother and son,
+after the longest and most perilous absence of Master Headley&rsquo;s
+life, and he then presented Giles, to whom the kindly dame offered hand
+and cheek, saying, &ldquo;Welcome, my young kinsman, your good father
+was well known and liked here.&nbsp; May you tread in his steps!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thanks, good mistress,&rdquo; returned Giles.&nbsp; &ldquo;I
+am thought to have a pretty taste in the fancy part of the trade.&nbsp;
+My Lord of Montagu&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Before he could get any farther, Mistress Headley was inquiring what
+was the rumour she had heard of robbers and dangers that had beset her
+son, and he was presenting the two young Birkenholts to her.&nbsp; &ldquo;Brave
+boys! good boys,&rdquo; she said, holding out her hands and kissing
+each according to the custom of welcome, &ldquo;you have saved my son
+for me, and this little one&rsquo;s father for her.&nbsp; Kiss them,
+Dennet, and thank them.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It was the poor dog,&rdquo; said the child, in a clear little
+voice, drawing back with a certain quaint coquetting shyness; &ldquo;I
+would rather kiss him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Would that thou couldst, little mistress,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;My poor brave Spring!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Was he thine own?&nbsp; Tell me all about him,&rdquo; said
+Dennet, somewhat imperiously.</p>
+<p>She stood between the two strangers looking eagerly up with sorrowfully
+interested eyes, while Stephen, out of his full heart, told of his faithful
+comradeship with his hound from the infancy of both.&nbsp; Her father
+meanwhile was exchanging serious converse with her grandmother, and
+Giles finding himself left in the background, began: &ldquo;Come hither,
+pretty coz, and I will tell thee of my Lady of Salisbury&rsquo;s dainty
+little hounds.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I care not for dainty little hounds,&rdquo; returned Dennet;
+&ldquo;I want to hear of the poor faithful dog that flew at the wicked
+robber.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A mighty stir about a mere chance,&rdquo; muttered Giles.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I know what <i>you</i> did,&rdquo; said Dennet, turning her
+bright brown eyes full upon him.&nbsp; &ldquo;You took to your heels.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Her look and little nod were so irresistibly comical that the two
+brothers could not help laughing; whereupon Giles Headley turned upon
+them in a passion.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What mean ye by this insolence, you beggars&rsquo; brats picked
+up on the heath?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Better born than thou, braggart and coward that thou art!&rdquo;
+broke forth Stephen, while Master Headley exclaimed, &ldquo;How now,
+lads?&nbsp; No brawling here!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Three voices spoke at once.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;They were insolent.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He reviled our birth.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Father! they did but laugh when I told cousin Giles that he
+took to his heels, and he must needs call them beggars&rsquo; brats
+picked up on the heath.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ha! ha! wench, thou art woman enough already to set them together
+by the ears,&rdquo; said her father, laughing.&nbsp; &ldquo;See here,
+Giles Headley, none who bears my name shall insult a stranger on my
+hearth.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen however had stepped forth holding out his small stock of
+coin, and saying, &ldquo;Sir, receive for our charges, and let us go
+to the tavern we passed anon.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How now, boy!&nbsp; Said I not ye were my guests?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, sir, and thanks; but we can give no cause for being called
+beggars nor beggars&rsquo; brats.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What beggary is there in being guests, my young gentlemen?&rdquo;
+said the master of the house.&nbsp; &ldquo;If any one were picked up
+on the heath, it was I.&nbsp; We owned you for gentlemen of blood and
+coat armour, and thy brother there can tell thee that, ye have no right
+to put an affront on me, your host, because a rude prentice from a country
+town hath not learnt to rule his tongue.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Giles scowled, but the armourer spoke with an authority that imposed
+on all, and Stephen submitted, while Ambrose spoke a few words of thanks,
+after which the two brothers were conducted by an external stair and
+gallery to a guest-chamber, in which to prepare for supper.</p>
+<p>The room was small, but luxuriously filled beyond all ideas of the
+young foresters, for it was hung with tapestry, representing the history
+of Joseph; the bed was curtained, there was a carved chest for clothes,
+a table and a ewer and basin of bright brass with the armourer&rsquo;s
+mark upon it, a twist in which the letter H and the dragon&rsquo;s tongue
+and tail were ingeniously blended.&nbsp; The City was far in advance
+of the country in all the arts of life, and only the more magnificent
+castles and abbeys, which the boys had never seen, possessed the amount
+of comforts to be found in the dwellings of the superior class of Londoners.&nbsp;
+Stephen was inclined to look with contempt upon the effeminacy of a
+churl merchant.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No churl,&rdquo; returned Ambrose, &ldquo;if manners makyth
+man, as we saw at Winchester.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then what do they make of that cowardly clown, his cousin?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose laughed, but said, &ldquo;Prove we our gentle blood at least
+by not brawling with the fellow.&nbsp; Master Headley will soon teach
+him to know his place.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That will matter nought to us.&nbsp; To-morrow shall we be
+with our uncle Hal.&nbsp; I only wish his lord was not of the ghostly
+sort, but perhaps he may prefer me to some great knight&rsquo;s service.&nbsp;
+But oh! Ambrose, come and look.&nbsp; See!&nbsp; The fellow they call
+Smallbones is come out to the fountain in the middle of the court with
+a bucket in each hand.&nbsp; Look!&nbsp; Didst ever see such a giant?&nbsp;
+He is as big and brawny as Ascapart at the bar-gate at Southampton.&nbsp;
+See! he lifts that big pail full and brimming as though it were an egg
+shell.&nbsp; See his arm!&nbsp; &rsquo;Twere good to see him wield a
+hammer!&nbsp; I must look into his smithy before going forth to-morrow.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen clenched his fist and examined his muscles ere donning his
+best mourning jerkin, and could scarce be persuaded to complete his
+toilet, so much was he entertained with the comings and goings in the
+court, a little world in itself, like a college quadrangle.&nbsp; The
+day&rsquo;s work was over, the forges out, and the smiths were lounging
+about at ease, one or two sitting on a bench under a large elm-tree
+beside the central well, enjoying each his tankard of ale.&nbsp; A few
+more were watching Poppet being combed down, and conversing with the
+newly-arrived grooms.&nbsp; One was carrying a little child in his arms,
+and a young man and maid sitting on the low wall round the well, seemed
+to be carrying on a courtship over the pitcher that stood waiting to
+be filled.&nbsp; Two lads were playing at skittles, children were running
+up and down the stairs and along the wooden galleries, and men and women
+went and came by the entrance gateway between the two effigies of knights
+in armour.&nbsp; Some were servants bringing helm or gauntlet for repair,
+or taking the like away.&nbsp; Some might be known by their flat caps
+to be apprentices, and two substantial burgesses walked in together,
+as if to greet Master Headley on his return.&nbsp; Immediately after,
+a man-cook appeared with white cap and apron, bearing aloft a covered
+dish surrounded by a steamy cloud, followed by other servants bearing
+other meats; a big bell began to sound, the younger men and apprentices
+gathered together and the brothers descended the stairs, and entered
+by the big door into the same large hall where they had been received.&nbsp;
+The spacious hearth was full of green boughs, with a beaupot of wild
+rose, honeysuckle, clove pinks and gilliflowers; the lower parts of
+the walls were hung with tapestry representing the adventures of St.
+George; the mullioned windows had their upper squares filled with glass,
+bearing the shield of the City of London, that of the Armourers&rsquo;
+Company, the rose and portcullis of the King, the pomegranate of Queen
+Catharine, and other like devices.&nbsp; Others, belonging to the Lancastrian
+kings, adorned the pendants from the handsome open roof and the front
+of a gallery for musicians which crossed one end of the hall in the
+taste of the times of Henry V. and Whittington.</p>
+<p>Far more interesting to the hungry travellers was it that the long
+table, running the whole breadth of the apartment, was decked with snowy
+linen, trenchers stood ready with horns or tankards beside them, and
+loaves of bread at intervals, while the dishes were being placed on
+the table.&nbsp; The master and his entire establishment took their
+meals together, except the married men, who lived in the quadrangle
+with their families.&nbsp; There was no division by the salt-cellar,
+as at the tables of the nobles and gentry, but the master, his family
+and guests, occupied the centre, with the hearth behind them, where
+the choicest of the viands were placed; next after them were the places
+of the journeymen according to seniority, then those of the apprentices,
+household servants, and stable-men, but the apprentices had to assist
+the serving-men in waiting on the master and his party before sitting
+down themselves.&nbsp; There was a dignity and regularity about the
+whole, which could not fail to impress Stephen and Ambrose with the
+weight and importance of a London burgher, warden of the Armourers&rsquo;
+Company, and alderman of the Ward of Cheap.&nbsp; There were carved
+chairs for himself, his mother, and the guests, also a small Persian
+carpet extending from the hearth beyond their seats.&nbsp; This article
+filled the two foresters with amazement.&nbsp; To put one&rsquo;s feet
+on what ought to be a coverlet!&nbsp; They would not have stepped on
+it, had they not been kindly summoned by old Mistress Headley to take
+their places among the company, which consisted, besides the family,
+of the two citizens who had entered, and of a priest who had likewise
+dropped in to welcome Master Headley&rsquo;s return, and had been invited
+to stay to supper.&nbsp; Young Giles, as a matter of course, placed
+himself amongst them, at which there were black looks and whispers among
+the apprentices, and even Mistress Headley wore an air of amazement.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mother,&rdquo; said the head of the family, speaking loud
+enough for all to hear, &ldquo;you will permit our young kinsman to
+be placed as our guest this evening.&nbsp; To-morrow he will act as
+an apprentice, as we all have done in our time.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I never did so at home!&rdquo; cried Giles, in his loud, hasty
+voice.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I trow not,&rdquo; dryly observed one of the guests.</p>
+<p>Giles, however, went on muttering while the priest was pronouncing
+a Latin grace, and thereupon the same burgess observed, &ldquo;Never
+did I see it better proved that folk in the country give their sons
+no good breeding.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Have patience with him, good Master Pepper,&rdquo; returned
+Mr. Headley.&nbsp; &ldquo;He hath been an only son, greatly cockered
+by father, mother, and sisters, but ere long he will learn what is befiting.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Giles glared round, but he met nothing encouraging.&nbsp; Little
+Dennet sat with open mouth of astonishment, her grandmother looked shocked,
+the household which had been aggrieved by his presumption laughed at
+his rebuke, for there was not much delicacy in those days; but something
+generous in the gentle blood of Ambrose moved him to some amount of
+pity for the lad, who thus suddenly became conscious that the tie he
+had thought nominal at Salisbury, a mere preliminary to municipal rank,
+was here absolute subjection, and a bondage whence there was no escape.&nbsp;
+His was the only face that Giles met which had any friendliness in it,
+but no one spoke, for manners imposed silence upon youth at table, except
+when spoken to; and there was general hunger enough prevailing to make
+Mistress Headley&rsquo;s fat capon the most interesting contemplation
+for the present.</p>
+<p>The elders conversed, for there was much for Master Headley to hear
+of civic affairs that had passed in his absence of two months, also
+of all the comings and goings, and it was ascertained that my Lord Archbishop
+of York was at his suburban abode, York House, now Whitehall.</p>
+<p>It was a very late supper for the times, not beginning till seven
+o&rsquo;clock, on account of the travellers; and as soon as it was finished,
+and the priest and burghers had taken their leave, Master Headley dismissed
+the household to their beds, although daylight was scarcely departed.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.&nbsp; A SUNDAY IN THE CITY</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;The rod of Heaven has touched them all,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The
+word from Heaven is spoken:<br />Rise, shine and sing, thou captive
+thrall,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Are not thy fetters broken?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>KEBLE.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>On Sunday morning, when the young Birkenholts awoke, the whole air
+seemed full of bells from hundreds of Church and Minster steeples.&nbsp;
+The Dragon Court wore a holiday air, and there was no ring of hammers
+at the forges; but the men who stood about were in holiday attire: and
+the brothers assumed their best clothes.</p>
+<p>Breakfast was not a meal much accounted of.&nbsp; It was reckoned
+effeminate to require more than two meals a day, though, just as in
+the verdurer&rsquo;s lodge at home, there was a barrel of ale on tap
+with drinking horns beside it in the hall, and on a small round table
+in the window a loaf of bread, to which city luxury added a cheese,
+and a jug containing sack, with some silver cups beside it, and a pitcher
+of fair water.&nbsp; Master Headley, with his mother and daughter, was
+taking a morsel of these refections, standing, and in out-door garments,
+when the brothers appeared at about seven o&rsquo;clock in the morning.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ha! that&rsquo;s well,&rdquo; quoth he, greeting them.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;No slugabeds, I see.&nbsp; Will ye come with us to hear mass
+at St. Faith&rsquo;s?&rdquo;&nbsp; They agreed, and Master Headley then
+told them that if they would tarry till the next day in searching out
+their uncle, they could have the company of Tibble Steelman, who had
+to see one of the captains of the guard about an alteration of his corslet,
+and thus would have every opportunity of facilitating their inquiries
+for their uncle.</p>
+<p>The mass was an ornate one, though not more so than they were accustomed
+to at Beaulieu.&nbsp; Ambrose had his book of devotions, supplied by
+the good monks who had brought him up, and old Mrs. Headley carried
+something of the same kind; but these did not necessarily follow the
+ritual, and neither quiet nor attention was regarded as requisite in
+&ldquo;hearing mass.&rdquo;&nbsp; Dennet, unchecked, was exchanging
+flowers from her Sunday posy with another little girl, and with hooded
+fingers carrying on in all innocence the satirical pantomime of Father
+Francis and Sister Catharine; and even Master Headley himself exchanged
+remarks with his friends, and returned greetings from burgesses and
+their wives while the celebrant priest&rsquo;s voice droned on, and
+the choir responded&mdash;the peals of the organ in the Minster above
+coming in at inappropriate moments, for there they were in a different
+part of High Mass using the Liturgy peculiar to St. Paul&rsquo;s.</p>
+<p>Thinking of last week at Beaulieu, Ambrose knelt meantime with his
+head buried in his hands, in an absorption of feeling that was not perhaps
+wholly devout, but which at any rate looked more like devotion than
+the demeanour of any one around.&nbsp; When the <i>Ite missa est</i>
+was pronounced, and all rose up, Stephen touched him and he rose, looking
+about, bewildered.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;So please you, young sir, I can show you another sort of thing
+by and by,&rdquo; said in his ear Tibble Steelman, who had come in late,
+and marked his attitude.</p>
+<p>They went up from St. Faith&rsquo;s in a flood of talk, with all
+manner of people welcoming Master Headley after his journey, and thence
+came back to dinner which was set out in the hall very soon after their
+return from church.&nbsp; Quite guests enough were there on this occasion
+to fill all the chairs, and Master Headley intimated to Giles that he
+must begin his duties at table as an apprentice, under the tuition of
+the senior, a tall young fellow of nineteen, by name Edmund Burgess.&nbsp;
+He looked greatly injured and discomfited, above all when he saw his
+two travelling companions seated at the table&mdash;though far lower
+than the night before; nor would he stir from where he was standing
+against the wall to do the slightest service, although Edmund admonished
+him sharply that unless he bestirred himself it would be the worse for
+him.</p>
+<p>When the meal was over, and grace had been said, the boards were
+removed from their trestles, and the elders drew round the small table
+in the window with a flagon of sack and a plate of wastel bread in their
+midst to continue their discussion of weighty Town Council matters.&nbsp;
+Every one was free to make holiday, and Edmund Burgess good-naturedly
+invited the strangers to come to Mile End, where there was to be shooting
+at the butts, and a match at singlestick was to come off between Kit
+Smallbones and another giant, who was regarded as the champion of the
+brewer&rsquo;s craft.</p>
+<p>Stephen was nothing loth, especially if he might take his own crossbow;
+but Ambrose never had much turn for these pastimes and was in no mood
+for them.&nbsp; The familiar associations of the mass had brought the
+grief of orphanhood, homelessness, and uncertainty upon him with the
+more force.&nbsp; His spirit yearned after his father, and his heart
+was sick for his forest home.&nbsp; Moreover, there was the duty incumbent
+on a good son of saying his prayers for the repose of his father&rsquo;s
+soul.&nbsp; He hinted as much to Stephen, who, boy-like, answered, &ldquo;Oh,
+we&rsquo;ll see to that when we get into my Lord of York&rsquo;s house.&nbsp;
+Masses must be plenty there.&nbsp; And I must see Smallbones floor the
+brewer.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose could trust his brother under the care of Edmund Burgess,
+and resolved on a double amount of repetitions of the appointed intercessions
+for the departed.</p>
+<p>He was watching the party of youths set off, all except Giles Headley,
+who sulkily refused the invitations, betook himself to a window and
+sat drumming on the glass, while Ambrose stood leaning on the dragon
+balustrade, with his eyes dreamily following the merry lads out at the
+gateway.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You are not for such gear, sir,&rdquo; said a voice at his
+ear, and he saw the scathed face of Tibble Steelman beside him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Never greatly so, Tibble,&rdquo; answered Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;And
+my heart is too heavy for it now.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, ay, sir.&nbsp; So I thought when I saw you in St. Faith&rsquo;s.&nbsp;
+I have known what it was to lose a good father in my time.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose held out his hand.&nbsp; It was the first really sympathetic
+word he had heard since he had left Nurse Joan.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&rsquo;Tis the week&rsquo;s mind of his burial,&rdquo; he
+said, half choked with tears.&nbsp; &ldquo;Where shall I find a quiet
+church where I may say his <i>De profundis</i> in peace?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mayhap,&rdquo; returned Tibble, &ldquo;the chapel in the Pardon
+churchyard would serve your turn.&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis not greatly resorted
+to when mass time is over, when there&rsquo;s no funeral in hand, and
+I oft go there to read my book in quiet on a Sunday afternoon.&nbsp;
+And then, if &rsquo;tis your will, I will take you to what to my mind
+is the best healing for a sore heart.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nurse Joan was wont to say the best for that was a sight of
+the true Cross, as she once beheld it at Holy Rood church at Southampton,&rdquo;
+said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And so it is, lad, so it is,&rdquo; said Tibble, with a strange
+light on his distorted features.</p>
+<p>So they went forth together, while Giles again hugged himself in
+his doleful conceit, marvelling how a youth of birth and nurture could
+walk the streets on a Sunday with a scarecrow such as that!</p>
+<p>The hour was still early, there was a whole summer afternoon before
+them; and Tibble, seeing how much his young companion was struck with
+the grand vista of church towers and spires, gave him their names as
+they stood, though coupling them with short dry comments on the way
+in which their priests too often perverted them.</p>
+<p>The Cheap was then still in great part an open space, where boys
+were playing, and a tumbler was attracting many spectators; while the
+ballad-singer of yesterday had again a large audience, who laughed loudly
+at every coarse jest broken upon mass-priests and friars.</p>
+<p>Ambrose was horrified at the stave that met his ears, and asked how
+such profanity could be allowed.&nbsp; Tibble shrugged his shoulders,
+and cited the old saying, &ldquo;The nearer the church&rdquo;&mdash;adding,
+&ldquo;Truth hath a voice, and will out.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But surely this is not the truth?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&rsquo;Tis mighty like it, sir, though it might be spoken
+in a more seemly fashion.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s this?&rdquo; demanded Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;&rsquo;Tis
+a noble house.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the Bishop&rsquo;s palace, sir&mdash;a man that
+hath much to answer for.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Liveth he so ill a life then?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not so.&nbsp; He is no scandalous liver, but he would fain
+stifle all the voices that call for better things.&nbsp; Ay, you look
+back at yon ballad-monger!&nbsp; Great folk despise the like of him,
+never guessing at the power there may be in such ribald stuff; while
+they would fain silence that which might turn men from their evil ways
+while yet there is time.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Tibble muttered this to himself, unheeded by Ambrose, and then presently
+crossing the church-yard, where a grave was being filled up, with numerous
+idle children around it, he conducted the youth into a curious little
+chapel, empty now, but with the Host enthroned above the altar, and
+the trestles on which the bier had rested still standing in the narrow
+nave.</p>
+<p>It was intensely still and cool, a fit place indeed for Ambrose&rsquo;s
+filial devotions, while Tibble settled himself on the step, took out
+a little black book, and became absorbed.&nbsp; Ambrose&rsquo;s Latin
+scholarship enabled him to comprehend the language of the round of devotions
+he was rehearsing for the benefit of his father&rsquo;s soul; but there
+was much repetition in them, and he had been so trained as to believe
+their correct recital was much more important than attention to their
+spirit, and thus, while his hands held his rosary, his eyes were fixed
+upon the walls where was depicted the Dance of Death.&nbsp; In terrible
+repetition, the artist had aimed at depicting every rank or class in
+life as alike the prey of the grisly phantom.&nbsp; Triple-crowned pope,
+scarlet-hatted cardinal, mitred prelate, priests, monks, and friars
+of every degree; emperors, kings, princes, nobles, knights, squires,
+yeomen, every sort of trade, soldiers of all kinds, beggars, even thieves
+and murderers, and, in like manner, ladies of every degree, from the
+queen and the abbess, down to the starving beggar, were each represented
+as grappled with, and carried off by the crowned skeleton.&nbsp; There
+was no truckling to greatness.&nbsp; The bishop and abbot writhed and
+struggled in the grasp of Death, while the miser clutched at his gold,
+and if there were some nuns, and some poor ploughmen who willingly clasped
+his bony fingers and obeyed his summons joyfully, there were countesses
+and prioresses who tried to beat him off, or implored him to wait.&nbsp;
+The infant smiled in his arms, but the middle-aged fought against his
+scythe.</p>
+<p>The contemplation had a most depressing effect on the boy, whose
+heart was still sore for his father.&nbsp; After the sudden shock of
+such a loss, the monotonous repetition of the snatching away of all
+alike, in the midst of their characteristic worldly employments, and
+the anguish and hopeless resistance of most of them, struck him to the
+heart.&nbsp; He moved between each bead to a fresh group; staring at
+it with fixed gaze, while his lips moved in the unconscious hope of
+something consoling; till at last, hearing some uncontrollable sobs,
+Tibble Steelman rose and found him crouching rather than kneeling before
+the figure of an emaciated hermit, who was greeting the summons of the
+King of Terrors, with crucifix pressed to his breast, rapt countenance
+and outstretched arms, seeing only the Angel who hovered above.&nbsp;
+After some minutes of bitter weeping, which choked his utterance, Ambrose,
+feeling a friendly hand on his shoulder, exclaimed in a voice broken
+by sobs, &ldquo;Oh, tell me, where may I go to become an anchorite!&nbsp;
+There&rsquo;s no other safety!&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll give all my portion,
+and spend all my time in prayer for my father and the other poor souls
+in purgatory.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Two centuries earlier, nay, even one, Ambrose would have been encouraged
+to follow out his purpose.&nbsp; As it was, Tibble gave a little dry
+cough and said, &ldquo;Come along with me, sir, and I&rsquo;ll show
+you another sort of way.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I want no entertainment!&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;I should
+feel only as if he,&rdquo; pointing to the phantom, &ldquo;were at hand,
+clutching me with his deadly claw,&rdquo; and he looked over his shoulder
+with a shudder.</p>
+<p>There was a box by the door to receive alms for masses on behalf
+of the souls in purgatory, and here he halted and felt for the pouch
+at his girdle, to pour in all the contents; but Steelman said, &ldquo;Hold,
+sir, are you free to dispose of your brother&rsquo;s share, you who
+are purse-bearer for both?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I would fain hold my brother to the only path of safety.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Again Tibble gave his dry cough, but added, &ldquo;He is not in the
+path of safety who bestows that which is not his own but is held in
+trust.&nbsp; I were foully to blame if I let this grim portrayal so
+work on you as to lead you to beggar not only yourself, but your brother,
+with no consent of his.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>For Tibble was no impulsive Italian, but a sober-minded Englishman
+of sturdy good sense, and Ambrose was reasonable enough to listen and
+only drop in a few groats which he knew to be his own.</p>
+<p>At the same moment, a church bell was heard, the tone of which Steelman
+evidently distinguished from all the others, and he led the way out
+of the Pardon churchyard, over the space in front of St. Paul&rsquo;s.&nbsp;
+Many persons were taking the same route; citizens in gowns and gold
+or silver chains, their wives in tall pointed hats; craftsmen, black-gowned
+scholarly men with fur caps, but there was a much more scanty proportion
+of priests, monks or friars, than was usual in any popular assemblage.&nbsp;
+Many of the better class of women carried folding stools, or had them
+carried by their servants, as if they expected to sit and wait.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is there a procession toward? or a relic to be displayed?&rdquo;
+asked Ambrose, trying to recollect whose feast-day it might be.</p>
+<p>Tibble screwed up his mouth in an extraordinary smile as he said,
+&ldquo;Relic quotha? yea, the soothest relic there be of the Lord and
+Master of us all.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Methought the true Cross was always displayed on the High
+Altar,&rdquo; said Ambrose, as all turned to a side aisle of the noble
+nave.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Rather say hidden,&rdquo; muttered Tibble.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thou
+shalt have it displayed, young sir, but neither in wood nor gilded shrine.&nbsp;
+See, here he comes who setteth it forth.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>From the choir came, attended by half a dozen clergy, a small, pale
+man, in the ordinary dress of a priest, with a square cap on his head.&nbsp;
+He looked spare, sickly, and wrinkled, but the furrows traced lines
+of sweetness, his mouth was wonderfully gentle, and there was a keen
+brightness about his clear grey eye.&nbsp; Every one rose and made obeisance
+as he passed along to the stone stair leading to a pulpit projecting
+from one of the columns.</p>
+<p>Ambrose saw what was coming, though he had only twice before heard
+preaching.&nbsp; The children of the ante-reformation were not called
+upon to hear sermons; and the few exhortations given in Lent to the
+monks of Beaulieu were so exclusively for the religious that seculars
+were not invited to them.&nbsp; So that Ambrose had only once heard
+a weary and heavy discourse there plentifully garnished with Latin;
+and once he had stood among the throng at a wake at Millbrook, and heard
+a begging friar recommend the purchase of briefs of indulgence and the
+daily repetition of the Ave Maria by a series of extraordinary miracles
+for the rescue of desperate sinners, related so jocosely as to keep
+the crowd in a roar of laughter.&nbsp; He had laughed with the rest,
+but he could not imagine his guide, with the stern, grave eyebrows,
+writhen features and earnest, ironical tone, covering&mdash;as even
+he could detect&mdash;the deepest feeling, enjoying such broad sallies
+as tickled the slow merriment of village clowns and forest deer-stealers.</p>
+<p>All stood for a moment while the Paternoster was repeated.&nbsp;
+Then the owners of stools sat down on them, some leant on adjacent pillars,
+others curled themselves on the floor, but most remained on their feet
+as unwilling to miss a word, and of these were Tibble Steelman and his
+companion.</p>
+<p><i>Omnis qui facit peccatum, servus est peccati</i>, followed by
+the rendering in English, &ldquo;Whosoever doeth sin is sin&rsquo;s
+bond thrall.&rdquo;&nbsp; The words answered well to the ghastly delineations
+that seemed stamped on Ambrose&rsquo;s brain and which followed him
+about into the nave, so that he felt himself in the grasp of the cruel
+fiend, and almost expected to feel the skeleton claw of Death about
+to hand him over to torment.&nbsp; He expected the consolation of hearing
+that a daily &ldquo;Hail Mary,&rdquo; persevered in through the foulest
+life, would obtain that beams should be arrested in their fall, ships
+fail to sink, cords to hang, till such confession had been made as should
+insure ultimate salvation, after such a proportion of the flames of
+purgatory as masses and prayers might not mitigate.</p>
+<p>But his attention was soon caught.&nbsp; Sinfulness stood before
+him not as the liability to penalty for transgressing an arbitrary rule,
+but as a taint to the entire being, mastering the will, perverting the
+senses, forging fetters out of habit, so as to be a loathsome horror
+paralysing and enchaining the whole being and making it into the likeness
+of him who brought sin and death into the world.&nbsp; The horror seemed
+to grow on Ambrose, as his boyish faults and errors rushed on his mind,
+and he felt pervaded by the contagion of the pestilence, abhorrent even
+to himself.&nbsp; But behold, what was he hearing now?&nbsp; &ldquo;The
+bond thrall abideth not in the house for ever, but the Son abideth ever.&nbsp;
+<i>Si ergo Filius liberavit, ver&egrave; liberi eritis</i>.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+&ldquo;If the Son should make you free, then are ye free indeed.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+And for the first time was the true liberty of the redeemed soul comprehensibly
+proclaimed to the young spirit that had begun to yearn for something
+beyond the outside.&nbsp; Light began to shine through the outward ordinances;
+the Church; the world, life, and death, were revealed as something absolutely
+new; a redeeming, cleansing, sanctifying power was made known, and seemed
+to inspire him with a new life, joy, and hope.&nbsp; He was no longer
+feeling himself necessarily crushed by the fetters of death, or only
+delivered from absolute peril by a mechanism that had lost its heart,
+but he could enter into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, in
+process of being saved, not in sin but <i>from</i> sin.</p>
+<p>It was an era in his life, and Tibble heard him sobbing, but with
+very different sobs from those in the Pardon chapel.&nbsp; When it was
+over, and the blessing given, Ambrose looked up from the hands which
+had covered his face with a new radiance in his eyes, and drew a long
+breath.&nbsp; Tibble saw that he was like one in another world, and
+gently led him away.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Who is he?&nbsp; What is he?&nbsp; Is he an angel from Heaven?&rdquo;
+demanded the boy, a little wildly, as they neared the southern door.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If an angel be a messenger of God, I trow he is one,&rdquo;
+said Tibble.&nbsp; &ldquo;But men call him Dr. Colet.&nbsp; He is Dean
+of St. Paul&rsquo;s Minster, and dwelleth in the house you see below
+there.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And are such words as these to be heard every Sunday?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;On most Sundays doth he preach here in the nave to all sorts
+of folk.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I must&mdash;I must hear it again!&rdquo; exclaimed Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, ay,&rdquo; said Tibble, regarding him with a well-pleased
+face.&nbsp; &ldquo;You are one with whom it works.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Every Sunday!&rdquo; repeated Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;Why do
+not all&mdash;your master and all these,&rdquo; pointing to the holiday
+crowds going to and fro&mdash;&ldquo;why do they not all come to listen?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Master doth come by times,&rdquo; said Tibble, in the tone
+of irony that was hard to understand.&nbsp; &ldquo;He owneth the dean
+as a rare preacher.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose did not try to understand.&nbsp; He exclaimed again, panting
+as if his thoughts were too strong for his words&mdash;&ldquo;Lo you,
+that preacher&mdash;dean call ye him?&mdash;putteth a soul into what
+hath hitherto been to me but a dead and empty framework.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Tibble held out his hand almost unconsciously, and Ambrose pressed
+it.&nbsp; Man and boy, alike they had felt the electric current of that
+truth, which, suppressed and ignored among man&rsquo;s inventions, was
+coming as a new revelation to many, and was already beginning to convulse
+the Church and the world.</p>
+<p>Ambrose&rsquo;s mind was made up on one point.&nbsp; Whatever he
+did, and wherever he went, he felt the doctrine he had just heard as
+needful to him as vital air, and he must be within reach of it.&nbsp;
+This, and not the hermit&rsquo;s cell, was what his instinct craved.&nbsp;
+He had always been a studious, scholarly boy, supposed to be marked
+out for a clerical life, because a book was more to him than a bow,
+and he had been easily trained in good habits and practices of devotion;
+but all in a childish manner, without going beyond simple receptiveness,
+until the experiences of the last week had made a man of him, or more
+truly, the Pardon chapel and Dean Colet&rsquo;s sermon had made him
+a new being, with the realities of the inner life opened before him.</p>
+<p>His present feeling was relief from the hideous load he had felt
+while dwelling on the Dance of Death, and therewith general goodwill
+to all men, which found its first issue in compassion for Giles Headley,
+whom he found on his return seated on the steps&mdash;moody and miserable.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Would that you had been with us,&rdquo; said Ambrose, sitting
+down beside him on the step.&nbsp; &ldquo;Never have I heard such words
+as to-day.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I would not be seen in the street with that scarecrow,&rdquo;
+murmured Giles.&nbsp; &ldquo;If my mother could have guessed that he
+was to be set over me, I had never come here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Surely you knew that he was foreman.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, but not that I should be under him&mdash;I whom old Giles
+vowed should be as his own son&mdash;I that am to wed yon little brown
+moppet, and be master here!&nbsp; So, forsooth,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;now
+he treats me like any common low-bred prentice.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;an if you were his son, he
+would still make you serve.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s the way with all craftsmen&mdash;yea
+and with gentlemen&rsquo;s sons also.&nbsp; They must be pages and squires
+ere they can be knights.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It never was the way at home.&nbsp; I was only bound prentice
+to my father for the name of the thing, that I might have the freedom
+of the city, and become head of our house.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But how could you be a wise master without learning the craft?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What are journeymen for?&rdquo; demanded the lad.&nbsp; &ldquo;Had
+I known how Giles Headley meant to serve me, he might have gone whistle
+for a husband for his wench.&nbsp; I would have ridden in my Lady of
+Salisbury&rsquo;s train.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You might have had rougher usage there than here,&rdquo; said
+Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;Master Headley lays nothing on you but what he
+has himself proved.&nbsp; I would I could see you make the best of so
+happy a home.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, that&rsquo;s all very well for you, who are certain of
+a great man&rsquo;s house.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Would that I were certified that my brother would be as well
+off as you, if you did but know it,&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ha!
+here come the dishes!&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis supper time come on us unawares,
+and Stephen not returned from Mile End!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Punctuality was not, however, exacted on these summer Sunday evenings,
+when practice with the bow and other athletic sports were enjoined by
+Government, and, moreover, the youths were with so trustworthy a member
+of the household as Kit Smallbones.</p>
+<p>Sundry City magnates had come to supper with Master Headley, and
+whether it were the effect of Ambrose&rsquo;s counsel, or of the example
+of a handsome lad who had come with his father, one of the worshipful
+guild of Merchant Taylors, Giles did vouchsafe to bestir himself in
+waiting, and in consideration of the effort it must have cost him, old
+Mrs. Headley and her son did not take notice of his blunders, but only
+Dennet fell into a violent fit of laughter, when he presented the stately
+alderman with a nutmeg under the impression that it was an overgrown
+peppercorn.&nbsp; She suppressed her mirth as well as she could, poor
+little thing, for it was a great offence in good manners, but she was
+detected, and, only child as she was, the consequence was the being
+banished from the table and sent to bed.</p>
+<p>But when, after supper was over, Ambrose went out to see if there
+were any signs of the return of Stephen and the rest, he found the little
+maiden curled up in the gallery with her kitten in her arms.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay!&rdquo; she said, in a spoilt-child tone, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+not going to bed before my time for laughing at that great oaf!&nbsp;
+Nurse Alice says he is to wed me, but I won&rsquo;t have him!&nbsp;
+I like the pretty boy who had the good dog and saved father, and I like
+you, Master Ambrose.&nbsp; Sit down by me and tell me the story over
+again, and we shall see Kit Smallbones come home.&nbsp; I know he&rsquo;ll
+have beaten the brewer&rsquo;s fellow.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Before Ambrose had decided whether thus far to abet rebellion, she
+jumped up and cried: &ldquo;Oh, I see Kit!&nbsp; He&rsquo;s got my ribbon!&nbsp;
+He has won the match!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And down she rushed, quite oblivious of her disgrace, and Ambrose
+presently saw her uplifted in Kit Smallbones&rsquo; brawny arms to utter
+her congratulations.</p>
+<p>Stephen was equally excited.&nbsp; His head was full of Kit Smallbones&rsquo;
+exploits, and of the marvels of the sports he had witnessed and joined
+in with fair success.&nbsp; He had thought Londoners poor effeminate
+creatures, but he found that these youths preparing for the trained
+bands understood all sorts of martial exercises far better than any
+of his forest acquaintance, save perhaps the hitting of a mark.&nbsp;
+He was half wild with a boy&rsquo;s enthusiasm for Kit Smallbones and
+Edmund Burgess, and when, after eating the supper that had been reserved
+for the late comers, he and his brother repaired to their own chamber,
+his tongue ran on in description of the feats he had witnessed and his
+hopes of emulating them, since he understood that Archbishop as was
+my Lord of York, there was a tilt-yard at York House.&nbsp; Ambrose,
+equally full of his new feelings, essayed to make his brother a sharer
+in them, but Stephen entirely failed to understand more than that his
+book-worm brother had heard something that delighted him in his own
+line of scholarship, from which Stephen had happily escaped a year ago!</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.&nbsp; YORK HOUSE</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;Then hath he servants five or six score,<br />Some behind
+and some before;<br />A marvellous great company<br />Of which are lords
+and gentlemen,<br />With many grooms and yeomen<br />And also knaves
+among them.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><i>Contemporary Poem on Wolsey</i>.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>Early were hammers ringing on anvils in the Dragon Court, and all
+was activity.&nbsp; Master Headley was giving his orders to Kit Smallbones
+before setting forth to take the Duke of Buckingham&rsquo;s commands;
+Giles Headley, very much disgusted, was being invested with a leathern
+apron, and entrusted to Edmund Burgess to learn those primary arts of
+furbishing which, but for his mother&rsquo;s vanity and his father&rsquo;s
+weakness, he would have practised four years sooner.&nbsp; Tibble Steelman
+was superintending the arrangement of half a dozen corslets, which were
+to be carried by three stout porters, under his guidance, to what is
+now Whitehall, then the residence of the Archbishop of York, the king&rsquo;s
+prime adviser, Thomas Wolsey.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Look you, Tib,&rdquo; said the kind-hearted armourer, &ldquo;if
+those lads find not their kinsman, or find him not what they look for,
+bring them back hither, I cannot have them cast adrift.&nbsp; They are
+good and brave youths, and I owe a life to them.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Tibble nodded entire assent, but when the boys appeared in their
+mourning suits, with their bundles on their backs, they were sent back
+again to put on their forest green, Master Headley explaining that it
+was reckoned ill-omened, if not insulting, to appear before any great
+personage in black, unless to enhance some petition directly addressed
+to himself.&nbsp; He also bade them leave their fardels behind, as,
+if they tarried at York House, these could be easily sent after them.</p>
+<p>They obeyed&mdash;even Stephen doing so with more alacrity than he
+had hitherto shown to Master Headley&rsquo;s behests; for now that the
+time for departure had come, he was really sorry to leave the armourer&rsquo;s
+household.&nbsp; Edmund Burgess had been very good-natured to the raw
+country lad, and Kit Smallbones was, in his eyes, an Ascapart in strength,
+and a Bevis in prowess and kindliness.&nbsp; Mistress Headley too had
+been kind to the orphan lads, and these two days had given a feeling
+of being at home at the Dragon.&nbsp; When Giles wished them a moody
+farewell, and wished he were going with them, Stephen returned, &ldquo;Ah!
+you don&rsquo;t know when you are well off.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Little Dennet came running down after them with two pinks in her
+hands.&nbsp; &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s a sop-in-wine for a token for each
+of you young gentlemen,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;for you came to help
+father, and I would you were going to stay and wed me instead of Giles.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What, both of us, little maid?&rdquo; said Ambrose, laughing,
+as he stooped to receive the kiss her rosy lips tendered to him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not but what she would have royal example,&rdquo; muttered
+Tibble aside.</p>
+<p>Dennet put her head on one side, as considering.&nbsp; &ldquo;Nay,
+not both; but you are gentle and courteous, and he is brave and gallant&mdash;and
+Giles there is moody and glum, and can do nought.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! you will see what a gallant fellow Giles can be when thou
+hast cured him of his home-sickness by being good to him,&rdquo; said
+Ambrose, sorry for the youth in the universal laughter at the child&rsquo;s
+plain speaking.</p>
+<p>And thus the lads left the Dragon, amid friendly farewells.&nbsp;
+Ambrose looked up at the tall spire of St. Paul&rsquo;s with a strong
+determination that he would never put himself out of reach of such words
+as he had there drunk in, and which were indeed spirit and life to him.</p>
+<p>Tibble took them down to the St. Paul&rsquo;s stairs on the river,
+where at his whistle a wherry was instantly brought to transport them
+to York stairs, only one of the smiths going any further in charge of
+the corslets.&nbsp; Very lovely was their voyage in the brilliant summer
+morning, as the glittering water reflected in broken ripples church
+spire, convent garden, and stately house.&nbsp; Here rows of elm-trees
+made a cool walk by the river side, there strawberry beds sloped down
+the Strand, and now and then the hooded figures of nuns might be seen
+gathering the fruit.&nbsp; There, rose the round church of the Temple,
+and the beautiful gardens surrounding the buildings, half monastic,
+half military, and already inhabited by lawyers.&nbsp; From a barge
+at the Temple stairs a legal personage descended, with a square beard,
+and open, benevolent, shrewd face, before whom Tibble removed his cap
+with eagerness, saying to Ambrose, &ldquo;Yonder is Master More, a close
+friend of the dean&rsquo;s, a good and wise man, and forward in every
+good work.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Thus did they arrive at York House.&nbsp; Workmen were busy on some
+portions of it, but it was inhabited by the great Archbishop, the king&rsquo;s
+chief adviser.&nbsp; The approach of the boat seemed to be instantly
+notified, as it drew near the stone steps giving entrance to the gardens,
+with an avenue of trees leading up to the principal entrance.</p>
+<p>Four or five yeomen ran down the steps, calling out to Tibble that
+their corslets had tarried a long time, and that Sir Thomas Drury had
+been storming for him to get his tilting armour into order.</p>
+<p>Tibble followed the man who had undertaken to conduct him through
+a path that led to the offices of the great house, bidding the boys
+keep with him, and asking for their uncle Master Harry Randall.</p>
+<p>The yeoman shook his head.&nbsp; He knew no such person in the household,
+and did not think there ever had been such.&nbsp; Sir Thomas Drury was
+found in the stable court, trying the paces of the horse he intended
+to use in the approaching joust.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ha! old Wry-mouth,&rdquo;
+he cried, &ldquo;welcome at last!&nbsp; I must have my new device damasked
+on my shield.&nbsp; Come hither, and I&rsquo;ll show it thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Private rooms were seldom enjoyed, even by knights and gentlemen,
+in such a household, and Sir Thomas could only conduct Tibble to the
+armoury, where numerous suits of armour hung on blocks, presenting the
+semblance of armed men.&nbsp; The knight, a good-looking personage,
+expatiated much on the device he wished to dedicate to his lady-love,
+a pierced heart with a forget-me-not in the midst, and it was not until
+the directions were finished that Tibble ventured to mention the inquiry
+for Randall.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I wot of no such fellow,&rdquo; returned Sir Thomas, &ldquo;you
+had best go to the comptroller, who keeps all the names.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Tibble had to go to this functionary at any rate, to obtain an order
+for payment for the corslets he had brought home.&nbsp; Ambrose and
+Stephen followed him across an enormous hall, where three long tables
+were being laid for dinner.</p>
+<p>The comptroller of the household, an esquire of good birth, with
+a stiff little ruff round his neck, sat in a sort of office inclosed
+by panels at the end of the hall.&nbsp; He made an entry of Tibble&rsquo;s
+account in a big book, and sent a message to the cofferer to bring the
+amount.&nbsp; Then Tibble again put his question on behalf of the two
+young foresters, and the comptroller shook his head.&nbsp; He did not
+know the name.&nbsp; &ldquo;Was the gentleman&rdquo; (he chose that
+word as he looked at the boys) &ldquo;layman or clerk?&rdquo;&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Layman, certainly,&rdquo; said Ambrose, somewhat dismayed to
+find how little, on interrogation, he really knew.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Was he a yeoman of the guard, or in attendance on one of my
+lord&rsquo;s nobles in waiting?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We thought he had been a yeoman,&rdquo; said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;See,&rdquo; said the comptroller, stimulated by a fee administered
+by Tibble, &ldquo;&rsquo;tis just dinner time, and I must go to attend
+on my Lord Archbishop; but do you, Tibble, sit down with these striplings
+to dinner, and then I will cast my eye over the books, and see if I
+can find any such name.&nbsp; What, hast not time?&nbsp; None ever quits
+my lord&rsquo;s without breaking his fast.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Tibble had no doubt that his master would be willing that he should
+give up his time for this purpose, so he accepted the invitation.&nbsp;
+The tables were by this time nearly covered, but all stood waiting,
+for there flowed in from the great doorway of the hall a gorgeous train&mdash;first,
+a man bearing the double archiepiscopal cross of York, fashioned in
+silver, and thick with gems&mdash;then, with lofty mitre enriched with
+pearls and jewels, and with flowing violet lace-covered robes came the
+sturdy square-faced ruddy prelate, who was then the chief influence
+in England, and after him two glittering ranks of priests in square
+caps and richly embroidered copes, all in accordant colours.&nbsp; They
+were returning, as a yeoman told Tibble, from some great ecclesiastical
+ceremony, and dinner would be served instantly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That for which Ralf Bowyer lives!&rdquo; said a voice close
+by, &ldquo;He would fain that the dial&rsquo;s hands were Marie bones,
+the face blancmange, wherein the figures should be grapes of Corinth!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen looked round and saw a man close beside him in what he knew
+at once to be the garb of a jester.&nbsp; A tall scarlet velvet cap,
+with three peaks, bound with gold braid, and each surmounted with a
+little gilded bell, crowned his head, a small crimson ridge to indicate
+the cock&rsquo;s comb running along the front.&nbsp; His jerkin and
+hose were of motley, the left arm and right leg being blue, their opposites,
+orange tawny, while the nether stocks and shoes were in like manner
+black and scarlet counterchanged.&nbsp; And yet, somehow, whether from
+the way of wearing it, or from the effect of the gold embroidery meandering
+over all, the effect was not distressing, but more like that of a gorgeous
+bird.&nbsp; The figure was tall, lithe, and active, the brown ruddy
+face had none of the blank stare of vacant idiocy, but was full of twinkling
+merriment, the black eyes laughed gaily, and perhaps only so clearsighted
+and shrewd an observer as Tibble would have detected a weakness of purpose
+about the mouth.</p>
+<p>There was a roar of laughter at the gibe, as indeed there was at
+whatever was uttered by the man whose profession was to make mirth.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou likest thy food well enough thyself, quipsome one,&rdquo;
+muttered Ralf.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hast found one who doth not, Ralf?&nbsp; Then should he have
+a free gift of my bauble,&rdquo; responded the jester, shaking on high
+that badge, surmounted with the golden head of an ass, and jingling
+with bells.&nbsp; &ldquo;How now, friend Wry-mouth?&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis
+long since thou wert here!&nbsp; This house hath well-nigh been forced
+to its ghostly weapons for lack of thy substantial ones.&nbsp; Where
+hast thou been?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;At Salisbury, good Merryman.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Have the Wilts men raked the moon yet out of the pond?&nbsp;
+Did they lend thee their rake, Tib, that thou hast raked up a couple
+of green Forest palmer worms, or be they the sons of the man in the
+moon, raked out and all astray?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mayhap, for we met them with dog and bush,&rdquo; said Tibble,
+&ldquo;and they dropped as from the moon to save my poor master from
+the robbers on Bagshot heath!&nbsp; Come now, mine honest fellow, aid
+me to rake, as thou sayest, this same household.&nbsp; They are come
+up from the Forest, to seek out their uncle, one Randall, who they have
+heard to be in this mein&eacute;.&nbsp; Knowest thou such a fellow?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;To seek a spider in a stubble-field!&nbsp; Truly he needs
+my bauble who sent them on such an errand,&rdquo; said the jester, rather
+slowly, as if to take time for consideration.&nbsp; &ldquo;What&rsquo;s
+your name, my Forest flies?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Birkenholt, sir,&rdquo; answered Ambrose, &ldquo;but our uncle
+is Harry Randall.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Here&rsquo;s fools enow to take away mine office,&rdquo; was
+the reply.&nbsp; &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s a couple of lads would leave the
+greenwood and the free oaks and beeches, for this stinking, plague-smitten
+London.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;d not have quitted it could we have tarried at home,&rdquo;
+began Ambrose; but at that moment there was a sudden commotion, a trampling
+of horses was heard outside, a loud imperious voice demanded, &ldquo;Is
+my Lord Archbishop within?&rdquo; a whisper ran round, &ldquo;the King,&rdquo;
+and there entered the hall with hasty steps, a figure never to be forgotten,
+clad in a hunting dress of green velvet embroidered with gold, with
+a golden hunting horn slung round his neck.</p>
+<p>Henry VIII. was then in the splendid prime of his youth, in his twenty-seventh
+year, and in the eyes, not only of his own subjects, but of all others,
+the very type of a true king of men.&nbsp; Tall, and as yet of perfect
+form for strength, agility, and grace; his features were of the beautiful
+straight Plantagenet type, and his complexion of purely fair rosiness,
+his large well-opened blue eyes full at once of frankness and keenness,
+and the short golden beard that fringed his square chin giving the manly
+air that otherwise might have seemed wanting to the feminine tinting
+of his regular lineaments.&nbsp; All caps were instantly doffed save
+the little bonnet with one drooping feather that covered his short,
+curled, yellow hair; and the Earl of Derby, who was at the head of Wolsey&rsquo;s
+retainers, made haste, bowing to the ground, to assure him that my Lord
+Archbishop was but doffing his robes, and would be with his Grace instantly.&nbsp;
+Would his Grace vouchsafe to come on to the privy chamber where the
+dinner was spread?</p>
+<p>At the same moment Quipsome Hal sprang forward, exclaiming, &ldquo;How
+now, brother and namesake?&nbsp; Wherefore this coil?&nbsp; Hath cloth
+of gold wearied yet of cloth of frieze?&nbsp; Is she willing to own
+her right to this?&rdquo; as he held out his bauble.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Holla, old Blister! art thou there?&rdquo; said the King,
+good-humouredly.&nbsp; &ldquo;What! knowest not that we are to have
+such a wedding as will be a sight for sore eyes!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sore! that&rsquo;s well said, friend Hal.&nbsp; Thou art making
+progress in mine art!&nbsp; Sore be the eyes wherein thou wouldst throw
+dust.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Again the King laughed, for every one knew that his sister Mary had
+secretly been married to the Duke of Suffolk for the last two months,
+and that this public marriage and the tournament that was to follow
+were only for the sake of appearances.&nbsp; He laid his hand good-naturedly
+on the jester&rsquo;s shoulder as he walked up the hall towards the
+Archbishop&rsquo;s private apartments, but the voices of both were loud
+pitched, and bits of the further conversation could be picked up.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Weddings are rife in your family,&rdquo; said the jester, &ldquo;none
+of you get weary of fitting on the noose.&nbsp; What, thou thyself,
+Hal?&nbsp; Ay, thou hast not caught the contagion yet!&nbsp; Now ye
+gods forefend!&nbsp; If thou hast the chance, thou&rsquo;lt have it
+strong.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Therewith the Archbishop, in his purple robes, appeared in the archway
+at the other end of the hall, the King joined him, and still followed
+by the jester, they both vanished.&nbsp; It was presently made known
+that the King was about to dine there, and that all were to sit down
+to eat.&nbsp; The King dined alone with the Archbishop as his host;
+the two noblemen who had formed his suite joined the first table in
+the higher hall; the knights that of the steward of the household, who
+was of knightly degree, and with whom the superior clergy of the household
+ate; and the grooms found their places among the vast array of yeomen
+and serving-men of all kinds with whom Tibble and his two young companions
+had to eat.&nbsp; A week ago, Stephen would have contemned the idea
+of being classed with serving-men and grooms, but by this time he was
+quite bewildered, and anxious enough to be thankful to keep near a familiar
+face on any terms, and to feel as if Tibble were an old friend, though
+he had only known him for five days.</p>
+<p>Why the King had come had not transpired, but there was a whisper
+that despatches from Scotland were concerned in it.&nbsp; The meal was
+a lengthy one, but at last the King&rsquo;s horses were ordered, and
+presently Henry came forth, with his arm familiarly linked in that of
+the Archbishop, whose horse had likewise been made ready that he might
+accompany the King back to Westminster.&nbsp; The jester was close at
+hand, and as a parting shaft he observed, while the King mounted his
+horse, &ldquo;Friend Hal! give my brotherly commendations to our Madge,
+and tell her that one who weds Anguish cannot choose but cry out.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Wherewith, affecting to expect a stroke from the King&rsquo;s whip,
+he doubled himself up, performed the contortion now called turning a
+coachwheel, then, recovering himself, put his hands on his hips and
+danced wildly on the steps; while Henry, shaking his whip at him, laughed
+at the only too obvious pun, for Anguish was the English version of
+Angus, the title of Queen Margaret&rsquo;s second husband, and it was
+her complaints that had brought him to his counsellor.</p>
+<p>The jester then, much to the annoyance of the two boys, thought proper
+to follow them to the office of the comptroller, and as that dignitary
+read out from his books the name of every Henry, and of all the varieties
+of Ralf and Randolf among the hundred and eighty persons composing the
+household, he kept on making comments.&nbsp; &ldquo;Harry Hempseed,
+clerk to the kitchen; ay, Hempseed will serve his turn one of these
+days.&nbsp; Walter Randall, groom of the chamber; ah, ha! my lads, if
+you want a generous uncle who will look after you well, there is your
+man!&nbsp; He&rsquo;ll give you the shakings of the napery for largesse,
+and when he is in an open-handed mood, will let you lie on the rushes
+that have served the hall.&nbsp; Harry of Lambeth, yeoman of the stable.&nbsp;
+He will make you free of all the taverns in Eastchepe.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And so on, accompanying each remark with a pantomime mimicry of the
+air and gesture of the individual.&nbsp; He showed in a second the contortions
+of Harry Weston in drawing the bow, and in another the grimaces of Henry
+Hope, the choir man, in producing bass notes, or the swelling majesty
+of Randall Porcher, the cross-bearer, till it really seemed as if he
+had shown off the humours of at least a third of the enormous household.&nbsp;
+Stephen had laughed at first, but as failure after failure occurred,
+the antics began to weary even him, and seem unkind and ridiculous as
+hope ebbed away, and the appalling idea began to grow on him of being
+cast loose on London without a friend or protector.&nbsp; Ambrose felt
+almost despairing as he heard in vain the last name.&nbsp; He would
+almost have been willing to own Hal the scullion, and his hopes rose
+when he heard of Hodge Randolph, the falconer, but alas, that same Hodge
+came from Yorkshire.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And mine uncle was from the New Forest in Hampshire,&rdquo;
+he said.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Maybe he went by the name of Shirley,&rdquo; added Stephen,
+&ldquo;&rsquo;tis where his home was.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>But the comptroller, unwilling to begin a fresh search, replied at
+once that the only Shirley in the household was a noble esquire of the
+Warwickshire family.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You must e&rsquo;en come back with me, young masters,&rdquo;
+said Tibble, &ldquo;and see what my master can do for you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Stay a bit,&rdquo; said the fool.&nbsp; &ldquo;Harry of Shirley!&nbsp;
+Harry of Shirley!&nbsp; Methinks I could help you to the man, if so
+be as you will deem him worth the finding,&rdquo; he added, suddenly
+turning upside down, and looking at them standing on the palms of his
+hands, with an indescribable leer of drollery, which in a moment dashed
+all the hopes with which they had turned to him.&nbsp; &ldquo;Should
+you know this minks of yours?&rdquo; he added.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I think I should,&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;I remember
+best how he used to carry me on his shoulder to cull mistletoe for Christmas.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah, ha!&nbsp; A proper fellow of his inches now, with yellow
+hair?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;I mind that his hair was
+black, and his eyes as black as sloes&mdash;or as thine own, Master
+Jester.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The jester tumbled over into a more extraordinary attitude than before,
+while Stephen said&mdash;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;John was wont to twit us with being akin to Gipsy Hal.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I mean a man sad and grave as the monks of Beaulieu,&rdquo;
+said the jester.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He!&rdquo; they both cried.&nbsp; &ldquo;No, indeed!&nbsp;
+He was foremost in all sports.&rdquo;&nbsp; &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; cried
+Stephen, &ldquo;mind you not, Ambrose, his teaching us leap-frog, and
+aye leaping over one of us himself, with the other in his arms?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! sadly changed, sadly changed,&rdquo; said the jester,
+standing upright, with a most mournful countenance.&nbsp; &ldquo;Maybe
+you&rsquo;d not thank me if I showed him to you, young sirs, that is,
+if he be the man.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay! is he in need, or distress?&rdquo; cried the brothers.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Poor Hal!&rdquo; returned the fool, shaking his head with
+mournfulness in his voice.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, take us to him, good&mdash;good jester,&rdquo; cried Ambrose.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;We are young and strong.&nbsp; We will work for him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What, a couple of lads like you, that have come to London
+seeking for him to befriend you&mdash;deserving well my cap for that
+matter.&nbsp; Will ye be guided to him, broken and soured&mdash;no more
+gamesome, but a sickly old runagate?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; cried Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;He is our mother&rsquo;s
+brother.&nbsp; We must care for him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Master Headley will give us work, mayhap,&rdquo; said Stephen,
+turning to Tibble.&nbsp; &ldquo;I could clean the furnaces.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah, ha!&nbsp; I see fools&rsquo; caps must hang thick as beech
+masts in the Forest,&rdquo; cried the fool, but his voice was husky,
+and he turned suddenly round with his back to them, then cut three or
+four extraordinary capers, after which he observed&mdash;&ldquo;Well,
+young gentlemen, I will see the man I mean, and if he be the same, and
+be willing to own you for his nephews, he will meet you in the Temple
+Gardens at six of the clock this evening, close to the rose-bush with
+the flowers in my livery&mdash;motley red and white.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But how shall we know him?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;D&rsquo;ye think a pair of green caterpillars like you can&rsquo;t
+be marked&mdash;unless indeed the gardener crushes you for blighting
+his roses.&rdquo;&nbsp; Wherewith the jester quitted the scene, walking
+on his hands, with his legs in the air.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is he to be trusted?&rdquo; asked Tibble of the comptroller.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Assuredly,&rdquo; was the answer; &ldquo;none hath better
+wit than Quipsome Hal, when he chooseth to be in earnest.&nbsp; In very
+deed, as I have heard Sir Thomas More say, it needeth a wise man to
+be fool to my Lord of York.&rdquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.&nbsp; QUIPSOME HAL</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;The sweet and bitter fool<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Will presently
+appear,<br />The one in motley here<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The other
+found out there.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>SHAKESPEARE.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>There lay the quiet Temple Gardens, on the Thames bank, cut out in
+formal walks, with flowers growing in the beds of the homely kinds beloved
+by the English.&nbsp; Musk roses, honeysuckle and virgin&rsquo;s bower,
+climbed on the old grey walls; sops-in-wine, bluebottles, bachelor&rsquo;s
+buttons, stars of Bethlehem and the like, filled the borders; May thorns
+were in full sweet blossom; and near one another were the two rose bushes,
+one damask and one white Provence, whence Somerset and Warwick were
+said to have plucked their fatal badges; while on the opposite side
+of a broad grass-plot was another bush, looked on as a great curiosity
+of the best omen, where the roses were streaked with alternate red and
+white, in honour, as it were, of the union of York and Lancaster.</p>
+<p>By this rose-tree stood the two young Birkenholts.&nbsp; Edmund Burgess
+having, by his master&rsquo;s desire, shown them the way, and passed
+them in by a word and sign from his master, then retired unseen to a
+distance to mark what became of them, they having promised also to return
+and report of themselves to Master Headley.</p>
+<p>They stood together earnestly watching for the coming of the uncle,
+feeling quite uncertain whether to expect a frail old broken man, or
+to find themselves absolutely deluded, and made game of by the jester.</p>
+<p>The gardens were nearly empty, for most people were sitting over
+their supper-tables after the business of the day was over, and only
+one or two figures in black gowns paced up and down in conversation.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Come away, Ambrose,&rdquo; said Stephen at last.&nbsp; &ldquo;He
+only meant to make fools of us!&nbsp; Come, before he comes to gibe
+us for having heeded a moment.&nbsp; Come, I say&mdash;here&rsquo;s
+this man coming to ask us what we are doing here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>For a tall, well-made, well-dressed personage in the black or sad
+colour of a legal official, looking like a prosperous householder, or
+superior artisan, was approaching them, some attendant, as the boys
+concluded belonging to the Temple.&nbsp; They expected to be turned
+out, and Ambrose in an apologetic tone, began, &ldquo;Sir, we were bidden
+to meet a&mdash;a kinsman here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And even so am I,&rdquo; was the answer, in a grave, quiet
+tone, &ldquo;or rather to meet twain.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose looked up into a pair of dark eyes, and exclaimed &ldquo;Stevie,
+Stevie, &rsquo;tis he.&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis uncle Hal.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, &rsquo;tis all you&rsquo;re like to have for him,&rdquo;
+answered Harry Randall, enfolding each in his embrace.&nbsp; &ldquo;Lad,
+how like thou art to my poor sister!&nbsp; And is she indeed gone&mdash;and
+your honest father too&mdash;and none left at home but that hunks, little
+John?&nbsp; How and when died she?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Two years agone come Lammastide,&rdquo; answered Stephen.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;There was a deadly creeping fever and ague through the Forest.&nbsp;
+We two sickened, and Ambrose was so like to die that Diggory went to
+the abbey for the priest to housel and anneal him, but by the time Father
+Simon came he was sound asleep, and soon was whole again.&nbsp; But
+before we were on our legs, our blessed mother took the disease, and
+she passed away ere many days were over.&nbsp; Then, though poor father
+took not that sickness, he never was the same man again, and only twelve
+days after last Pasch-tide he was taken with a fit and never spake again.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen was weeping by this time, and his uncle had a hand on his
+shoulder, and with tears in his eyes, threw in ejaculations of pity
+and affection.&nbsp; Ambrose finished the narrative with a broken voice
+indeed, but as one who had more self-command than his brother, perhaps
+than his uncle, whose exclamations became bitter and angry as he heard
+of the treatment the boys had experienced from their half-brother, who,
+as he said, he had always known as a currish mean-spirited churl, but
+scarce such as this.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nor do I think he would have been, save for his wife, Maud
+Pratt of Hampton,&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;Nay, truly also,
+he deemed that we were only within a day&rsquo;s journey of council
+from our uncle Richard at Hyde.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Richard Birkenholt was a sturdy old comrade!&nbsp; Methinks
+he would give Master Jack a piece of his mind.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Alack, good uncle, we found him in his dotage, and the bursar
+of Hyde made quick work with us, for fear, good Father Shoveller said,
+that we were come to look after his corrody.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Shoveller&mdash;what, a Shoveller of Cranbury?&nbsp; How fell
+ye in with him?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose told the adventures of their journey, and Randall exclaimed
+&ldquo;By my bau&mdash;I mean by my faith&mdash;if ye have ill-luck
+in uncles, ye have had good luck in friends.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No ill-luck in thee, good, kind uncle,&rdquo; said Stephen,
+catching at his hand with the sense of comfort that kindred blood gives.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How wottest thou that, child?&nbsp; Did not I&mdash;I mean
+did not Merryman tell you, that mayhap ye would not be willing to own
+your uncle?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We deemed he was but jesting,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>For a sudden twinkle in the black eyes, an involuntary twist of the
+muscles of the face, were a sudden revelation to him.&nbsp; He clutched
+hold of Ambrose with a sudden grasp; Ambrose too looked and recoiled
+for a moment, while the colour spread over his face.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, lads.&nbsp; Can you brook the thought!&mdash;Harry Randall
+is the poor fool!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen, whose composure had already broken down, burst into tears
+again, perhaps mostly at the downfall of all his own expectations and
+glorifications of the kinsman about whom he had boasted.&nbsp; Ambrose
+only exclaimed &ldquo;O uncle, you must have been hard pressed.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+For indeed the grave, almost melancholy man, who stood before them,
+regarding them wistfully, had little in common with the lithe tumbler
+full of absurdities whom they had left at York House.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Even so, my good lad.&nbsp; Thou art right in that,&rdquo;
+said he gravely.&nbsp; &ldquo;Harder than I trust will ever be the lot
+of you two, my sweet Moll&rsquo;s sons.&nbsp; She never guessed that
+I was come to this.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;O no,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;She always thought
+thou&mdash;thou hadst some high preferment in&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And so I have,&rdquo; said Randall with something of his ordinary
+humour.&nbsp; &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no man dares to speak such plain
+truth to my lord&mdash;or for that matter to King Harry himself, save
+his own Jack-a-Lee&mdash;and he, being a fool of nature&rsquo;s own
+making, cannot use his chances, poor rogue!&nbsp; And so the poor lads
+came up to London hoping to find a gallant captain who could bring them
+to high preferment, and found nought but&mdash;Tom Fool!&nbsp; I could
+find it in my heart to weep for them!&nbsp; And so thou mindest clutching
+the mistletoe on nunk Hal&rsquo;s shoulder.&nbsp; I warrant it groweth
+still on the crooked May bush?&nbsp; And is old Bobbin alive?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>They answered his questions, but still as if under a great shock,
+and presently he said, as they paced up and down the garden walks, &ldquo;Ay,
+I have been sore bestead, and I&rsquo;ll tell you how it came about,
+boys, and mayhap ye will pardon the poor fool, who would not own you
+sooner, lest ye should come in for mockery ye have not learnt to brook.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+There was a sadness and pleading in his tone that touched Ambrose, and
+he drew nearer to his uncle, who laid a hand on his shoulder, and presently
+the other on that of Stephen, who shrank a little at first, but submitted.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Lads, I need not tell you why I left fair Shirley and the good
+greenwood.&nbsp; I was a worse fool then than ever I have been since
+I wore the cap and bells, and if all had been brought home to me, it
+might have brought your father and mother into trouble&mdash;my sweet
+Moll who had done her best for me.&nbsp; I deemed, as you do now, that
+the way to fortune was open, but I found no path before me, and I had
+tightened my belt many a time, and was not much more than a bag of bones,
+when, by chance, I fell in with a company of tumblers and gleemen.&nbsp;
+I sang them the old hunting-song, and they said I did it tunably, and,
+whereas they saw I could already dance a hornpipe and turn a somersault
+passably well, the leader of the troop, old Nat Fire-eater, took me
+on, and methinks he did not repent&mdash;nor I neither&mdash;save when
+I sprained my foot and had time to lie by and think.&nbsp; We had plenty
+to fill our bellies and put on our backs; we had welcome wherever we
+went, and the groats and pennies rained into our caps.&nbsp; I was Clown
+and Jack Pudding and whatever served their turn, and the very name of
+Quipsome Hal drew crowds.&nbsp; Yea, &rsquo;twas a merry life!&nbsp;
+Ay, I feel thee wince and shrink, my lad; and so should I have shuddered
+when I was of thine age, and hoped to come to better things.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Methinks &rsquo;twere better than this present,&rdquo; said
+Stephen rather gruffly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I had my reasons, boy,&rdquo; said Randall, speaking as if
+he were pleading his cause with their father and mother rather than
+with two such young lads.&nbsp; &ldquo;There was in our company an old
+man-at-arms who played the lute and the rebeck, and sang ballads so
+long as hand and voice served him, and with him went his grandchild,
+a fair and honest little maiden, whom he kept so jealously apart that
+&rsquo;twas long ere I knew of her following the company.&nbsp; He had
+been a franklin on my Lord of Warwick&rsquo;s lands, and had once been
+burnt out by Queen Margaret&rsquo;s men, and just as things looked up
+again with him, King Edward&rsquo;s folk ruined all again, and slew
+his two sons.&nbsp; When great folk play the fool, small folk pay the
+scot, as I din into his Grace&rsquo;s ears whenever I may.&nbsp; A minion
+of the Duke of Clarence got the steading, and poor old Martin Fulford
+was turned out to shift as best he might.&nbsp; One son he had left,
+and with him he went to the Low Countries, where they would have done
+well had they not been bitten by faith in the fellow Perkin Warbeck.&nbsp;
+You&rsquo;ve heard of him?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea,&rdquo; said Ambrose; &ldquo;the same who was taken out
+of sanctuary at Beaulieu, and borne off to London.&nbsp; Father said
+he was marvellous like in the face to all the kings he had ever seen
+hunting in the Forest.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I know not; but to the day of his death old Martin swore that
+he was a son of King Edward&rsquo;s, and they came home again with the
+men the Duchess of Burgundy gave Perkin&mdash;came bag and baggage,
+for young Fulford had wedded a fair Flemish wife, poor soul!&nbsp; He
+left her with his father nigh to Taunton ere the battle, and he was
+never heard of more, but as he was one of the few men who knew how to
+fight, belike he was slain.&nbsp; Thus old Martin was left with the
+Flemish wife and her little one on his hands, for whose sake he did
+what went against him sorely, joined himself to this troop of jugglers
+and players, so as to live by the minstrelsy he had learnt in better
+days, while his daughter-in-law mended and made for the company and
+kept them in smart and shining trim.&nbsp; By the time I fell in with
+them his voice was well-nigh gone, and his hand sorely shaking, but
+Fire-eating Nat, the master of our troop, was not an ill-natured fellow,
+and the glee-women&rsquo;s feet were well used to his rebeck.&nbsp;
+Moreover, the Fire-eater had an eye to little Perronel, though her mother
+had never let him train her&mdash;scarce let him set an eye on her;
+and when Mistress Fulford died, poor soul, of ague, caught when we showed
+off before the merry Prior of Worcester, her last words were that Perronel
+should never be a glee-maiden.&nbsp; Well, to make an end of my tale,
+we had one day a mighty show at Windsor, when the King and Court were
+at the castle, and it was whispered to me at the end that my Lord Archbishop&rsquo;s
+household needed a jester, and that Quipsome Hal had been thought to
+make excellent fooling.&nbsp; I gave thanks at first, but said I would
+rather be a free man, not bound to be a greater fool than Dame Nature
+made me all the hours of the day.&nbsp; But when I got back to the Garter,
+what should I find but that poor old Martin had been stricken with the
+dead palsy while he was playing his rebeck, and would never twang a
+note more; and there was pretty Perronel weeping over him, and Nat Fire-eater
+pledging his word to give the old man bed, board, and all that he could
+need, if so be that Perronel should be trained to be one of his glee-maidens,
+to dance and tumble and sing.&nbsp; And there was the poor old franklin
+shaking his head more than the palsy made it shake already, and trying
+to frame his lips to say, &lsquo;rather they both should die.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, uncle, I wot now what thou didst!&rdquo; cried Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, lad, there was nought else to be done.&nbsp; I asked
+Master Fulford to give me Perronel, plighting my word that never should
+she sing or dance for any one&rsquo;s pleasure save her own and mine,
+and letting him know that I came of a worthy family.&nbsp; We were wedded
+out of hand by the priest that had been sent for to housel him, and
+in our true names.&nbsp; The Fire-eater was fiery enough, and swore
+that, wedded or not, I was bound to him, that he would have both of
+us, and would not drag about a helpless old man unless he might have
+the wench to do his bidding.&nbsp; I verily believe that, but for my
+being on the watch and speaking a word to two or three stout yeomen
+of the king&rsquo;s guard that chanced to be crushing a pot of sack
+at the Garter, he would have played some villainous trick on us.&nbsp;
+They gave a hint to my Lord of York&rsquo;s steward, and he came down
+and declared that the Archbishop required Quipsome Hal, and would&mdash;of
+his grace&mdash;send a purse of nobles to the Fire-eater, wherewith
+he was to be off on the spot without more ado, or he might find it the
+worse for him, and they, together with mine host&rsquo;s good wife,
+took care that the rogue did not carry away Perronel with him, as he
+was like to have done.&nbsp; To end my story, here am I, getting showers
+of gold coins one day and nought but kicks and gibes the next, while
+my good woman keeps house nigh here on the banks of the Thames with
+Gaffer Martin.&nbsp; Her Flemish thrift has set her to the washing and
+clear-starching of the lawyers&rsquo; ruffs, whereby she makes enough
+to supply the defects of my scanty days, or when I have to follow my
+lord&rsquo;s grace out of her reach, sweet soul.&nbsp; There&rsquo;s
+my tale, nevoys.&nbsp; And now, have ye a hand for Quipsome Hal?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;O uncle!&nbsp; Father would have honoured thee!&rdquo; cried
+Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Why didst thou not bring her down to the Forest?&rdquo; said
+Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I conned over the thought,&rdquo; said Randall, &ldquo;but
+there was no way of living.&nbsp; I wist not whether the Ranger might
+not stir up old tales, and moreover old Martin is ill to move.&nbsp;
+We brought him down by boat from Windsor, and he has never quitted the
+house since, nor his bed for the last two years.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll
+come and see the housewife?&nbsp; She hath a supper laying out for you,
+and on the way we&rsquo;ll speak of what ye are to do, my poor lads.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d forgotten that,&rdquo; said Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;So had not I,&rdquo; returned his uncle; &ldquo;I fear me
+I cannot aid you to preferment as you expected.&nbsp; None know Quipsome
+Hal by any name but that of Harry Merryman, and it were not well that
+ye should come in there as akin to the poor fool.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Stephen, emphatically.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Your father left you twenty crowns apiece?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, but John hath all save four of them.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;For that there&rsquo;s remedy.&nbsp; What saidst thou of the
+Cheapside armourer?&nbsp; His fellow, the Wry-mouth, seemed to have
+a care of you.&nbsp; Ye made in to the rescue with poor old Spring.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Even so,&rdquo; replied Ambrose, &ldquo;and if Stevie would
+brook the thought, I trow that Master Headley would be quite willing
+to have him bound as his apprentice.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well said, my good lad!&rdquo; cried Hal.&nbsp; &ldquo;What
+sayest thou, Stevie?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I had liefer be a man-at-arms.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That thou couldst only be after being sorely knocked about
+as horseboy and as groom.&nbsp; I tried that once, but found it meant
+kicks, and oaths, and vile company&mdash;such as I would not have for
+thy mother&rsquo;s son, Steve.&nbsp; Headley is a well-reported, God-fearing
+man, and will do well by thee.&nbsp; And thou wilt learn the use of
+arms as well as handle them.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I like Master Headley and Kit Smallbones well enough,&rdquo;
+said Stephen, rather gloomily, &ldquo;and if a gentleman must be a prentice,
+weapons are not so bad a craft for him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Whittington was a gentleman,&rdquo; said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am sick of Whittington,&rdquo; muttered Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nor is he the only one,&rdquo; said Randall; &ldquo;there&rsquo;s
+Middleton and Pole&mdash;ay, and many another who have risen from the
+flat cap to the open helm, if not to the coronet.&nbsp; Nay, these London
+companies have rules against taking any prentice not of gentle blood.&nbsp;
+Come in to supper with my good woman, and then I&rsquo;ll go with thee
+and hold converse with good Master Headley, and if Master John doth
+not send the fee freely, why then I know of them who shall make him
+disgorge it.&nbsp; But mark,&rdquo; he added, as he led the way out
+of the gardens, &ldquo;not a breath of Quipsome Hal.&nbsp; Down here
+they know me as a clerk of my lord&rsquo;s chamber, sad and sober, and
+high in his trust, and therein they are not far out.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In truth, though Harry Randall had been a wild and frolicsome youth
+in his Hampshire home, the effect of being a professional buffoon had
+actually made it a relaxation of effort to him to be grave, quiet, and
+slow in movement; and this was perhaps a more effectual disguise than
+the dark garments, and the false brown hair, beard, and moustache, with
+which he concealed the shorn and shaven condition required of the domestic
+jester.&nbsp; Having been a player, he was well able to adapt himself
+to his part, and yet Ambrose had considerable doubts whether Tibble
+had not suspected his identity from the first, more especially as both
+the lads had inherited the same dark eyes from their mother, and Ambrose
+for the first time perceived a considerable resemblance between him
+and Stephen, not only in feature but in unconscious gesture.</p>
+<p>Ambrose was considering whether he had better give his uncle a hint,
+lest concealment should excite suspicion; when, niched as it were against
+an abutment of the wall of the Temple courts, close to some steps going
+down to the Thames, they came upon a tiny house, at whose open door
+stood a young woman in the snowiest of caps and aprons over a short
+black gown, beneath which were a trim pair of blue hosen and stout shoes;
+a suspicion of yellow hair was allowed to appear framing the honest,
+fresh, Flemish face, which beamed a good-humoured welcome.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Here they be! here be the poor lads, Pernel mine.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+She held out her hand, and offered a round comfortable cheek to each,
+saying, &ldquo;Welcome to London, young gentlemen.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Good Mistress Perronel did not look exactly the stuff to make a glee-maiden
+of, nor even the beauty for whom to sacrifice everything, even liberty
+and respect.&nbsp; She was substantial in form, and broad in face and
+mouth, without much nose, and with large almost colourless eyes.&nbsp;
+But there was a wonderful look of heartiness and friendliness about
+her person and her house; the boys had never in their lives seen anything
+so amazingly and spotlessly clean and shining.&nbsp; In a corner stood
+an erection like a dark oaken cupboard or wardrobe, but in the middle
+was an opening about a yard square through which could be seen the night-capped
+face of a white-headed, white-bearded old man, propped against snowy
+pillows.&nbsp; To him Randall went at once, saying, &ldquo;So, gaffer,
+how goes it?&nbsp; You see I have brought company, my poor sister&rsquo;s
+sons&mdash;rest her soul!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Gaffer Martin mumbled something to them incomprehensible, but which
+the jester comprehended, for he called them up and named them to him,
+and Martin put out a bony hand, and gave them a greeting.&nbsp; Though
+his speech and limbs had failed him, his intelligence was evidently
+still intact, and there was a tenderly-cared-for look about him, rendering
+his condition far less pitiable than that of Richard Birkenholt, who
+was so palpably treated as an incumbrance.</p>
+<p>The table was already covered with a cloth, and Perronel quickly
+placed on it a yellow bowl of excellent beef broth, savoury with vegetables
+and pot-herbs, and with meat and dumplings floating in it.&nbsp; A lesser
+bowl was provided for each of the company, with horn spoons, and a loaf
+of good wheaten bread, and a tankard of excellent ale.&nbsp; Randall
+declared that his Perronel made far daintier dishes than my Lord Archbishop&rsquo;s
+cook, who went every day in silk and velvet.</p>
+<p>He explained to her his views on the armourer, to which she agreed
+with all her might, the old gentleman in bed adding something which
+the boys began to understand, that there was no worthier nor more honourable
+condition than that of an English burgess, specially in the good town
+of London, where the kings knew better than to be ever at enmity with
+their good towns.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Will the armourer take both of you?&rdquo; asked Mistress
+Randall.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, it was only for Stephen we devised it,&rdquo; said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And what wilt thou do?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I wish to be a scholar,&rdquo; said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A lean trade,&rdquo; quoth the jester; &ldquo;a monk now or
+a friar may be a right jolly fellow, but I never yet saw a man who throve
+upon books!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I had rather study than thrive,&rdquo; said Ambrose rather
+dreamily.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He wotteth not what he saith,&rdquo; cried Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh ho! so thou art of that sort!&rdquo; rejoined his uncle.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I know them!&nbsp; A crabbed black and white page is meat and
+drink to them!&nbsp; There&rsquo;s that Dutch fellow, with a long Latin
+name, thin and weazen as never was Dutchman before; they say he has
+read all the books in the world, and can talk in all the tongues, and
+yet when he and Sir Thomas More and the Dean of St. Paul&rsquo;s get
+together at my lord&rsquo;s table one would think they were bidding
+for my bauble.&nbsp; Such excellent fooling do they make, that my lord
+sits holding his sides.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The Dean of St. Paul&rsquo;s!&rdquo; said Ambrose, experiencing
+a shock.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay!&nbsp; He&rsquo;s another of your lean scholars, and yet
+he was born a wealthy man, son to a Lord Mayor, who, they say, reared
+him alone out of a round score of children.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Alack! poor souls,&rdquo; sighed Mistress Randall under her
+breath, for, as Ambrose afterwards learnt, her two babes had scarce
+seen the light.&nbsp; Her husband, while giving her a look of affection,
+went on&mdash;&ldquo;Not that he can keep his wealth.&nbsp; He has bestowed
+the most of it on Stepney church, and on the school he hath founded
+for poor children, nigh to St. Paul&rsquo;s.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Could I get admittance to that school?&rdquo; exclaimed Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou art a big fellow for a school,&rdquo; said his uncle,
+looking him over.&nbsp; &ldquo;However, faint heart never won fair lady.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I have a letter from the Warden of St. Elizabeth&rsquo;s to
+one of the clerks of St. Paul&rsquo;s,&rdquo; added Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;Alworthy
+is his name.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s well.&nbsp; We&rsquo;ll prove that same,&rdquo;
+said his uncle.&nbsp; &ldquo;Meantime, if ye have eaten your fill, we
+must be on our way to thine armourer, nevoy Stephen, or I shall be called
+for.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And after a private colloquy between the husband and wife, Ambrose
+was by both of them desired to make the little house his home until
+he could find admittance into St. Paul&rsquo;s School, or some other.&nbsp;
+He demurred somewhat from a mixture of feelings, in which there was
+a certain amount of Stephen&rsquo;s longing for freedom of action, and
+likewise a doubt whether he should not thus be a great inconvenience
+in the tiny household&mdash;a burden he was resolved not to be.&nbsp;
+But his uncle now took a more serious tone.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Look thou, Ambrose, thou art my sister&rsquo;s son, and fool
+though I be, thou art bound in duty to me, and I to have charge of thee,
+nor will I&mdash;for the sake of thy father and mother&mdash;have thee
+lying I know not where, among gulls, and cutpurses, and beguilers of
+youth here in this city of London.&nbsp; So, till better befals thee,
+and I wot of it, thou must be here no later than curfew, or I will know
+the reason why.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And I hope the young gentleman will find it no sore grievance,&rdquo;
+said Perronel, so good-humouredly that Ambrose could only protest that
+he had feared to be troublesome to her, and promise to bring his bundle
+the next day.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.&nbsp; ARMS SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;For him was leifer to have at his bedde&rsquo;s hedde<br />Twenty
+books clothed in blacke or redde<br />Of Aristotle and his philosophie<br />Than
+robes riche or fiddle or psalterie.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>CHAUCER.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>Master Headley was found spending the summer evening in the bay window
+of the hall.&nbsp; Tibble sat on a three-legged stool by him, writing
+in a crabbed hand, in a big ledger, and Kit Smallbones towered above
+both, holding in his hand a bundle of tally-sticks.&nbsp; By the help
+of these, and of that accuracy of memory which writing has destroyed,
+he was unfolding, down to the very last farthing, the entire account
+of payments and receipts during his master&rsquo;s absence, the debtor
+and creditor account being preserved as perfectly as if he had always
+had a pen in his huge fingers, and studied book-keeping by double or
+single entry.</p>
+<p>On the return of the two boys with such an apparently respectable
+member of society as the handsome well-dressed personage who accompanied
+them, little Dennet, who had been set to sew her sampler on a stool
+by her grandmother, under penalty of being sent off to bed if she disturbed
+her father, sprang up with a little cry of gladness, and running up
+to Ambrose, entreated for the tales of his good greenwood Forest, and
+the pucks and pixies, and the girl who daily shared her breakfast with
+a snake and said, &ldquo;Eat your own side, Speckleback.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Somehow, on Sunday night she had gathered that Ambrose had a store of
+such tales, and she dragged him off to the gallery, there to revel in
+them, while his brother remained with her father.</p>
+<p>Though Master Stephen had begun by being high and mighty about mechanical
+crafts, and thought it a great condescension to consent to be bound
+apprentice, yet when once again in the Dragon court, it looked so friendly
+and felt so much like a home that he found himself very anxious that
+Master Headley should not say that he could take no more apprentices
+at present, and that he should be satisfied with the terms uncle Hal
+would propose.&nbsp; And oh! suppose Tibble should recognise Quipsome
+Hal!</p>
+<p>However, Tibble was at this moment entirely engrossed by the accounts,
+and his master left him and his big companion to unravel them, while
+he himself held speech with his guest at some distance&mdash;sending
+for a cup of sack, wherewith to enliven the conversation.</p>
+<p>He showed himself quite satisfied with what Randall chose to tell
+of himself as a well known &ldquo;housekeeper&rdquo; close to the Temple,
+his wife a &ldquo;lavender&rdquo; there, while he himself was attached
+to the suite of the Archbishop of York.&nbsp; Here alone was there any
+approach to shuffling, for Master Headley was left to suppose that Randall
+attended Wolsey in his capacity of king&rsquo;s counsellor, and therefore,
+having a house of his own, had not been found in the roll of the domestic
+retainers and servants.&nbsp; He did not think of inquiring further,
+the more so as Randall was perfectly candid as to his own inferiority
+of birth to the Birkenholt family, and the circumstances under which
+he had left the Forest.</p>
+<p>Master Headley professed to be quite willing to accept Stephen as
+an apprentice, with or without a fee; but he agreed with Randall that
+it would be much better not to expose him to having it cast in his teeth
+that he was accepted out of charity; and Randall undertook to get a
+letter so written and conveyed to John Birkenholt that he should not
+dare to withhold the needful sum, in earnest of which Master Headley
+would accept the two crowns that Stephen had in hand, as soon as the
+indentures could be drawn out by one of the many scriveners who lived
+about St. Paul&rsquo;s.</p>
+<p>This settled, Randall could stay no longer, but he called both nephews
+into the court with him.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ye can write a letter?&rdquo;
+he said.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, sure, both of us; but Ambrose is the best scribe,&rdquo;
+said Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;One of you had best write then.&nbsp; Let that cur John know
+that I have my Lord of York&rsquo;s ear, and there will be no fear but
+he will give it.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll find a safe hand among the clerks,
+when the judges ride to hold the assize.&nbsp; Mayhap Ambrose might
+also write to the Father at Beaulieu.&nbsp; The thing had best be bruited.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I wished to do so,&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;It irked
+me to have taken no leave of the good Fathers.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Randall then took his leave, having little more than time to return
+to York House, where the Archbishop might perchance come home wearied
+and chafed from the King, and the jester might be missed if not there
+to put him in good humour.</p>
+<p>The curfew sounded, and though attention to its notes was not compulsory
+by law, it was regarded as the break-up of the evening and the note
+of recall in all well-ordered establishments.&nbsp; The apprentices
+and journeymen came into the court, among them Giles Headley, who had
+been taken out by one of the men to be provided with a working dress,
+much to his disgust; the grandmother summoned little Dennet and carried
+her off to bed.&nbsp; Stephen and Ambrose bade good-night, but Master
+Headley and his two confidential men remained somewhat longer to wind
+up their accounts.&nbsp; Doors were not, as a rule, locked within the
+court, for though it contained from forty to fifty persons, they were
+all regarded as a single family, and it was enough to fasten the heavily
+bolted, iron-studded folding doors of the great gateway leading into
+Cheapside, the key being brought to the master like that of a castle,
+seven minutes, measured by the glass, after the last note of the curfew
+in the belfry outside St. Paul&rsquo;s.</p>
+<p>The summer twilight, however, lasted long after this time of grace,
+and when Tibble had completed his accountant&rsquo;s work, and Smallbones&rsquo;
+deep voiced &ldquo;Goodnight, comrade,&rdquo; had resounded over the
+court, he beheld a figure rise up from the steps of the gallery, and
+Ambrose&rsquo;s voice said: &ldquo;May I speak to thee, Tibble?&nbsp;
+I need thy counsel.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Come hither, sir,&rdquo; said the foreman, muttering to himself,
+&ldquo;Methought &rsquo;twas working in him!&nbsp; The leaven! the leaven!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Tibble led the way up one of the side stairs into the open gallery,
+where he presently opened a door, admitting to a small, though high
+chamber, the walls of bare brick, and containing a low bed, a small
+table, a three-legged stool, a big chest, and two cupboards, also a
+cross over the head of the bed.&nbsp; A private room was a luxury neither
+possessed nor desired by most persons of any degree, and only enjoyed
+by Tibble in consideration of his great value to his master, his peculiar
+tastes, and the injuries he had received.&nbsp; In point of fact, his
+fall had been owing to a hasty blow, given in a passion by the master
+himself when a young man.&nbsp; Dismay and repentance had made Giles
+Headley a cooler and more self-controlled man ever since, and even if
+Tibble had not been a superior workman, he might still have been free
+to do almost anything he chose.&nbsp; Tibble gave his visitor the stool,
+and himself sat down on the chest, saying: &ldquo;So you have found
+your uncle, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; said Ambrose, pausing in some expectation that
+Tibble would mention some suspicion of his identity; but if the foreman
+had his ideas on the subject he did not disclose them, and waited for
+more communications.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Tibble!&rdquo; said Ambrose, with a long gasp, &ldquo;I must
+find means to hear more of him thou tookedst me to on Sunday.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;None ever truly tasted of that well without longing to come
+back to it,&rdquo; quoth Tibble.&nbsp; &ldquo;But hath not thy kinsman
+done aught for thee?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;save to offer me a lodging
+with his wife, a good and kindly lavender at the Temple.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Tibble nodded.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;So far am I free,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;and I am glad
+of it.&nbsp; I have a letter here to one of the canons, one Master Alworthy,
+but ere I seek him I would know somewhat from thee, Tibble.&nbsp; What
+like is he?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I cannot tell, sir,&rdquo; said Tibble.&nbsp; &ldquo;The canons
+are rich and many, and a poor smith like me wots little of their fashions.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is it true,&rdquo; again asked Ambrose, &ldquo;that the Dean&mdash;he
+who spake those words yesterday&mdash;hath a school here for young boys?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay.&nbsp; And a good and mild school it be, bringing them
+up in the name and nurture of the Holy Child Jesus, to whom it is dedicated.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then they are taught this same doctrine?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I trow they be.&nbsp; They say the Dean loves them like the
+children of his old age, and declares that they shall be made in love
+with holy lore by gentleness rather than severity.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is it likely that this same Alworthy could obtain me entrance
+there?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Alack, sir, I fear me thou art too old.&nbsp; I see none but
+little lads among them.&nbsp; Didst thou come to London with that intent?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, for I only wist to-day that there was such a school.&nbsp;
+I came with I scarce know what purpose, save to see Stephen safely bestowed,
+and then to find some way of learning myself.&nbsp; Moreover, a change
+seems to have come on me, as though I had hitherto been walking in a
+dream.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Tibble nodded, and Ambrose, sitting there in the dark, was moved
+to pour forth all his heart, the experience of many an ardent soul in
+those spirit searching days.&nbsp; Growing up happily under the care
+of the simple monks of Beaulieu he had never looked beyond their somewhat
+mechanical routine, accepted everything implicitly, and gone on acquiring
+knowledge with the receptive spirit but dormant thought of studious
+boyhood as yet unawakened, thinking that the studious clerical life
+to which every one destined him would only be a continuation of the
+same, as indeed it had been to his master, Father Simon.&nbsp; Not that
+Ambrose expressed this, beyond saying, &ldquo;They are good and holy
+men, and I thought all were like them, and fear that was all!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Then came death, for the first time nearly touching and affecting
+the youth, and making his soul yearn after further depths, which he
+might yet have found in the peace of the good old men, and the holy
+rites and doctrine that they preserved; but before there was time for
+these things to find their way into the wounds of his spirit, his expulsion
+from home had sent him forth to see another side of monkish and clerkly
+life.</p>
+<p>Father Shoveller, kindly as he was, was a mere yeoman with nothing
+spiritual about him; the monks of Hyde were, the younger, gay comrades,
+only trying how loosely they could sit to their vows; the elder, churlish
+and avaricious; even the Warden of Elizabeth College was little more
+than a student.&nbsp; And in London, fresh phases had revealed themselves;
+the pomp, state, splendour and luxury of Archbishop Wolsey&rsquo;s house
+had been a shock to the lad&rsquo;s ideal of a bishop drawn from the
+saintly biographies he had studied at Beaulieu; and he had but to keep
+his ears open to hear endless scandals about the mass priests, as they
+were called, since they were at this time very unpopular in London,
+and in many cases deservedly so.&nbsp; Everything that the boy had hitherto
+thought the way of holiness and salvation seemed invaded by evil and
+danger, and under the bondage of death, whose terrible dance continued
+to haunt him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I saw it, I saw it;&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;all over those
+halls at York House.&nbsp; I seemed to behold the grisly shape standing
+behind one and another, as they ate and laughed; and when the Archbishop
+and his priests and the King came in it seemed only to make the pageant
+complete!&nbsp; Only now and then could I recall those blessed words,
+&lsquo;Ye are free indeed.&rsquo;&nbsp; Did he say from the bondage
+of death?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea,&rdquo; said Tibble, &ldquo;into the glorious freedom
+of God&rsquo;s children.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou knowst it.&nbsp; Thou knowst it, Tibble.&nbsp; It seems
+to me that life is no life, but living death, without that freedom!&nbsp;
+And I <i>must</i> hear of it, and know whether it is mine, yea, and
+Stephen&rsquo;s, and all whom I love.&nbsp; O Tibble, I would beg my
+bread rather than not have that freedom ever before mine eyes.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hold it fast! hold it fast, dear sir,&rdquo; said Tibble,
+holding out his hands with tears in his eyes, and his face working in
+a manner that happily Ambrose could not see.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But how&mdash;how?&nbsp; The barefoot friar said that for
+an <i>Ave</i> a day, our Blessed Lady will drag us back from purgatory.&nbsp;
+I saw her on the wall of her chapel at Winchester saving a robber knight
+from the sea, yea and a thief from the gallows; but that is not being
+free.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Fond inventions of pardon-mongers,&rdquo; muttered Tibble.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And is one not free when the priest hath assoilsied him?&rdquo;
+added Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If, and if&mdash;&rdquo; said Tibble.&nbsp; &ldquo;But bone
+shall make me trow that shrift in words, without heart-sorrow for sin,
+and the Latin heard with no thought of Him that bore the guilt, can
+set the sinner free.&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis none other that the Dean sets
+forth, ay, and the book that I have here.&nbsp; I thank my God,&rdquo;
+he stood up and took off his cap reverently, &ldquo;that He hath opened
+the eyes of another!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>His tone was such that Ambrose could have believed him some devout
+almost inspired hermit rather than the acute skilful artisan he appeared
+at other times; and in fact, Tibble Steelman, like many another craftsman
+of those days, led a double life, the outer one that of the ordinary
+workman, the inner one devoted to those lights that were shining unveiled
+and new to many; and especially here in the heart of the City, partly
+from the influence of Dean Colet&rsquo;s sermons and catechisings at
+St. Paul&rsquo;s, but also from remnants of Lollardism, which had never
+been entirely quenched.&nbsp; The ordinary clergy looked at it with
+horror, but the intelligent and thoughtful of the burgher and craftsman
+classes studied it with a passionate fervour which might have sooner
+broken out and in more perilous forms save for the guidance it received
+in the truly Catholic and open-spirited public teachings of Colet, in
+which he persisted in spite of the opposition of his brother clergy.</p>
+<p>Not that as yet the inquirers had in the slightest degree broken
+with the system of the Church, or with her old traditions.&nbsp; They
+were only beginning to see the light that had been veiled from them,
+and to endeavour to clear the fountain from the mire that had fouled
+it; and there was as yet no reason to believe that the aspersions continually
+made against the mass priests and the friars were more than the chronic
+grumblings of Englishmen, who had found the same faults in them for
+the last two hundred years.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And what wouldst thou do, young sir?&rdquo; presently inquired
+Tibble.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That I came to ask thee, good Tibble.&nbsp; I would work to
+the best of my power in any craft so I may hear those words and gain
+the key to all I have hitherto learnt, unheeding as one in a dream.&nbsp;
+My purpose had been to be a scholar and a clerk, but I must see mine
+own way, and know whither I am being carried, ere I can go farther.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Tibble writhed and wriggled himself about in consideration.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I would I wist how to take thee to the Dean himself,&rdquo; he
+said, &ldquo;but I am but a poor man, and his doctrine is &lsquo;new
+wine in old bottles&rsquo; to the master, though he be a right good
+man after his lights.&nbsp; See now, Master Ambrose, meseemeth that
+thou hadst best take thy letter first to this same priest.&nbsp; It
+may be that he can prefer thee to some post about the minster.&nbsp;
+Canst sing?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I could once, but my voice is nought at this present.&nbsp;
+If I could but be a servitor at St. Paul&rsquo;s School!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It might be that the will which hath led thee so far hath
+that post in store for thee, so bear the letter to Master Alworthy.&nbsp;
+And if he fail thee, wouldst thou think scorn of aiding a friend of
+mine who worketh a printing-press in Warwick Inner Yard?&nbsp; Thou
+wilt find him at his place in Paternoster Row, hard by St. Paul&rsquo;s.&nbsp;
+He needeth one who is clerk enough to read the Latin, and the craft
+being a new one &rsquo;tis fenced by none of those prentice laws that
+would bar the way to thee elsewhere, at thy years.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I should dwell among books!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, and holy books, that bear on the one matter dear to the
+true heart.&nbsp; Thou might serve Lucas Hansen at the sign of the Winged
+Staff till thou hast settled thine heart, and then it may be the way
+would be opened to study at Oxford or at Cambridge, so that thou couldst
+expound the faith to others.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Good Tibble, kind Tibble, I knew thou couldst aid me!&nbsp;
+Wilt thou speak to this Master Hansen for me?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Tibble, however, held that it was more seemly that Ambrose should
+first try his fate with Master Alworthy, but in case of this not succeeding,
+he promised to write a billet that would secure attention from Lucas
+Hansen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I warn thee, however, that he is Low Dutch,&rdquo; he added,
+&ldquo;though he speaketh English well.&rdquo;&nbsp; He would gladly
+have gone with the youth, and at any other time might have been sent
+by his master, but the whole energies of the Dragon would be taken up
+for the next week by preparations for the tilting-match at court, and
+Tibble could not be spared for another working hour.</p>
+<p>Ambrose, as he rose to bid his friend good-night, could not help
+saying that he marvelled that one such as he could turn his mind to
+such vanities as the tilt-yard required.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Tibble, &ldquo;&rsquo;twas the craft I was
+bred to&mdash;yea, and I have a good master; and the Apostle Paul himself&mdash;as
+I&rsquo;ve heard a preacher say&mdash;bade men continue in the state
+wherein they were, and not be curious to chop and change.&nbsp; Who
+knoweth whether in God&rsquo;s sight, all our wars and policies be no
+more than the games of the tilt-yard.&nbsp; Moreover, Paul himself made
+these very weapons read as good a sermon as the Dean himself.&nbsp;
+Didst never hear of the shield of faith, and helmet of salvation, and
+breastplate of righteousness?&nbsp; So, if thou comest to Master Hansen,
+and provest worthy of his trust, thou wilt hear more, ay, and maybe
+read too thyself, and send forth the good seed to others,&rdquo; he
+murmured to himself, as he guided his visitor across the moonlit court
+up the stairs to the chamber where Stephen lay fast asleep.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER X.&nbsp; TWO VOCATIONS</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;The smith, a mighty man is he<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;With
+large and sinewy hands;<br />And the muscles of his brawny arms<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Are
+strong as iron bands.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>LONGFELLOW.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>Stephen&rsquo;s first thought in the morning was whether the <i>ex
+voto</i> effigy of poor Spring was put in hand, while Ambrose thought
+of Tibble&rsquo;s promised commendation to the printer.&nbsp; They both,
+however, found their affairs must needs wait.&nbsp; Orders for weapons
+for the tilting-match had come in so thickly the day before that every
+hand must be employed on executing them, and the Dragon court was ringing
+again with the clang of hammers and screech of grind-stones.</p>
+<p>Stephen, though not yet formally bound, was to enter on his apprentice
+life at once; and Ambrose was assured by Master Headley that it was
+of no use to repair to any of the dignified clergy of St. Paul&rsquo;s
+before mid-day, and that he had better employ the time in writing to
+his elder brother respecting the fee.&nbsp; Materials were supplied
+to him, and he used them so as to do credit to the monks of Beaulieu,
+in spite of little Dennet spending every spare moment in watching his
+pen as if he were performing some cabalistic operation.</p>
+<p>He was a long time about it.&nbsp; There were two letters to write,
+and the wording of thorn needed to be very careful, besides that the
+old court hand took more time to frame than the Italian current hand,
+and even thus, when dinner-time came, at ten o&rsquo;clock, the household
+was astonished to find that he had finished all that regarded Stephen,
+though he had left the letters open, until his own venture should have
+been made.</p>
+<p>Stephen flung himself down beside his brother hot and panting, shaking
+his shoulder-blades and declaring that his arms felt ready to drop out.&nbsp;
+He had been turning a grindstone ever since six o&rsquo;clock.&nbsp;
+The two new apprentices had been set on to sharpening the weapon points
+as all that they were capable of, and had been bidden by Smallbones
+to turn and hold alternately, but &ldquo;that oaf Giles Headley,&rdquo;
+said Stephen, &ldquo;never ground but one lance, and made me go on turning,
+threatening to lay the butt about mine ears if I slacked.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The lazy lubber!&rdquo; cried Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;But did
+none see thee, or couldst not call out for redress?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou art half a wench thyself, Ambrose, to think I&rsquo;d
+complain.&nbsp; Besides, he stood on his rights as a master, and he
+is a big fellow.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s true,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;and he might
+make it the worse for thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I would I were as big as he,&rdquo; sighed Stephen, &ldquo;I
+would soon show him which was the better man.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Perhaps the grinding match had not been as unobserved as Stephen
+fancied, for on returning to work, Smallbones, who presided over all
+the rougher parts of the business, claimed them both.&nbsp; He set Stephen
+to stand by him, sort out and hand him all the rivets needed for a suit
+of proof armour that hung on a frame, while he required Giles to straighten
+bars of iron heated to a white heat.&nbsp; Ere long Giles called out
+for Stephen to change places, to which Smallbones coolly replied, &ldquo;Turnabout
+is the rule here, master.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Even so,&rdquo; replied Giles, &ldquo;and I have been at work
+like this long enough, ay, and too long!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thy turn was a matter of three hours this morning,&rdquo;
+replied Kit&mdash;not coolly, for nobody was cool in his den, but with
+a brevity which provoked a laugh.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I shall see what my cousin the master saith!&rdquo; cried
+Giles in great wrath.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, that thou wilt,&rdquo; returned Kit, &ldquo;if thou dost
+loiter over thy business, and hast not those bars ready when called
+for.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He never meant me to be put on work like this, with a hammer
+that breaks mine arm.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What! crying out for <i>that</i>!&rdquo; said Edmund Burgess,
+who had just come in to ask for a pair of tongs.&nbsp; &ldquo;What wouldst
+say to the big hammer that none can wield save Kit himself?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Giles felt there was no redress, and panted on, feeling as if he
+were melting away, and with a dumb, wild rage in his heart, that could
+get no outlet, for Smallbones was at least as much bigger than he as
+he was than Stephen.&nbsp; Tibble was meanwhile busy over the gilding
+and enamelling of Buckingham&rsquo;s magnificent plate armour in Italian
+fashion, but he had found time to thrust into Ambrose&rsquo;s hand an
+exceedingly small and curiously folded billet for Lucas Hansen, the
+printer, in case of need.&nbsp; &ldquo;He would be found at the sign
+of the Winged Staff, in Paternoster Row,&rdquo; said Tibble, &ldquo;or
+if not there himself, there would be his servant who would direct Ambrose
+to the place where the Dutch printer lived and worked.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+No one was at leisure to show the lad the way, and he set out with a
+strange feeling of solitude, as his path began decisively to be away
+from that of his brother.</p>
+<p>He did not find much difficulty in discovering the quadrangle on
+the south side of the minster where the minor canons lived near the
+deanery; and the porter, a stout lay brother, pointed out to him the
+doorway belonging to Master Alworthy.&nbsp; He knocked, and a young
+man with a tonsured head but a bloated face opened it.&nbsp; Ambrose
+explained that he had brought a letter from the Warden of St. Elizabeth&rsquo;s
+College at Winchester.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Give it here,&rdquo; said the young man.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I would give it to his reverence himself,&rdquo; said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His reverence is taking his after-dinner nap and may not be
+disturbed,&rdquo; said the man.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then I will wait,&rdquo; said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>The door was shut in his face, but it was the shady side of the court,
+and he sat down on a bench and waited.&nbsp; After full an hour the
+door was opened, and the canon, a good-natured looking man, in a square
+cap, and gown and cassock of the finest cloth, came slowly out.&nbsp;
+He had evidently heard nothing of the message, and was taken by surprise
+when Ambrose, doffing his cap and bowing low, gave him the greeting
+of the Warden of St. Elizabeth&rsquo;s and the letter.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hum!&nbsp; Ha!&nbsp; My good friend&mdash;Fielder&mdash;I
+remember him.&nbsp; He was always a scholar.&nbsp; So he hath sent thee
+here with his commendations.&nbsp; What should I do with all the idle
+country lads that come up to choke London and feed the plague?&nbsp;
+Yet stay&mdash;that lurdane Bolt is getting intolerably lazy and insolent,
+and methinks he robs me!&nbsp; What canst do, thou stripling?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I can read Latin, sir, and know the Greek alphabeta.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Tush!&nbsp; I want no scholar more than enough to serve my
+mass.&nbsp; Canst sing?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not now; but I hope to do so again.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;When I rid me of Bolt there&mdash;and there&rsquo;s an office
+under the sacristan that he might fill as well as another knave&mdash;the
+fellow might do for me well enow as a body servant,&rdquo; said Mr.
+Alworthy, speaking to himself.&nbsp; &ldquo;He would brush my gowns
+and make my bed, and I might perchance trust him with my marketings,
+and by and by there might be some office for him when he grew saucy
+and idle.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll prove him on mine old comrade&rsquo;s word.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said Ambrose, respectfully, &ldquo;what I seek
+for is occasion for study.&nbsp; I had hoped you could speak to the
+Dean, Dr. John Colet, for some post at his school.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Boy,&rdquo; said Alworthy, &ldquo;I thought thee no such fool!&nbsp;
+Why crack thy brains with study when I can show thee a surer path to
+ease and preferment?&nbsp; But I see thou art too proud to do an old
+man a service.&nbsp; Thou writst thyself gentleman, forsooth, and high
+blood will not stoop.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not so, sir,&rdquo; returned Ambrose, &ldquo;I would work
+in any way so I could study the humanities, and hear the Dean preach.&nbsp;
+Cannot you commend me to his school?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ha!&rdquo; exclaimed the canon, &ldquo;this is your sort,
+is it?&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll have nought to do with it!&nbsp; Preaching,
+preaching!&nbsp; Every idle child&rsquo;s head is agog on preaching
+nowadays!&nbsp; A plague on it!&nbsp; Why can&rsquo;t Master Dean leave
+it to the black friars, whose vocation &rsquo;tis, and not cumber us
+with his sermons for ever, and set every lazy lad thinking he must needs
+run after them?&nbsp; No, no, my good boy, take my advice.&nbsp; Thou
+shalt have two good bellyfuls a day, all my cast gowns, and a pair of
+shoes by the year, with a groat a month if thou wilt keep mine house,
+bring in my meals, and the like, and by and by, so thou art a good lad,
+and runst not after these new-fangled preachments which lead but to
+heresy, and set folk racking their brains about sin and such trash,
+we&rsquo;ll get thee shorn and into minor orders, and who knows what
+good preferment thou mayst not win in due time!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sir, I am beholden to you, but my mind is set on study.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What kin art thou to a fool?&rdquo; cried the minor canon,
+so startling Ambrose that he had almost answered, and turning to another
+ecclesiastic whose siesta seemed to have ended about the same time,
+&ldquo;Look at this varlet, Brother Cloudesley!&nbsp; Would you believe
+it?&nbsp; He comes to me with a letter from mine old friend, in consideration
+of which I offer him that saucy lubber Bolt&rsquo;s place, a gown of
+mine own a year, meat and preferment, and, lo you, he tells me all he
+wants is to study Greek, forsooth, and hear the Dean&rsquo;s sermons!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The other canon shook his head in dismay at such arrant folly.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Young stripling, be warned,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp; &ldquo;Know
+what is good for thee.&nbsp; Greek is the tongue of heresy.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How may that be, reverend sir,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;when
+the holy Apostles and the Fathers spake and wrote in the Greek?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Waste not thy time on him, brother,&rdquo; said Mr. Alworthy.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;He will find out his error when his pride and his Greek forsooth
+have brought him to fire and faggot.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay! ay!&rdquo; added Cloudesley.&nbsp; &ldquo;The Dean with
+his Dutch friend and his sermons, and his new grammar and accidence,
+is sowing heretics as thick as groundsel.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Wherewith the two canons of the old school waddled away, arm in arm,
+and Bolt put out his head, leered at Ambrose, and bade him shog off,
+and not come sneaking after other folk&rsquo;s shoes.</p>
+<p>Sooth to say, Ambrose was relieved by his rejection.&nbsp; If he
+were not to obtain admission in any capacity to St. Paul&rsquo;s School,
+he felt more drawn to Tibble&rsquo;s friend the printer; for the self-seeking
+luxurious habits into which so many of the beneficed clergy had fallen
+were repulsive to him, and his whole soul thirsted after that new revelation,
+as it were, which Colet&rsquo;s sermon had made to him.&nbsp; Yet the
+word heresy was terrible and confusing, and a doubt came over him whether
+he might not be forsaking the right path, and be lured aside by false
+lights.</p>
+<p>He would think it out before he committed himself.&nbsp; Where should
+he do so in peace?&nbsp; He thought of the great Minster, but the nave
+was full of a surging multitude, and there was a loud hum of voices
+proceeding from it, which took from him all inclination to find his
+way to the quieter and inner portions of the sanctuary.</p>
+<p>Then he recollected the little Pardon Church, where he had seen the
+<i>Dance of Death</i> on the walls; and crossing the burial-ground he
+entered, and, as he expected, found it empty, since the hours for masses
+for the dead were now past.&nbsp; He knelt down on a step, repeated
+the sext office, in warning for which the bells were chiming all round,
+covering his face with his hands, and thinking himself back to Beaulieu;
+then, seating himself on a step, leaning against the wall, he tried
+to think out whether to give himself up to the leadings of the new light
+that had broken on him, or whether to wrench himself from it.&nbsp;
+Was this, which seemed to him truth and deliverance, verily the heresy
+respecting which rumours had come to horrify the country convents?&nbsp;
+If he had only heard of it from Tibble Wry-mouth, he would have doubted,
+in spite of its power over him, but he had heard it from a man, wise,
+good, and high in place, like Dean Colet.&nbsp; Yet to his further perplexity,
+his uncle had spoken of Colet as jesting at Wolsey&rsquo;s table.&nbsp;
+What course should he take?&nbsp; Could he bear to turn away from that
+which drew his soul so powerfully, and return to the bounds which seem
+to him to be grown so narrow, but which he was told were safe?&nbsp;
+Now that Stephen was settled, it was open to him to return to St. Elizabeth&rsquo;s
+College, but the young soul within him revolted against the repetition
+of what had become to him unsatisfying, unless illumined by the brightness
+he seemed to have glimpsed at.</p>
+<p>But Ambrose had gone through much unwonted fatigue of late, and while
+thus musing he fell asleep, with his head against the wall.&nbsp; He
+was half wakened by the sound of voices, and presently became aware
+that two persons were examining the walls, and comparing the paintings
+with some others, which one of them had evidently seen.&nbsp; If he
+had known it, it was with the <i>Dance of Death</i> on the bridge of
+Lucerne.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I question,&rdquo; said a voice that Ambrose had heard before,
+&ldquo;whether these terrors be wholesome for men&rsquo;s souls.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;For priests&rsquo; pouches, they be,&rdquo; said the other,
+with something of a foreign accent.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Alack, when shall we see the day when the hope of paradise
+and dread of purgatory shall be no longer made the tools of priestly
+gain; and hatred of sin taught to these poor folk, instead of servile
+dread of punishment.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Have a care, my Colet,&rdquo; answered the yellow bearded
+foreigner; &ldquo;thou art already in ill odour with those same men
+in authority; and though a Dean&rsquo;s stall be fenced from the episcopal
+crook, yet there is a rod at Rome which can reach even thither.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I tell thee, dear Erasmus, thou art too timid; I were well
+content to leave house and goods, yea, to go to prison or to death,
+could I but bring home to one soul, for which Christ died, the truth
+and hope in every one of those prayers and creeds that our poor folk
+are taught to patter as a senseless charm.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;These are strange times,&rdquo; returned Erasmus.&nbsp; &ldquo;Methinks
+yonder phantom, be he skeleton or angel, will have snatched both of
+us away ere we behold the full issue either of thy preachings, or my
+Greek Testament, or of our More&rsquo;s Utopian images.&nbsp; Dost thou
+not feel as though we were like children who have set some mighty engine
+in motion, like the great water-wheels in my native home, which, whirled
+by the flowing streams of time and opinion, may break up the whole foundations,
+and destroy the oneness of the edifice?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It may be so,&rdquo; returned Colet.&nbsp; &ldquo;What read
+we?&nbsp; &lsquo;The net brake&rsquo; even in the Master&rsquo;s sight,
+while still afloat on the sea.&nbsp; It was only on the shore that the
+hundred and fifty-three, all good and sound, were drawn to His feet.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And,&rdquo; returned Erasmus, &ldquo;I see wherefore thou
+hast made thy children at St. Paul&rsquo;s one hundred and fifty and
+three.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The two friends were passing out.&nbsp; Their latter speeches had
+scarce been understood by Ambrose, even if he heard them, so full was
+he of conflicting feelings, now ready to cast himself before their feet,
+and entreat the Dean to help him to guidance, now withheld by bashfulness,
+unwillingness to interrupt, and ingenuous shame at appearing like an
+eavesdropper towards such dignified and venerable personages.&nbsp;
+Had he obeyed his first impulse, mayhap his career had been made safer
+and easier for him, but it was while shyness chained his limbs and tongue
+that the Dean and Erasmus quitted the chapel, and the opportunity of
+accosting them had slipped away.</p>
+<p>Their half comprehended words had however decided him in the part
+he should take, making him sure that Colet was not controverting the
+formularies of the Church, but drawing out those meanings which in repetition
+by rote were well-nigh forgotten.&nbsp; It was as if his course were
+made clear to him.</p>
+<p>He was determined to take the means which most readily presented
+themselves of hearing Colet; and leaving the chapel, he bent his steps
+to the Row which his book-loving eye had already marked.&nbsp; Flanking
+the great Cathedral on the north, was the row of small open stalls devoted
+to the sale of books, or &ldquo;objects of devotion,&rdquo; all so arranged
+that the open portion might be cleared, and the stock-in-trade locked
+up if not carried away.&nbsp; Each stall had its own sign, most of them
+sacred, such as the Lamb and Flag, the Scallop Shell, or some patron
+saint, but classical emblems were oddly intermixed, such as Minerva&rsquo;s
+&AElig;gis, Pegasus, and the Lyre of Apollo.&nbsp; The sellers, some
+middle-aged men, some lads, stretched out their arms with their wares
+to attract the passengers in the street, and did not fail to beset Ambrose.&nbsp;
+The more lively looked at his Lincoln green and shouted verses of ballads
+at him, fluttering broad sheets with verses on the lamentable fate of
+Jane Shore, or Fair Rosamond, the same woodcut doing duty for both ladies,
+without mercy to their beauty.&nbsp; The scholastic judged by his face
+and step that he was a student, and they flourished at him black-bound
+copies of Virgilius Maro, and of Tully&rsquo;s Offices, while others,
+hoping that he was an incipient clerk, offered breviaries, missals or
+portuaries, with the Use of St. Paul&rsquo;s, or of Sarum, or mayhap
+St. Austin&rsquo;s Confessions.&nbsp; He made his way along, with his
+eye diligently heedful of the signs, and at last recognised the Winged
+Staff, or caduceus of Hermes, over a stall where a couple of boys in
+blue caps and gowns and yellow stockings were making a purchase of a
+small, grave-looking, elderly but bright cheeked man, whose yellow hair
+and beard were getting intermingled with grey.&nbsp; They were evidently
+those St. Paul&rsquo;s School boys whom Ambrose envied so much, and
+as they finished their bargaining and ran away together, Ambrose advanced
+with a salutation, asked if he did not see Master Lucas Hansen, and
+gave him the note with the commendations of Tibble Steelman the armourer.</p>
+<p>He was answered with a ready nod and &ldquo;yea, yea,&rdquo; as the
+old man opened the billet and cast his eyes over it; then scanning Ambrose
+from head to foot, said with some amazement, &ldquo;But you are of gentle
+blood, young sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am,&rdquo; said Ambrose; &ldquo;but gentle blood needs at
+times to work for bread, and Tibble let me hope that I might find both
+livelihood for the body and for the soul with you, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is it so?&rdquo; asked the printer, his face lighting up.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Art thou willing to labour and toil, and give up hope of fee
+and honour, if so thou mayst win the truth?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose folded his hands with a gesture of earnestness, and Lucas
+Hansen said, &ldquo;Bless thee, my son!&nbsp; Methinks I can aid thee
+in thy quest, so thou canst lay aside,&rdquo; and here his voice grew
+sharper and more peremptory, &ldquo;all thy gentleman&rsquo;s airs and
+follies, and serve&mdash;ay, serve and obey.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I trust so,&rdquo; returned Ambrose; &ldquo;my brother is
+even now becoming prentice to Master Giles Headley, and we hope to live
+as honest men by the work of our hands and brains.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I forgot that you English herren are not so puffed up with
+pride and scorn like our Dutch nobles,&rdquo; returned the printer.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Canst live sparingly, and lie hard, and see that thou keepst
+the house clean, not like these English swine?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I hope so,&rdquo; said Ambrose, smiling; &ldquo;but I have
+an uncle and aunt, and they would have me lie every night at their house
+beside the Temple gardens.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What is thine uncle?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He hath a post in the mein&eacute; of my Lord Archbishop of
+York,&rdquo; said Ambrose, blushing and hesitating a little.&nbsp; &ldquo;He
+cometh to and fro to his wife, who dwells with her old father, doing
+fine lavender&rsquo;s work for the lawyer folk therein.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was somewhat galling that this should be the most respectable
+occupation that could be put forward, but Lucas Hansen was evidently
+reassured by it.&nbsp; He next asked whether Ambrose could read Latin,
+putting a book into his hand as he did so; Ambrose read and construed
+readily, explaining that he had been trained at Beaulieu.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That is well!&rdquo; said the printer; &ldquo;and hast thou
+any Greek?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Only the alphabeta,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;I made that
+out from a book at Beaulieu, but Father Simon knew no more, and there
+was nought to study from.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Even so,&rdquo; replied Hansen, &ldquo;but little as thou
+knowst &rsquo;tis as much as I can hope for from any who will aid me
+in my craft.&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis I that, as thou hast seen, furnish for
+the use of the children at the Dean&rsquo;s school of St. Paul&rsquo;s.&nbsp;
+The best and foremost scholars of them are grounded in their Greek,
+that being the tongue wherein the Holy Gospels were first writ.&nbsp;
+Hitherto I have had to get me books for their use from Holland, whither
+they are brought from Basle, but I have had sent me from Hamburg a fount
+of type of the Greek character, whereby I hope to print at home, the
+accidence, and mayhap the <i>Dialogues</i> of Plato, and it might even
+be the sacred Gospel itself, which the great Doctor, Master Erasmus,
+is even now collating from the best authorities in the universities.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose&rsquo;s eyes kindled with unmistakable delight.&nbsp; &ldquo;You
+have the accidence!&rdquo; he exclaimed.&nbsp; &ldquo;Then could I study
+the tongue even while working for you!&nbsp; Sir, I would do my best!&nbsp;
+It is the very opportunity I seek.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Fair and softly,&rdquo; said the printer with something of
+a smile.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thou art new to cheapening and bargaining, my
+fair lad.&nbsp; Thou hast spoken not one word of the wage.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I recked not of that,&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;&rsquo;Tis
+true, I may not burthen mine uncle and aunt, but verily, sir, I would
+live on the humblest fare that will keep body and soul together so that
+I may have such an opportunity.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How knowst thou what the opportunity may be?&rdquo; returned
+Lucas, drily.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thou art but a babe!&nbsp; Some one should
+have a care of thee.&nbsp; If I set thee to stand here all day and cry
+what d&rsquo;ye lack? or to carry bales of books twixt this and Warwick
+Inner Yard, thou wouldst have no ground to complain.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, sir,&rdquo; returned Ambrose, &ldquo;I wot that Tibble
+Steelman would never send me to one who would not truly give me what
+I need.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Tibble Steelman is verily one of the few who are both called
+and chosen,&rdquo; replied Lucas, &ldquo;and I think thou art the same
+so far as green youth may be judged, since thou art one who will follow
+the word into the desert, and never ask for the loaves and fishes.&nbsp;
+Nevertheless, I will take none advantage of thy youth and zeal, but
+thou shalt first behold what thou shalt have to do for me, and then
+if it still likes thee, I will see thy kindred.&nbsp; Hast no father?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose explained, and at that moment Master Hansen&rsquo;s boy made
+his appearance, returning from an errand; the stall was left in his
+charge, while the master took Ambrose with him into the precincts of
+what had once been the splendid and hospitable mansion of the great
+king-maker, Warwick, but was now broken up into endless little tenements
+with their courts and streets, though the baronial ornaments and the
+arrangement still showed what the place had been.</p>
+<p>Entering beneath a wide archway, still bearing the sign of the Bear
+and Ragged Staff, Lucas led the way into what must have been one of
+the courts of offices, for it was surrounded with buildings and sheds
+of different heights and sizes, and had on one side a deep trough of
+stone, fed by a series of water-taps, intended for the use of the stables.&nbsp;
+The doors of one of these buildings was unlocked by Master Hansen, and
+Ambrose found himself in what had once perhaps been part of a stable,
+but had been partitioned off from the rest.&nbsp; There were two stalls,
+one serving the Dutchman for his living room, the other for his workshop.&nbsp;
+In one corner stood a white earthenware stove&mdash;so new a spectacle
+to the young forester that he supposed it to be the printing press.&nbsp;
+A table, shiny with rubbing, a wooden chair, a couple of stools, a few
+vessels, mirrors for brightness, some chests and corner cupboards, a
+bed shutting up like a box and likewise highly polished, completed the
+furniture, all arranged with the marvellous orderliness and neatness
+of the nation.&nbsp; A curtain shut off the opening to the other stall,
+where stood a machine with a huge screw, turned by leverage.&nbsp; Boxes
+of type and piles of paper surrounded it, and Ambrose stood and looked
+at it with a sort of awe-struck wonder and respect as the great fount
+of wisdom.&nbsp; Hansen showed him what his work would be, in setting
+up type, and by and by correcting after the first proof.&nbsp; The machine
+could only print four pages at a time, and for this operation the whole
+strength of the establishment was required.&nbsp; Moreover, Master Hansen
+bound, as well as printed his books.&nbsp; Ambrose was by no means daunted.&nbsp;
+As long as he might read as well as print, and while he had Sundays
+at St. Paul&rsquo;s to look to, he asked no more&mdash;except indeed
+that his gentle blood stirred at the notion of acting salesman in the
+book-stall, and Master Hansen assured him with a smile that Will Wherry,
+the other boy, would do that better than either of them, and that he
+would be entirely employed here.</p>
+<p>The methodical master insisted however on making terms with the boy&rsquo;s
+relations; and with some misgivings on Ambrose&rsquo;s part, the two&mdash;since
+business hours were almost over&mdash;walked together to the Temple
+and to the little house, where Perronel was ironing under her window.</p>
+<p>Ambrose need not have doubted.&nbsp; The Dutch blood on either side
+was stirred; and the good housewife commanded the little printer&rsquo;s
+respect as he looked round on a kitchen as tidy as if it were in his
+own country.&nbsp; And the bargain was struck that Ambrose Birkenholt
+should serve Master Hansen for his meals and two pence a week, while
+he was to sleep at the little house of Mistress Randall, who would keep
+his clothes and linen in order.</p>
+<p>And thus it was that both Ambrose and Stephen Birkenholt had found
+their vocations for the present, and both were fervent in them.&nbsp;
+Master Headley pshawed a little when he heard that Ambrose had engaged
+himself to a printer and a foreigner; and when he was told it was to
+a friend of Tibble&rsquo;s, only shook his head, saying that Tib&rsquo;s
+only fault was dabbling in matters of divinity, as if a plain man could
+not be saved without them!&nbsp; However, he respected the lad for having
+known his own mind and not hung about in idleness, and he had no opinion
+of clerks, whether monks or priests.&nbsp; Indeed, the low esteem in
+which the clergy as a class were held in London was one of the very
+evil signs of the times.&nbsp; Ambrose was invited to dine and sup at
+the Dragon court every Sunday and holiday, and he was glad to accept,
+since the hospitality was so free, and he thus was able to see his brother
+and Tibble; besides that, it prevented him from burthening Mistress
+Randall, whom he really liked, though he could not see her husband,
+either in his motley or his plain garments, without a shudder of repulsion.</p>
+<p>Ambrose found that setting up type had not much more to do with the
+study of new books than Stephen&rsquo;s turning the grindstone had with
+fighting in the lists; and the mistakes he made in spelling from right
+to left, and in confounding the letters, made him despair, and prepare
+for any amount of just indignation from his master; but he found on
+the contrary that Master Hansen had never had a pupil who made so few
+blunders on the first trial, and augured well of him from such a beginning.&nbsp;
+Paper was too costly, and pressure too difficult, for many proofs to
+be struck off, but Hansen could read and correct his type as it stood,
+and assured Ambrose that practice would soon give him the same power;
+and the correction was thus completed, when Will Wherry, a big, stout
+fellow, came in to dinner&mdash;the stall being left during that time,
+as nobody came for books during the dinner-hour, and Hansen, having
+an understanding with his next neighbour, by which they took turns to
+keep guard against thieves.</p>
+<p>The master and the two lads dined together on the contents of a cauldron,
+where pease and pork had been simmering together on the stove all the
+morning.&nbsp; Their strength was then united to work the press and
+strike off a sheet, which the master scanned, finding only one error
+in it.&nbsp; It was a portion of Lilly&rsquo;s <i>Grammar</i>, and Ambrose
+regarded it with mingled pride and delight, though he longed to go further
+into those deeper revelations for the sake of which he had come here.</p>
+<p>Master Hansen then left the youths to strike off a couple of hundred
+sheets, after which they were to wash the types and re-arrange the letters
+in the compartments in order, whilst he returned to the stall.&nbsp;
+The customers requiring his personal attention were generally late ones.&nbsp;
+When all this was accomplished, and the pot put on again in preparation
+for supper, the lads might use the short time that remained as they
+would, and Hansen himself showed Ambrose a shelf of books concealed
+by a blue curtain, whence he might read.</p>
+<p>Will Wherry showed unconcealed amazement that this should be the
+taste of his companion.&nbsp; He himself hated the whole business, and
+would never have adopted it, but that he had too many brothers for all
+to take to the water on the Thames, and their mother was too poor to
+apprentice them, and needed the small weekly pay the Dutchman gave him.&nbsp;
+He seemed a good-natured, dull fellow, whom no doubt Hansen had hired
+for the sake of the strong arms, developed by generations of oarsmen
+upon the river.&nbsp; What he specially disliked was that his master
+was a foreigner.&nbsp; The whole court swarmed with foreigners, he said,
+with the utmost disgust, as if they were noxious insects.&nbsp; They
+made provisions dear, and undersold honest men, and he wondered the
+Lord Mayor did not see to it and drive them out.&nbsp; He did not <i>so</i>
+much object to the Dutch, but the Spaniards&mdash;no words could express
+his horror of them.</p>
+<p>By and by, Ambrose going out to fetch some water from the conduit,
+found standing by it a figure entirely new to him.&nbsp; It was a young
+girl of some twelve or fourteen years old, in the round white cap worn
+by all of her age and sex; but from beneath it hung down two thick plaits
+of the darkest hair he had ever seen, and though the dress was of the
+ordinary dark serge with a coloured apron, it was put on with an air
+that made it look like some strange and beautiful costume on the slender,
+lithe, little form.&nbsp; The vermilion apron was further trimmed with
+a narrow border of white, edged again with deep blue, and it chimed
+in with the bright coral earrings and necklace.&nbsp; As Ambrose came
+forward the creature tried to throw a crimson handkerchief over her
+head, and ran into the shelter of another door, but not before Ambrose
+had seen a pair of large dark eyes so like those of a terrified fawn
+that they seemed to carry him back to the Forest.&nbsp; Going back amazed,
+he asked his companion who the girl he had seen could have been.</p>
+<p>Will stared.&nbsp; &ldquo;I trow you mean the old blackamoor sword-cutler&rsquo;s
+wench.&nbsp; He is one of those pestilent strangers.&nbsp; An &rsquo;Ebrew
+Jew who worships Mahound and is too bad for the Spanish folk themselves.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>This rather startled Ambrose, though he knew enough to see that the
+accusations could not both be true, but he forgot it in the delight,
+when Will pronounced the work done, of drawing back the curtain and
+feasting his eyes upon the black backs of the books, and the black-letter
+brochures that lay by them.&nbsp; There were scarcely thirty, yet he
+gloated on them as on an inexhaustible store, while Will, whistling
+wonder at his taste, opined that since some one was there to look after
+the stove, and the iron pot on it, he might go out and have a turn at
+ball with Hob and Martin.</p>
+<p>Ambrose was glad to be left to go over his coming feast.&nbsp; There
+was Latin, English, and, alas! baffling Dutch.&nbsp; High or Low it
+was all the same to him.&nbsp; What excited his curiosity most was the
+<i>Enchiridion Militis Christiani</i> of Erasmus&mdash;in Latin of course,
+and that he could easily read&mdash;but almost equally exciting was
+a Greek and Latin vocabulary; or again, a very thin book in which he
+recognised the New Testament in the Vulgate.&nbsp; He had heard chapters
+of it read from the graceful stone pulpit overhanging the refectory
+at Beaulieu, and, of course, the Gospels and Epistles at mass, but they
+had been read with little expression and no attention; and that Sunday&rsquo;s
+discourse had filled him with eagerness to look farther; but the mere
+reading the titles of the books was pleasure enough for the day, and
+his master was at home before he had fixed his mind on anything.&nbsp;
+Perhaps this was as well, for Lucas advised him what to begin with,
+and how to divide his studies so as to gain a knowledge of the Greek,
+his great ambition, and also to read the Scripture.</p>
+<p>The master was almost as much delighted as the scholar, and it was
+not till the curfew was beginning to sound that Ambrose could tear himself
+away.&nbsp; It was still daylight, and the door of the next dwelling
+was open.&nbsp; There, sitting on the ground cross-legged, in an attitude
+such as Ambrose had never seen, was a magnificent old man, with a huge
+long white beard, wearing, indeed, the usual dress of a Londoner of
+the lower class, but the gown flowed round him in a grand and patriarchal
+manner, corresponding with his noble, somewhat aquiline features; and
+behind him Ambrose thought he caught a glimpse of the shy fawn he had
+seen in the morning.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.&nbsp; AY DI ME GRENADA</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;In sooth it was a thing to weep<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;If
+then as now the level plain<br />Beneath was spreading like the deep,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The
+broad unruffled main.<br />If like a watch-tower of the sun<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Above,
+the Alpuxarras rose,<br />Streaked, when the dying day was done,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;With
+evening&rsquo;s roseate snows.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>When Mary Tudor, released by death from her first dreary marriage,
+contracted for her brother&rsquo;s pleasure, had appeased his wrath
+at her second marriage made to please herself, Henry VIII. was only
+too glad to mark his assent by all manner of festivities; and English
+chroniclers, instead of recording battles and politics, had only to
+write of pageantries and tournaments during the merry May of the year
+1515&mdash;a May, be it remembered, which, thanks to the old style,
+was at least ten days nearer to Midsummer than our present month.</p>
+<p>How the two queens and all their court had gone a-maying on Shooter&rsquo;s
+Hill, ladies and horses poetically disguised and labelled with sweet
+summer titles, was only a nine days&rsquo; wonder when the Birkenholts
+had come to London, but the approaching tournament at Westminster on
+the Whitsun holiday was the great excitement to the whole population,
+for, with all its faults, the Court of bluff King Hal was thoroughly
+genial, and every one, gentle and simple, might participate in his pleasures.</p>
+<p>Seats were reserved at the lists for the city dignitaries and their
+families, and though old Mistress Headley professed that she ought to
+have done with such vanities, she could not forbear from going to see
+that her son was not too much encumbered with the care of little Dennet,
+and that the child herself ran into no mischief.&nbsp; Master Headley
+himself grumbled and sighed, but he put himself into his scarlet gown,
+holding that his presence was a befitting attention to the king, glad
+to gratify his little daughter, and not without a desire to see how
+his workmanship&mdash;good English ware&mdash;held out against &ldquo;mail
+and plate of Milan steel,&rdquo; the fine armour brought home from France
+by the new Duke of Suffolk.&nbsp; Giles donned his best in the expectation
+of sitting in the places of honour as one of the family, and was greatly
+disgusted when Kit Smallbones observed, &ldquo;What&rsquo;s all that
+bravery for?&nbsp; The tilting match quotha?&nbsp; Ha! ha! my young
+springald, if thou see it at all, thou must be content to gaze as thou
+canst from the armourers&rsquo; tent, if Tibble there chooses to be
+cumbered with a useless lubber like thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I always sat with my mother when there were matches at Clarendon,&rdquo;
+muttered Giles, who had learnt at least that it was of no use to complain
+of Smallbones&rsquo; plain speaking.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If folks cocker malapert lads at Sarum we know better here,&rdquo;
+was the answer.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I shall ask the master, my kinsman,&rdquo; returned the youth.</p>
+<p>But he got little by his move.&nbsp; Master Headley told him, not
+unkindly, for he had some pity for the spoilt lad, that not the Lord
+Mayor himself would take his own son with him while yet an apprentice.&nbsp;
+Tibble Steelman would indeed go to one of the attendants&rsquo; tents
+at the further end of the lists, where repairs to armour and weapons
+might be needed, and would take an assistant or two, but who they might
+be must depend on his own choice, and if Giles had any desire to go,
+he had better don his working dress.</p>
+<p>In fact, Tibble meant to take Edmund Burgess and one workman for
+use, and one of the new apprentices for pleasure, letting them change
+in the middle of the day.&nbsp; The swagger of Giles actually forfeited
+for him the first turn, which&mdash;though he was no favourite with
+the men&mdash;would have been granted to his elder years and his relationship
+to the master; but on his overbearing demand to enter the boat which
+was to carry down a little anvil and charcoal furnace, with a few tools,
+rivets, nails, and horse-shoes, Tibble coolly returned that he needed
+no such gay birds; but if Giles chose to be ready in his leathern coat
+when Stephen Birkenholt came home at midday, mayhap he might change
+with him.</p>
+<p>Stephen went joyously in the plainest of attire, though Tibble in
+fur cap, grimy jerkin, and leathern apron was no elegant steersman;
+and Edmund, who was at the age of youthful foppery, shrugged his shoulders
+a little, and disguised the garments of the smithy with his best flat
+cap and newest mantle.</p>
+<p>They kept in the wake of the handsome barge which Master Headley
+shared with his friend and brother alderman, Master Hope the draper,
+whose young wife, in a beautiful black velvet hood and shining blue
+satin kirtle, was evidently petting Dennet to her heart&rsquo;s content,
+though the little damsel never lost an opportunity of nodding to her
+friends in the plainer barge in the rear.</p>
+<p>The Tudor tilting matches cost no lives, and seldom broke bones.&nbsp;
+They were chiefly opportunities for the display of brilliant enamelled
+and gilt armour, at the very acme of cumbrous magnificence; and of equally
+gorgeous embroidery spread out over the vast expanse provided by elephantine
+Flemish horses.&nbsp; Even if the weapons had not been purposely blunted,
+and if the champions had really desired to slay one another, they would
+have found the task very difficult, as in effect they did in the actual
+game of war.&nbsp; But the spectacle was a splendid one, and all the
+apparatus was ready in the armourers&rsquo; tent, marked by St. George
+and the Dragon.&nbsp; Tibble ensconced himself in the innermost corner
+with a &ldquo;tractate,&rdquo; borrowed from his friend Lucas, and sent
+the apprentices to gaze their fill at the rapidly filling circles of
+seats.&nbsp; They saw King Harry, resplendent in gilded armour&mdash;&ldquo;from
+their own anvil, true English steel,&rdquo; said Edmund, proudly&mdash;hand
+to her seat his sister the bride, one of the most beautiful women then
+in existence, with a lovely and delicate bloom on her fair face and
+exquisite Plantagenet features.&nbsp; No more royally handsome creatures
+could the world have offered than that brother and sister, and the English
+world appreciated them and made the lists ring with applause at the
+fair lady who had disdained foreign princes to wed her true love, an
+honest Englishman.</p>
+<p>He&mdash;the cloth of frieze&mdash;in blue Milanese armour, made
+to look as classical as possible, and with clasps and medals engraven
+from antique gems&mdash;handed in Queen Katharine, whose dark but glowing
+Spanish complexion made a striking contrast to the dazzling fairness
+of her young sister-in-law.&nbsp; Near them sat a stout burly figure
+in episcopal purple, and at his feet there was a form which nearly took
+away all Stephen&rsquo;s pleasure for the time.&nbsp; For it was in
+motley, and he could hear the bells jingle, while the hot blood rose
+in his cheeks in the dread lest Burgess should detect the connection,
+or recognise in the jester the grave personage who had come to negotiate
+with Mr. Headley for his indentures, or worse still, that the fool should
+see and claim him.</p>
+<p>However, Quipsome Hal seemed to be exchanging drolleries with the
+young dowager of France, who, sooth to say, giggled in a very unqueenly
+manner at jokes which made the grave Spanish-born queen draw up her
+stately head, and converse with a lady on her other hand&mdash;an equally
+stately lady, somewhat older, with the straight Plantagenet features,
+and by her side a handsome boy, who, though only eight or nine years
+was tonsured, and had a little scholar&rsquo;s gown.&nbsp; &ldquo;That,&rdquo;
+said Edmund, &ldquo;is my Lady Countess of Salisbury, of whom Giles
+Headley prates so much.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>A tournament, which was merely a game between gorgeously equipped
+princes and nobles, afforded little scope for adventure worthy of record,
+though it gave great diversion to the spectators.&nbsp; Stephen gazed
+like one fascinated at the gay panoply of horse and man with the huge
+plumes on the heads of both, as they rushed against one another, and
+he shared with Edmund the triumph when the lance from their armoury
+held good, the vexation if it were shivered.&nbsp; All would have been
+perfect but for the sight of his uncle, playing off his drolleries in
+a manner that gave him a sense of personal degradation.</p>
+<p>To escape from the sight almost consoled him when, in the pause after
+the first courses had been run, Tibble told him and Burgess to return,
+and send Headley and another workman with a fresh bundle of lances for
+the afternoon&rsquo;s tilting.&nbsp; Stephen further hoped to find his
+brother at the Dragon court, as it was one of those holidays that set
+every one free, and separation began to make the brothers value their
+meetings.</p>
+<p>But Ambrose was not at the Dragon court, and when Stephen went in
+quest of him to the Temple, Perronel had not seen him since the early
+morning, but she said he seemed so much bitten with the little old man&rsquo;s
+scholarship that she had small doubt that he would be found poring over
+a book in Warwick Inner Yard.</p>
+<p>Thither therefore did Stephen repair.&nbsp; The place was nearly
+deserted, for the inhabitants were mostly either artisans or that far
+too numerous race who lived on the doles of convents, on the alms of
+churchgoers, and the largesses scattered among the people on public
+occasions, and these were for the most part pursuing their vocation
+both of gazing and looking out for gain among the spectators outside
+the lists.&nbsp; The door that Stephen had been shown as that of Ambrose&rsquo;s
+master was, however, partly open, and close beside it sat in the sun
+a figure that amazed him.&nbsp; On a small mat or rug, with a black
+and yellow handkerchief over her head, and little scarlet legs crossed
+under a blue dress, all lighted up by the gay May sun, there slept the
+little dark, glowing maiden, with her head best as it leant against
+the wall, her rosy lips half open, her long black plaits on her shoulders.</p>
+<p>Stepping up to the half-open door, whence he heard a voice reading,
+his astonishment was increased.&nbsp; At the table were his brother
+and his master, Ambrose with a black book in hand, Lucas Hansen with
+some papers, and on the ground was seated a venerable, white-bearded
+old man, something between Stephen&rsquo;s notions of an apostle and
+of a magician, though the latter idea predominated at sight of a long
+parchment scroll covered with characters such as belonged to no alphabet
+that he had ever dreamt of.&nbsp; What were they doing to his brother?&nbsp;
+He was absolutely in an enchanter&rsquo;s den.&nbsp; Was it a pixy at
+the door, guarding it?&nbsp; &ldquo;Ambrose!&rdquo; he cried aloud.</p>
+<p>Everybody started.&nbsp; Ambrose sprang to his feet, exclaiming,
+&ldquo;Stephen!&rdquo;&nbsp; The pixy gave a little scream and jumped
+up, flying to the old man, who quietly rolled up his scroll.</p>
+<p>Lucas rose up as Ambrose spoke.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thy brother?&rdquo; said he.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea&mdash;come in search of me,&rdquo; said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou hadst best go forth with him,&rdquo; said Lucas.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It is not well that youth should study over long,&rdquo; said
+the old man.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thou hast aided us well, but do thou now unbend
+the bow.&nbsp; Peace be with thee, my son.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose complied, but scarcely willingly, and the instant they had
+made a few steps from the door, Stephen exclaimed in dismay, &ldquo;Who&mdash;what
+was it?&nbsp; Have they bewitched thee, Ambrose?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose laughed merrily.&nbsp; &ldquo;Not so.&nbsp; It is holy lore
+that those good men are reading.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay now, Ambrose.&nbsp; Stand still&mdash;if thou canst, poor
+fellow,&rdquo; he muttered, and then made the sign of the cross three
+times over his brother, who stood smiling, and said, &ldquo;Art satisfied
+Stevie?&nbsp; Or wilt have me rehearse my <i>Credo</i>?&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Which he did, Stephen listening critically, and drawing a long breath
+as he recognised each word, pronounced without a shudder at the critical
+points.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thou art safe so far,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;But sure he is a wizard.&nbsp; I even beheld his familiar spirit&mdash;in
+a fair shape doubtless&mdash;like a pixy!&nbsp; Be not deceived, brother.&nbsp;
+Sorcery reads backwards&mdash;and I saw him so read from that scroll
+of his.&nbsp; Laughest thou!&nbsp; Nay! what shall I do to free thee?&nbsp;
+Enter here!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen dragged his brother, still laughing, into the porch of the
+nearest church, and deluged him with holy water with such good will,
+that Ambrose, putting up his hands to shield his eyes, exclaimed, &ldquo;Come
+now, have done with this folly, Stephen&mdash;though it makes me laugh
+to think of thy scared looks, and poor little Aldonza being taken for
+a familiar spirit.&rdquo;&nbsp; And Ambrose laughed as he had not laughed
+for weeks.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But what is it, then?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The old man is of thy calling, or something like it, Stephen,
+being that he maketh and tempereth sword-blades after the prime Damascene
+or Toledo fashion, and the familiar spirit is his little daughter.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen did not however look mollified.&nbsp; &ldquo;Swordblades!&nbsp;
+None have a right to make them save our craft.&nbsp; This is one of
+the rascaille Spaniards who have poured into the city under favour of
+the queen to spoil and ruin the lawful trade.&nbsp; Though could you
+but have seen, Ambrose, how our tough English ashwood in King Harry&rsquo;s
+hand&mdash;from our own armoury too&mdash;made all go down before it,
+you would never uphold strangers and their false wares that <i>can</i>
+only get the better by sorcery.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How thou dost harp upon sorcery!&rdquo; exclaimed Ambrose.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I must tell thee the good old man&rsquo;s story as &rsquo;twas
+told to me, and then wilt thou own that he is as good a Christian as
+ourselves&mdash;ay, or better&mdash;and hath little cause to love the
+Spaniards.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Come on, then,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;Methought
+if we went towards Westminster we might yet get where we could see the
+lists.&nbsp; Such a rare show, Ambrose, to see the King in English armour,
+ay, and Master Headley&rsquo;s, every inch of it, glittering in the
+sun, so that one could scarce brook the dazzling, on his horse like
+a rock shattering all that came against him!&nbsp; I warrant you the
+lances cracked and shivered like faggots under old Purkis&rsquo;s bill-hook.&nbsp;
+And that you should liefer pore over crabbed monkish stuff with yonder
+old men!&nbsp; My life on it, there must be some spell!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No more than of old, when I was ever for book and thou for
+bow,&rdquo; said Ambrose; &ldquo;but I&rsquo;ll make thee rueful for
+old Michael yet.&nbsp; Hast heard tell of the Moors in Spain?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Moors&mdash;blackamoors who worship Mahound and Termagant.&nbsp;
+I saw a blackamoor last week behind his master, a merchant of Genoa,
+in Paul&rsquo;s Walk.&nbsp; He looked like the devils in the Miracle
+Play at Christ Church, with blubber lips and wool for hair.&nbsp; I
+marvelled that he did not writhe and flee when he came within the Minster,
+but Ned Burgess said he was a christened man.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Moors be not all black, neither be they all worshippers of
+Mahound,&rdquo; replied Ambrose.</p>
+<p>However, as Ambrose&rsquo;s information, though a few degrees more
+correct and intelligent than his brother&rsquo;s, was not complete,
+it will be better not to give the history of Lucas&rsquo;s strange visitors
+in his words.</p>
+<p>They belonged to the race of Saracen Arabs who had brought the arts
+of life to such perfection in Southern Spain, but who had received the
+general appellation of Moors from those Africans who were continually
+reinforcing them, and, bringing a certain Puritan strictness of Mohammedanism
+with them, had done much towards destroying the highest cultivation
+among them before the Spanish kingdoms became united, and finally triumphed
+over them.&nbsp; During the long interval of two centuries, while Castille
+was occupied by internal wars, and Aragon by Italian conquests, there
+had been little aggression on the Moorish borderland, and a good deal
+of friendly intercourse both in the way of traffic and of courtesy,
+nor had the bitter persecution and distrust of new converts then set
+in, which followed the entire conquest of Granada.&nbsp; Thus, when
+Ronda was one of the first Moorish cities to surrender, a great merchant
+of the unrivalled sword-blades whose secret had been brought from Damascus,
+had, with all his family, been accepted gladly when he declared himself
+ready to submit and receive baptism.&nbsp; Miguel Abenali was one of
+the sons, and though his conversion had at first been mere compliance
+with his father&rsquo;s will and the family interests, he had become
+sufficiently convinced of Christian truth not to take part with his
+own people in the final struggle.&nbsp; Still, however, the inbred abhorrence
+of idolatry had influenced his manner of worship, and when, after half
+a life-time, Granada had fallen, and the Inquisition had begun to take
+cognisance of new Christians from among the Moors as well as the Jews,
+there were not lacking spies to report the absence of all sacred images
+or symbols from the house of the wealthy merchant, and that neither
+he nor any of his family had been seen kneeling before the shrine of
+Nuestra Se&ntilde;ora.&nbsp; The sons of Abenali did indeed feel strongly
+the power of the national reaction, and revolted from the religion which
+they saw cruelly enforced on their conquered countrymen.&nbsp; The Moor
+had been viewed as a gallant enemy, the Morisco was only a being to
+be distrusted and persecuted; and the efforts of the good Bishop of
+Granada, who had caused the Psalms, Gospels, and large portions of the
+Breviary to be translated into Arabic, were frustrated by the zeal of
+those who imagined that heresy lurked in the vernacular, and perhaps
+that objections to popular practices might be strengthened.</p>
+<p>By order of Cardinal Ximenes, these Arabic versions were taken away
+and burnt; but Miguel Abenali had secured his own copy, and it was what
+he there learnt that withheld him from flying to his countrymen and
+resuming their faith when he found that the Christianity he had professed
+for forty years was no longer a protection to him.&nbsp; Having known
+the true Christ in the Gospel, he could not turn back to Mohammed, even
+though Christians persecuted in the Name they so little understood.</p>
+<p>The crisis came in 1507, when Ximenes, apparently impelled by the
+dread that simulated conformity should corrupt the Church, quickened
+the persecution of the doubtful &ldquo;Nuevos Cristianos,&rdquo; and
+the Abenali family, who had made themselves loved and respected, received
+warning that they had been denounced, and that their only hope lay in
+flight.</p>
+<p>The two sons, high-spirited young men, on whom religion had far less
+hold than national feeling, fled to the Alpuxarra Mountains, and renouncing
+the faith of the persecutors, joined their countrymen in their gallant
+and desperate warfare.&nbsp; Their mother, who had long been dead, had
+never been more than an outward Christian; but the second wife of Abenali
+shared his belief and devotion with the intelligence and force of character
+sometimes found among the Moorish ladies of Spain.&nbsp; She and her
+little ones fled with him in disguise to Cadiz, with the precious Arabic
+Scriptures rolled round their waists, and took shelter with an English
+merchant, who had had dealings in sword-blades with Se&ntilde;or Miguel,
+and had been entertained by him in his beautiful Saracenic house at
+Ronda with Eastern hospitality.&nbsp; This he requited by giving them
+the opportunity of sailing for England in a vessel laden with Xeres
+sack; but the misery of the voyage across the Bay of Biscay in a ship
+fit for nothing but wine, was excessive, and creatures reared in the
+lovely climate and refined luxury of the land of the palm and orange,
+exhausted too already by the toils of the mountain journey, were incapable
+of enduring it, and Abenali&rsquo;s brave wife and one of her children
+were left beneath the waves of the Atlantic.&nbsp; With the one little
+girl left to him, he arrived in London, and the recommendation of his
+Cadiz friend obtained for him work from a dealer in foreign weapons,
+who was not unwilling to procure them nearer home.&nbsp; Happily for
+him, Moorish masters, however rich, were always required to be proficients
+in their own trade; and thus Miguel, or Michael as he was known in England,
+was able to maintain himself and his child by the fabrication of blades
+that no one could distinguish from those of Damascus.&nbsp; Their perfection
+was a work of infinite skill, labour, and industry, but they were so
+costly, that their price, and an occasional job of inlaying gold in
+other metal, sufficed to maintain the old man and his little daughter.&nbsp;
+The armourers themselves were sometimes forced to have recourse to him,
+though unwillingly, for he was looked on with distrust and dislike as
+an interloper of foreign birth, belonging to no guild.&nbsp; A Biscayan
+or Castillian of the oldest Christian blood incurred exactly the same
+obloquy from the mass of London craftsmen and apprentices, and Lucas
+himself had small measure of favour, though Dutchmen were less alien
+to the English mind than Spaniards, and his trade did not lead to so
+much rivalry and competition.</p>
+<p>As much of this as Ambrose knew or understood he told to Stephen,
+who listened in a good deal of bewilderment, understanding very little,
+but with a strong instinct that his brother&rsquo;s love of learning
+was leading him into dangerous company.&nbsp; And what were they doing
+on this fine May holiday, when every one ought to be out enjoying themselves?</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, if thou wilt know,&rdquo; said Ambrose, pushed hard,
+&ldquo;there is one Master William Tindal, who hath been doing part
+of the blessed Evangel into English, and for better certainty of its
+correctness, Master Michael was comparing it with his Arabic version,
+while I overlooked the Latin.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;O Ambrose, thou wilt surely run into trouble.&nbsp; Know you
+not how nurse Joan used to tell us of the burning of the Lollard books?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, nay, Stevie, this is no heresy.&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis such
+work as the great scholar, Master Erasmus, is busied on&mdash;ay, and
+he is loved and honoured by both the Archbishops and the King&rsquo;s
+grace!&nbsp; Ask Tibble Steelman what he thinks thereof.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Tibble Steelman would think nought of a beggarly stranger
+calling himself a sword cutler, and practising the craft without prenticeship
+or license,&rdquo; said Stephen, swelling with indignation.&nbsp; &ldquo;Come
+on, Ambrose, and sweep the cobwebs from thy brain.&nbsp; If we cannot
+get into our own tent again, we can mingle with the outskirts, and learn
+how the day is going, and how our lances and breastplates have stood
+where the knaves&rsquo; at the Eagle have gone like reeds and egg-shells&mdash;just
+as I threw George Bates, the prentice at the Eagle yesterday, in a wrestling
+match at the butts with the trick old Diggory taught me.&rdquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII.&nbsp; A KING IN A QUAGMIRE</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;For my pastance<br />Hunt, sing, and dance,<br />My
+heart is set<br />All godly sport<br />To my comfort.<br />Who shall
+me let?</p>
+<p>THE KING&rsquo;S BALADE, <i>attributed to Henry VIII.</i></p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>Life was a rough, hearty thing in the early sixteenth century, strangely
+divided between thought and folly, hardship and splendour, misery and
+merriment, toil and sport.</p>
+<p>The youths in the armourer&rsquo;s household had experienced little
+of this as yet in their country life, but in London they could not but
+soon begin to taste both sides of the matter.&nbsp; Master Headley himself
+was a good deal taken up with city affairs, and left the details of
+his business to Tibble Steelman and Kit Smallbones, though he might
+always appear on the scene, and he had a wonderful knowledge of what
+was going on.</p>
+<p>The breaking-in and training of the two new country lads was entirely
+left to them and to Edmund Burgess.&nbsp; Giles soon found that complaints
+were of no avail, and only made matters harder for him, and that Tibble
+Steelman and Kit Smallbones had no notion of favouring their master&rsquo;s
+cousin.</p>
+<p>Poor fellow, he was very miserable in those first weeks.&nbsp; The
+actual toil, to which he was an absolute novice, though nominally three
+years an apprentice, made his hands raw, and his joints full of aches,
+while his groans met with nothing but laughter; and he recognised with
+great displeasure, that more was laid on him than on Stephen Birkenholt.&nbsp;
+This was partly in consideration of Stephen&rsquo;s youth, partly of
+his ready zeal and cheerfulness.&nbsp; His hands might be sore too,
+but he was rather proud of it than otherwise, and his hero worship of
+Kit Smallbones made him run on errands, tug at the bellows staff, or
+fetch whatever was called for with a bright alacrity that won the foremen&rsquo;s
+hearts, and it was noted that he who was really a gentleman, had none
+of the airs that Giles Headley showed.</p>
+<p>Giles began by some amount of bullying, by way of slaking his wrath
+at the preference shown for one whom he continued to style a beggarly
+brat picked up on the heath; but Stephen was good-humoured, and accustomed
+to give and take, and they both found their level, as well in the Dragon
+court as among the world outside, where the London prentices were a
+strong and redoubtable body, with rude, not to say cruel, rites of initiation
+among themselves, plenty of rivalries and enmities between house and
+house, guild and guild, but a united, not to say ferocious, <i>esprit
+de corps</i> against every one else.&nbsp; Fisticuffs and wrestlings
+were the amenities that passed between them, though always with a love
+of fair play so long as no cowardice, or what was looked on as such,
+was shown, for there was no mercy for the weak or weakly.&nbsp; Such
+had better betake themselves at once to the cloister, or life was made
+intolerable by constant jeers, blows, baiting and huntings, often, it
+must be owned, absolutely brutal.</p>
+<p>Stephen and Giles had however passed through this ordeal.&nbsp; The
+letter to John Birkenholt had been despatched by a trusty clerk riding
+with the Judges of Assize, whom Mistress Perronel knew might be safely
+trusted, and who actually brought back a letter which might have emanated
+from the most affectionate of brothers, giving his authority for the
+binding Stephen apprentice to the worshipful Master Giles Headley, and
+sending the remainder of the boy&rsquo;s portion.</p>
+<p>Stephen was thereupon regularly bound apprentice to Master Headley.&nbsp;
+It was a solemn affair, which took place in the Armourer&rsquo;s Hall
+in Coleman Street, before sundry witnesses.&nbsp; Harry Randall, in
+his soberest garb and demeanour, acted as guardian to his nephew, and
+presented him, clad in the regulation prentice garb&mdash;&ldquo;flat
+round cap, close-cut hair, narrow falling bands, coarse side coat, close
+hose, cloth stockings,&rdquo; coat with the badge of the Armourers&rsquo;
+Company, and Master Headley&rsquo;s own dragon&rsquo;s tail on the sleeve,
+to which was added a blue cloak marked in like manner.&nbsp; The instructions
+to apprentices were rehearsed, beginning, &ldquo;Ye shall constantly
+and devoutly on your knees every day serve God, morning and evening&rdquo;&mdash;pledging
+him to &ldquo;avoid evil company, to make speedy return when sent on
+his master&rsquo;s business, to be fair, gentle and lowly in speech
+and carriage with all men,&rdquo; and the like.</p>
+<p>Mutual promises were interchanged between him and his master, Stephen
+on his knees; the indentures were signed, for Quipsome Hal could with
+much ado produce an autograph signature, though his penmanship went
+no further, and the occasion was celebrated by a great dinner of the
+whole craft at the Armourers&rsquo; Hall, to which the principal craftsmen
+who had been apprentices, such as Tibble Steelman and Kit Smallbones,
+were invited, sitting at a lower table, while the masters had the higher
+one on the da&iuml;s, and a third was reserved for the apprentices after
+they should have waited on their masters&mdash;in fact it was an imitation
+of the orders of chivalry, knights, squires, and pages, and the gradation
+of rank was as strictly observed as by the nobility.&nbsp; Giles, considering
+the feast to be entirely in his honour, though the transfer of his indentures
+had been made at Salisbury, endeavoured to come out in some of his bravery,
+but was admonished that such presumption might be punished, the first
+time, at his master&rsquo;s discretion, the second time, by a whipping
+at the Hall of his Company, and the third time by six months being added
+to the term of his apprenticeship.</p>
+<p>Master Randall was entertained in the place of honour, where he comported
+himself with great gravity, though he could not resist alarming Stephen
+with an occasional wink or gesture as the boy approached in the course
+of the duties of waiting at the upper board&mdash;a splendid sight with
+cups and flagons of gold and silver, with venison and capons and all
+that a City banquet could command before the invention of the turtle.</p>
+<p>There was drinking of toasts, and among the foremost was that of
+Wolsey, who had freshly received his nomination of cardinal, and whose
+hat was on its way from Rome&mdash;and here the jester could not help
+betraying his knowledge of the domestic policy of the household, and
+telling the company how it had become known that the scarlet hat was
+actually on the way, but in a &ldquo;varlet&rsquo;s budget&mdash;a mere
+Italian common knave, no better than myself,&rdquo; quoth Quipsome Hal,
+whereat his nephew trembled standing behind his chair, forgetting that
+the decorous solid man in the sad-coloured gown and well-crimped ruff,
+neatest of Perronel&rsquo;s performances, was no such base comparison
+for any varlet.&nbsp; Hal went on to describe, however, how my Lord
+of York had instantly sent to stay the messenger on his handing at Dover,
+and equip him with all manner of costly silks by way of apparel, and
+with attendants, such as might do justice to his freight, &ldquo;that
+so,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;men may not rate it but as a scarlet cock&rsquo;s
+comb, since all men be but fools, and the sole question is, who among
+them hath wit enough to live by his folly.&rdquo;&nbsp; Therewith he
+gave a wink that so disconcerted Stephen as nearly to cause an upset
+of the bowl of perfumed water that he was bringing for the washing of
+hands.</p>
+<p>Master Headley, however, suspected nothing, and invited the grave
+Master Randall to attend the domestic festival on the presentation of
+poor Spring&rsquo;s effigy at the shrine of St. Julian.&nbsp; This was
+to take place early in the morning of the 14th of September, Holy Cross
+Day, the last holiday in the year that had any of the glory of summer
+about it, and on which the apprentices claimed a prescriptive right
+to go out nutting in St. John&rsquo;s Wood, and to carry home their
+spoil to the lasses of their acquaintance.</p>
+<p>Tibble Steelman had completed the figure in bronze, with a silver
+collar and chain, not quite without protest that the sum had better
+have been bestowed in alms.&nbsp; But from his master&rsquo;s point
+of view this would have been giving to a pack of lying beggars and thieves
+what was due to the holy saint; no one save Tibble, who could do and
+say what he chose, could have ventured on a word of remonstrance on
+such a subject; and as the full tide of iconoclasm, consequent on the
+discovery of the original wording of the second commandment, had not
+yet set in, Tibble had no more conscientious scruple against making
+the figure, than in moulding a little straight-tailed lion for Lord
+Harry Percy&rsquo;s helmet.</p>
+<p>So the party in early morning heard their mass, and then, repairing
+to St. Julian&rsquo;s pillar, while the rising sun came peeping through
+the low eastern window of the vaulted Church of St. Faith, Master Headley
+on his knees gave thanks for his preservation, and then put forward
+his little daughter, holding on her joined hands the figure of poor
+Spring, couchant, and beautifully modelled in bronze with all Tibble&rsquo;s
+best skill.</p>
+<p>Hal Randall and Ambrose had both come up from the little home where
+Perronel presided, for the hour was too early for the jester&rsquo;s
+absence to be remarked in the luxurious household of the Cardinal elect,
+and he even came to break his fast afterwards at the Dragon court, and
+held such interesting discourse with old Dame Headley on the farthingales
+and coifs of Queen Katharine and her ladies, that she pronounced him
+a man wondrous wise and understanding, and declared Stephen happy in
+the possession of such a kinsman.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And whither away now, youngsters?&rdquo; he said, as he rose
+from table.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;To St. John&rsquo;s Wood!&nbsp; The good greenwood, uncle,&rdquo;
+said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou too, Ambrose?&rdquo; said Stephen joyfully.&nbsp; &ldquo;For
+once away from thine ink and thy books!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;mine heart warms to the woodlands
+once more.&nbsp; Uncle, would that thou couldst come.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Would that I could, boy!&nbsp; We three would show these lads
+of Cockayne what three foresters know of wood craft!&nbsp; But it may
+not be.&nbsp; Were I once there the old blood might stir again and I
+might bring you into trouble, and ye have not two faces under one hood
+as I have!&nbsp; So fare ye well, I wish you many a bagful of nuts!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The four months of city life, albeit the City was little bigger than
+our moderate sized country towns, and far from being an unbroken mass
+of houses, had yet made the two young foresters delighted to enjoy a
+day of thorough country in one another&rsquo;s society.&nbsp; Little
+Dennet longed to go with them, but the prentice world was far too rude
+for little maidens to be trusted in it, and her father held out hopes
+of going one of these days to High Park as he called it, while Edmund
+and Stephen promised her all their nuts, and as many blackberries as
+could be held in their flat caps.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Giles has promised me none,&rdquo; said Dennet, with a pouting
+lip, &ldquo;nor Ambrose.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Why sure, little mistress, thou&rsquo;lt have enough to crack
+thy teeth on!&rdquo; said Edmund Burgess.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;They <i>ought</i> to bring theirs to me,&rdquo; returned the
+little heiress of the Dragon court with an air of offended dignity that
+might have suited the heiress of the kingdom.</p>
+<p>Giles, who looked on Dennet as a kind of needful appendage to the
+Dragon, a piece of property of his own, about whom he need take no trouble,
+merely laughed and said, &ldquo;Want must be thy master then.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+But Ambrose treated her petulance in another fashion.&nbsp; &ldquo;Look
+here, pretty mistress,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;there dwells by me a poor
+little maid nigh about thine age, who never goeth further out than to
+St. Paul&rsquo;s minster, nor plucketh flower, nor hath sweet cake,
+nor manchet bread, nor sugar-stick, nay, and scarce ever saw English
+hazel-nut nor blackberry.&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis for her that I want to gather
+them.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is she thy master&rsquo;s daughter?&rdquo; demanded Dennet,
+who could admit the claims of another princess.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, my master hath no children, but she dwelleth near him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I will send her some, and likewise of mine own comfits and
+cakes,&rdquo; said Mistress Dennet.&nbsp; &ldquo;Only thou must bring
+all to me first.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose laughed and said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bargain then, little
+mistress?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I keep my word,&rdquo; returned Dennet marching away, while
+Ambrose obeyed a summons from good-natured Mistress Headley to have
+his wallet filled with bread and cheese like those of her own prentices.</p>
+<p>Off went the lads under the guidance of Edmund Burgess, meeting parties
+of their own kind at every turn, soon leaving behind them the City bounds,
+as they passed under New Gate, and by and by skirting the fields of
+the great Carthusian monastery, or Charter House, with the burial-ground
+given by Sir Walter Manny at the time of the Black Death.&nbsp; Beyond
+came marshy ground through which they had to pick their way carefully,
+over stepping-stones&mdash;this being no other than what is now the
+Regent&rsquo;s Park, not yet in any degree drained by the New River,
+but all quaking ground, overgrown with rough grass and marsh-plants,
+through which Stephen and Ambrose bounded by the help of stout poles
+with feet and eyes well used to bogs, and knowing where to look for
+a safe footing, while many a flat-capped London lad floundered about
+and sank over his yellow ankles or left his shoes behind him, while
+lapwings shrieked pee-wheet, and almost flapped him with their broad
+wings, and moorhens dived in the dark pools, and wild ducks rose in
+long families.</p>
+<p>Stephen was able to turn the laugh against his chief adversary and
+rival, George Bates of the Eagle, who proposed seeking for the lapwing&rsquo;s
+nest in hopes of a dainty dish of plovers&rsquo; eggs; being too great
+a cockney to remember that in September the contents of the eggs were
+probably flying over the heather, as well able to shift for themselves
+as their parents.</p>
+<p>Above all things the London prentices were pugnacious, but as every
+one joined in the laugh against George, and he was, besides, stuck fast
+on a quaking tussock of grass, afraid to proceed or advance, he could
+not have his revenge.&nbsp; And when the slough was passed, and the
+slight rise leading to the copse of St. John&rsquo;s Wood was attained,
+behold, it was found to be in possession of the lower sort of lads,
+the black guard as they were called.&nbsp; They were of course quite
+as ready to fight with the prentices as the prentices were with them,
+and a battle royal took place, all along the front of the hazel bushes&mdash;in
+which Stephen of the Dragon and George of the Eagle fought side by side.&nbsp;
+Sticks and fists were the weapons, and there were no very severe casualties
+before the prentices, being the larger number as well as the stouter
+and better fed, had routed their adversaries, and driven them off towards
+Harrow.</p>
+<p>There was crackling of boughs and filling of bags, and cracking of
+nuts, and wild cries in pursuit of startled hare or rabbit, and though
+Ambrose and Stephen indignantly repelled the idea of St. John&rsquo;s
+Wood being named in the same day with their native forest, it is doubtful
+whether they had ever enjoyed themselves more; until just as they were
+about to turn homeward, whether moved by his hostility to Stephen, or
+by envy at the capful of juicy blackberries, carefully covered with
+green leaves, George Bates, rushing up from behind, shouted out &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s
+a skulker!&nbsp; Here&rsquo;s one of the black guard!&nbsp; Off to thy
+fellows, varlet!&rdquo; at the same time dealing a dexterous blow under
+the cap, which sent the blackberries up into Ambrose&rsquo;s face.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Ha! ha!&rdquo; shouted the ill-conditioned fellow.&nbsp; &ldquo;So
+much for a knave that serves rascally strangers!&nbsp; Here! hand over
+that bag of nuts!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose was no fighter, but in defence of the bag that was to purchase
+a treat for little Aldonza, he clenched his fists, and bade George Bates
+come and take them if he would.&nbsp; The quiet scholarly boy was, however,
+no match for the young armourer, and made but poor reply to the buffets
+of his adversary, who had hold of the bag, and was nearly choking him
+with the string round his neck.</p>
+<p>However, Stephen had already missed his brother, and turning round,
+shouted out that the villain Bates was mauling him, and rushed back,
+falling on Ambrose&rsquo;s assailant with a sudden well-directed pounding
+that made him hastily turn about, with cries of &ldquo;Two against one!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not at all,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;Stand by, Ambrose;
+I&rsquo;ll give the coward his deserts.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In fact, though the boys were nearly of a size, George somewhat the
+biggest, Stephen&rsquo;s country activity, and perhaps the higher spirit
+of his gentle blood, generally gave him the advantage, and on this occasion
+he soon reduced Bates to roar for mercy.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou must purchase it!&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thy
+bag of nuts, in return for the berries thou hast wasted!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Peaceable Ambrose would have remonstrated, but Stephen was implacable.&nbsp;
+He cut the string, and captured the bag, then with a parting kick bade
+Bates go after his comrades, for his Eagle was nought but a thieving
+kite.</p>
+<p>Bates made off pretty quickly, but the two brothers tarried a little
+to see how much damage the blackberries had suffered, and to repair
+the losses as they descended into the bog by gathering some choice dewberries.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I marvel these fine fellows &rsquo;scaped our company,&rdquo;
+said Stephen presently.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Are we in the right track, thinkst thou?&nbsp; Here is a pool
+I marked not before,&rdquo; said Ambrose anxiously.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, we can&rsquo;t be far astray while we see St. Paul&rsquo;s
+spire and the Tower full before us,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;Plainer
+marks than we had at home.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That may be.&nbsp; Only where is the safe footing?&rdquo;
+said Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;I wish we had not lost sight of the others!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Pish! what good are a pack of City lubbers!&rdquo; returned
+Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t we know a quagmire when we see one,
+better than they do?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hark, they are shouting for us.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not they!&nbsp; That&rsquo;s a falconer&rsquo;s call.&nbsp;
+There&rsquo;s another whistle!&nbsp; See, there&rsquo;s the hawk.&nbsp;
+She&rsquo;s going down the wind, as I&rsquo;m alive,&rdquo; and Stephen
+began to bound wildly along, making all the sounds and calls by which
+falcons were recalled, and holding up as a lure a lapwing which he had
+knocked down.&nbsp; Ambrose, by no means so confident in bog-trotting
+as his brother, stood still to await him, hearing the calls and shouts
+of the falconer coming nearer, and presently seeing a figure, flying
+by the help of a pole over the pools and dykes that here made some attempt
+at draining the waste.&nbsp; Suddenly, in mid career over one of these
+broad ditches, there was a collapse, and a lusty shout for help as the
+form disappeared.&nbsp; Ambrose instantly perceived what had happened,
+the leaping pole had broken to the downfall of its owner.&nbsp; Forgetting
+all his doubts as to bogholes and morasses, he grasped his own pole,
+and sprang from tussock to tussock, till he had reached the bank of
+the ditch or water-course in which the unfortunate sportsman was floundering.&nbsp;
+He was a large, powerful man, but this was of no avail, for the slough
+afforded no foothold.&nbsp; The further side was a steep built up of
+sods, the nearer sloped down gradually, and though it was not apparently
+very deep, the efforts of the victim to struggle out had done nothing
+but churn up a mass of black muddy water in which he sank deeper every
+moment, and it was already nearly to his shoulders when with a cry of
+joy, half choked however, by the mud, he cried, &ldquo;Ha! my good lad!&nbsp;
+Are there any more of ye?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not nigh, I fear,&rdquo; said Ambrose, beholding with some
+dismay the breadth of the shoulders which were all that appeared above
+the turbid water.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Soh!&nbsp; Lie down, boy, behind that bunch of osier.&nbsp;
+Hold out thy pole.&nbsp; Let me see thine hands.&nbsp; Thou art but
+a straw, but, our Lady be my speed!&nbsp; Now hangs England on a pair
+of wrists!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>There was a great struggle, an absolute effort for life, and but
+for the osier stump Ambrose would certainly have been dragged into the
+water, when the man had worked along the pole, and grasping his hands,
+pulled himself upwards.&nbsp; Happily the sides of the dyke became harder
+higher up, and did not instantly yield to the pressure of his knees,
+and by the time Ambrose&rsquo;s hands and shoulders felt nearly wrenched
+from their sockets, the stem of the osier had been attained, and in
+another minute, the rescued man, bareheaded, plastered with mud, and
+streaming with water, sat by him on the bank, panting, gasping, and
+trying to gather breath and clear his throat from the mud he had swallowed.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thanks, good lad, well done,&rdquo; he articulated.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Those fellows! where are they?&rdquo;&nbsp; And feeling in his
+bosom, he brought out a gold whistle suspended by a chain.&nbsp; &ldquo;Blow
+it,&rdquo; he said, taking off the chain, &ldquo;my mouth is too full
+of slime.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose blew a loud shrill call, but it seemed to reach no one but
+Stephen, whom he presently saw dashing towards them.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Here is my brother coming, sir,&rdquo; he said, as he gave
+his endeavours to help the stranger to free himself from the mud that
+clung to him, and which was in some places thick enough to be scraped
+off with a knife.&nbsp; He kept up a continual interchange of exclamations
+at his plight, whistles and shouts for his people, and imprecations
+on their tardiness, until Stephen was near enough to show that the hawk
+had been recovered, and then he joyfully called out, &ldquo;Ha! hast
+thou got her?&nbsp; Why, flat-caps as ye are, ye put all my fellows
+to shame!&nbsp; How now, thou errant bird, dost know thy master, or
+take him for a mud wall?&nbsp; Kite that thou art, to have led me such
+a dance!&nbsp; And what&rsquo;s your name, my brave lads?&nbsp; Ye must
+have been bred to wood-craft.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose explained both their parentage and their present occupation,
+but was apparently heeded but little.&nbsp; &ldquo;Wot ye how to get
+out of this quagmire?&rdquo; was the question.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I never was here before, sir,&rdquo; said Stephen; &ldquo;but
+yonder lies the Tower, and if we keep along by this dyke, it must lead
+us out somewhere.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well said, boy, I must be moving, or the mud will dry on me,
+and I shall stand here as though I were turned to stone by the Gorgon&rsquo;s
+head!&nbsp; So have with thee!&nbsp; Go on first, master hawk-tamer.&nbsp;
+What will bear thee will bear me!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>There was an imperative tone about him that surprised the brothers,
+and Ambrose looking at him from head to foot, felt sure that it was
+some great man at the least, whom it had been his hap to rescue.&nbsp;
+Indeed, he began to have further suspicions when they came to a pool
+of clearer water, beyond which was firmer ground, and the stranger with
+an exclamation of joy, borrowed Stephen&rsquo;s cap, and, scooping up
+the water with it, washed his face and head, disclosing the golden hair
+and beard, fair complexion, and handsome square face he had seen more
+than once before.</p>
+<p>He whispered to Stephen &ldquo;&rsquo;Tis the King!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ha! ha!&rdquo; laughed Henry, &ldquo;hast found him out, lads?&nbsp;
+Well, it may not be the worse for ye.&nbsp; Pity thou shouldst not be
+in the Forest still, my young falconer, but we know our good city of
+London to well to break thy indentures.&nbsp; And thou&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He was turning to Ambrose when further shouts were heard.&nbsp; The
+King hallooed, and bade the boys do so, and in a few moments more they
+were surrounded by the rest of the hawking party, full of dismay at
+the king&rsquo;s condition, and deprecating his anger for having lost
+him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea,&rdquo; said Henry; &ldquo;an it had not been for this
+good lad, ye would never have heard more of the majesty of England!&nbsp;
+Swallowed in a quagmire had made a new end for a king, and ye would
+have to brook the little Scot.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The gentlemen who had come up were profuse in lamentations.&nbsp;
+A horse was brought up for the king&rsquo;s use, and he prepared to
+mount, being in haste to get into dry clothes.&nbsp; He turned round,
+however, to the boys, and said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll not forget you, my
+lads.&nbsp; Keep that!&rdquo; he added, as Ambrose, on his knee, would
+have given him back the whistle, &ldquo;&rsquo;tis a token that maybe
+will serve thee, for I shall know it again.&nbsp; And thou, my black-eyed
+lad&mdash;My purse, Howard!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He handed the purse to Stephen&mdash;a velvet hag richly wrought
+with gold, and containing ten gold angels, besides smaller money&mdash;bidding
+them divide, like good brothers as he saw they were, and then galloped
+off with his train.</p>
+<p>Twilight was coming on, but following in the direction of the riders,
+the boys were soon on the Islington road.&nbsp; The New Gate was shut
+by the time they reached it, and their explanation that they were belated
+after a nutting expedition would not have served them, had not Stephen
+produced the sum of twopence which softened the surliness of the guard.</p>
+<p>It was already dark, and though curfew had not yet sounded, preparations
+were making for lighting the watch-fires in the open spaces and throwing
+chains across the streets, but the little door in the Dragon court was
+open, and Ambrose went in with his brother to deliver up his nuts to
+Dennet and claim her promise of sending a share to Aldonza.</p>
+<p>They found their uncle in his sober array sitting by Master Headley,
+who was rating Edmund and Giles for having lost sight of them, the latter
+excusing himself by grumbling out that he could not be marking all Stephen&rsquo;s
+brawls with George Bates.</p>
+<p>When the two wanderers appeared, relief took the form of anger, and
+there were sharp demands why they had loitered.&nbsp; Their story was
+listened to with many exclamations: Dennet jumped for joy, her grandmother
+advised that the angels should be consigned to her own safe keeping,
+and when Master Headley heard of Henry&rsquo;s scruples about the indentures,
+he declared that it was a rare wise king who knew that an honest craft
+was better than court favour.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yet mayhap he might do something for thee, friend Ambrose,&rdquo;
+added the armourer.&nbsp; &ldquo;Commend thee to some post in his chapel
+royal, or put thee into some college, since such is thy turn.&nbsp;
+How sayst thou, Master Randall, shall he send in this same token, and
+make his petition?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If a foo&mdash;if a plain man may be heard where the wise
+hath spoken,&rdquo; said Randall, &ldquo;he had best abstain.&nbsp;
+Kings love not to be minded of mishaps, and our Hal&rsquo;s humour is
+not to be reckoned on!&nbsp; Lay up the toy in case of need, but an
+thou claim overmuch he may mind thee in a fashion not to thy taste.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sure our King is of a more generous mould!&rdquo; exclaimed
+Mrs. Headley.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He is like other men, good mistress, just as you know how
+to have him, and he is scarce like to be willing to be minded of the
+taste of mire, or of floundering like a hog in a salt marsh.&nbsp; Ha!
+ha!&rdquo; and Quipsome Hal went off into such a laugh as might have
+betrayed his identity to any one more accustomed to the grimaces of
+his professional character, but which only infected the others with
+the same contagious merriment.&nbsp; &ldquo;Come thou home now,&rdquo;
+he said to Ambrose; &ldquo;my good woman hath been in a mortal fright
+about thee, and would have me come out to seek after thee.&nbsp; Such
+are the women folk, Master Headley.&nbsp; Let them have but a lad to
+look after, and they&rsquo;ll bleat after him like an old ewe that has
+lost her lamb.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose only stayed for Dennet to divide the spoil, and though the
+blackberries had all been lost or crushed, the little maiden kept her
+promise generously, and filled the bag not only with nuts but with three
+red-checked apples, and a handful of comfits, for the poor little maid
+who never tasted fruit or sweets.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII.&nbsp; A LONDON HOLIDAY</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;Up then spoke the apprentices tall<br />Living in London,
+one and all.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><i>Old Ballad.</i></p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>Another of the many holidays of the Londoners was enjoyed on the
+occasion of the installation of Thomas Wolsey as Cardinal of St. Cecilia,
+and Papal Legate.</p>
+<p>A whole assembly of prelates and &ldquo;lusty gallant gentlemen&rdquo;
+rode out to Blackheath to meet the Roman envoy, who, robed in full splendour,
+with St. Peter&rsquo;s keys embroidered on back and breast and on the
+housings of his mule, appeared at the head of a gallant train in the
+papal liveries, two of whom carried the gilded pillars, the insignia
+of office, and two more, a scarlet and gold-covered box or casket containing
+the Cardinal&rsquo;s hat.&nbsp; Probably no such reception of the dignity
+was ever prepared elsewhere, and all was calculated to give magnificent
+ideas of the office of Cardinal and of the power of the Pope to those
+who had not been let into the secret that the messenger had been met
+at Dover; and thus magnificently fitted out to satisfy the requirements
+of the butcher&rsquo;s son of Ipswich, and of one of the most ostentatious
+of courts.</p>
+<p>Old Gaffer Martin Fulford had muttered in his bed that such pomp
+had not been the way in the time of the true old royal blood, and that
+display had come in with the upstart slips of the Red Rose&mdash;as
+he still chose to style the Tudors; and he maundered away about the
+beauty and affability of Edward IV. till nobody could understand him,
+and Perronel only threw in her &ldquo;ay, grandad,&rdquo; or &ldquo;yea,
+gaffer,&rdquo; when she thought it was expected of her.</p>
+<p>Ambrose had an unfailing appetite for the sermons of Dean Colet,
+who was to preach on this occasion in Westminster Abbey, and his uncle
+had given him counsel how to obtain standing ground there, entering
+before the procession.&nbsp; He was alone, his friends Tibble and Lucas
+both had that part of the Lollard temper which loathed the pride and
+wealth of the great political clergy, and in spite of their admiration
+for the Dean they could not quite forgive his taking part in the pomp
+of such a rare show.</p>
+<p>But Ambrose&rsquo;s devotion to the Dean, to say nothing of youthful
+curiosity, outweighed all those scruples, and as he listened, he was
+carried along by the curious sermon in which the preacher likened the
+orders of the hierarchy below to that of the nine orders of the Angels,
+making the rank of Cardinal correspond to that of the Seraphim, aglow
+with love.&nbsp; Of that holy flame, the scarlet robes were the type
+to the spiritualised mind of Colet, while others saw in them only the
+relic of the imperial purple of old Rome; and some beheld them as the
+token that Wolsey was one step nearer the supreme height that he coveted
+so earnestly.&nbsp; But the great and successful man found himself personally
+addressed, bidden not to be puffed up with his own greatness, and stringently
+reminded of the highest Example of humility, shown that he that exalteth
+himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself be exalted.&nbsp;
+The preacher concluded with a strong personal exhortation to do righteousness
+and justice alike to rich and poor, joined with truth and mercy, setting
+God always before him.</p>
+<p>The sermon ended, Wolsey knelt at the altar, and Archbishop Wareham,
+who, like his immediate predecessors, held legatine authority, performed
+the act of investiture, placing the scarlet hat with its many hoops
+and tassels on his brother primate&rsquo;s head, after which a magnificent
+<i>Te Deum</i> rang through the beautiful church, and the procession
+of prelates, peers, and ecclesiastics of all ranks in their richest
+array formed to escort the new Cardinal to banquet at his palace with
+the King and Queen.</p>
+<p>Ambrose, stationed by a column, let the throng rush, tumble, and
+jostle one another to behold the show, till the Abbey was nearly empty,
+while he tried to work out the perplexing question whether all this
+pomp and splendour were truly for the glory of God, or whether it were
+a delusion for the temptation of men&rsquo;s souls.&nbsp; It was a debate
+on which his old and his new guides seemed to him at issue, and he was
+drawn in both directions&mdash;now by the beauty, order, and deep symbolism
+of the Catholic ritual, now by the spirituality and earnestness of the
+men among whom he lived.&nbsp; At one moment the worldly pomp, the mechanical
+and irreverent worship, and the gross and vicious habits of many of
+the clergy repelled him; at another the reverence and conservatism of
+his nature held him fast.</p>
+<p>Presently he felt a hand on his shoulder, and started, &ldquo;Lost
+in a stud, as we say at home, boy,&rdquo; said the jester, resplendent
+in a bran new motley suit.&nbsp; &ldquo;Wilt come in to the banquet?&nbsp;
+&rsquo;Tis open house, and I can find thee a seat without disclosing
+the kinship that sits so sore on thy brother.&nbsp; Where is he?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I have not seen him this day.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That did I,&rdquo; returned Randall, &ldquo;as I rode by on
+mine ass.&nbsp; He was ruffling it so lustily that I could not but give
+him a wink, the which my gentleman could by no means stomach!&nbsp;
+Poor lad!&nbsp; Yet there be times, Ambrose, when I feel in sooth that
+mine office is the only honourable one, since who besides can speak
+truth?&nbsp; I love my lord; he is a kind, open-handed master, and there&rsquo;s
+none I would so willingly serve, whether by jest or earnest, but what
+is he but that which I oft call him in joke&mdash;the greater fool than
+I, selling peace and ease, truth and hope, this life and the next, for
+yonder scarlet hat, which is after all of no more worth than this jingling
+head-gear of mine.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Deafening the spiritual ears far more, it may be,&rdquo; said
+Ambrose, &ldquo;since <i>humiles exallaverint</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was no small shock that there, in the midst of the nave, the answer
+was a bound, like a ball, almost as high as the capital of the column
+by which they stood.&nbsp; &ldquo;There&rsquo;s exaltation!&rdquo; said
+Randall in a low voice, and Ambrose perceived that some strangers were
+in sight.&nbsp; &ldquo;Come, seek thy brother out, boy, and bring him
+to the banquet.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll speak a word to Peter Porter, and he&rsquo;ll
+let you in.&nbsp; There&rsquo;ll be plenty of fooling all the afternoon,
+before my namesake King Hal, who can afford to be an honester man in
+his fooling than any about him, and whose laugh at a hearty jest is
+goodly to hear.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose thanked him and undertook the quest.&nbsp; They parted at
+the great west door of the Abbey, where, by way of vindicating his own
+character for buffoonery, Randall exclaimed, &ldquo;Where be mine ass?&rdquo;
+and not seeing the animal, immediately declared, &ldquo;There he is!&rdquo;
+and at the same time sprang upon the back and shoulders of a gaping
+and astonished clown who was gazing at the rear of the procession.</p>
+<p>The crowd applauded with shouts of coarse laughter, but a man, who
+seemed to belong to the victim, broke in with an angry oath, and &ldquo;How
+now, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I cry you mercy,&rdquo; quoth the jester; &ldquo;&rsquo;twas
+mine own ass I sought, and if I have fallen on thine, I will but ride
+him to York House and then restore him.&nbsp; So ho! good jackass,&rdquo;
+crossing his ankles on the poor fellow&rsquo;s chest so that he could
+not be shaken off.</p>
+<p>The comrade lifted a cudgel, but there was a general cry of &ldquo;My
+Lord Cardinal&rsquo;s jester, lay not a finger on him!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>But Harry Randall was not one to brook immunity on the score of his
+master&rsquo;s greatness.&nbsp; In another second he was on his feet,
+had wrested the staff from the hands of his astounded beast of burden,
+flourished it round his head after the most approved manner of Shirley
+champions at Lyndhurst fair, and called to his adversary to &ldquo;come
+on.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It did not take many rounds before Hal&rsquo;s dexterity had floored
+his adversary, and the shouts of &ldquo;Well struck, merry fool!&rdquo;&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Well played, Quipsome Hal!&rdquo; were rising high when the Abbot
+of Westminster&rsquo;s yeomen were seen making way through the throng,
+which fell back in terror on either side as they came to seize on the
+brawlers in their sacred precincts.</p>
+<p>But here again my Lord Cardinal&rsquo;s fool was a privileged person,
+and no one laid a hand on him, though his blood being up, he would,
+spite of his gay attire, have enjoyed a fight on equal terms.&nbsp;
+His quadruped donkey was brought up to him amid general applause, but
+when he looked round for Ambrose, the boy had disappeared.</p>
+<p>The better and finer the nature that displayed itself in Randall,
+the more painful was the sight of his buffooneries to his nephew, and
+at the first leap, Ambrose had hurried away in confusion.&nbsp; He sought
+his brother here, there, everywhere, and at last came to the conclusion
+that Stephen must have gone home to dinner.&nbsp; He walked quickly
+across the fields separating Westminster from the City of London, hoping
+to reach Cheapside before the lads of the Dragon should have gone out
+again; but just as he was near St. Paul&rsquo;s, coming round Amen Corner,
+he heard the sounds of a fray.&nbsp; &ldquo;Have at the country lubbers!&nbsp;
+Away with the moonrakers!&nbsp; Flat-caps, come on!&rdquo;&nbsp; &ldquo;Hey!
+lads of the Eagle!&nbsp; Down with the Dragons!&nbsp; Adders Snakes&mdash;s-s
+s-s-s!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>There was a kicking, struggling mass of blue backs and yellow legs
+before him, from out of which came &ldquo;Yah!&nbsp; Down with the Eagles!&nbsp;
+Cowards!&nbsp; Kites!&nbsp; Cockneys!&rdquo;&nbsp; There were plenty
+of boys, men, women with children in their arms hallooing on, &ldquo;Well
+done, Eagle!&rdquo;&nbsp; &ldquo;Go it, Dragon!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The word Dragon filled the quiet Ambrose with hot impulse to defend
+his brother.&nbsp; All his gentle, scholarly habits gave way before
+that cry, and a shout that he took to be Stephen&rsquo;s voice in the
+midst of the <i>m&ecirc;l&eacute;e.</i></p>
+<p>He was fairly carried out of himself, and doubling his fists, fell
+on the back of the nearest boys, intending to break through to his brother,
+and he found an unexpected ally.&nbsp; Will Wherry&rsquo;s voice called
+out, &ldquo;Have with you, comrade!&rdquo;&mdash;and a pair of hands
+and arms considerably stouter and more used to fighting than his own,
+began to pommel right and left with such good will that they soon broke
+through to the aid of their friends; and not before it was time, for
+Stephen, Giles, and Edmund, with their backs against the wall, were
+defending themselves with all their might against tremendous odds; and
+just as the new allies reached them, a sharp stone struck Giles in the
+eye, and levelled him with the ground, his head striking against the
+wall.&nbsp; Whether it were from alarm at his fall, or at the unexpected
+attack in the rear, or probably from both causes, the assailants dispersed
+in all directions without waiting to perceive how slender the succouring
+force really was.</p>
+<p>Edmund and Stephen were raising up the unlucky Giles, who lay quite
+insensible, with blood pouring from his eye.&nbsp; Ambrose tried to
+wipe it away, and there were anxious doubts whether the eye itself were
+safe.&nbsp; They were some way from home, and Giles was the biggest
+and heaviest of them all.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Would that Kit Smallbones were here!&rdquo; said Stephen,
+preparing to take the feet, while Edmund took the shoulders.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Look here,&rdquo; said Will Wherry, pulling Ambrose&rsquo;s
+sleeve, &ldquo;our yard is much nearer, and the old Moor, Master Michael,
+is safe to know what to do for him.&nbsp; That sort of cattle always
+are leeches.&nbsp; He wiled the pain from my thumb when &rsquo;twas
+crushed in our printing press.&nbsp; Mayhap if he put some salve to
+him, he might get home on his own feet.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Edmund listened.&nbsp; &ldquo;There&rsquo;s reason in that,&rdquo;
+he said.&nbsp; &ldquo;Dost know this leech, Ambrose?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I know him well.&nbsp; He is a good old man, and wondrous
+wise.&nbsp; Nay, no black arts; but he saith his folk had great skill
+in herbs and the like, and though he be no physician by trade, he hath
+much of their lore.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Have with thee, then,&rdquo; returned Edmund, &ldquo;the rather
+that Giles is no small weight, and the guard might come on us ere we
+reached the Dragon.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Or those cowardly rogues of the Eagle might set on us again,&rdquo;
+added Stephen; and as they went on their way to Warwick Inner Yard,
+he explained that the cause of the encounter had been that Giles had
+thought fit to prank himself in his father&rsquo;s silver chain, and
+thus George Bates, always owing the Dragon a grudge, and rendered specially
+malicious since the encounter on Holy Rood Day, had raised the cry against
+him, and caused all the flat-caps around to make a rush at the gaud
+as lawful prey.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&rsquo;Tis clean against prentice statutes to wear one, is
+it not?&rdquo; asked Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; returned Stephen; &ldquo;yet none of us but would
+stand up for our own comrade against those meddling fellows of the Eagle.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But,&rdquo; added Edmund, &ldquo;we must beware the guard,
+for if they looked into the cause of the fray, our master might be called
+on to give Giles a whipping in the Company&rsquo;s hall, this being
+a second offence of going abroad in these vanities.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose went on before to prepare Miguel Abenali, and entreat his
+good offices, explaining that the youth&rsquo;s master, who was also
+his kinsman, would be sure to give handsome payment for any good offices
+to him.&nbsp; He scarcely got out half the words; the grand old Arab
+waved his hand and said, &ldquo;When the wounded is laid before the
+tent of Ben Ali, where is the question of recompense?&nbsp; Peace be
+with thee, my son!&nbsp; Bring him hither.&nbsp; Aldonza, lay the carpet
+yonder, and the cushions beneath the window, where I may have light
+to look to his hurt.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Therewith he murmured a few words in an unknown tongue, which, as
+Ambrose understood, were an invocation to the God of Abraham to bless
+his endeavours to heal the stranger youth, but which happily were spoken
+before the arrival of the others, who would certainly have believed
+them an incantation.</p>
+<p>The carpet though worn threadbare, was a beautiful old Moorish rug,
+once glowing with brilliancy, and still rich in colouring, and the cushion
+was of thick damask faded to a strange pale green.&nbsp; All in that
+double-stalled partition, once belonging to the great earl&rsquo;s war-horses,
+was scrupulously clean, for the Christian Moor had retained some of
+the peculiar virtues born of Mohammedanism and of high civilisation.&nbsp;
+The apprentice lads tramped in much as if they had been entering a wizard&rsquo;s
+cave, though Stephen had taken care to assure Edmund of his application
+of the test of holy water.</p>
+<p>Following the old man&rsquo;s directions, Edmund and Stephen deposited
+their burden on the rug.&nbsp; Aldonza brought some warm water, and
+Abenali washed and examined the wound, Aldonza standing by and handing
+him whatever he needed, now and then assisting with her slender brown
+hands in a manner astonishing to the youths, who stood by anxious and
+helpless, white their companion began to show signs of returning life.</p>
+<p>Abenali pronounced that the stone had missed the eyeball, but the
+cut and bruise were such as to require constant bathing, and the blow
+on the head was the more serious matter, for when the patient tried
+to raise himself he instantly became sick and giddy, so that it would
+be wise to leave him where he was.&nbsp; This was much against the will
+of Edmund Burgess, who shared all the prejudices of the English prentice
+against the foreigner&mdash;perhaps a wizard and rival in trade; but
+there was no help for it, and he could only insist that Stephen should
+mount guard over the bed until he had reported to his master, and returned
+with his orders.&nbsp; Therewith he departed, with such elaborate thanks
+and courtesies to the host, as betrayed a little alarm in the tall apprentice,
+who feared not quarter-staff, nor wrestler, and had even dauntlessly
+confronted the masters of his guild!</p>
+<p>Stephen, sooth to say, was not very much at ease; everything around
+had such a strange un-English aspect, and he imploringly muttered, &ldquo;Bide
+with me, Am!&rdquo; to which his brother willingly assented, being quite
+as comfortable in Master Michael&rsquo;s abode as by his aunt&rsquo;s
+own hearth.</p>
+<p>Giles meanwhile lay quiet, and then, as his senses became less confused,
+and he could open one eye, he looked dreamily about him, and presently
+began to demand where he was, and what had befallen him, grasping at
+the hand of Ambrose as if to hold fast by something familiar; but he
+still seemed too much dazed to enter into the explanation, and presently
+murmured something about thirst.&nbsp; Aldonza came softly up with a
+cup of something cool.&nbsp; He looked very hard at her, and when Ambrose
+would have taken it from her hand to give it to him, he said, &ldquo;Nay!&nbsp;
+<i>She</i>!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And <i>she</i>, with a sweet smile in her soft, dark, shady eyes,
+and on her full lips, held the cup to his lips far more daintily and
+dexterously than either of his boy companions could have done; then
+when he moaned and said his head and eye pained him, the white-bearded
+elder came and bathed his brow with the soft sponge.&nbsp; It seemed
+all to pass before him like a dream, and it was not much otherwise with
+his unhurt companions, especially Stephen, who followed with wonder
+the movements made by the slippered feet of father and daughter upon
+the mats which covered the stone flooring of the old stable.&nbsp; The
+mats were only of English rushes and flags, and had been woven by Abenali
+and the child; but loose rushes strewing the floor were accounted a
+luxury in the Forest, and even at the Dragon court the upper end of
+the hall alone had any covering.&nbsp; Then the water was heated, and
+all such other operations carried on over a curious round vessel placed
+over charcoal; the window and the door had dark heavy curtains; and
+a matted partition cut off the further stall, no doubt to serve as Aldonza&rsquo;s
+chamber.&nbsp; Stephen looked about for something to assure him that
+the place belonged to no wizard enchanter, and was glad to detect a
+large white cross on the wall, with a holy-water stoup beneath it, but
+of images there were none.</p>
+<p>It seemed to him a long time before Master Headley&rsquo;s ruddy
+face, full of anxiety, appeared at the door.</p>
+<p>Blows were, of course, no uncommon matter; perhaps so long as no
+permanent injury was inflicted, the master-armourer had no objection
+to anything that might knock the folly out of his troublesome young
+inmate; but Edmund had made him uneasy for the youth&rsquo;s eye, and
+still more so about the quarters he was in, and he had brought a mattress
+and a couple of men to carry the patient home, as well as Steelman,
+his prime minister, to advise him.</p>
+<p>He had left all these outside, however, and advanced, civilly and
+condescendingly thanking the sword-cutler, in perfect ignorance that
+the man who stood before him had been born to a home that was an absolute
+palace compared with the Dragon court.&nbsp; The two men were a curious
+contrast.&nbsp; There stood the Englishman with his sturdy form inclining,
+with age, to corpulence, his broad honest face telling of many a civic
+banquet, and his short stubbly brown grizzled heard; his whole air giving
+a sense of worshipful authority and weight; and opposite to him the
+sparely made, dark, thin, aquiline-faced, white-bearded Moor, a far
+smaller man in stature, yet with a patriarchal dignity, refinement,
+and grace in port and countenance, belonging as it were to another sphere.</p>
+<p>Speaking English perfectly, though with a foreign accent, Abenali
+informed Master Headley that his young kinsman would by Heaven&rsquo;s
+blessing soon recover without injury to the eye, though perhaps a scar
+might remain.</p>
+<p>Mr. Headley thanked him heartily for his care, and said that he had
+brought men to carry the youth home, if he could not walk; and then
+he went up to the couch with a hearty &ldquo;How now, Giles?&nbsp; So
+thou hast had hard measure to knock the foolery out of thee, my poor
+lad.&nbsp; But come, we&rsquo;ll have thee home, and my mother will
+see to thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I cannot walk,&rdquo; said Giles, heavily, hardly raising
+his eyes, and when he was told that two of the men waited to bear him
+home, he only entreated to be let alone.&nbsp; Somewhat sharply, Mr.
+Headley ordered him to sit up and make ready, but when he tried to do
+so, he sank back with a return of sickness and dizziness.</p>
+<p>Abenali thereupon intreated that he might be left for that night,
+and stepping out into the court so as to be unheard by the patient,
+explained that the brain had had a shock, and that perfect quiet for
+some hours to come was the only way to avert a serious illness, possibly
+dangerous.&nbsp; Master Headley did not like the alternative at all,
+and was a good deal perplexed.&nbsp; He beckoned to Tibble Steelman,
+who had all this time been talking to Lucas Hansen, and now came up
+prepared with his testimony that this Michael was a good man and true,
+a godly one to boot, who had been wealthy in his own land and was a
+rare artificer in his own craft.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Though he hath no license to practise it here,&rdquo; threw
+in Master Headley, <i>sotto voce</i>; but he accepted the assurance
+that Michael was a good Christian, and, with his daughter, regularly
+went to mass; and since better might not be, he reluctantly consented
+to leave Giles under his treatment, on Lucas reiterating the assurance
+that he need have no fears of magic or foul play of any sort.&nbsp;
+He then took the purse that hung at his girdle, and declared that Master
+Michael (the title of courtesy was wrung from him by the stately appearance
+of the old man) must be at no charges for his cousin.</p>
+<p>But Abenali with a grace that removed all air of offence from his
+manner, returned thanks for the intention, but declared that it never
+was the custom of the sons of Ali to receive reward for the hospitality
+they exercised to the stranger within their gates.&nbsp; And so it was
+that Master Headley, a good deal puzzled, had to leave his apprentice
+under the roof of the old sword-cutler for the night at least.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&rsquo;Tis passing strange,&rdquo; said he, as he walked back;
+&ldquo;I know not what my mother will say, but I wish all may be right.&nbsp;
+I feel&mdash;I feel as if I had left the lad Giles with Abraham under
+the oak tree, as we saw him in the miracle play!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>This description did not satisfy Mrs. Headley, indeed she feared
+that her son was likewise bewitched; and when, the next morning, Stephen,
+who had been sent to inquire for the patient, reported him better, but
+still unable to be moved, since he could not lift his head without sickness,
+she became very anxious.&nbsp; Giles was transformed in her estimate
+from a cross-grained slip to poor Robin Headley&rsquo;s boy, the only
+son of a widow, and nothing would content her but to make her son conduct
+her to Warwick Inner Yard to inspect matters, and carry thither a precious
+relic warranted proof against all sorcery.</p>
+<p>It was with great trepidation that the good old dame ventured, but
+the result was that she was fairly subdued by Abenali&rsquo;s patriarchal
+dignity.&nbsp; She had never seen any manners to equal his, not <i>even</i>
+when King Edward the Fourth had come to her father&rsquo;s house at
+the Barbican, chucked her under the chin, and called her a dainty duck!</p>
+<p>It was Aldonza, however, who specially touched her feelings.&nbsp;
+Such a sweet little wench, with the air of being bred in a kingly or
+knightly court, to be living there close to the very dregs of the city
+was a scandal and a danger&mdash;speaking so prettily too, and knowing
+how to treat her elders.&nbsp; She would be a good example for Dennet,
+who, sooth to say, was getting too old for spoilt-child sauciness to
+be always pleasing, while as to Giles, he could not be in better quarters.&nbsp;
+Mrs. Headley, well used to the dressing of the burns and bruises incurred
+in the weapon smiths&rsquo; business, could not but confess that his
+eye had been dealt with as skilfully as she could have done it herself.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV.&nbsp; THE KNIGHT OF THE BADGER</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;I am a gentleman of a company.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>SHAKESPEARE.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>Giles Headley&rsquo;s accident must have amounted to concussion of
+the brain, for though he was able to return to the Dragon in a couple
+of days, and the cut over his eye was healing fast, he was weak and
+shaken, and did not for several weeks recover his usual health.&nbsp;
+The noise and heat of the smithy were distressing to him, and there
+was no choice but to let him lie on settles, sun himself on the steps,
+and attempt no work.</p>
+<p>It had tamed him a good deal.&nbsp; Smallbones said the letting out
+of malapert blood was wholesome, and others thought him still under
+a spell; but he seemed to have parted with much of his arrogance, either
+because he had not spirits for self-assertion, or because something
+of the grand eastern courtesy of Abenali had impressed him.&nbsp; For
+intercourse with the Morisco had by no means ceased.&nbsp; Giles went,
+as long as the injury required it, to have the hurt dressed, and loitered
+in the Inner Yard a long time every day, often securing some small dainty
+for Aldonza&mdash;an apple, a honey cake, a bit of marchpane, a dried
+plum, or a comfit.&nbsp; One day he took her a couple of oranges.&nbsp;
+To his surprise, as he entered, Abenali looked up with a strange light
+in his eyes, and exclaimed, &ldquo;My son! thy scent is to my nostrils
+as the court of my father&rsquo;s house!&rdquo; Then, as he beheld the
+orange, he clasped his hands, took it in them, and held it to his breast,
+pouring out a chant in an unknown tongue, while the tears flowed down
+his cheeks.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Father, father!&rdquo; Aldonza cried, terrified, while Giles
+marvelled whether the orange worked on him like a spell.&nbsp; But he
+perceived their amazement, and spoke again in English, &ldquo;I thank
+thee, my son!&nbsp; Thou hast borne me back for a moment to the fountain
+in my father&rsquo;s house, where ye grow, ye trees of the unfading
+leaf, the spotless blossom, and golden fruit!&nbsp; Ah Ronda!&nbsp;
+Ronda!&nbsp; Land of the sunshine, the deep blue sky, and snow-topped
+hills!&nbsp; Land where are the graves of my father and mother!&nbsp;
+How pines and sickens the heart of the exile for thee!&nbsp; O happy
+they who died beneath the sword or flame, for they knew not the lonely
+home-longing of the exile.&nbsp; Ah! ye golden fruits!&nbsp; One fragrant
+breath of thee is as a waft of the joys of my youth!&nbsp; Are ye foretastes
+of the fruits of Paradise, the true home to which I may yet come, though
+I may never, never see the towers and hills of Ronda more?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Giles knew not what to make of this outburst.&nbsp; He kept it to
+himself as too strange to be told.&nbsp; The heads of the family were
+willing that he should carry these trifles to the young child of the
+man who would accept no reward for his hospitality.&nbsp; Indeed, Master
+Headley spent much consideration on how to recompense the care bestowed
+on his kinsman.</p>
+<p>Giles suggested that Master Michael had just finished the most beautiful
+sword blade he had ever seen, and had not yet got a purchaser for it;
+it was far superior to the sword Tibble had just completed for my Lord
+of Surrey.&nbsp; Thereat the whole court broke into an outcry; that
+any workman should be supposed to turn out any kind of work surpassing
+Steelman&rsquo;s was rank heresy, and Master Headley bluntly told Giles
+that he knew not what he was talking of!&nbsp; He might perhaps purchase
+the blade by way of courtesy and return of kindness, but&mdash;good
+English workmanship for him!</p>
+<p>However, Giles was allowed to go and ask the price of the blade,
+and bring it to be looked at.&nbsp; When he returned to the court he
+found, in front of the building where finished suits were kept for display,
+a tall, thin, wiry, elderly man, deeply bronzed, and with a scar on
+his brow.&nbsp; Master Headley and Tibble were both in attendance, Tib
+measuring the stranger, and Stephen, who was standing at a respectful
+distance, gave Giles the information that this was the famous Captain
+of Free-lances, Sir John Fulford, who had fought in all the wars in
+Italy, and was going to fight in them again, but wanted a suit of &ldquo;our
+harness.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The information was hardly needed, for Sir John, in a voice loud
+enough to lead his men to the battle-field, and with all manner of strong
+asseverations in all sorts of languages, was explaining the dints and
+blows that had befallen the mail he had had from Master Headley eighteen
+years ago, when he was but a squire; how his helmet had endured tough
+blows, and saved his head at Novara, but had been crushed like an egg
+shell by a stone from the walls at Barletta, which had nearly been his
+own destruction: and how that which he at present wore (beautifully
+chased and in a classical form) was taken from a dead Italian Count
+on the field of Ravenna, but always sat amiss on him; and how he had
+broken his good sword upon one of the rascally Swiss only a couple of
+months ago at Marignano.&nbsp; Having likewise disabled his right arm,
+and being well off through the payment of some ransoms, he had come
+home partly to look after his family, and partly to provide himself
+with a full suit of English harness, his present suit being a patchwork
+of relics of numerous battle-fields.&nbsp; Only one thing he desired,
+a true Spanish sword, not only Toledo or Bilboa in name, but nature.&nbsp;
+He had seen execution done by the weapons of the soldiers of the Great
+Captain, and been witness to the endurance of their metal, and this
+made him demand whether Master Headley could provide him with the like.</p>
+<p>Giles took the moment for stepping forward and putting Abenali&rsquo;s
+work into the master&rsquo;s hand.&nbsp; The Condottiere was in raptures.&nbsp;
+He pronounced it as perfect a weapon as Gonzalo de Cordova himself could
+possess; showed off its temper and his own dexterity by piercing and
+cutting up an old cuirass, and invited the bystanders to let him put
+it to further proof by letting him slice through an apple placed on
+the open palm of the hand.</p>
+<p>Giles&rsquo;s friendship could not carry him so far as to make the
+venture; Kit Smallbones observed that he had a wife and children, and
+could not afford to risk his good right hand on a wandering soldier&rsquo;s
+bravado; Edmund was heard saying, &ldquo;Nay, nay, Steve, don&rsquo;t
+be such a fool,&rdquo; but Stephen was declaring he would not have the
+fellow say that English lads hung back from what rogues of France and
+Italy would dare.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No danger for him who winceth not,&rdquo; said the knight.</p>
+<p>Master Headley, a very peaceful citizen in his composition in spite
+of his trade, was much inclined to forbid Stephen from the experiment,
+but he refrained, ashamed and unwilling to daunt a high spirit; and
+half the household, eager for the excitement, rushed to the kitchen
+in quest of apples, and brought out all the women to behold, and add
+a clamour of remonstrance.&nbsp; Sir John, however, insisted that they
+should all be ordered back again.&nbsp; &ldquo;Not that the noise and
+clamour of women folk makes any odds to me,&rdquo; said the grim old
+warrior, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen too many towns taken for that, but it
+might make the lad queasy, and cost him a thumb or so.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Of course this renewed the dismay and excitement, and both Tibble
+and his master entreated Stephen to give up the undertaking if he felt
+the least misgiving as to his own steadiness, arguing that they should
+not think him any more a craven than they did Kit Smallbones or Edmund
+Burgess.&nbsp; But Stephen&rsquo;s mind was made up, his spirit was
+high, and he was resolved to go through with it.</p>
+<p>He held out his open hand, a rosy-checked apple was carefully laid
+on it.&nbsp; The sword flashed through the air&mdash;divided in half
+the apple which remained on Stephen&rsquo;s palm.&nbsp; There was a
+sharp shriek from a window, drowned in the acclamations of the whole
+court, while the Captain patted Stephen on the shoulder, exclaiming,
+&ldquo;Well done, my lad.&nbsp; There&rsquo;s the making of a tall fellow
+in thee!&nbsp; If ever thou art weary of making weapons and wouldst
+use them instead, seek out John Fulford, of the Badger troop, and thou
+shalt have a welcome.&nbsp; Our name is the Badger, because there&rsquo;s
+no troop like us for digging out mines beneath the walls.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>A few months ago such an invitation would have been bliss to Stephen.&nbsp;
+Now he was bound in all honour and duty to his master, and could only
+thank the knight of the Badger, and cast a regretful eye at him, as
+he drank a cup of wine, and flung a bag of gold and silver, supplemented
+by a heavy chain, to Master Headley, who prudently declined working
+for Free Companions, unless he were paid beforehand; and, at the knight&rsquo;s
+request, took charge of a sufficient amount to pay his fare back again
+to the Continent.&nbsp; Then mounting a tall, lean, bony horse, the
+knight said he should call for his armour on returning from Somerset,
+and rode off, while Stephen found himself exalted as a hero in the eyes
+of his companions for an act common enough at feats of arms among modern
+cavalry, but quite new to the London flat-caps.&nbsp; The only sufferer
+was little Dennet, who had burst into an agony of crying at the sight,
+needed that Stephen should spread out both hands before her, and show
+her the divided apple, before she would believe that his thumb was in
+its right place, and at night screamed out in her sleep that the ill-favoured
+man was cutting off Stephen&rsquo;s hands.</p>
+<p>The sword was left behind by Sir John in order that it might be fitted
+with a scabbard and belt worthy of it; and on examination, Master Headley
+and Tibble both confessed that they could produce nothing equal to it
+in workmanship, though Kit looked with contempt at the slight weapon
+of deep blue steel, with lines meandering on it like a watered silk,
+and the upper part inlaid with gold wire in exquisite arabesque patterns.&nbsp;
+He called it a mere toy, and muttered something about sorcery, and men
+who had been in foreign parts not thinking honest weight of English
+steel good enough for them.</p>
+<p>Master Headley would not trust one of the boys with the good silver
+coins that had been paid as the price of the sword&mdash;French crowns
+and Milanese ducats, with a few Venetian gold bezants&mdash;but he bade
+them go as guards to Tibble, for it was always a perilous thing to carry
+a sum of money through the London streets.&nbsp; Tibble was not an unwilling
+messenger.&nbsp; He knew Master Michael to be somewhat of his own way
+of thinking, and he was a naturally large-minded man who could appreciate
+skill higher than his own without jealousy.&nbsp; Indeed, he and his
+master held a private consultation on the mode of establishing a connection
+with Michael and profiting by his ability.</p>
+<p>To have lodged him at the Dragon court and made him part of the establishment
+might have seemed the most obvious way, but the dogged English hatred
+and contempt of foreigners would have rendered this impossible, even
+if Abenali himself would have consented to give up his comparative seclusion
+and live in a crowd and turmoil.</p>
+<p>But he was thankful to receive and execute orders from Master Headley,
+since so certain a connection would secure Aldonza from privation such
+as the child had sometimes had to endure in the winter; when, though
+the abstemious Eastern nature needed little food, there was great suffering
+from cold and lack of fuel.&nbsp; And Tibble moreover asked questions
+and begged for instructions in some of the secrets of the art.&nbsp;
+It was an effort to such a prime artificer as Steelman to ask instruction
+from any man, especially a foreigner, but Tibble had a nature of no
+common order, and set perfection far above class prejudice; and moreover,
+he felt Abenali to be one of those men who had their inner eyes devotedly
+fixed on the truth, though little knowing where the quest would lead
+them.</p>
+<p>On his side Abenali underwent a struggle.&nbsp; &ldquo;Woe is me!&rdquo;
+he said.&nbsp; &ldquo;Wottest thou, my son, that the secrets of the
+sword of light and swiftness are the heritage that Abdallah Ben Ali
+brought from Damascus in the hundred and fifty-third year of the flight
+of him whom once I termed the prophet; nor have they departed from our
+house, but have been handed on from father to son.&nbsp; And shall they
+be used in the wars of the stranger and the Christian?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I feared it might be thus,&rdquo; said Tibble.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And yet,&rdquo; went on the old man, as if not hearing him,
+&ldquo;wherefore should I guard the secret any longer?&nbsp; My sons?&nbsp;
+Where are they?&nbsp; They brooked not the scorn and hatred of the Castillian
+which poisoned to them the new faith.&nbsp; They cast in their lot with
+their own people, and that their bones may lie bleaching on the mountains
+is the best lot that can have befallen the children of my youth and
+hope.&nbsp; The house of Miguel Abenali is desolate and childless, save
+for the little maiden who sits by my hearth in the land of my exile!&nbsp;
+Why should I guard it longer for him who may wed her, and whom I may
+never behold?&nbsp; The will of Heaven be done!&nbsp; Young man, if
+I bestow this knowledge on thee, wilt thou swear to be as a father to
+my daughter, and to care for her as thine own?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was a good while since Tibble had been called a young man, and
+as he listened to the flowing Eastern periods in their foreign enunciation,
+he was for a moment afraid that the price of the secret was that he
+should become the old Moor&rsquo;s son-in-law!&nbsp; His seared and
+scarred youth had precluded marriage, and he entertained the low opinion
+of women frequent in men of superior intellect among the uneducated.&nbsp;
+Besides, the possibilities of giving umbrage to Church authorities were
+dawning on him, and he was not willing to form any domestic ties, so
+that in every way such a proposition would have been unwelcome to him.&nbsp;
+But he had no objection to pledge himself to fatherly guardianship of
+the pretty child in case of a need that might never arise.&nbsp; So
+he gave the promise, and became a pupil of Abenali, visiting Warwick
+Inner Yard with his master&rsquo;s consent whenever he could be spared,
+while the workmanship at the Dragon began to profit thereby.</p>
+<p>The jealousy of the Eagle was proportionately increased.&nbsp; Alderman
+Itillyeo, the head of the Eagle, was friendly enough to Mr. Headley,
+but it was undeniable that they were the rival armourers of London,
+dividing the favours of the Court equally between them, and the bitterness
+of the emulation increased the lower it went in the establishment.&nbsp;
+The prentices especially could hardly meet without gibes and sneers,
+if nothing worse, and Stephen&rsquo;s exploit had a peculiar flavour
+because it was averred that no one at the Eagle would have done the
+like.</p>
+<p>But it was not till the Sunday that Ambrose chanced to hear of the
+feat, at which he turned quite pale, but he was prouder of it than any
+one else, and although he rejoiced that he had not seen it performed,
+he did not fail to boast of it at home, though Perronel began by declaring
+that she did not care for the mad pranks of roistering prentices; but
+presently she paused, as she stirred her grandfather&rsquo;s evening
+posset, and said, &ldquo;What saidst thou was the strange soldier&rsquo;s
+name?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Fulford&mdash;Sir John Fulford&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;What?&nbsp; I thought not of it, is not that Gaffer&rsquo;s name?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Fulford, yea!&nbsp; Mayhap&mdash;&rdquo; and Perronel sat
+down and gave an odd sort of laugh of agitation&mdash;&ldquo;mayhap
+&rsquo;tis mine own father.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Shouldst thou know him, good aunt?&rdquo; cried Ambrose, much
+excited.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Scarce,&rdquo; she said.&nbsp; &ldquo;I was not seven years
+old when he went to the wars&mdash;if so be he lived through the battle&mdash;and
+he reeked little of me, being but a maid.&nbsp; I feared him greatly
+and so did my mother.&nbsp; &rsquo;Twas happier with only Gaffer!&nbsp;
+Where saidst thou he was gone?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose could not tell, but he undertook to bring Stephen to answer
+all queries on the subject.&nbsp; His replies that the Captain was gone
+in quest of his family to Somersetshire settled the matter, since there
+had been old Martin Fulford&rsquo;s abode, and there John Fulford had
+parted with his wife and father.&nbsp; They did not, however, tell the
+old man of the possibility of his son&rsquo;s being at home, he had
+little memory, and was easily thrown into a state of agitation; besides,
+it was a doubtful matter how the Condottiere would feel as to the present
+fortunes of the family.&nbsp; Stephen was to look out for his return
+in quest of his suit of armour, inform him of his father&rsquo;s being
+alive, and show him the way to the little house by the Temple Gardens;
+but Perronel gave the strictest injunctions that her husband&rsquo;s
+profession should not be explained.&nbsp; It would be quite enough to
+say that he was of the Lord Cardinal&rsquo;s household.</p>
+<p>Stephen watched, but the armour was finished and Christmas passed
+by before anything was seen of the Captain.&nbsp; At last, however,
+he did descend on the Dragon court, looking so dilapidated that Mr.
+Headley rejoiced in the having received payment beforehand.&nbsp; He
+was louder voiced and fuller of strange oaths than ever, and in the
+utmost haste, for he had heard tidings that &ldquo;there was to be a
+lusty game between the Emperor and the Italians, and he must have his
+share.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen made his way up to speak to him, and was received with &ldquo;Ha,
+my gallant lad!&nbsp; Art weary of hammer and anvil?&nbsp; Wouldst be
+a brave Badger, slip thine indentures, and hear helm and lance ring
+in good earnest?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not so, sir,&rdquo; said Stephen, &ldquo;but I have been bidden
+to ask if thou hast found thy father?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s that to thee, stripling?&nbsp; When thou hast
+cut thy wisdom teeth, thou&rsquo;lt know old fathers be not so easy
+found.&nbsp; &rsquo;Twas a wild goose chase, and I wot not what moved
+me to run after it.&nbsp; I met jolly comrades enough, bumpkins that
+could drink with an honest soldier when they saw him, but not one that
+ever heard the name of Fulford.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said Stephen, &ldquo;I know an old man named Fulford.&nbsp;
+His granddaughter is my uncle&rsquo;s wife, and they dwell by the Temple.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The intelligence seemed more startling and less gratifying than Stephen
+had expected.&nbsp; Sir John demanded whether they were poor, and declared
+that he had better have heard of them when his purse was fuller.&nbsp;
+He had supposed that his wife had given him up and found a fresh mate,
+and when he heard of her death, he made an exclamation which might be
+pity, but had in it something of relief.&nbsp; He showed more interest
+about his old father; but as to his daughter, if she had been a lad
+now, a&rsquo; might have been a stout comrade by this time, ready to
+do the Badger credit.&nbsp; Yea, his poor Kate was a good lass, but
+she was only a Flemish woman and hadn&rsquo;t the sense to rear aught
+but a whining little wench, who was of no good except to turn fools&rsquo;
+heads, and she was wedded and past all that by this time.</p>
+<p>Stephen explained that she was wedded to one of the Lord Cardinal&rsquo;s
+mein&eacute;.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ho!&rdquo; said the Condottiere, pausing, &ldquo;be that the
+butcher&rsquo;s boy that is pouring out his gold to buy scarlet hats,
+if not the three crowns.&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis no bad household wherein to
+have a footing.&nbsp; Saidst thou I should find my wench and the old
+Gaffer there?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen had to explain, somewhat to the disappointment of the Captain,
+who had, as it appeared, in the company of three or four more adventurous
+spirits like himself, taken a passage in a vessel lying off Gravesend,
+and had only turned aside to take up his new armour and his deposit
+of passage-money.&nbsp; He demurred a little, he had little time to
+spare, and though, of course, he could take boat at the Temple Stairs,
+and drop down the river, he observed that it would have been a very
+different thing to go home to the old man when he first came back with
+a pouch full of ransoms and plunder, whereas now he had barely enough
+to carry him to the place of meeting with his Badgers.&nbsp; And there
+was the wench too&mdash;he had fairly forgotten her name.&nbsp; Women
+were like she wolves for greed when they had a brood of whelps.</p>
+<p>Stephen satisfied him that there was no danger on that score, and
+heard him muttering, that it was no harm to secure a safe harbour in
+case a man hadn&rsquo;t the luck to be knocked on the head ere he grew
+too old to trail a pike.&nbsp; And he would fain see the old man.</p>
+<p>So permission was asked for Stephen to show the way to Master Randall&rsquo;s,
+and granted somewhat reluctantly, Master Headley saying, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll
+have thee back within an hour, Stephen Birkenholt, and look thou dost
+not let thy brain be set afire with this fellow&rsquo;s windy talk of
+battles and sieges, and deeds only fit for pagans and wolves.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay!&rdquo; said Tibble, perhaps with a memory of the old fable,
+&ldquo;better be the trusty mastiff than the wolf.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And like the wolf twitting the mastiff with his chain, the soldier
+was no sooner outside the door of the Dragon court before he began to
+express his wonder how a lad of mettle could put up with a flat cap,
+a blue gown, and the being at the beck and call of a greasy burgher,
+when a bold, handsome young knave like him might have the world before
+him and his stout pike.</p>
+<p>Stephen was flattered, but scarcely tempted.&nbsp; The hard selfishness
+and want of affection of the Condottiere shocked him, while he looked
+about, hoping some of his acquaintance would see him in company with
+this tall figure clanking in shining armour, and with a knightly helmet
+and gilt spurs.&nbsp; The armour, new and brilliant, concealed the worn
+and shabby leathern dress beneath, and gave the tall, spare figure a
+greater breadth, diminishing the look of a hungry wolf which Sir John
+Fulford&rsquo;s aspect suggested.&nbsp; However, as he passed some of
+the wealthier stalls, where the apprentices, seeing the martial figure,
+shouted, &ldquo;What d&rsquo;ye lack, sir knight?&rdquo; and offered
+silk and velvet robes and mantles, gay sword knots, or even rich chains,
+under all the clamour, Stephen heard him swearing by St. George what
+a place this would be for a sack, if his Badgers were behind him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If that poor craven of a Warbeck had had a spark of valour
+in him,&rdquo; quoth he, as he passed a stall gay with bright tankards
+and flagons, &ldquo;we would have rattled some of that shining gear
+about the lazy citizens&rsquo; ears!&nbsp; He, jolly King Edward&rsquo;s
+son!&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll never give faith to it!&nbsp; To turn his back
+when there was such a booty to be had for the plundering.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He might not have found it so easy.&nbsp; Our trainbands are
+sturdy enough,&rdquo; said Stephen, whose <i>esprit de corps</i> was
+this time on the Londoners&rsquo; side, but the knight of the Badger
+snapped his fingers, and said, &ldquo;So much for your burgher trainbands!&nbsp;
+All they be good for with their show of fight is to give honest landsknechts
+a good reason to fall on to the plunder, if so be one is hampered by
+a squeamish prince.&nbsp; But grammercy to St. George, there be not
+many of that sort after they he once fleshed!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Perhaps a year ago, when fresh from the Forest, Stephen might have
+been more captivated by the notion of adventure and conquest.&nbsp;
+Now that he had his place in the community and looked on a civic position
+with wholesome ambition, Fulford&rsquo;s longings for havoc in these
+peaceful streets made his blood run cold.&nbsp; He was glad when they
+reached their destination, and he saw Perronel with bare arms, taking
+in some linen cuffs and bands from a line across to the opposite wall.&nbsp;
+He could only call out, &ldquo;Good naunt, here he be!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Perronel turned round, the colour rising in her cheeks, with an obeisance,
+but trembling a good deal.&nbsp; &ldquo;How now, wench?&nbsp; Thou art
+grown a buxom dame.&nbsp; Thou makst an old man of me,&rdquo; said the
+soldier with a laugh.&nbsp; &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s my father?&nbsp; I
+have not the turning of a cup to stay, for I&rsquo;m come home poor
+as a cat in a plundered town, and am off to the wars again; but hearing
+that the old man was nigh at hand, I came this way to see him, and let
+thee know thou art a knight&rsquo;s daughter.&nbsp; Thou art indifferent
+comely, girl, what&rsquo;s thy name? but not the peer of thy mother
+when I wooed her as one of the bonny lasses of Bruges.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He gave a kind of embrace, while she gave a kind of gasp of &ldquo;Welcome,
+sir,&rdquo; and glanced somewhat reproachfully at Stephen for not having
+given her more warning.&nbsp; The cause of her dismay was plain as the
+Captain, giving her no time to precede him, strode into the little chamber,
+where Hal Randall, without his false beard or hair, and in his parti-coloured
+hose, was seated by the cupboard-like bed, assisting old Martin Fulford
+to take his midday meal.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Be this thine husband, girl?&nbsp; Ha! ha!&nbsp; He&rsquo;s
+more like a jolly friar come in to make thee merry when the good man
+is out!&rdquo; exclaimed the visitor, laughing loudly at his own rude
+jest; but heeding little either Hal&rsquo;s appearance or his reply,
+as he caught the old man&rsquo;s bewildered eyes, and heard his efforts
+to utter his name.</p>
+<p>For eighteen years had altered John Fulford less than either his
+father or his daughter, and old Martin recognised him instantly, and
+held out the only arm he could use, while the knight, softened, touched,
+and really feeling more natural affection than Stephen had given him
+credit for, dropped on his knee, breaking into indistinct mutterings
+with rough but hearty greetings, regretting that he had not found his
+father sooner, when his pouch was full, lamenting the change in him,
+declaring that he must hurry away now, but promising to come back with
+sacks of Italian ducats to provide for the old man.</p>
+<p>Those who could interpret the imperfect utterance, now further choked
+by tears and agitation, knew that there was a medley of broken rejoicings,
+blessings, and weepings, in the midst of which the soldier, glad perhaps
+to end a scene where he became increasingly awkward and embarrassed,
+started up, hastily kissed the old man on each of his withered cheeks,
+gave another kiss to his daughter, threw her two Venetian ducats, bidding
+her spend them for the old man, and he would bring a pouchful more next
+time, and striding to the door, bade Stephen call a boat to take him
+down to Gravesend.</p>
+<p>Randall, who had in the meantime donned his sober black gown in the
+inner chamber, together with a dark hood, accompanied his newly found
+father-in-law down the river, and Stephen would fain have gone too,
+but for the injunction to return within the hour.</p>
+<p>Perronel had hurried back to her grandfather&rsquo;s side to endeavour
+to compose him after the shock of gladness.&nbsp; But it had been too
+much for his enfeebled powers.&nbsp; Another stroke came on before the
+day was over, and in two or three days more old Martin Fulford was laid
+to rest, and his son&rsquo;s ducats were expended on masses for his
+soul&rsquo;s welfare.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV.&nbsp; HEAVE HALF A BRICK AT HIM</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;For strangers then did so increase,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;By
+reason of King Henry&rsquo;s queen,<br />And privileged in many a place<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;To
+dwell, as was in London seen.<br />Poor tradesmen had small dealing
+then<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And who but strangers bore the bell,<br />Which
+was a grief to Englishmen<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;To see them here in
+London dwell.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><i>Ill May Day, by</i> CHURCHILL, a <i>Contemporary Poet.</i></p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>Time passed on, and Edmund Burgess, who had been sent from York to
+learn the perfection of his craft, completed his term and returned to
+his home, much regretted in the Dragon court, where his good humour
+and good sense had generally kept the peace, both within and without.</p>
+<p>Giles Headley was now the eldest prentice.&nbsp; He was in every
+way greatly improved, thoroughly accepting his position, and showing
+himself quite ready both to learn and to work; but he had not the will
+or the power of avoiding disputes with outsiders, or turning them aside
+with a merry jest; and rivalries and quarrels with the armoury at the
+Eagle began to increase.&nbsp; The Dragon, no doubt, turned out finer
+workmanship, and this the Eagle alleged was wholly owing to nefarious
+traffic with the old Spanish or Moorish sorcerer in Warwick Inner Yard,
+a thing unworthy of honest Englishmen.&nbsp; This made Giles furious,
+and the cry never failed to end in a fight, in which Stephen supported
+the cause of the one house, and George Bates and his comrades of the
+other.</p>
+<p>It was the same with even the archery at Mile End, where the butts
+were erected, and the youth contended with the long bow, which was still
+considered as the safeguard of England.&nbsp; King Henry often looked
+in on these matches, and did honour to the winners.&nbsp; One match
+there was in especial, on Mothering Sunday, when the champions of each
+guild shot against one another at such a range that it needed a keen
+eye to see the popinjay&mdash;a stuffed bird at which they shot.</p>
+<p>Stephen was one of these, his forest lore having always given him
+an advantage over many of the others.&nbsp; He even was one of the last
+three who were to finish the sport by shooting against one another.&nbsp;
+One was a butcher named Barlow.&nbsp; The other was a Walloon, the best
+shot among six hundred foreigners of various nations, all of whom, though
+with little encouragement, joined in the national sport on these pleasant
+spring afternoons.&nbsp; The first contest threw out the Walloon, at
+which there were cries of ecstasy; now the trial was between Barlow
+and Stephen, and in this final effort, the distance of the pole to which
+the popinjay was fastened was so much increased that strength of arm
+told as much as accuracy of aim, and Stephen&rsquo;s seventeen years&rsquo;
+old muscles could not, after so long a strain, cope with those of Ralph
+Barlow, a butcher of full thirty years old.&nbsp; His wrist and arm
+began to shake with weariness, and only one of his three last arrows
+went straight to the mark, while Barlow was as steady as ever, and never
+once failed.&nbsp; Stephen was bitterly disappointed, his eyes filled
+with tears, and he flung himself down on the turf feeling as if the
+shouts of &ldquo;A Barlow! a Barlow!&rdquo; which were led by the jovial
+voice of King Harry himself, were all exulting over him.</p>
+<p>Barlow was led up to the king, who hailed him &ldquo;King of Shoreditch,&rdquo;
+a title borne by the champion archer ever after, so long as bowmanship
+in earnest lasted.&nbsp; A tankard which the king filled with silver
+pieces was his prize, but Henry did not forget No. 2.&nbsp; &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s
+the other fellow?&rdquo; he said.&nbsp; &ldquo;He was but a stripling,
+and to my mind, his feat was a greater marvel than that of a stalwart
+fellow like Barlow.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Half a dozen of the spectators, among them the cardinal&rsquo;s jester,
+hurried in search of Stephen, who was roused from his fit of weariness
+and disappointment by a shake of the shoulder as his uncle jingled his
+bells in his ears, and exclaimed, &ldquo;How now, here I own a cousin!&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Stephen sat up and stared with angry, astonished eyes, but only met
+a laugh.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ay, ay, &rsquo;tis but striplings and fools that
+have tears to spend for such as this!&nbsp; Up, boy!&nbsp; Dye hear?&nbsp;
+The other Hal is asking for thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And Stephen, hastily brushing away his tears, and holding his flat
+cap in his hand, was marshalled across the mead, hot, shy, and indignant,
+as the jester mopped and mowed, and cut all sorts of antics before him,
+turning round to observe in an encouraging voice, &ldquo;Pluck up a
+heart, man!&nbsp; One would think Hal was going to cut oft thine head!&rdquo;&nbsp;
+And then, on arriving where the king sat on his horse, &ldquo;Here he
+is, Hal, such as he is come humbly to crave thy gracious pardon for
+hitting the mark no better!&nbsp; He&rsquo;ll mend his ways, good my
+lord, if your grace will pardon him this time.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, marry, and that will I,&rdquo; said the king.&nbsp; &ldquo;The
+springald bids fair to be King of Shoreditch by the time the other fellow
+abdicates.&nbsp; How old art thou, my lad?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Seventeen, an it please your grace,&rdquo; said Stephen, in
+the gruff voice of his age.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And thy name?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Stephen Birkenholt, my liege,&rdquo; and he wondered whether
+he would be recognised; but Henry only said&mdash;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Methinks I&rsquo;ve seen those sloe-black eyes before.&nbsp;
+Or is it only that the lad is thy very marrow, quipsome one?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The which,&rdquo; returned the jester, gravely, while Stephen
+tingled all over with dismay, &ldquo;may account for the tears the lad
+was wasting at not having the thews of the fellow double his age!&nbsp;
+But I envy him not!&nbsp; Not I!&nbsp; He&rsquo;ll never have wit for
+mine office, but will come in second there likewise.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I dare be sworn he will,&rdquo; said the king.&nbsp; &ldquo;Here,
+take this, my good lad, and prank thee in it when thou art out of thy
+time, and goest a-hunting in Epping!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was a handsome belt with a broad silver clasp, engraven with the
+Tudor rose and portcullis; and Stephen bowed low and made his acknowledgments
+as best he might.</p>
+<p>He was hailed with rapturous acclamations by his own contemporaries,
+who held that he had saved the credit of the English prentice world,
+and insisted on carrying him enthroned on their shoulders back to Cheapside,
+in emulation of the journeymen and all the butcher kind, who were thus
+bearing home the King of Shoreditch.</p>
+<p>Shouts, halloos, whistles, every jubilant noise that youth and boyhood
+could invent, were the triumphant music of Stephen on his surging and
+uneasy throne, as he was shifted from one bearer to another when each
+in turn grew tired of his weight.&nbsp; Just, however, as they were
+nearing their own neighbourhood, a counter cry broke out, &ldquo;Witchcraft!&nbsp;
+His arrows are bewitched by the old Spanish sorcerer!&nbsp; Down with
+Dragons and Wizards!&rdquo;&nbsp; And a handful of mud came full in
+the face of the enthroned lad, aimed no doubt by George Bates.&nbsp;
+There was a yell and rush of rage, but the enemy was in numbers too
+small to attempt resistance, and dashed off before their pursuers, only
+pausing at safe corners to shout Parthian darts of &ldquo;Wizards!&rdquo;&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Magic!&rdquo;&nbsp; &ldquo;Sorcerers!&rdquo;&nbsp; &ldquo;Heretics!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>There was nothing to be done but to collect again, and escort Stephen,
+who had wiped the mud off his face, to the Dragon court, where Dennet
+danced on the steps for joy, and Master Headley, not a little gratified,
+promised Stephen a supper for a dozen of his particular friends at Armourers&rsquo;
+Hall on the ensuing Easter Sunday.</p>
+<p>Of course Stephen went in search of his brother, all the more eagerly
+because he was conscious that they had of late drifted apart a good
+deal.&nbsp; Ambrose was more and more absorbed by the studies to which
+Lucas Hansen led him, and took less and less interest in his brother&rsquo;s
+pursuits.&nbsp; He did indeed come to the Sunday&rsquo;s dinner according
+to the regular custom, but the moment it was permissible to leave the
+board he was away with Tibble Steelman to meet friends of Lucas, and
+pursue studies, as if, Stephen thought, he had not enough of books as
+it was.&nbsp; When Dean Colet preached or catechised in St. Paul&rsquo;s
+in the afternoon they both attended and listened, but that good man
+was in failing health, and his wise discourses were less frequent.</p>
+<p>Where they were at other times, Stephen did not know, and hardly
+cared, except that he had a general dislike to, and jealousy of, anything
+that took his brother&rsquo;s sympathy away from him.&nbsp; Moreover
+Ambrose&rsquo;s face was thinner and paler, he had a strange absorbed
+look, and often even when they were together seemed hardly to attend
+to what his brother was saying.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I will make him come,&rdquo; said Stephen to himself, as he
+went with swinging gait towards Warwick Inner Yard, where, sure enough,
+he found Ambrose sitting at the door, frowning over some black letter
+which looked most uninviting in the eyes of the apprentice, and he fell
+upon his brother with half angry, half merry reproofs for wasting the
+fine spring afternoon over such studies.</p>
+<p>Ambrose looked up with a dreamy smile and greeted his brother; but
+all the time Stephen was narrating the history of the match (and he
+<i>did</i> tell the fate of each individual arrow of his own or Barlow&rsquo;s)
+his eyes were wandering back to the crabbed page in his hand, and when
+Stephen impatiently wound up his history with the invitation to supper
+on Easter Sunday, the reply was, &ldquo;Nay, brother, thanks, but that
+I cannot do.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Cannot!&rdquo; exclaimed Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, there are other matters in hand that go deeper.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, I know whatever concerns musty books goes deeper with
+thee than thy brother,&rdquo; replied Stephen, turning away much mortified.</p>
+<p>Ambrose&rsquo;s warm nature was awakened.&nbsp; He held his brother
+by the arm and declared himself anything but indifferent to him, but
+he owned that he did not love noise and revelry, above all on Sunday.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou art addling thy brains with preachings!&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Pray Heaven they make not a heretic of thee.&nbsp; But thou mightest
+for once have come to mine own feast.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose, much perplexed and grieved at thus vexing his brother, declared
+that he would have done so with all his heart, but that this very Easter
+Sunday there was coming a friend of Master Hansen&rsquo;s from Holland;
+who was to tell them much of the teaching in Germany, which was so enlightening
+men&rsquo;s eyes.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, truly, making heretics of them, Mistress Headley saith,&rdquo;
+returned Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;O Ambrose, if thou wilt run after these
+books and parchments, canst not do it in right fashion, among holy monks,
+as of old?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Holy monks!&rdquo; repeated Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;Holy monks!&nbsp;
+Where be they?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen stared at him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hear uncle Hal talk of monks whom he sees at my Lord Cardinal&rsquo;s
+table!&nbsp; What holiness is there among them?&nbsp; Men, that have
+vowed to renounce all worldly and carnal things flaunt like peacocks
+and revel like swine&mdash;my Lord Cardinal with his silver pillars
+foremost of them!&nbsp; He poor and mortified!&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis verily
+as our uncle saith, he plays the least false and shameful part there!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ambrose, Ambrose, thou wilt be distraught, poring over these
+matters that were never meant for lads like us!&nbsp; Do but come and
+drive them out for once with mirth and good fellowship.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I tell thee, Stephen, what thou callest mirth and good fellowship
+do but drive the pain in deeper.&nbsp; Sin and guilt be everywhere.&nbsp;
+I seem to see the devils putting foul words on the tongue and ill deeds
+in the hands of myself and all around me, that they may accuse us before
+God.&nbsp; No, Stephen, I cannot, cannot come, I must go where I can
+hear of a better way.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Stephen, &ldquo;what better way can there
+be than to be shriven&mdash;clean shriven&mdash;and then houselled,
+as I was ere Lent, and trust to be again on next Low Sunday morn?&nbsp;
+That&rsquo;s enough for a plain lad.&rdquo;&nbsp; He crossed himself
+reverently, &ldquo;Mine own Lord pardoneth and cometh to me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>But the two minds, one simple and practical, the other sensitive
+and speculative, did not move in the same atmosphere, and could not
+understand one another.&nbsp; Ambrose was in the condition of excitement
+and bewilderment produced by the first stirrings of the Reformation
+upon enthusiastic minds.&nbsp; He had studied the Vulgate, made out
+something of the Greek Testament, read all fragments of the Fathers
+that came in his way, and also all the controversial &ldquo;tractates,&rdquo;
+Latin or Dutch, that he could meet with, and attended many a secret
+conference between Lucas and his friends, when men, coming from Holland
+or Germany, communicated accounts of the lectures and sermons of Dr.
+Martin Luther, which already were becoming widely known.</p>
+<p>He was wretched under the continual tossings of his mind.&nbsp; Was
+the entire existing system a vast delusion, blinding the eyes and destroying
+the souls of those who trusted to it; and was the only safety in the
+one point of faith that Luther pressed on all, and ought all that he
+had hitherto revered to crumble down to let that alone be upheld?&nbsp;
+Whatever he had once loved and honoured at times seemed to him a lie,
+while at others real affection and veneration, and dread of sacrilege,
+made him shudder at himself and his own doubts!&nbsp; It was his one
+thought, and he passionately sought after all those secret conferences
+which did but feed the flame that consumed him.</p>
+<p>The elder men who were with him were not thus agitated.&nbsp; Lucas&rsquo;s
+convictions had not long been fixed.&nbsp; He did not court observation
+nor do anything unnecessarily to bring persecution on himself, but he
+quietly and secretly acted as an agent in dispersing the Lollard books
+and those of Erasmus, and lived in the conviction that there would one
+day be a great crash, believing himself to be doing his part by undermining
+the structure, and working on undoubtingly.&nbsp; Abenali was not aggressive.&nbsp;
+In fact, though he was reckoned among Lucas&rsquo;s party, because of
+his abstinence from all cult of saints or images, and the persecution
+he had suffered, he did not join in their general opinions, and held
+aloof from their meetings.&nbsp; And Tibble Steelman, as has been before
+said, lived two lives, and that as foreman at the Dragon court, being
+habitual to him, and requiring much thought and exertion, the speculations
+of the reformers were to him more like an intellectual relaxation than
+the business of life.&nbsp; He took them as a modern artisan would in
+this day read his newspaper, and attend his club meeting.</p>
+<p>Ambrose, however, had the enthusiastic practicalness of youth.&nbsp;
+On that which he fully believed, he must act, and what did he fully
+believe?</p>
+<p>Boy as he was&mdash;scarcely yet eighteen&mdash;the toils and sports
+that delighted his brother seemed to him like toys amusing infants on
+the verge of an abyss, and he spent his leisure either in searching
+in the Vulgate for something to give him absolute direction, or in going
+in search of preachers, for, with the stirring of men&rsquo;s minds,
+sermons were becoming more frequent.</p>
+<p>There was much talk just now of the preaching of one Doctor Beale,
+to whom all the tradesmen, journeymen, and apprentices were resorting,
+even those who were of no special religious tendencies.&nbsp; Ambrose
+went on Easter Tuesday to hear him preach at St. Mary&rsquo;s Spitall.&nbsp;
+The place was crowded with artificers, and Beale began by telling them
+that he had &ldquo;a pitiful bill,&rdquo; meaning a letter, brought
+to him declaring how aliens and strangers were coming in to inhabit
+the City and suburbs, to eat the bread from poor fatherless children,
+and take the living from all artificers and the intercourse from merchants,
+whereby poverty was so much increased that each bewaileth the misery
+of others.&nbsp; Presently coming to his text, &ldquo;<i>C&oelig;lum
+c&oelig;li Domini, terram autem dedit filiis hominis</i>&rdquo; (the
+Heaven of Heavens is the Lord&rsquo;s, the earth hath He given to the
+children of men), the doctor inculcated that England was given to Englishmen,
+and that as birds would defend their nests, so ought Englishmen to defend
+themselves, <i>and to hurt and grieve aliens for the common weal</i>!&nbsp;
+The corollary a good deal resembled that of &ldquo;hate thine enemy&rdquo;
+which was foisted by &ldquo;them of the old time&rdquo; upon &ldquo;thou
+shalt love thy neighbour.&rdquo;&nbsp; And the doctor went on upon the
+text, &ldquo;<i>Pugna pro patri&acirc;</i>,&rdquo; to demonstrate that
+fighting for one&rsquo;s country meant rising upon and expelling all
+the strangers who dwelt and traded within it.&nbsp; Many of these foreigners
+were from the Hanse towns which had special commercial privileges, there
+were also numerous Venetians and Genoese, French and Spaniards, the
+last of whom were, above all, the objects of dislike.&nbsp; Their imports
+of silks, cloth of gold, stamped leather, wine and oil, and their superior
+skill in many handicrafts, had put English wares out of fashion; and
+their exports of wool, tin, and lead excited equal jealousy, which Dr.
+Beale, instigated as was well known by a broker named John Lincoln,
+was thus stirring up into fierce passion.&nbsp; His sermon was talked
+of all over London; blacker looks than ever were directed at the aliens,
+stones and dirt were thrown at them, and even Ambrose, as he walked
+along the street, was reviled as the Dutchkin&rsquo;s knave.&nbsp; The
+insults became each day more daring and outrageous.&nbsp; George Bates
+and a skinner&rsquo;s apprentice named Studley were caught in the act
+of tripping up a portly old Flanderkin and forthwith sent to Newgate,
+and there were other arrests, which did but inflame the smouldering
+rage of the mob.&nbsp; Some of the wealthier foreigners, taking warning
+by the signs of danger, left the City, for there could be no doubt that
+the whole of London and the suburbs were in a combustible condition
+of discontent, needing only a spark to set it alight.</p>
+<p>It was just about this time that a disreputable clerk&mdash;a lewd
+priest, as Hall calls him&mdash;a hanger-on of the house of Howard,
+was guilty of an insult to a citizen&rsquo;s wife as she was quietly
+walking home through the Cheap.&nbsp; Her husband and brother, who were
+nearer at hand than he guessed, avenged the outrage with such good wills
+that this disgrace to the priesthood was left dead on the ground.&nbsp;
+When such things happened, and discourses like Beale&rsquo;s were heard,
+it was not surprising that Ambrose&rsquo;s faith in the clergy as guides
+received severe shocks.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI.&nbsp; MAY EVE</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;The rich, the poor, the old, the young,<br />Beyond the seas
+though born and bred,<br />By prentices they suffered wrong,<br />When
+armed thus, they gather&rsquo;d head.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><i>Ill May Day</i>.</p>
+<p>May Eve had come, and little Dennet Headley was full of plans for
+going out early with her young playfellows to the meadow to gather May
+dew in the early morning, but her grandmother, who was in bed under
+a heavy attack of rheumatism, did not like the reports brought to her,
+and deferred her consent to the expedition.</p>
+<p>In the afternoon there were tidings that the Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas
+Rest had been sent for to my Lord Cardinal, who just at this time, during
+the building at York House, was lodging in his house close to Temple
+Bar.&nbsp; Some hours later a message came to Master Alderman Headley
+to meet the Lord Mayor and the rest of the Council at the Guildhall.&nbsp;
+He shook himself into his scarlet gown, and went off, puffing and blowing,
+and bidding Giles and Stephen take heed that they kept close, and ran
+into no mischief.</p>
+<p>But they agreed, and Kit Smallbones with them, that there could be
+no harm in going into the open space of Cheapside and playing out a
+match with bucklers between Giles and Wat Ball, a draper&rsquo;s prentice
+who had challenged him.&nbsp; The bucklers were huge shields, and the
+weapons were wooden swords.&nbsp; It was an exciting sport, and brought
+out all the youths of Cheapside in the summer evening, bawling out encouragement,
+and laying wagers on either side.&nbsp; The curfew rang, but there were
+special privileges on May Eve, and the game went on louder than ever.</p>
+<p>There was far too much noise for any one to hear the town crier,
+who went along jingling his bell, and shouting, &ldquo;O yes!&nbsp;
+O yes!&nbsp; O yes!&nbsp; By order of the Lord Mayor and Council, no
+householder shall allow any one of his household to be abroad beyond
+his gate between the hours of nine o&rsquo;clock at night and seven
+in the morning,&rdquo; or if any of the outermost heard it, as did Ambrose
+who was on his way home to his night quarters, they were too much excited
+not to turn a deaf ear to it.</p>
+<p>Suddenly, however, just as Giles was preparing for a master-stroke,
+he was seized roughly by the shoulder and bidden to give over.&nbsp;
+He looked round.&nbsp; It was an alderman, not his master, but Sir John
+Mundy, an unpopular, harsh man.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Wherefore?&rdquo; demanded Giles.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou shalt know,&rdquo; said the alderman, seizing his arm
+to drag him to the Counter prison, but Giles resisted.&nbsp; Wat Ball
+struck at Sir John&rsquo;s arm with his wooden sword, and as the alderman
+shouted for the watch and city-guard, the lads on their side raised
+their cry, &ldquo;Prentices and Clubs!&nbsp; Flat-caps and Clubs!&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Master Headley, struggling along, met his colleague, with his gown torn
+into shreds from his back, among a host of wildly yelling lads, and
+panting, &ldquo;Help, help, brother Headley!&rdquo;&nbsp; With great
+difficulty the two aldermen reached the door of the Dragon, whence Smallbones
+sallied out to rescue them, and dragged them in.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The boys!&mdash;the boys!&rdquo; was Master Headley&rsquo;s
+first cry, but he might as well have tried to detach two particular
+waves from a surging ocean as his own especial boys from the multitude
+on that wild evening.&nbsp; There was no moon, and the twilight still
+prevailed, but it was dark enough to make the confusion greater, as
+the cries swelled and numbers flowed into the open space of Cheapside.&nbsp;
+In the words of Hall, the chronicler, &ldquo;Out came serving-men, and
+watermen, and courtiers, and by XI of the chock there were VI or VII
+hundreds in Cheap.&nbsp; And out of Pawle&rsquo;s Churchyard came III
+hundred which wist not of the others.&rdquo;&nbsp; For the most part
+all was invoked in the semi-darkness of the summer night, but here and
+there light came from an upper window on some boyish face, perhaps full
+of mischief, perhaps somewhat bewildered and appalled.&nbsp; Here and
+there were torches, which cast a red glare round them, but whose smoke
+blurred everything, and seemed to render the darkness deeper.</p>
+<p>Perhaps if the tumult had only been of the apprentices, provoked
+by Alderman Mundy&rsquo;s interference, they would soon have dispersed,
+but the throng was pervaded by men with much deeper design, and a cry
+arose&mdash;no one knew from whence&mdash;that they would break into
+Newgate and set free Studley and Bates.</p>
+<p>By this time the torrent of young manhood was quite irresistible
+by any force that had yet been opposed to it.&nbsp; The Mayor and Sheriffs
+stood at the Guildhall, and read the royal proclamation by the light
+of a wax candle, held in the trembling hand of one of the clerks; but
+no one heard or heeded them, and the uproar was increased as the doors
+of Newgate fell, and all the felons rushed out to join the rioters.</p>
+<p>At the same time another shout rose, &ldquo;Down with the aliens!&rdquo;
+and there was a general rush towards St. Martin&rsquo;s gate, in which
+direction many lived.&nbsp; There was, however, a pause here, for Sir
+Thomas More, Recorder of London, stood in the way before St. Martin&rsquo;s
+gate, and with his full sweet voice began calling out and entreating
+the lads to go home, before any heads were broken more than could be
+mended again.&nbsp; He was always a favourite, and his good humour seemed
+to be making some impression, when, either from the determination of
+the more evil disposed, or because the inhabitants of St. Martin&rsquo;s
+Lane were beginning to pour down hot water, stones, and brickbats on
+the dense mass of heads below them, a fresh access of fury seized upon
+the mob.&nbsp; Yells of &ldquo;Down with the strangers!&rdquo; echoed
+through the narrow streets, drowning Sir Thomas&rsquo;s voice.&nbsp;
+A lawyer who stood with him was knocked down and much hurt, the doors
+were battered down, and the household stuff thrown from the windows.&nbsp;
+Here, Ambrose, who had hitherto been pushed helplessly about, and knocked
+hither and thither, was driven up against Giles, and, to avoid falling
+and being trampled down, clutched hold of him breathless and panting.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou here!&rdquo; exclaimed Giles.&nbsp; &ldquo;Who would
+have thought of sober Ambrose in the midst of the fray?&rdquo;&nbsp;
+See here, Stevie!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Poor old Ambrose!&rdquo; cried Stephen, &ldquo;keep close
+to us!&nbsp; We&rsquo;ll see no harm comes to thee.&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis
+hot work, eh?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, Stephen! could I but get out of the throng to warn my
+master and Master Michael!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Those words seemed to strike Giles Headley.&nbsp; He might have cared
+little for the fate of the old printer, but as he heard the screams
+of the women in the houses around, he exclaimed, &ldquo;Ay! there&rsquo;s
+the old man and the little maid!&nbsp; We will have her to the Dragon!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Or to mine aunt&rsquo;s,&rdquo; said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Have with thee then,&rdquo; said Giles: &ldquo;Take his other
+arm, Steve;&rdquo; and locking their arms together the three fought
+and forced their way from among the plunderers in St. Martin&rsquo;s
+with no worse mishap than a shower of hot water, which did not hurt
+them much through their stout woollen coats.&nbsp; They came at last
+to a place where they could breathe, and stood still a moment to recover
+from the struggle, and vituperate the hot water.</p>
+<p>Then they heard fresh howls and yells in front as well as behind.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;They are at it everywhere,&rdquo; exclaimed Stephen.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I hear them somewhere out by Cornhill.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, where the Frenchmen live that calender worsted,&rdquo;
+returned Giles.&nbsp; &ldquo;Come on; who knows how it is with the old
+man and little maid?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a sort in our court that are ready for aught,&rdquo;
+said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>On they hurried in the darkness, which was now at the very deepest
+of the night; now and then a torch was borne across the street, and
+most of the houses had lights in the upper windows, for few Londoners
+slept on that strange night.&nbsp; The stained glass of the windows
+of the Churches beamed in bright colours from the Altar lights seen
+through them, but the lads made slower progress than they wished, for
+the streets were never easy to walk in the dark, and twice they came
+on mobs assailing houses, from the windows of one of which, French shoes
+and boots were being hailed down.&nbsp; Things were moderately quiet
+around St. Paul&rsquo;s, but as they came into Warwick Lane they heard
+fresh shouts and wild cries, and at the archway heading to the inner
+yard they could see that there was a huge bonfire in the midst of the
+court&mdash;of what composed they could not see for the howling figures
+that exulted round it.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;George Bates, the villain!&rdquo; cried Stephen, as his enemy
+in exulting ferocious delight was revealed for a moment throwing a book
+on the fire, and shouting, &ldquo;Hurrah! there&rsquo;s for the old
+sorcerer, there&rsquo;s for the heretics!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>That instant Giles was flying on Bates, and Stephen, with equal,
+if not greater fury, at one of his comrades; but Ambrose dashed through
+the outskirts of the wildly screaming and shouting fellows, many of
+whom were the miscreant population of the mews, to the black yawning
+doorway of his master.&nbsp; He saw only a fellow staggering out with
+the screw of the press to feed the flame, and hurried on in the din
+to call &ldquo;Master, art thou there?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>There was no answer, and he moved on to the next door, calling again
+softly, while all the spoilers seemed absorbed in the fire and the combat.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Master Michael!&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis I, Ambrose!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Here, my son,&rdquo; cautiously answered a voice he knew for
+Lucas Hansen&rsquo;s.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, master! master!&rdquo; was his low, heart-stricken cry,
+as by the leaping light of a flame he saw the pale face of the old printer,
+who drew him in.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea! &rsquo;tis ruin, my son,&rdquo; said Lucas.&nbsp; &ldquo;And
+would that that were the worst.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The light flashed and flickered through the broken window so that
+Ambrose saw that the hangings had been torn down and everything wrecked,
+and a low sound as of stifled weeping directed his eyes to a corner
+where Aldonza sat with her father&rsquo;s head on her lap.&nbsp; &ldquo;Lives
+he?&nbsp; Is he greatly hurt?&rdquo; asked Ambrose, awe-stricken.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The life is yet in him, but I fear me greatly it is passing
+fast,&rdquo; said Lucas, in a low voice.&nbsp; &ldquo;One of those lads
+smote him on the back with a club, and struck him down at the poor maid&rsquo;s
+feet, nor hath he moved since.&nbsp; It was that one young Headley is
+fighting with,&rdquo; he added.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Bates! ah!&nbsp; Would that we had come sooner!&nbsp; What!
+more of this work&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>For just then a tremendous outcry broke forth, and there was a rush
+and panic among those who had been leaping round the fire just before.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;The guard!&mdash;the King&rsquo;s men!&rdquo; was the sound they
+presently distinguished.&nbsp; They could hear rough abusive voices,
+shrieks and trampling of feet.&nbsp; A few seconds more and all was
+still, only the fire remained, and in the stillness the suppressed sobs
+and moans of Aldonza were heard.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A light!&nbsp; Fetch a light from the fire!&rdquo; said Lucas.</p>
+<p>Ambrose ran out.&nbsp; The flame was lessening, but he could see
+the dark bindings, and the blackened pages of the books he loved so
+well.&nbsp; A corner of a page of St. Augustine&rsquo;s Confessions
+was turned towards him and lay on a singed fragment of Aldonza&rsquo;s
+embroidered curtain, while a little red flame was licking the spiral
+folds of the screw, trying, as it were, to gather energy to do more
+than blacken it.&nbsp; Ambrose could have wept over it at any other
+moment, but now he could only catch up a brand&mdash;it was the leg
+of his master&rsquo;s carved chair&mdash;and run back with it.&nbsp;
+Lucas ventured to light a lamp, and they could then see the old man&rsquo;s
+face pale, but calm and still, with his long white beard flowing over
+his breast.&nbsp; There was no blood, no look of pain, only a set look
+about the eyes; and Aldonza cried &ldquo;Oh, father, thou art better!&nbsp;
+Speak to me!&nbsp; Let Master Lucas lift thee up!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, my child.&nbsp; I cannot move hand or foot.&nbsp; Let
+me be thus till the Angel of Death come for me.&nbsp; He is very near.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+He spoke in short sentences.&nbsp; &ldquo;Water&mdash;nay&mdash;no pain,&rdquo;
+he added then, and Ambrose ran for some water in the first battered
+fragment of a tin pot he could find.&nbsp; They bathed his face and
+he gathered strength after a time to say &ldquo;A priest!&mdash;oh for
+a priest to shrive and housel me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I will find one,&rdquo; said Ambrose, speeding out into the
+court over fragments of the beautiful work for which Abenali was hated,
+and over the torn, half-burnt leaves of the beloved store of Lucas.&nbsp;
+The fire had died down, but morning twilight was beginning to dawn,
+and all was perfectly still after the recent tumult, though for a moment
+or two Ambrose heard some distant cries.</p>
+<p>Where should he go?&nbsp; Priests indeed were plentiful, but both
+his friends were in bad odour with the ordinary ones.&nbsp; Lucas had
+avoided both the Lenten shrift and Easter Communion, and what Miguel
+might have done, Ambrose was uncertain.&nbsp; Some young priests had
+actually been among the foremost in sacking the dwellings of the unfortunate
+foreigners, and Ambrose was quite uncertain whether he might not fall
+on one of that stamp&mdash;or on one who might vex the old man&rsquo;s
+soul&mdash;perhaps deny him the Sacraments altogether.&nbsp; As he saw
+the pale lighted windows of St. Paul&rsquo;s, it struck him to see whether
+any one were within.&nbsp; The light might be only from some of the
+tapers burning perpetually, but the pale light in the north-east, the
+morning chill, and the clock striking three, reminded him that it must
+be the hour of Prime, and he said to himself, &ldquo;Sure, if a priest
+be worshipping at this hour, he will be a good and merciful man.&nbsp;
+I can but try.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The door of the transept yielded to his hand.&nbsp; He came forward,
+lighted through the darkness by the gleam of the candles, which cast
+a huge and awful shadow from the crucifix of the rood-screen upon the
+pavement.&nbsp; Before it knelt a black figure in prayer.&nbsp; Ambrose
+advanced in some awe and doubt how to break in on these devotions, but
+the priest had heard his step, rose and said, &ldquo;What is it, my
+son?&nbsp; Dost thou seek sanctuary after these sad doings?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, reverend sir,&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp;  &ldquo;&rsquo;Tis
+a priest for a dying man I seek;&rdquo; and in reply to the instant
+question, where it was, he explained in haste who the sufferer was,
+and how he had received a fatal blow, and was begging for the Sacraments.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;And oh, sir!&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;he is a holy and God-fearing
+man, if ever one lived, and hath been cruelly and foully entreated by
+jealous and wicked folk, who hated him for his skill and industry.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Alack for the unhappy lads; and alack for those who egged
+them on,&rdquo; said the priest.&nbsp; &ldquo;Truly they knew not what
+they did.&nbsp; I will come with thee, my good youth.&nbsp; Thou hast
+not been one of them?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, truly sir, save that I was carried along and could not
+break from the throng.&nbsp; I work for Lucas Hansen, the Dutch printer,
+whom they have likewise plundered in their savage rage.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&rsquo;Tis well.&nbsp; Thou canst then bear this,&rdquo; said
+the priest, taking a thick wax candle.&nbsp; Then reverently advancing
+to the Altar, whence he took the pyx, or gold case in which the Host
+was reserved, he lighted the candle, which he gave, together with his
+stole, to the youth to bear before him.</p>
+<p>Then, when the light fell full on his features, Ambrose with a strange
+thrill of joy and trust perceived that it was no other than Dean Colet,
+who had here been praying against the fury of the people.&nbsp; He was
+very thankful, feeling intuitively that there was no fear but that Abenali
+would be understood, and for his own part, the very contact with the
+man whom he revered seemed to calm and soothe him, though on that solemn
+errand no word could be spoken.&nbsp; Ambrose went on slowly before,
+his dark head uncovered, the priestly stole hanging over his arm, his
+hands holding aloft the tall candle of virgin wax, while the Dean followed
+closely with feeble steps, looking frail and worn, but with a grave,
+sweet solemnity on his face.&nbsp; It was a perfectly still morning,
+and as they slowly paced along, the flame burnt steadily with little
+flickering, while the pure, delicately-coloured sky overhead was becoming
+every moment lighter, and only the larger stars were visible.&nbsp;
+The houses were absolutely still, and the only person they met, a lad
+creeping homewards after the fray, fell on his knees bareheaded as he
+perceived their errand.&nbsp; Once or twice again sounds came up from
+the city beneath, like shrieks or wailing breaking strangely on that
+fair peaceful May morn; but still that pair went on till Ambrose had
+guided the Dean to the yard, where, except that the daylight was revealing
+more and more of the wreck around, all was as he had left it.&nbsp;
+Aldonza, poor child, with her black hair hanging loose like a veil,
+for she had been startled from her bed, still sat on the ground making
+her lap a pillow for the white-bearded head, nobler and more venerable
+than ever.&nbsp; On it lay, in the absolute immobility produced by the
+paralysing blow, the fine features already in the solemn grandeur of
+death, and only the movement of the lips under the white flowing beard
+and of the dark eyes showing life.</p>
+<p>Dean Colet said afterwards that he felt as if he had been called
+to the death-bed of Israel, or of Barzillai the Gileadite, especially
+when the old man, in the Oriental phraseology he had never entirely
+lost, said, &ldquo;I thank Thee, my God, and the God of my fathers,
+that Thou hast granted me that which I had prayed for.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The Dutch printer was already slightly known to the Dean, having
+sold him many books.&nbsp; A few words were exchanged with him, but
+it was plain that the dying man could not be moved, and that his confession
+must he made on the lap of the young girl.&nbsp; Colet knelt over him
+so as to be able to hear, while Lucas and Ambrose withdraw, but were
+soon called back for the remainder of the service for the dying.&nbsp;
+The old man&rsquo;s face showed perfect peace.&nbsp; All worldly thought
+and care seemed to have been crushed out of him by the blow, and he
+did not even appear to think of the unprotected state of his daughter,
+although he blessed her with solemn fervour immediately after receiving
+the Viaticum&mdash;then lay murmuring to himself sentences which Ambrose,
+who had learnt much from him, knew to be from his Arabic breviary about
+palm-branches, and the twelve manner of fruits of the Tree of Life.</p>
+<p>It was a strange scene&mdash;the grand, calm, patriarchal old man,
+so peaceful on his dark-haired daughter&rsquo;s lap in the midst of
+the shattered home in the old feudal stable.&nbsp; All were silent a
+while in awe, but the Dean was the first to move and speak, calling
+Lucas forward to ask sundry questions of him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is there no good woman,&rdquo; he asked, &ldquo;who could
+be with this poor child and take her home, when her father shall have
+passed away?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mine uncle&rsquo;s wife, sir,&rdquo; said Ambrose, a little
+doubtfully.&nbsp; &ldquo;I trow she would come&mdash;since I can certify
+her that your reverence holds him for a holy man.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I had thy word for it,&rdquo; said the Dean.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ah!
+reply not, my son, I see well how it may be with you here.&nbsp; But
+tell those who will take the word of John Colet that never did I mark
+the passing away of one who had borne more for the true holy Catholic
+faith, nor held it more to his soul&rsquo;s comfort.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>For the Dean, a man of vivid intelligence, knew enough of the Moresco
+persecutions to be able to gather from the words of Lucas and Ambrose,
+and the confession of the old man himself, a far more correct estimate
+of Abenali&rsquo;s sufferings, and constancy to the truth, than any
+of the more homebred wits could have divined.&nbsp; He knew, too, that
+his own orthodoxy was so called in question by the narrower and more
+unspiritual section of the clergy that only the appreciative friendship
+of the King and the Cardinal kept him securely in his position.</p>
+<p>Ambrose sped away, knowing that Perronel would be quite satisfied.&nbsp;
+He was sure of her ready compassion and good-will, but she had so often
+bewailed his running after learning and possibly heretical doctrine,
+that he had doubted whether she would readily respond to a summons,
+on his own authority alone, to one looked on with so much suspicion
+as Master Michael.&nbsp; Colet intimated his intention of remaining
+a little longer to pray with the dying man, and further wrote a few
+words on his tablets, telling Ambrose to leave them with one of the
+porters at his house as he went past St. Paul&rsquo;s.</p>
+<p>It was broad daylight now, a lovely May morning, such as generally
+called forth the maidens, small and great, to the meadows to rub their
+fresh cheeks with the silvery dew, and to bring home kingcups, cuckoo
+flowers, blue bottles, and cowslips for the Maypoles that were to be
+decked.&nbsp; But all was silent now, not a house was open, the rising
+sun made the eastern windows of the churches a blaze of light, and from
+the west door of St. Paul&rsquo;s the city beneath seemed sleeping,
+only a wreath or two of smoke rising.&nbsp; Ambrose found the porter
+looking out for his master in much perturbation.&nbsp; He groaned as
+he looked at the tablets, and heard where the Dean was, and said that
+came of being a saint on earth.&nbsp; It would be the death of him ere
+long!&nbsp; What would old Mistress Colet, his mother, say?&nbsp; He
+would have detained the youth with his inquiries, but Ambrose said he
+had to speed down to the Temple on an errand from the Dean, and hurried
+away.&nbsp; All Ludgate Hill was now quiet, every house closed, but
+here and there lay torn shreds of garments, or household vessels.</p>
+<p>As he reached Fleet Street, however, there was a sound of horses&rsquo;
+feet, and a body of men-at-arms with helmets glancing in the sun were
+seen.&nbsp; There was a cry, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s one!&nbsp; That&rsquo;s
+one of the lewd younglings!&nbsp; At him!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And Ambrose to his horror and surprise saw two horsemen begin to
+gallop towards him, as if to ride him down.&nbsp; Happily he was close
+to a narrow archway leading to an alley down which no war-horse could
+possibly make its way, and dashing into it and round a corner, he eluded
+his pursuers, and reached the bank of the river, whence, being by this
+time experienced in the by-ways of London, he could easily reach Perronel&rsquo;s
+house.</p>
+<p>She was standing at her door looking out anxiously, and as she saw
+him she threw up her hands in thanksgiving to our Lady that here he
+was at last, and then turned to scold him.&nbsp; &ldquo;O lad, lad,
+what a night thou hast given me!&nbsp; I trusted at least that thou
+hadst wit to keep out of a fray and to let the poor aliens alone, thou
+that art always running after yonder old Spaniard.&nbsp; Hey! what now?&nbsp;
+Did they fall on him!&nbsp; Fie!&nbsp; Shame on them!&mdash;a harmless
+old man like that.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, good aunt, and what is more, they have slain him, I fear
+me, outright.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Amidst many a &ldquo;good lack&rdquo; and exclamation of pity and
+indignation from Perronel, Ambrose told his tale of that strange night,
+and entreated her to come with him to do what was possible for Abenali
+and his daughter.&nbsp; She hesitated a little; her kind heart was touched,
+but she hardly liked to leave her house, in case her husband should
+come in, as he generally contrived to do in the early morning, now that
+the Cardinal&rsquo;s household was lodged so near her.&nbsp; Sheltered
+as she was by the buildings of the Temple, she had heard little or nothing
+of the noise of the riot, though she had been alarmed at her nephew&rsquo;s
+absence, and an officious neighbour had run in to tell her first that
+the prentice lads were up and sacking the houses of the strangers, and
+next that the Tower was firing on them, and the Lord Mayor&rsquo;s guard
+and the gentlemen of the Inns of Court were up in arms to put them down.&nbsp;
+She said several times, &ldquo;Poor soul!&rdquo; and &ldquo;Yea, it
+were a shame to leave her to the old Dutchkin,&rdquo; but with true
+Flemish deliberation she continued her household arrangements, and insisted
+that the bowl of broth, which she set on the table, should be partaken
+of by herself and Ambrose before she would stir a step.&nbsp; &ldquo;Not
+eat!&nbsp; Now out on thee, lad! what good dost thou think thou or I
+can do if we come in faint and famished, where there&rsquo;s neither
+bite nor sup to be had?&nbsp; As for me, not a foot will I budge, till
+I have seen thee empty that bowl.&nbsp; So to it, my lad!&nbsp; Thou
+hast been afoot all night, and lookst so grimed and ill-favoured a varlet
+that no man would think thou camest from an honest wife&rsquo;s house.&nbsp;
+Wash thee at the pail!&nbsp; Get thee into thy chamber and put on clean
+garments, or I&rsquo;ll not walk the street with thee!&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis
+not safe&mdash;thou wilt be put in ward for one of the rioters.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Everybody who entered that little house obeyed Mistress Randall,
+and Ambrose submitted, knowing it vain to resist, and remembering the
+pursuit he had recently escaped; yet the very refreshment of food and
+cleanliness revealed to him how stiff and weary were his limbs, though
+he was in no mood for rest.&nbsp; His uncle appeared at the door just
+as he had hoped Perronel was ready.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! there&rsquo;s one of you whole and safe!&rdquo; he exclaimed.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Where is the other?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Stephen?&rdquo; exclaimed Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;I saw him
+last in Warwick Inner Yard.&rdquo;&nbsp; And in a few words he explained.&nbsp;
+Hal Randall shook his head.&nbsp; &ldquo;May all be well,&rdquo; he
+exclaimed, and then he told how Sir Thomas Parr had come at midnight
+and roused the Cardinal&rsquo;s household with tidings that all the
+rabble of London were up, plundering and murdering all who came in their
+way, and that he had then ridden on to Richmond to the King with the
+news.&nbsp; The Cardinal had put his house into a state of defence,
+not knowing against whom the riot might be directed&mdash;and the jester
+had not been awakened till too late to get out to send after his wife,
+besides which, by that time, intelligence had come in that the attack
+was directed entirely on the French and Spanish merchants and artificers
+in distant parts of the city and suburbs, and was only conducted by
+lads with no better weapons than sticks, so that the Temple and its
+precincts were in no danger at all.</p>
+<p>The mob had dispersed of its own accord by about three or four o&rsquo;clock,
+but by that hour the Mayor had got together a force, the Gentlemen of
+the Inns of Court and the Yeomen of the Tower were up in arms, and the
+Earl of Shrewsbury had come in with a troop of horse.&nbsp; They had
+met the rioters, and had driven them in herds like sheep to the different
+prisons, after which Lord Shrewsbury had come to report to the Cardinal
+that all was quiet, and the jester having gathered as much intelligence
+as he could, had contrived to slip into the garments that concealed
+his motley, and to reach home.&nbsp; He gave ready consent to Perronel&rsquo;s
+going to the aid of the sufferers in Warwick Inner Yard, especially
+at the summons of the Dean of St. Paul&rsquo;s, and even to her bringing
+home the little wench.&nbsp; Indeed, he would escort her thither himself
+for he was very anxious about Stephen, and Ambrose was so dismayed by
+the account he gave as to reproach himself extremely for having parted
+company with his brother, and never having so much as thought of him
+as in peril, while absorbed in care for Abenali.&nbsp; So the three
+set out together, when no doubt the sober, solid appearance which Randall&rsquo;s
+double suit of apparel and black gown gave him, together with his wife&rsquo;s
+matronly and respectable look, were no small protection to Ambrose,
+for men-at-arms were prowling about the streets, looking hungry to pick
+up straggling victims, and one actually stopped Randall to interrogate
+him as to who the youth was, and what was his errand.</p>
+<p>Before St. Paul&rsquo;s they parted, the husband and wife going towards
+Warwick Inner Yard, whither Ambrose, fleeter of foot, would follow,
+so soon as he had ascertained at the Dragon court whether Stephen was
+at home.</p>
+<p>Alas! at the gate he was hailed with the inquiry whether he had seen
+his brother or Giles.&nbsp; The whole yard was disorganised, no work
+going on.&nbsp; The lads had not been seen all night, and the master
+himself had in the midst of his displeasure and anxiety been summoned
+to the Guildhall.&nbsp; The last that was known was Giles&rsquo;s rescue,
+and the assault on Alderman Mundy.&nbsp; Smallbones and Steelman had
+both gone in different directions to search for the two apprentices,
+and Dennet, who had flown down unheeded and unchecked at the first hope
+of news, pulled Ambrose by the sleeve, and exclaimed, &ldquo;Oh! Ambrose,
+Ambrose! they can never hurt them!&nbsp; They can never do any harm
+to our lads, can they?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose hoped for the same security, but in his dismay, could only
+hurry after his uncle and aunt.</p>
+<p>He found the former at the door of the old stable&mdash;whence issued
+wild screams and cries.&nbsp; Several priests and attendants were there
+now, and the kind Dean with Lucas was trying to induce Aldonza to relax
+the grasp with which she embraced the body, whence a few moments before
+the brave and constant spirit had departed.&nbsp; Her black hair hanging
+over like a veil, she held the inanimate head to her bosom, sobbing
+and shrieking with the violence of her Eastern nature.&nbsp; The priest
+who had been sent for to take care of the corpse, and bear it to the
+mortuary of the Minster, wanted to move her by force; but the Dean insisted
+on one more gentle experiment, and beckoned to the kindly woman, whom
+he saw advancing with eyes full of tears.&nbsp; Perronel knelt down
+by her, persevered when the poor girl stretched out her hand to beat
+her off, crying, &ldquo;Off! go!&nbsp; Leave me my father!&nbsp; O father,
+father, joy of my life! my one only hope and stay, leave me not!&nbsp;
+Wake! wake, speak to thy child, O my father!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Though the child had never seen or heard of Eastern wailings over
+the dead, yet hereditary nature prompted her to the lamentations that
+scandalised the priests and even Lucas, who broke in with &ldquo;Fie,
+maid, thou mournest as one who hath no hope.&rdquo;&nbsp; But Dr. Colet
+still signed to them to have patience, and Perronel somehow contrived
+to draw the girl&rsquo;s head on her breast and give her a motherly
+kiss, such as the poor child had never felt since she, when almost a
+babe, had been lifted from her dying mother&rsquo;s side in the dark
+stifling hold of the vessel in the Bay of Biscay.&nbsp; And in sheer
+surprise and sense of being soothed she ceased her cries, listened to
+the tender whispers and persuasions about holy men who would care for
+her father, and his wishes that she should be a good maid&mdash;till
+at last she yielded, let her hands be loosed, allowed Perronel to lift
+the venerable head from her knee, and close the eyes&mdash;then to gather
+her in her arms, and lead her to the door, taking her, under Ambrose&rsquo;s
+guidance, into Lucas&rsquo;s abode, which was as utterly and mournfully
+dismantled as their own, but where Perronel, accustomed in her wandering
+days to all sorts of contrivances, managed to bind up the streaming
+hair, and, by the help of her own cloak, to bring the poor girl into
+a state in which she could be led through the streets.</p>
+<p>The Dean meantime had bidden Lucas to take shelter at his own house,
+and the old Dutchman had given a sort of doubtful acceptance.</p>
+<p>Ambrose, meanwhile, half distracted about his brother, craved counsel
+of the jester where to seek him.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII.&nbsp; ILL MAY DAY</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;With two and two together tied,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Through
+Temple Bar and Strand they go,<br />To Westminster, there to be tried,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;With
+ropes about their necks also.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><i>Ill May Day.</i></p>
+<p>And where was Stephen?&nbsp; Crouching, wretched with hunger, cold,
+weariness, blows, and what was far worse, sense of humiliation and disgrace,
+and terror for the future, in a corner of the yard of Newgate&mdash;whither
+the whole set of lads, surprised in Warwick Inner Court by the law students
+of the Inns of Court, had been driven like so many cattle, at the sword&rsquo;s
+point, with no attention or perception that he and Giles had been struggling
+<i>against</i> the spoilers.</p>
+<p>Yet this fact made them all the more forlorn.&nbsp; The others, some
+forty in number, their companions in misfortune, included most of the
+Barbican prentices, who were of the Eagle faction, special enemies alike
+to Abenali and to the Dragon, and these held aloof from Headley and
+Birkenholt, nay, reviled them for the attack which they declared had
+caused the general capture.</p>
+<p>The two lads of the Dragon had, in no measured terms, denounced the
+cruelty to the poor old inoffensive man, and were denounced in their
+turn as friends of the sorcerer.&nbsp; But all were too much exhausted
+by the night&rsquo;s work to have spirit for more than a snarling encounter
+of words, and the only effect was that Giles and Stephen were left isolated
+in their misery outside the shelter of the handsome arched gateway under
+which the others congregated.</p>
+<p>Newgate had been rebuilt by Whittington out of pity to poor prisoners
+and captives.&nbsp; It must have been unspeakably dreadful before, for
+the foulness of the narrow paved court, shut in by strong walls, was
+something terrible.&nbsp; Tired, spent, and aching all over, and with
+boyish callousness to dirt, still Giles and Stephen hesitated to sit
+down, and when at last they could stand no longer, they rested, leaning
+against one another.&nbsp; Stephen tried to keep up hope by declaring
+that his master would soon get them released, and Giles alternated between
+despair, and declarations that he would have justice on those who so
+treated his father&rsquo;s son.&nbsp; They dropped asleep&mdash;first
+one and then the other&mdash;from sheer exhaustion, waking from time
+to time to realise that it was no dream, and to feel all the colder
+and more camped.</p>
+<p>By and by there were voices at the gate.&nbsp; Friends were there
+asking after their own Will, or John, or Thomas, as the case might be.&nbsp;
+The jailer opened a little wicket-window in the heavy door, and, no
+doubt for a consideration, passed in food to certain lads whom he called
+out, but it did not always reach its destination.&nbsp; It was often
+torn away as by hungry wolves.&nbsp; For though the felons had been
+let out, when the doors were opened; the new prisoners were not by any
+means all apprentices.&nbsp; There were watermen, husbandmen, beggars,
+thieves, among them, attracted by the scent of plunder; and even some
+of the elder lads had no scruple in snatching the morsel from the younger
+ones.</p>
+<p>Poor little Jasper Hope, a mischievous little curly-headed idle fellow,
+only thirteen, just apprenticed to his brother the draper, and rushing
+about with the other youths in the pride of his flat cap, was one of
+the sufferers.&nbsp; A servant had been at the door, promising that
+his brother would speedily have him released, and handing in bread and
+meat, of which he was instantly robbed by George Bates and three or
+four more big fellows, and sent away reeling and sobbing, under a heavy
+blow, with all the mischief and play knocked out of him.&nbsp; Stephen
+and Giles called &ldquo;Shame!&rdquo; but were unheeded, and they could
+only draw the little fellow up to them, and assure him that his brother
+would soon come for him.</p>
+<p>The next call at the gate was Headley and Birkenholt&mdash;&ldquo;Master
+Headley&rsquo;s prentices&mdash;Be they here?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And at their answer, not only the window, but the door in the gate
+was opened, and stooping low to enter, Kit Smallbones came in, and not
+empty-handed.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, ay, youngsters,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;I knew how it would
+be, by what I saw elsewhere, so I came with a fee to open locks.&nbsp;
+How came ye to get into such plight as this?&nbsp; And poor little Hope
+too!&nbsp; A fine pass when they put babes in jail.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m prenticed!&rdquo; said Jasper, though in a very
+weak little voice.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Have you had bite or sup?&rdquo; asked Kit.</p>
+<p>And on their reply, telling how those who had had supplies from home
+had been treated, Smallbones observed, &ldquo;Let them try it,&rdquo;
+and stood, at all his breadth, guarding the two youths and little Jasper,
+as they ate, Stephen at first with difficulty, in the faintness and
+foulness of the place, but then ravenously.&nbsp; Smallbones lectured
+them on their folly all the time, and made them give an account of the
+night.&nbsp; He said their master was at the Guildhall taking counsel
+with the Lord Mayor, and there were reports that it would go hard with
+the rioters, for murder and plunder had been done in many places, and
+he especially looked at Giles with pity, and asked how he came to embroil
+himself with Master Mundy?&nbsp; Still his good-natured face cheered
+them, and he promised further supplies.&nbsp; He also relieved Stephen&rsquo;s
+mind about his brother, telling of his inquiry at the Dragon in the
+morning.&nbsp; All that day the condition of such of the prisoners as
+had well-to-do friends was improving.&nbsp; Fathers, brothers, masters,
+and servants, came in quest of them, bringing food and bedding, and
+by exorbitant fees to the jailers obtained for them shelter in the gloomy
+cells.&nbsp; Mothers could not come, for a proclamation had gone out
+that none were to babble, and men were to keep their wives at home.&nbsp;
+And though there were more material comforts, prospects were very gloomy.&nbsp;
+Ambrose came when Kit Smallbones returned with what Mrs. Headley had
+sent the captives.&nbsp; He looked sad and dazed, and clung to his brother,
+but said very little, except that they ought to be locked up together,
+and he really would have been left in Newgate, if Kit had not laid a
+great hand on his shoulder and almost forced him away.</p>
+<p>Master Headley himself arrived with Master Hope in the afternoon.&nbsp;
+Jasper sprang to his brother, crying, &ldquo;Simon!&nbsp; Simon! you
+are come to take me out of this dismal, evil place?&rdquo;&nbsp; But
+Master Hope&mdash;a tall, handsome, grave young man, who had often been
+much disturbed by his little brother&rsquo;s pranks&mdash;could only
+shake his head with tears in his eyes, and, sitting down on the roll
+of bedding, take him on his knee and try to console him with the hope
+of liberty in a few days.</p>
+<p>He had tried to obtain the boy&rsquo;s release on the plea of his
+extreme youth, but the authorities were hotly exasperated, and would
+hear of no mercy.&nbsp; The whole of the rioters were to be tried three
+days hence, and there was no doubt that some would be made an example
+of, the only question was, how many?</p>
+<p>Master Headley closely interrogated his own two lads, and was evidently
+sorely anxious about his namesake, who, he feared, might be recognised
+by Alderman Mundy and brought forward as a ringleader of the disturbance;
+nor did he feel at all secure that the plea that he had no enmity to
+the foreigners, but had actually tried to defend Lucas and Abenali,
+would be attended to for a moment, though Lucas Hansen had promised
+to bear witness of it.&nbsp; Giles looked perfectly stunned at the time,
+unable to take in the idea, but at night Stephen was wakened on the
+pallet that they shared with little Jasper, by hearing him weeping and
+sobbing for his mother at Salisbury.</p>
+<p>Time lagged on till the 4th of May.&nbsp; Some of the poor boys whiled
+away their time with dreary games in the yard, sometimes wrestling,
+but more often gambling with the dice, that one or two happened to possess,
+for the dinners that were provided for the wealthier, sometimes even
+betting on what the sentences would be, and who would be hanged, or
+who escape.</p>
+<p>Poor lads, they did not, for the most part, realise their real danger,
+but Stephen was more and more beset with home-sick longing for the glades
+and thickets of his native forest, and would keep little Jasper and
+even Giles for an hour together telling of the woodland adventures of
+those happy times, shutting his eyes to the grim stone walls, and trying
+to think himself among the beeches, hollies, cherries, and hawthorns,
+shining in the May sun!&nbsp; Giles and he were chose friends now, and
+with little Jasper, said their Paters and Aves together, that they might
+be delivered from their trouble.&nbsp; At last, on the 4th, the whole
+of the prisoners were summoned roughly into the court, where harsh-hooking
+men-at-arms proceeded to bind them together in pairs to be marched through
+the streets to the Guildhall.&nbsp; Giles and Stephen would naturally
+have been put together, but poor little Jasper cried out so lamentably,
+when he was about to be bound to a stranger, that Stephen stepped forward
+in his stead, begging that the boy might go with Giles.&nbsp; The soldier
+made a contemptuous sound, but consented, and Stephen found that his
+companion in misfortune, whose left elbow was tied to his right was
+George Bates.</p>
+<p>The two lads looked at each other in a strange, rueful manner, and
+Stephen said, &ldquo;Shake hands, comrade.&nbsp; If we are to die, let
+us bear no ill-will.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>George gave a cold, limp, trembling hand.&nbsp; He looked wretched,
+subdued, tearful, and nearly starved, for he had no kinsfolk at hand,
+and his master was too angry with him, and too much afraid of compromising
+himself, to have sent him any supplies.&nbsp; Stephen tried to unbutton
+his own pouch, but not succeeding with his left hand, bade George try
+with his right.&nbsp; &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a cake of bread there,&rdquo;
+he said.&nbsp; &ldquo;Eat that, and thou&rsquo;lt be able better to
+stand up like a man, come what will.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>George devoured it eagerly.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; he said, in a
+stronger voice, &ldquo;Stephen Birkenholt, thou art an honest fellow.&nbsp;
+I did thee wrong.&nbsp; If ever we get out of this plight!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Here they were ordered to march, and in a long and doleful procession
+they set forth.&nbsp; The streets were lined with men-at-arms, for all
+the affections and sympathies of the people were with the unfortunate
+boys, and a rescue was apprehended.</p>
+<p>In point of fact, the Lord Mayor and aldermen were afraid of the
+King&rsquo;s supposing them to have organised the assault on their rivals,
+and each was therefore desirous to show severity to any one&rsquo;s
+apprentices save his own; while the nobility were afraid of contumacy
+on the part of the citizens, and were resolved to crush down every rioter
+among them, so that they had filled the city with their armed retainers.&nbsp;
+Fathers and mothers, masters and dames, sisters and fellow prentices,
+found their doors closely guarded, and could only look with tearful,
+anxious eyes, at the processions of poor youths, many of them mere children,
+who were driven from each of the jails to the Guildhall.&nbsp; There
+when all collected the entire number amounted to two hundred and seventy-eight,
+though a certain proportion of these were grown men, priests, wherrymen
+and beggars, who had joined the rabble in search of plunder.</p>
+<p>It did not look well for them that the Duke of Norfolk and his son,
+the Earl of Surrey, were joined in the commission with the Lord Mayor.&nbsp;
+The upper end of the great hall was filled with aldermen in their robes
+and chains, with the sheriffs of London and the whole imposing array,
+and the Lord Mayor with the Duke sat enthroned above them in truly awful
+dignity.&nbsp; The Duke was a hard and pitiless man, and bore the City
+a bitter grudge for the death of his retainer, the priest killed in
+Cheapside, and in spite of all his poetical fame, it may be feared that
+the Earl of Surrey was not of much more merciful mood, while their men-at-arms
+spoke savagely of hanging, slaughtering, or setting the City on fire.</p>
+<p>The arraignment was very long, as there were so large a number of
+names to be read, and, to the horror of all, it was not for a mere riot,
+but for high treason.&nbsp; The King, it was declared, being in amity
+with all Christian princes, it was high treason to break the truce and
+league by attacking their subjects resident in England.&nbsp; The terrible
+punishment of the traitor would thus be the doom of all concerned, and
+in the temper of the Howards and their retainers, there was little hope
+of mercy, nor, in times like those, was there even much prospect that,
+out of such large numbers, some might escape.</p>
+<p>A few were more especially cited, fourteen in number, among them
+George Bates, Walter Ball, and Giles Headley, who had certainly given
+cause for the beginning of the affray.&nbsp; There was no attempt to
+defend George Bates, who seemed to be stunned and bewildered beyond
+the power of speaking or even of understanding, but as Giles cast his
+eyes round in wild, terrified appeal, Master Headley rose up in his
+alderman&rsquo;s gown, and prayed leave to be heard in his defence,
+as he had witnesses to bring in his favour.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is he thy son, good Armourer Headley?&rdquo; demanded the
+Duke of Norfolk, who held the work of the Dragon court in high esteem.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, my Lord Duke, but he is in the place of one, my near
+kinsman and godson, and so soon as his time be up, bound to wed my only
+child!&nbsp; I pray you to hear his cause, ere cutting off the heir
+of an old and honourable house.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Norfolk and his sons murmured something about the Headley skill in
+armour, and the Lord Mayor was willing enough for mercy, but Sir John
+Mundy here rose: &ldquo;My Lord Duke, this is the very young man who
+was first to lay hands on me!&nbsp; Yea, my lords and sirs, ye have
+already heard how their rude sport, contrary to proclamation, was the
+cause of the tumult.&nbsp; When I would have bidden them go home, the
+one brawler asks me insolently, &lsquo;Wherefore?&rsquo; the other smote
+me with his sword, whereupon the whole rascaille set on me, and as Master
+Alderman Headley can testify, I scarce reached his house alive.&nbsp;
+I ask should favour overcome justice, and a ringleader, who hath assaulted
+the person of an alderman, find favour above others?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I ask not for favour,&rdquo; returned Headley, &ldquo;only
+that witnesses be heard on his behalf, ere he be condemned.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Headley, as a favourite with the Duke, prevailed to have permission
+to call his witnesses; Christopher Smallbones, who had actually rescued
+Alderman Mundy from the mob, and helped him into the Dragon court, could
+testify that the proclamation had been entirely unheard in the din of
+the youths looking on at the game.&nbsp; And this was followed up by
+Lucas Hansen declaring that so far from having attacked or plundered
+him and the others in Warwick Inner Yard, the two, Giles Headley and
+Stephen Birkenholt, had come to their defence, and fallen on those who
+were burning their goods.</p>
+<p>On this a discussion followed between the authorities seated at the
+upper end of the hall.&nbsp; The poor anxious watchers below could only
+guess by the gestures what was being agitated as to their fate, and
+Stephen was feeling it sorely hard that Giles should be pleaded for
+as the master&rsquo;s kinsman, and he left to so cruel a fate, no one
+saying a word for him but unheeded Lucas.&nbsp; Finally, without giving
+of judgment, the whole of the miserable prisoners, who had been standing
+without food for hours, were marched back, still tied, to their several
+prisons, while their guards pointed out the gibbets where they were
+to suffer the next day.</p>
+<p>Master Headley was not quite so regardless of his younger apprentice
+as Stephen imagined.&nbsp; There was a sort of little council held in
+his hall when he returned&mdash;sad, dispirited, almost hopeless&mdash;to
+find Hal Randall anxiously awaiting him.&nbsp; The alderman said he
+durst not plead for Stephen, lest he should lose both by asking too
+much, and his young kinsman had the first right, besides being in the
+most peril as having been singled out by name; whereas Stephen might
+escape with the multitude if there were any mercy.&nbsp; He added that
+the Duke of Norfolk was certainly inclined to save one who knew the
+secret of Spanish sword-blades; but that he was fiercely resolved to
+be revenged for the murder of his lewd priest in Cheapside, and that
+Sir John Mundy was equally determined that Giles should not escape.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What am I to say to his mother?&nbsp; Have I brought him from
+her for this?&rdquo; mourned Master Headley.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ay, and Master
+Randall, I grieve as much for thy nephew, who to my mind hath done nought
+amiss.&nbsp; A brave lad!&nbsp; A good lad, who hath saved mine own
+life.&nbsp; Would that I could do aught for him!&nbsp; It is a shame!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Father,&rdquo; said Dennet, who had crept to the back of his
+chair, &ldquo;the King would save him!&nbsp; Mind you the golden whistle
+that the grandame keepeth?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The maid hath hit it!&rdquo; exclaimed Randall.&nbsp; &ldquo;Master
+alderman!&nbsp; Let me but have the little wench and the whistle to-morrow
+morn, and it is done.&nbsp; How sayest thou, pretty mistress?&nbsp;
+Wilt thou go with me and ask thy cousin&rsquo;s life, and poor Stephen&rsquo;s,
+of the King?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;With all my heart, sir,&rdquo; said Dennet, coming to him
+with outstretched hands.&nbsp; &ldquo;Oh! sir, canst thou save them?&nbsp;
+I have been vowing all I could think of to our Lady and the saints,
+and now they are going to grant it!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Tarry a little,&rdquo; said the alderman.&nbsp; &ldquo;I must
+know more of this.&nbsp; Where wouldst thou take my child?&nbsp; How
+obtain access to the King&rsquo;s Grace?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Worshipful sir, trust me,&rdquo; said Randall.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thou
+know&rsquo;st I am sworn servant to my Lord Cardinal, and that his folk
+are as free of the Court as the King&rsquo;s own servants.&nbsp; If
+thine own folk will take us up the river to Richmond, and there wait
+for us while I lead the maid to the King, I can well-nigh swear to thee
+that she will prevail.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The alderman looked greatly distressed.&nbsp; Ambrose threw himself
+on his knees before him, and in an agony entreated him to consent, assuring
+him that Master Randall could do what he promised.&nbsp; The alderman
+was much perplexed.&nbsp; He knew that his mother, who was confined
+to her bed by rheumatism, would be shocked at the idea.&nbsp; He longed
+to accompany his daughter himself, but for him to be absent from the
+sitting of the court might be fatal to Giles, and he could not bear
+to lose any chance for the poor youths.</p>
+<p>Meantime an interrogative glance and a nod had passed between Tibble
+and Randall, and when the alderman looked towards the former, always
+his prime minister, the answer was, &ldquo;Sir, meseemeth that it were
+well to do as Master Randall counselleth.&nbsp; I will go with Mistress
+Dennet, if such be your will.&nbsp; The lives of two such youths as
+our prentices may not lightly be thrown away, while by God&rsquo;s providence
+there is any means of striving to save them.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Consent then was given, and it was further arranged that Dennet and
+her escort should be ready at the early hour of half-past four, so as
+to elude the guards who were placed in the streets; and also because
+King Henry in the summer went very early to mass, and then to some out-of-door
+sport.&nbsp; Randall said he would have taken his own good woman to
+have the care of the little mistress, but that the poor little orphan
+Spanish wench had wept herself so sick, that she could not be left to
+a stranger.</p>
+<p>Master Headley himself brought the child by back streets to the river,
+and thence down to the Temple stairs, accompanied by Tibble Steelman,
+and a maid-servant on whose presence her grandmother had insisted.&nbsp;
+Dennet had hardly slept all night for excitement and perturbation, and
+she looked very white, small, and insignificant for her thirteen years,
+when Randall and Ambrose met her, and placed her carefully in the barge
+which was to take them to Richmond.&nbsp; It was somewhat fresh in the
+very early morning, and no one was surprised that Master Randall wore
+a large dark cloak as they rowed up the river.&nbsp; There was very
+little speech between the passengers; Dennet sat between Ambrose and
+Tibble.&nbsp; They kept their heads bowed.&nbsp; Ambrose&rsquo;s brow
+was on one hand, his elbow on his knee, but he spared the other to hold
+Dennet.&nbsp; He had been longing for the old assurance he would once
+have had, that to vow himself to a life of hard service in a convent
+would be the way to win his brother&rsquo;s life; but he had ceased
+to be able to feel that such bargains were the right course, or that
+a convent necessarily afforded sure way of service, and he never felt
+mere insecure of the way and means to prayer than in this hour of anguished
+supplication.</p>
+<p>When they came beyond the City, within sight of the trees of Sheen,
+as Richmond was still often called, Randall insisted that Dennet should
+eat some of the bread and meat that Tibble had brought in a wallet for
+her.&nbsp; &ldquo;She must look her best,&rdquo; he said aside to the
+foreman.&nbsp; &ldquo;I would that she were either more of a babe or
+better favoured!&nbsp; Our Hal hath a tender heart for a babe and an
+eye for a buxom lass.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He bade the maid trim up the child&rsquo;s cap and make the best
+of her array, and presently reached some stairs leading up to the park.&nbsp;
+There he let Ambrose lift her out of the boat.&nbsp; The maid would
+fain have followed, but he prevented this, and when she spoke of her
+mistress having bidden her follow wherever the child went, Tibble interfered,
+telling her that his master&rsquo;s orders were that Master Randall
+should do with her as he thought meet.&nbsp; Tibble himself followed
+until they reached a thicket entirely concealing them from the river.&nbsp;
+Halting here, Randall, with his nephew&rsquo;s help, divested himself
+of his long gown and cloak, his beard and wig, produced cockscomb and
+bauble from his pouch, and stood before the astonished eyes of Dennet
+as the jester!</p>
+<p>She recoiled upon Tibble with a little cry, &ldquo;Oh, why should
+he make sport of us?&nbsp; Why disguise himself?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Listen, pretty mistress,&rdquo; said Randall.&nbsp; &ldquo;&rsquo;Tis
+no disguise, Tibble there can tell you, or my nephew.&nbsp; My disguise
+lies there,&rdquo; pointing to his sober raiment.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thus
+only can I bring thee to the King&rsquo;s presence!&nbsp; Didst think
+it was jest?&nbsp; Nay, verily, I am as bound to try to save my sweet
+Stevie&rsquo;s life, my sister&rsquo;s own gallant son, as thou canst
+be to plead for thy betrothed.&rdquo;&nbsp; Dennet winced.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, Mistress Dennet,&rdquo; said Tibble, &ldquo;thou mayst
+trust him, spite of his garb, and &rsquo;tis the sole hope.&nbsp; He
+could only thus bring thee in.&nbsp; Go thou on, and the lad and I will
+fall to our prayers.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Dennet&rsquo;s bosom heaved, but she looked up in the jesters dark
+eyes, saw the tears in them, made an effort, put her hand in his, and
+said, &ldquo;I will go with him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Hal led her away, and they saw Tibble and Ambrose both fall on their
+knees behind the hawthorn bush, to speed them with their prayers, while
+all the joyous birds singing their carols around seemed to protest against
+the cruel captivity and dreadful doom of the young gladsome spirits
+pent up in the City prisons.</p>
+<p>One full gush of a thrush&rsquo;s song in especial made Dennet&rsquo;s
+eyes overflow, which the jester perceived and said, &ldquo;Nay, sweet
+maid, no tears.&nbsp; Kings brook not to be approached with blubbered
+faces.&nbsp; I marvel not that it seems hard to thee to go along with
+such as I, but let me be what I will outside, mine heart is heavy enough,
+and thou wilt learn sooner or later, that fools are not the only folk
+who needs must smile when they have a load within.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And then, as much to distract her thoughts and prevent tears as to
+reassure her, he told her what he had before told his nephews of the
+inducements that had made him Wolsey&rsquo;s jester, and impressed on
+her the forms of address.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou&rsquo;lt hear me make free with him, but that&rsquo;s
+part of mine office, like the kitten I&rsquo;ve seen tickling the mane
+of the lion in the Tower.&nbsp; Thou must say, &lsquo;An it please your
+Grace,&rsquo; and thou needst not speak of his rolling in the mire,
+thou wottest, or it may anger him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The girl showed that her confidence became warmer by keeping nearer
+to his side, and presently she said, &ldquo;I must beg for Stephen first,
+for &rsquo;tis his whistle.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Blessings on thee, fair wench, for that, yet seest thou, &rsquo;tis
+the other springald who is in the greater peril, and he is closer to
+thy father and to thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He fled, when Stephen made in to the rescue of my father,&rdquo;
+said Dennet.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The saints grant we may so work with the King that he may
+spare them both,&rdquo; ejaculated Randall.</p>
+<p>By this time the strange pair were reaching the precincts of the
+great dwelling-house, where about the wide-open door loitered gentlemen,
+grooms, lacqueys, and attendants of all kinds.&nbsp; Randall reconnoitred.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;An we go up among all these,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;they might
+make their sport of us both, so that we might have time.&nbsp; Let us
+see whether the little garden postern be open.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Henry VIII. had no fears of his people, and kept his dwellings more
+accessible than were the castles of many a subject.&nbsp; The door in
+the wall proved to be open, and with an exclamation of joy, Randall
+pointed out two figures, one in a white silken doublet and hose, with
+a short crimson cloak over his shoulder, the other in scarlet and purple
+robes, pacing the walk under the wall&mdash;Henry&rsquo;s way of holding
+a cabinet council with his prime minister on a summer&rsquo;s morning.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Come on, mistress, put a brave face on it!&rdquo; the jester
+encouraged the girl, as he led her forward, while the king, catching
+sight of them, exclaimed, &ldquo;Ha! there&rsquo;s old Patch.&nbsp;
+What doth he there?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>But the Cardinal, impatient of interruption, spoke imperiously, &ldquo;What
+dost thou here, Merriman?&nbsp; Away, this is no time for thy fooleries
+and frolics.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>But the King, with some pleasure in teasing, and some of the enjoyment
+of a schoolboy at a break in his tasks, called out, &ldquo;Nay, come
+hither, quipsome one!&nbsp; What new puppet hast brought hither to play
+off on us?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, brother Hal,&rdquo; said the jester, &ldquo;I have brought
+one to let thee know how Tom of Norfolk and his crew are playing the
+fool in the Guildhall, and to ask who will be the fool to let them wreak
+their spite on the best blood in London, and leave a sore that will
+take many a day to heal.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How is this, my Lord Cardinal?&rdquo; said Henry; &ldquo;I
+bade them make an example of a few worthless hinds, such as might teach
+the lusty burghers to hold their lads in bounds and prove to our neighbours
+that their churlishness was by no consent of ours.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I trow,&rdquo; returned the Cardinal, &ldquo;that one of these
+same hinds is a boon companion of the fool&rsquo;s&mdash;<i>hinc ill&aelig;
+lachrym&aelig;</i>, and a speech that would have befitted a wise man&rsquo;s
+mouth.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There is work that may well make even a fool grave, friend
+Thomas,&rdquo; replied the jester.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, but what hath this little wench to say?&rdquo; asked
+the King, looking down on the child from under his plumed cap with a
+face set in golden hair, the fairest and sweetest, as it seemed to her,
+that she had ever seen, as he smiled upon her.&nbsp; &ldquo;Methinks
+she is too small to be thy love.&nbsp; Speak out, little one.&nbsp;
+I love little maids, I have one of mine own.&nbsp; Hast thou a brother
+among these misguided lads?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not so, an please your Grace,&rdquo; said Dennet, who fortunately
+was not in the least shy, and was still too young for a maiden&rsquo;s
+shamefastness.&nbsp; &ldquo;He is to be my betrothed.&nbsp; I would
+say, one of them is, but the other&mdash;he saved my father&rsquo;s
+life once.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The latter words were lost in the laughter of the King and Cardinal
+at the unblushing avowal of the small, prim-faced maiden.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh ho!&nbsp; So &rsquo;tis a case of true love, whereto a
+King&rsquo;s face must needs show grace.&nbsp; Who art thou, fair suppliant,
+and who may this swain of thine be?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am Dennet Headley, so please your Grace; my father is Giles
+Headley the armourer, Alderman of Cheap Ward,&rdquo; said Dennet, doing
+her part bravely, though puzzled by the King&rsquo;s tone of banter;
+&ldquo;and see here, your Grace!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ha! the hawk&rsquo;s whistle that Archduke Philip gave me!&nbsp;
+What of that?&nbsp; I gave it&mdash;ay, I gave it to a youth that came
+to mine aid, and reclaimed a falcon for me!&nbsp; Is&rsquo;t he, child?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, sir, &rsquo;tis he who came in second at the butts, next
+to Barlow, &rsquo;tis Stephen Birkenholt!&nbsp; And he did nought!&nbsp;
+They bore no ill-will to strangers!&nbsp; No, they were falling on the
+wicked fellows who had robbed and slain good old Master Michael, who
+taught our folk to make the only real true Damascus blades welded in
+England.&nbsp; But the lawyers of the Inns of Court fell on them all
+alike, and have driven them off to Newgate, and poor little Jasper Hope
+too.&nbsp; And Alderman Mundy bears ill-will to Giles.&nbsp; And the
+cruel Duke of Norfolk and his men swear they&rsquo;ll have vengeance
+on the Cheap, and there&rsquo;ll be hanging and quartering this very
+morn.&nbsp; Oh! your Grace, your Grace, save our lads! for Stephen saved
+my father.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thy tongue wags fast, little one,&rdquo; said the King, good-naturedly,
+&ldquo;with thy Stephen and thy Giles.&nbsp; Is this same Stephen, the
+knight of the whistle and the bow, thy betrothed, and Giles thy brother?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, your Grace,&rdquo; said Dennet, hanging her head, &ldquo;Giles
+Headley is my betrothed&mdash;that is, when his time is served, he will
+be&mdash;father sets great store by him, for he is the only one of our
+name to keep up the armoury, and he has a mother, Sir, a mother at Salisbury.&nbsp;
+But oh, Sir, Sir!&nbsp; Stephen is so good and brave a had!&nbsp; He
+made in to save father from the robbers, and he draws the best bow in
+Cheapside, and he can grave steel as well as Tibble himself, and this
+is the whistle your Grace wots of.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Henry listened with an amused smile that grew broader as Dennet&rsquo;s
+voice all unconsciously became infinitely more animated and earnest,
+when she began to plead Stephen&rsquo;s cause.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, well, sweetheart,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I trow thou
+must have the twain of them, though,&rdquo; he added to the Cardinal,
+who smiled broadly, &ldquo;it might perchance be more for the maid&rsquo;s
+peace than she wots of now, were we to leave this same knight of the
+whistle to be strung up at once, ere she have found her heart; but in
+sooth that I cannot do, owing well nigh a life to him and his brother.&nbsp;
+Moreover, we may not have old Headley&rsquo;s skill in weapons lost!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Dennet held her hands close clasped while these words were spoken
+apart.&nbsp; She felt as if her hope, half granted, were being snatched
+from her, as another actor appeared on the scene, a gentleman in a lawyer&rsquo;s
+gown, and square cap, which he doffed as he advanced and put his knee
+to the ground before the King, who greeted him with &ldquo;Save you,
+good Sir Thomas, a fair morning to you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;They told me your Grace was in Council with my Lord Cardinal,&rdquo;
+said Sir Thomas More; &ldquo;but seeing that there was likewise this
+merry company, I durst venture to thrust in, since my business is urgent.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Dennet here forgot court manners enough to cry out, &ldquo;O your
+Grace! your Grace, be pleased for pity&rsquo;s sake to let me have the
+pardon for them first, or they&rsquo;ll be hanged and dead.&nbsp; I
+saw the gallows in Cheapside, and when they are dead, what good will
+your Grace&rsquo;s mercy do them?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I see,&rdquo; said Sir Thomas.&nbsp; &ldquo;This little maid&rsquo;s
+errand jumps with mine own, which was to tell your Grace that unless
+there be speedy commands to the Howards to hold their hands, there will
+be wailing like that of Egypt in the City.&nbsp; The poor boys, who
+were but shouting and brawling after the nature of mettled youth&mdash;the
+most with nought of malice&mdash;are penned up like sheep for the slaughter&mdash;ay,
+and worse than sheep, for we quarter not our mutton alive, whereas these
+poor younglings&mdash;babes of thirteen, some of them&mdash;be indicted
+for high treason!&nbsp; Will the parents, shut in from coming to them
+by my Lord of Norfolk&rsquo;s men, ever forget their agonies, I ask
+your Grace?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Henry&rsquo;s face grew red with passion.&nbsp; &ldquo;If Norfolk
+thinks to act the King, and turn the city into a shambles,&rdquo;&mdash;with
+a mighty oath&mdash;&ldquo;he shall abye it.&nbsp; Here, Lord Cardinal&mdash;more,
+let the free pardon be drawn up for the two lads.&nbsp; And we will
+ourselves write to the Lord Mayor and to Norfolk that though they may
+work their will on the movers of the riot&mdash;that pestilent Lincoln
+and his sort&mdash;not a prentice lad shall be touched till our pleasure
+be known.&nbsp; There now, child, thou hast won the lives of thy lads,
+as thou callest them.&nbsp; Wilt thou rue the day, I marvel?&nbsp; Why
+cannot some of their mothers pluck up spirit and beg them off as thou
+hast done?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea,&rdquo; said Wolsey.&nbsp; &ldquo;That were the right
+course.&nbsp; If the Queen were moved to pray your Grace to pity the
+striplings then could the Spaniards make no plaint of too much clemency
+being shown.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>They were all this time getting nearer the palace, and being now
+at a door opening into the hall, Henry turned round.&nbsp; &ldquo;There,
+pretty maid, spread the tidings among thy gossips, that they have a
+tender-hearted Queen, and a gracious King.&nbsp; The Lord Cardinal will
+presently give thee the pardon for both thy lads, and by and by thou
+wilt know whether thou thankest me for it!&rdquo;&nbsp; Then putting
+his hand under her chin, he turned up her face to him, kissed her on
+each cheek, and touched his feathered cap to the others, saying, &ldquo;See
+that my bidding be done,&rdquo; and disappeared.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It must be prompt, if it be to save any marked for death this
+morn,&rdquo; More in a how voice observed to the Cardinal.&nbsp; &ldquo;Lord
+Edmund Howard is keen as a blood-hound on his vengeance.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Wolsey was far from being a cruel man, and besides, there was a natural
+antagonism between him and the old nobility, and he liked and valued
+his fool, to whom he turned, saying, &ldquo;And what stake hast thou
+in this, sirrah?&nbsp; Is&rsquo;t all pure charity?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m scarce such a fool as that, Cousin Red Hat,&rdquo;
+replied Randall, rallying his powers.&nbsp; &ldquo;I leave that to Mr.
+More here, whom we all know to be a good fool spoilt.&nbsp; But I&rsquo;ll
+make a clean breast of it.&nbsp; This same Stephen is my sister&rsquo;s
+son, an orphan lad of good birth and breeding&mdash;whom, my lord, I
+would die to save.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou shalt have the pardon instantly, Merriman,&rdquo; said
+the Cardinal, and beckoning to one of the attendants who clustered round
+the door, he gave orders that a clerk should instantly, and very briefly,
+make out the form.&nbsp; Sir Thomas More, hearing the name of Headley,
+added that for him indeed the need of haste was great, since he was
+one of the fourteen sentenced to die that morning.</p>
+<p>Quipsome Hal was interrogated as to how he had come, and the Cardinal
+and Sir Thomas agreed that the river would be as speedy a way of returning
+as by land; but they decided that a King&rsquo;s pursuivant should accompany
+him, otherwise there would be no chance of forcing his way in time through
+the streets, guarded by the Howard retainers.</p>
+<p>As rapidly as was in the nature of a high officer&rsquo;s clerk to
+produce a dozen lines, the precious document was indicted, and it was
+carried at last to Dennet, bearing Henry&rsquo;s signature and seal.&nbsp;
+She held it to her bosom, while, accompanied by the pursuivant, who&mdash;happily
+for them&mdash;was interested in one of the unfortunate fourteen, and
+therefore did not wait to stand on his dignity, they hurried across
+to the place where they had left the barge&mdash;Tibble and Ambrose
+joining them on the way.&nbsp; Stephen was safe.&nbsp; Of his life there
+could be no doubt, and Ambrose almost repented of feeling his heart
+so light while Giles&rsquo;s fate hung upon their speed.</p>
+<p>The oars were plied with hearty good-will, but the barge was somewhat
+heavy, and by and by coming to a landing-place where two watermen had
+a much smaller and lighter boat, the pursuivant advised that he should
+go forward with the more necessary persons, leaving the others to follow.&nbsp;
+After a few words, the light weights of Tibble and Dennet prevailed
+in their favour, and they shot forward in the little boat.</p>
+<p>They passed the Temple&mdash;on to the stairs nearest Cheapside&mdash;up
+the street.&nbsp; There was an awful stillness, only broken by heavy
+knells sounding at intervals from the churches.&nbsp; The back streets
+were thronged by a trembling, weeping people, who all eagerly made way
+for the pursuivant, as he called &ldquo;Make way, good people&mdash;a
+pardon!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>They saw the broader space of Cheapside.&nbsp; Horsemen in armour
+guarded it, but they too opened a passage for the pursuivant.&nbsp;
+There was to be seen above the people&rsquo;s heads a scaffold.&nbsp;
+A fire burnt on it&mdash;the gallows and noosed rope hung above.</p>
+<p>A figure was mounting the ladder.&nbsp; A boy!&nbsp; Oh, Heavens!
+would it be too late?&nbsp; Who was it?&nbsp; They were still too far
+off to see.&nbsp; They might only be cruelly holding out hope to one
+of the doomed.</p>
+<p>The pursuivant shouted aloud&mdash;&ldquo;In the King&rsquo;s name,
+Hold!&rdquo;&nbsp; He lifted Dennet on his shoulder, and bade her wave
+her parchment.&nbsp; An overpowering roar arose.&nbsp; &ldquo;A pardon!
+a pardon!&nbsp; God save the King!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Every hand seemed to be forwarding the pursuivant and the child,
+and it was Giles Headley, who, loosed from the hold of the executioner,
+stared wildly about him, like one distraught.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.&nbsp; PARDON</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;What if;&rsquo; quoth she, &lsquo;by Spanish blood<br />Have
+London&rsquo;s stately streets been wet,<br />Yet will I seek this country&rsquo;s
+good<br />And pardon for these young men get.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>CHURCHILL.</p>
+<p>The night and morning had been terrible to the poor boys, who only
+had begun to understand what awaited them.&nbsp; The fourteen selected
+had little hope, and indeed a priest came in early morning to hear the
+confessions of Giles Headley and George Bates, the only two who were
+in Newgate.</p>
+<p>George Bates was of the stolid, heavy disposition that seems armed
+by outward indifference, or mayhap pride.&nbsp; He knew that his case
+was hopeless, and he would not thaw even to the priest.&nbsp; But Giles
+had been quite unmanned, and when he found that for the doleful procession
+to the Guildhall he was to be coupled with George Bates, instead of
+either of his room-fellows, he flung himself on Stephen&rsquo;s neck,
+sobbing out messages for his mother, and entreaties that, if Stephen
+survived, he would be good to Aldonza.&nbsp; &ldquo;For you will wed
+Dennet, and&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>There the jailers roughly ordered him to hold his peace, and dragged
+him off to be pinioned to his fellow-sufferer.&nbsp; Stephen was not
+called till some minutes later, and had not seen him since.&nbsp; He
+himself was of course overshadowed by the awful gloom of apprehension
+for himself, and pity for his comrades, and he was grieved at not having
+seen or heard of his brother or master, but he had a very present care
+in Jasper, who was sickening in the prison atmosphere, and when fastened
+to his arm, seemed hardly able to walk.&nbsp; Leashed as they were,
+Stephen could only help him by holding the free hand, and when they
+came to the hall, supporting him as much as possible, as they stood
+in the miserable throng during the conclusion of the formalities, which
+ended by the horrible sentence of the traitor being pronounced on the
+whole two hundred and seventy-eight.&nbsp; Poor little Jasper woke for
+an interval from the sense of present discomfort to hear it, he seemed
+to stiffen all over with the shock of horror, and then hung a dead weight
+on Stephen&rsquo;s arm.&nbsp; It would have dragged him down, but there
+was no room to fall, and the wretchedness of the lad against whom he
+staggered found vent in a surly imprecation, which was lost among the
+cries and the entreaties of some of the others.&nbsp; The London magistracy
+were some of them in tears, but the indictment for high treason removed
+the poor lads from their jurisdiction to that of the Earl Marshal, and
+thus they could do nothing to save the fourteen foremost victims.&nbsp;
+The others were again driven out of the hall to return to their prisons;
+the nearest pair of lads doing their best to help Stephen drag his burthen
+along.&nbsp; In the halt outside, to arrange the sad processions, one
+of the guards, of milder mood, cut the cord that bound the lifeless
+weight to Stephen, and permitted the child to be laid on the stones
+of the court, his collar unbuttoned, and water to be brought.&nbsp;
+Jasper was just reviving when the word came to march, but still he could
+not stand, and Stephen was therefore permitted the free use of his arms,
+in order to carry the poor little fellow.&nbsp; Thirteen years made
+a considerable load for seventeen, though Stephen&rsquo;s arms were
+exercised in the smithy, and it was a sore pull from the Guildhall.&nbsp;
+Jasper presently recovered enough to walk with a good deal of support.&nbsp;
+When he was laid on the bed he fell unto an exhausted sleep, while Stephen
+kneeling, as the strokes of the knell smote on his ear, prayed&mdash;as
+he had never prayed before&mdash;for his comrade, for his enemy, and
+for all the unhappy boys who were being led to their death wherever
+the outrages had been committed.</p>
+<p>Once indeed there was a strange sound coming across that of the knell.&nbsp;
+It almost sounded like an acclamation of joy.&nbsp; Could people be
+so cruel, thought Stephen, as to mock poor Giles&rsquo;s agonies?&nbsp;
+There were the knells still sounding.&nbsp; How long he did not know,
+for a beneficent drowsiness stole over him as he knelt, and he was only
+awakened, at the same time as Jasper, by the opening of his door.</p>
+<p>He looked up to see three figures&mdash;his brother, his uncle, his
+master.&nbsp; Were they come to take leave of him?&nbsp; But the one
+conviction that their faces beamed with joy was all that he could gather,
+for little Jasper sprang up with a scream of terror, &ldquo;Stephen,
+Stephen, save me!&nbsp; They will cut out my heart,&rdquo; and clung
+trembling to his breast, with arms round his neck.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Poor child! poor child!&rdquo; sighed Master Headley.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Would that I brought him the same tidings as to thee!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is it so?&rdquo; asked Stephen, reading confirmation as he
+looked from the one to the other.&nbsp; Though he was unable to rise
+under the weight of the boy, life and light were coming to his eye,
+while Ambrose clasped his hand tightly, chocked by the swelling of his
+heart in almost an agony of joy and thankfulness.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, my good lad,&rdquo; said the alderman.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thy
+good kinsman took my little wench to bear to the King the token he gave
+thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And Giles?&rdquo; Stephen asked, &ldquo;and the rest?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Giles is safe.&nbsp; For the rest&mdash;may God have mercy
+on their souls.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>These words passed while Stephen rocked Jasper backwards and forwards,
+his face hidden on his neck.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Come home,&rdquo; added Master Headley.&nbsp; &ldquo;My little
+Dennet and Giles cannot yet rejoice till thou art with them.&nbsp; Giles
+would have come himself, but he is sorely shaken, and could scarce stand.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Jasper caught the words, and loosing his friend&rsquo;s neck, looked
+up.&nbsp; &ldquo;Oh! are we going home?&nbsp; Come, Stephen.&nbsp; Where&rsquo;s
+brother Simon?&nbsp; I want my good sister!&nbsp; I want nurse!&nbsp;
+Oh! take me home!&rdquo;&nbsp; For as he tried to sit up, he fell back
+sick and dizzy on the bed.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Alack! alack!&rdquo; mourned Master Headley; and the jester,
+muttering that it was not the little wench&rsquo;s fault, turned to
+the window, and burst into tears.&nbsp; Stephen understood it all, and
+though he felt a passionate longing for freedom, he considered in one
+moment whether there were any one of his fellow prisoners to whom Jasper
+could be left, or who would be of the least comfort to him, but could
+find no one, and resolved to cling to him as once to old Spring.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; he said, as he rose to his master, &ldquo;I fear
+me he is very sick.&nbsp; Will they&mdash;will your worship give me
+licence to bide with him till this ends?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou art a good-hearted lad,&rdquo; said the alderman with
+a hand on his shoulder.&nbsp; &ldquo;There is no further danger of life
+to the prentice lads.&nbsp; The King hath sent to forbid all further
+dealing with them, and hath bidden my little maid to set it about that
+if their mothers beg them grace from good Queen Katherine, they shall
+have it.&nbsp; But this poor child!&nbsp; He can scarce be left.&nbsp;
+His brother will take it well of thee if thou wilt stay with him till
+some tendance can be had.&nbsp; We can see to that.&nbsp; Thanks be
+to St. George and our good King, this good City is our own again!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The alderman turned away, and Ambrose and Stephen exchanged a passionate
+embrace, feeling what it was to be still left to one another.&nbsp;
+The jester too shook his nephew&rsquo;s hand, saying, &ldquo;Boy, boy,
+the blessing of such as I is scarce worth the having, but I would thy
+mother could see thee this day.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen was left with these words and his brother&rsquo;s look to
+bear him through a trying time.</p>
+<p>For the &ldquo;Captain of Newgate&rdquo; was an autocrat, who looked
+on his captives as compulsory lodgers, out of whom he was entitled to
+wring as much as possible&mdash;as indeed he had no other salary, nor
+means of maintaining his underlings, a state of things which lasted
+for two hundred years longer, until the days of James Oglethorpe and
+John Howard.&nbsp; Even in the rare cases of acquittals, the prisoner
+could not be released till he had paid his fees, and that Giles Headley
+should have been borne off from the scaffold itself in debt to him was
+an invasion of his privileges, which did not dispose him to be favourable
+to any one connected with that affair; and he liked to show his power
+and dignity even to an alderman.</p>
+<p>He was found sitting in a comfortable tapestried chamber, handsomely
+dressed in orange and brown, and with a smooth sleek countenance and
+the appearance of a good-natured substantial citizen.</p>
+<p>He only half rose from his big carved chair, and touched without
+removing his cap, to greet the alderman, as he observed, without the
+accustomed prefix of your worship&mdash;&ldquo;So, you are come about
+your prentice&rsquo;s fees and dues.&nbsp; By St. Peter of the Fetters,
+&rsquo;tis an irksome matter to have such a troop of idle, mischievous,
+dainty striplings thrust on one, giving more trouble, and making more
+call and outcry than twice as many honest thieves and pickpurses.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Be assured, sir, they will scarce trouble you longer than
+they can help,&rdquo; said Master Headley.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, the Duke and my Lord Edmund are making brief work of
+them,&rdquo; quoth the jailer.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ha!&rdquo; with an oath,
+&ldquo;what&rsquo;s that?&nbsp; Nought will daunt those lads till the
+hangman is at their throats.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>For it was a real hurrah that reached his ears.&nbsp; The jester
+had got all the boys round him in the court, and was bidding them keep
+up a good heart, for their lives were safe, and their mothers would
+beg them off.&nbsp; Their shouts did not tend to increase the captain&rsquo;s
+good humour, and though he certainly would not have let out Alderman
+Headley&rsquo;s remaining apprentice without his fee, he made as great
+a favour of permission, and charged as exorbitantly, for a pardoned
+man to remain within his domains as if they had been the most costly
+and delightful hostel in the kingdom.</p>
+<p>Master Hope, who presently arrived, had to pay a high fee for leave
+to bring Master Todd, the barber-surgeon, with him to see his brother;
+but though he offered a mark a day (a huge amount at that time) the
+captain was obdurate in refusing to allow the patient to be attended
+by his own old nurse, declaring that it was contrary to discipline,
+and (what probably affected him much more) one such woman could cause
+more trouble than a dozen felons.&nbsp; No doubt it was true, for she
+would have insisted on moderate cleanliness and comfort.&nbsp; No other
+attendant whom Mr. Hope could find would endure the disgrace, the discomfort,
+and alarm of a residence in Newgate for Jasper&rsquo;s sake; so that
+the drapers gratitude to Stephen Birkenholt, for voluntarily sharing
+the little fellow&rsquo;s captivity, was great, and he gave payment
+to one or two of the officials to secure the two lads being civilly
+treated, and that the provisions sent in reached them duly.</p>
+<p>Jasper did not in general seem very ill by day, only heavy, listless
+and dull, unable to eat, too giddy to sit up, and unable to help crying
+like a babe, if Stephen left him for a moment; but he never fell asleep
+without all the horror and dread of the sentence coming over him.&nbsp;
+Like all the boys in London, he had gazed at executions with the sort
+of curiosity that leads rustic lads to run to see pigs killed, and now
+the details came over him in semi-delirium, as acted out on himself,
+and he shrieked and struggled in an anguish which was only mitigated
+by Stephen&rsquo;s reassurances, caresses, even scoldings.&nbsp; The
+other youths, relieved from the apprehension of death, agreed to regard
+their detention as a holiday, and not being squeamish, turned the yard
+into a playground, and there they certainly made uproar, and played
+pranks, enough to justify the preference of the captain for full grown
+criminals.&nbsp; But Stephen could not join them, for Jasper would not
+spare him for an instant, and he himself, though at first sorely missing
+employment and exercise, was growing drowsy and heavy limbed in his
+cramped life and the evil atmosphere, even the sick longings for liberty
+were gradually passing away from him, so that sometimes he felt as if
+he had lived here for ages and known no other life, though no sooner
+did he lie down to rest, and shut his eyes, than the trees and green
+glades of the New Forest rose before him, with all the hollies shining
+in the summer light, or the gorse making a sheet of gold.</p>
+<p>The time was not in reality so very long.&nbsp; On the 7th of May,
+John Lincoln, the broker, who had incited Canon Peale to preach against
+the foreigners, was led forth with several others of the real promoters
+of the riot to the centre of Cheapside, where Lincoln was put death,
+but orders were brought to respite the rest; and, at the same time,
+all the armed men were withdrawn, the City began to breathe, and the
+women who had been kept within doors to go abroad again.</p>
+<p>The Recorder of London and several aldermen were to meet the King
+at his manor at Greenwich.&nbsp; This was the mothers&rsquo; opportunity.&nbsp;
+The civic dignitaries rode in mourning robes, but the wives and mothers,
+sweethearts and sisters, every woman who had a youth&rsquo;s life at
+stake, came together, took boat, and went down the river, a strange
+fleet of barges, all containing white caps, and black gowns and hoods,
+for all were clad in the most correct and humble citizen&rsquo;s costume.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Never was such a sight,&rdquo; said Jester Randall, who had
+taken care to secure a view, and who had come with his report to the
+Dragon court.&nbsp; &ldquo;It might have been Ash Wednesday for the
+look of them, when they landed and got into order.&nbsp; One would think
+every prentice lad had got at least three mothers, and four or five
+aunts and sisters!&nbsp; I trow, verily, that half of them came to look
+on at the other half, and get a sight of Greenwich and the three queens.&nbsp;
+However, be that as it might, not one of them but knew how to open the
+sluices.&nbsp; Queen Katharine noted well what was coming, and she and
+the Queens of Scotland and France sat in the great chamber with the
+doors open.&nbsp; And immediately there&rsquo;s a knock at the door,
+and so soon as the usher opens it, in they come, three and three, every
+good wife of them with her napkin to her eyes, and working away with
+her sobs.&nbsp; Then Mistress Todd, the barber-surgeon&rsquo;s wife,
+she spoke for all, being thought to have the more courtly tongue, having
+been tirewoman to Queen Mary ere she went to France.&nbsp; Verily her
+husband must have penned the speech for her&mdash;for it began right
+scholarly, and flowery, with a likening of themselves to the mothers
+of Bethlehem (lusty innocents theirs, I trow!), but ere long the good
+woman faltered and forgot her part, and broke out &lsquo;Oh! madam,
+you that are a mother yourself, for the sake of your own sweet babe,
+give us back our sons.&rsquo; And therewith they all fell on their knees,
+weeping and wringing their hands, and crying out, &lsquo;Mercy, mercy!&nbsp;
+For our Blessed Lady&rsquo;s sake, have pity on our children!&rsquo;
+till the good Queen, with the tears running down her cheeks for very
+ruth, told them that the power was not in her hands, but the will was
+for them and their poor sons, and that she would strive so to plead
+for them with the King as to win their freedom.&nbsp; Meantime, there
+were the aldermen watching for the King in his chamber of presence,
+till forth he came, when all fell on their knees, and the Recorder spake
+for them, casting all the blame on the vain and light persons who had
+made that enormity.&nbsp; Thereupon what does our Hal but make himself
+as stern as though he meant to string them all up in a line.&nbsp; &lsquo;Ye
+ought to wail and be sorry,&rsquo; said he, &lsquo;whereas ye say that
+substantial persons were not concerned, it appeareth to the contrary.&nbsp;
+You did wink at the matter,&rsquo; quoth he, &lsquo;and at this time
+we will grant you neither favour nor good-will.&rsquo;&nbsp; However,
+none who knew Hal&rsquo;s eye but could tell that &rsquo;twas all very
+excellent fooling, when he bade them get to the Cardinal.&nbsp; Therewith,
+in came the three queens, hand in hand, with tears in their eyes, so
+as they might have been the three queens that bore away King Arthur,
+and down they went on their knees, and cried aloud &lsquo;Dear sir,
+we who are mothers ourselves, beseech you to set the hearts at ease
+of all the poor mothers who are mourning for their sons.&rsquo;&nbsp;
+Whereupon, the door being opened, came in so piteous a sound of wailing
+and lamentation as our Harry&rsquo;s name must have been Herod to withstand!&nbsp;
+&lsquo;Stand up, Kate,&rsquo; said he, &lsquo;stand up, sisters, and
+hark in your ear.&nbsp; Not a hair of the silly lads shall be touched,
+but they must bide lock and key long enough to teach them and their
+masters to keep better ward.&rsquo;&nbsp; And then when the queens came
+back with the good tidings, such a storm of blessings was never heard,
+laughings and cryings, and the like, for verily some of the women seemed
+as distraught for joy as ever they had been for grief and fear.&nbsp;
+Moreover, Mistress Todd being instructed of her husband, led up Mistress
+Hope to Queen Mary, and told her the tale of how her husband&rsquo;s
+little brother, a mere babe, lay sick in prison&mdash;a mere babe, a
+suckling as it were&mdash;and was like to die there, unless the sooner
+delivered, and how our Steve was fool enough to tarry with the poor
+child, pardoned though he be.&nbsp; Then the good lady wept again, and
+&lsquo;Good woman,&rsquo; saith she to Mistress Hope, &lsquo;the King
+will set thy brother free anon.&nbsp; His wrath is not with babes, nor
+with lads like this other of whom thou speakest.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;So off was she to the King again, and though he and his master
+pished and pshawed, and said if one and another were to be set free
+privily in this sort, there would be none to come and beg for mercy
+as a warming to all malapert youngsters to keep within bounds, &lsquo;Nay,
+verily,&rsquo; quoth I, seeing the moment for shooting a fool&rsquo;s
+bolt among them, &lsquo;methinks Master Death will have been a pick-lock
+before you are ready for them, and then who will stand to cry mercy?&rsquo;</p>
+<p>The narrative was broken off short by a cry of jubilee in the court.&nbsp;
+Workmen, boys, and all were thronging together, Kit Smallbones&rsquo;
+head towering in the midst.&nbsp; Vehement welcomes seemed in progress.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Stephen!&nbsp; Stephen!&rdquo; shouted Dennet, and flew out of
+the hall and down the steps.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The lad himself!&rdquo; exclaimed the jester, leaping down
+after her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Stephen, the good boy!&rdquo; said Master Headley, descending
+more slowly, but not less joyfully.</p>
+<p>Yes, Stephen himself it was, who had quietly walked into the court.&nbsp;
+Master Hope and Master Todd had brought the order for Jasper&rsquo;s
+release, had paid the captain&rsquo;s exorbitant fees for both, and,
+while the sick boy was carried home in a litter, Stephen had entered
+the Dragon court through the gates, as if he were coming home from an
+errand; though the moment he was recognised by the little four-year
+old Smallbones, there had been a general rush and shout of ecstatic
+welcome, led by Giles Headley, who fairly threw himself on Stephen&rsquo;s
+neck, as they met like comrades after a desperate battle.&nbsp; Not
+one was there who did not claim a grasp of the boy&rsquo;s hand, and
+who did not pour out welcomes and greetings, while in the midst, the
+released captive looked, to say the truth, very spiritless, faded, dusty,
+nay dirty.&nbsp; The court seemed spinning round with him, and the loud
+welcomes roared in his ears.&nbsp; He was glad that Dennet took one
+hand, and Giles the other, declaring that he must be led to the grandmother
+instantly.</p>
+<p>He muttered something about being in too foul trim to go near her,
+but Dennet held him fast, and he was too dizzy to make much resistance.&nbsp;
+Old Mrs. Headley was better again, though not able to do much but sit
+by the fire kept burning to drive away the plague which was always smouldering
+in London.</p>
+<p>She held out her hands to Stephen, as he knelt down by her.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Take an old woman&rsquo;s blessing, my good youth,&rdquo; she
+said.&nbsp; &ldquo;Right glad am I to see thee once more.&nbsp; Thou
+wilt not be the worse for the pains thou hast spent on the little lad,
+though they have tried thee sorely.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen, becoming somewhat less dazed, tried to fulfil his long cherished
+intention of thanking Dennet for her intercession, but the instant he
+tried to speak, to his dismay and indignation, tears choked his voice,
+and he could do nothing but weep, as if, thought he, his manhood had
+been left behind in the jail.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Vex not thyself,&rdquo; said the old dame, as she saw him
+struggling with his sobs.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thou art worn out&mdash;Giles
+here was not half his own man when he came out, nor is he yet.&nbsp;
+Nay, beset him not, children.&nbsp; He should go to his chamber, change
+these garments, and rest ere supper-time.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen was fain to obey, only murmuring an inquiry for his brother,
+to which his uncle responded that if Ambrose were at home, the tidings
+would send him to the Dragon instantly; but he was much with his old
+master, who was preparing to leave England, his work here being ruined.</p>
+<p>The jester then took leave, accepting conditionally an invitation
+to supper.&nbsp; Master Headley, Smallbones, and Tibble now knew who
+he was, but the secret was kept from all the rest of the household,
+lest Stephen should be twitted with the connection.</p>
+<p>Cold water was not much affected by the citizens of London, but smiths&rsquo;
+and armourers&rsquo; work entailed a freer use of it than less grimy
+trades; and a bath and Sunday garments made Stephen more like himself,
+though still he felt so weary and depressed that he missed the buoyant
+joy of release to which he had been looking forward.</p>
+<p>He was sitting on the steps, leaning against the rail, so much tired
+that he hoped none of his comrades would notice that he had come out,
+when Ambrose hurried into the court, having just heard tidings of his
+freedom, and was at his side at once.&nbsp; The two brothers sat together,
+leaning against one another as if they had all that they could wish
+or long for.&nbsp; They had not met for more than a week, for Ambrose&rsquo;s
+finances had not availed to fee the turnkeys to give him entrance.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And what art thou doing, Ambrose?&rdquo; asked Stephen, rousing
+a little from his lethargy.&nbsp; &ldquo;Methought I heard mine uncle
+say thine occupation was gone?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Even so,&rdquo; replied Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;Master Lucas
+will sail in a week&rsquo;s time to join his brother at Rotterdam, bearing
+with him what he hath been able to save out of the havoc.&nbsp; I wot
+not if I shall ever see the good man more.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am glad thou dost not go with him,&rdquo; said Stephen,
+with a hand on his brother&rsquo;s leather-covered knee.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I would not put seas between us,&rdquo; returned Ambrose.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Moreover, though I grieve to lose my good master, who hath been
+so scurvily entreated here, yet, Stephen, this trouble and turmoil hath
+brought me that which I longed for above all, even to have speech with
+the Dean of St. Paul&rsquo;s.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He then told Stephen how he had brought Dean Colet to administer
+the last rites to Abenali, and how that good man had bidden Lucas to
+take shelter at the Deanery, in the desolation of his own abode.&nbsp;
+This had led to conversation between the Dean and the printer; Lucas,
+who distrusted all ecclesiastics, would accept no patronage.&nbsp; He
+had a little hoard, buried in the corner of his stall, which would suffice
+to carry him to his native home and he wanted no more; but he had spoken
+of Ambrose, and the Dean was quite ready to be interested in the youth
+who had led him to Abenali.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He had me to his privy chamber,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;and
+spake to me as no man hath yet spoken&mdash;no, not even Tibble.&nbsp;
+He let me utter all my mind, nay, I never wist before even what mine
+own thoughts were till he set them before me&mdash;as it were in a mirror.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou wast ever in a harl,&rdquo; said Stephen, drowsily using
+the Hampshire word for whirl or entanglement.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea.&nbsp; On the one side stood all that I had ever believed
+or learnt before I came hither of the one true and glorious Mother-Church
+to whom the Blessed Lord had committed the keys of His kingdom, through
+His holy martyrs and priests to give us the blessed host and lead us
+in the way of salvation.&nbsp; And on the other side, I cannot but see
+the lewd and sinful and worldly lives of the most part, and hear the
+lies whereby they amass wealth and turn men from the spirit of truth
+and holiness to delude them into believing that wilful sin can be committed
+without harm, and that purchase of a parchment is as good as repentance.&nbsp;
+That do I see and hear.&nbsp; And therewith my master Lucas and Dan
+Tindall, and those of the new light, declare that all has been false
+even from the very outset, and that all the pomp and beauty is but Satan&rsquo;s
+bait, and that to believe in Christ alone is all that needs to justify
+us, casting all the rest aside.&nbsp; All seemed a mist, and I was swayed
+hither and thither till the more I read and thought, the greater was
+the fog.&nbsp; And this&mdash;I know not whether I told it to yonder
+good and holy doctor, or whether he knew it, for his eyes seemed to
+see into me, and he told me that he had felt and thought much the same.&nbsp;
+But on that one great truth, that faith in the Passion is salvation,
+is the Church built, though sinful men have hidden it by their errors
+and lies as befell before among the Israelites, whose law, like ours,
+was divine.&nbsp; Whatever is entrusted to man, he said, will become
+stained, soiled, and twisted, though the power of the Holy Spirit will
+strive to renew it.&nbsp; And such an outpouring of cleansing and renewing
+power is, he saith, abroad in our day.&nbsp; When he was a young man,
+this good father, so he said, hoped great things, and did his best to
+set forth the truth, both at Oxford and here, as indeed he hath ever
+done, he and the good Doctor Erasmus striving to turn men&rsquo;s eyes
+back to the simplicity of God&rsquo;s Word rather than to the arguments
+and deductions of the schoolmen.&nbsp; And for the abuses of evil priests
+that have sprung up, my Lord Cardinal sought the Legatine Commission
+from our holy father at Rome to deal with them.&nbsp; But Dr. Colet
+saith that there are other forces at work, and he doubteth greatly whether
+this same cleansing can be done without some great and terrible rending
+and upheaving, that may even split the Church as it were asunder&mdash;since
+judgment surely awaiteth such as will not be reformed.&nbsp; But, quoth
+he, &lsquo;our Mother-Church is God&rsquo;s own Church and I will abide
+by her to the end, as the means of oneness with my Lord and Head, and
+do thou the same, my son, for thou art like to be more sorely tried
+than will a frail old elder like me, who would fain say his <i>Nunc
+Dimittis</i>, if such be the Lord&rsquo;s will, ere the foundations
+be cast down.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose had gone on rehearsing all these words with the absorption
+of one to whom they were everything, till it occurred to him to wonder
+that Stephen had listened to so much with patience and assent, and then,
+looking at the position of head and hands, he perceived that his brother
+was asleep, and came to a sudden halt.&nbsp; This roused Stephen to
+say, &ldquo;Eh?&nbsp; What?&nbsp; The Dean, will he do aught for thee?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea,&rdquo; said Ambrose, recollecting that there was little
+use in returning to the perplexities which Stephen could not enter into.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;He deemed that in this mood of mine, yea, and as matters now
+be at the universities, I had best not as yet study there for the priesthood.&nbsp;
+But he said he would commend me to a friend whose life would better
+show me how the new gives life to the old than any man he wots of.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;One of thy old doctors in barnacles, I trow,&rdquo; said Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, verily.&nbsp; We saw him t&rsquo;other night perilling
+his life to stop the poor crazy prentices, and save the foreigners.&nbsp;
+Dennet and our uncle saw him pleading for them with the King.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What!&nbsp; Sir Thomas More?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, no other.&nbsp; He needs a clerk for his law matters,
+and the Dean said he would speak of me to him.&nbsp; He is to sup at
+the Deanery to-morrow, and I am to be in waiting to see him.&nbsp; I
+shall go with a lighter heart now that thou art beyond the clutches
+of the captain of Newgate.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Speak no more of that!&rdquo; said Stephen, with a shudder.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Would that I could forget it!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In truth Stephen&rsquo;s health had suffered enough to change the
+bold, high-spirited, active had, so that he hardly knew himself.&nbsp;
+He was quite incapable of work all the next day, and Mistress Headley
+began to dread that he had brought home jail fever, and insisted on
+his being inspected by the barber-surgeon, Todd, who proceeded to bleed
+the patient, in order, as he said, to carry off the humours contracted
+in the prison.&nbsp; He had done the same by Jasper Hope, and by Giles,
+but he followed the treatment up with better counsel, namely, that the
+lads should all be sent out of the City to some farm where they might
+eat curds and whey, until their strength should be restored.&nbsp; Thus
+they would be out of reach of the sweating sickness which was already
+in some of the purlieus of St. Katharine&rsquo;s Docks, and must be
+specially dangerous in their lowered condition.</p>
+<p>Master Hope came in just after this counsel had been given.&nbsp;
+He had a sister married to the host of a large prosperous inn near Windsor,
+and he proposed to send not only Jasper but Stephen thither, feeling
+how great a debt of gratitude he owed to the lad.&nbsp; Remembering
+well the good young Mistress Streatfield, and knowing that the Antelope
+was a large old house of excellent repute, where she often lodged persons
+of quality attending on the court or needing country air, Master Headley
+added Giles to the party at his own expense, and wished also to send
+Dennet for greater security, only neither her grandmother nor Mrs. Hope
+could leave home.</p>
+<p>It ended, however, in Perronel Randall being asked to take charge
+of the whole party, including Aldonza.&nbsp; That little damsel had
+been in a manner confided to her both by the Dean of St. Paul&rsquo;s
+and by Tibble Steelman&mdash;and indeed the motherly woman, after nursing
+and soothing her through her first despair at the loss of her father,
+was already loving her heartily, and was glad to give her a place in
+the home which Ambrose was leaving on being made an attendant on Sir
+Thomas More.</p>
+<p>For the interview at the Deanery was satisfactory.&nbsp; The young
+man, after a good supper, enlivened by the sweet singing of some chosen
+pupils of St. Paul&rsquo;s school, was called up to where the Dean sat,
+and with him, the man of the peculiarly sweet countenance, with the
+noble and deep expression, yet withal, something both tender and humorous
+in it.</p>
+<p>They made him tell his whole life, and asked many questions about
+Abenali, specially about the fragment of Arabic scroll which had been
+clutched in his hand even as he lay dying.&nbsp; They much regretted
+never having known of his existence till too late.&nbsp; &ldquo;Jewels
+lie before the unheeding!&rdquo; said More.&nbsp; Then Ambrose was called
+on to show a specimen of his own penmanship, and to write from Sir Thomas&rsquo;s
+dictation in English and in Latin.&nbsp; The result was that he was
+engaged to act as one of the clerks Sir Thomas employed in his occupations
+alike as lawyer, statesman, and scholar.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Methinks I have seen thy face before,&rdquo; said Sir Thomas,
+looking keenly at him.&nbsp; &ldquo;I have beheld those black eyes,
+though with a different favour.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose blushed deeply.&nbsp; &ldquo;Sir, it is but honest to tell
+you that my mother&rsquo;s brother is jester to my Lord Cardinal.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Quipsome Hal Merriman!&nbsp; Patch as the King calleth him!&rdquo;
+exclaimed Sir Thomas.&nbsp; &ldquo;A man I have ever thought wore the
+motley rather from excess, than infirmity, of wit.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, sir, so please you, it was his good heart that made him
+a jester,&rdquo; said Ambrose, explaining the story of Randall and his
+Perronel in a few words, which touched the friends a good deal, and
+the Dean remembered that she was in charge of the little Moresco girl.&nbsp;
+He lost nothing by dealing thus openly with his new master, who promised
+to keep his secret for him, then gave him handsel of his salary, and
+bade him collect his possessions, and come to take up his abode in the
+house of the More family at Chelsea.</p>
+<p>He would still often see his brother in the intervals of attending
+Sir Thomas to the courts of law, but the chief present care was to get
+the boys into purer air, both to expedite their recovery and to ensure
+them against being dragged into the penitential company who were to
+ask for their lives on the 22nd of May, consisting of such of the prisoners
+who could still stand or go&mdash;for jail-fever was making havoc among
+them, and some of the better-conditioned had been released by private
+interest.&nbsp; The remainder, not more than half of the original two
+hundred and seventy-eight, were stripped to their shirts, had halters
+hung round their necks, and then, roped together as before, were driven
+through the streets to Westminster, where the King sat enthroned.&nbsp;
+There, looking utterly miserable, they fell on their knees before him,
+and received his pardon for their misdemeanours.&nbsp; They returned
+to their masters, and so ended that Ill May-day, which was the longer
+remembered because one Churchill, a ballad-monger in St. Paul&rsquo;s
+Churchyard, indited a poem on it, wherein he swelled the number of prentices
+to two thousand, and of the victims to two hundred.&nbsp; Will Wherry,
+who escaped from among the prisoners very forlorn, was recommended by
+Ambrose to the work of a carter at the Dragon, which he much preferred
+to printing.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX.&nbsp; AT THE ANTELOPE</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Full
+many a sprightly race,<br />Disporting on thy margent green,<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The
+paths of pleasure trace.&rdquo;<br />&mdash;GRAY</p>
+<p>Master Hope took all the guests by boat to Windsor, and very soon
+the little party at the Antelope was in a state of such perfect felicity
+as became a proverb with them all their lives afterwards.&nbsp; It was
+an inn wherein to take one&rsquo;s ease, a large hostel full of accommodation
+for man and horse, with a big tapestried room of entertainment below,
+where meals were taken, with an oriel window with a view of the Round
+Tower, and above it a still more charming one, known as the Red Rose,
+because one of the Dukes of Somerset had been wont to lodge there.&nbsp;
+The walls were tapestried with the story of St. Genoveva of Brabant,
+fresh and new on Mrs. Streatfield&rsquo;s marriage; there was a huge
+bed with green curtains of that dame&rsquo;s own work, where one might
+have said</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;Above, below, the rose of snow,<br />Twined with her blushing
+foe we spread.&rdquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>so as to avoid all offence.&nbsp; There was also a cupboard or sideboard
+of the choicer plate belonging to the establishment, and another awmry
+containing appliances for chess and backgammon, likewise two large chairs,
+several stools, and numerous chests.</p>
+<p>This apartment was given up to Mistress Randall and the two girls,
+subject however to the chance of turning out for any very distinguished
+guests.&nbsp; The big bed held all three, and the chamber was likewise
+their sitting-room, though they took their meals down stairs, and joined
+the party in the common room in the evening whenever they were not out
+of doors, unless there were guests whom Perronel did not think desirable
+company for her charges.&nbsp; Stephen and Giles were quartered in a
+small room known as the Feathers, smelling so sweet of lavender and
+woodruff that Stephen declared it carried him back to the Forest.&nbsp;
+Mrs. Streatfield would have taken Jasper to tend among her children,
+but the boy could not bear to be without Stephen, and his brother advised
+her to let it be so, and not try to make a babe of him again.</p>
+<p>The guest-chamber below stairs opened at one end into the innyard,
+a quadrangle surrounded with stables, outhouses, and offices, with a
+gallery running round to give access to the chambers above, where, when
+the Court was at Windsor, two or three great men&rsquo;s trains of retainers
+might be crowded together.</p>
+<p>One door, however, in the side of the guest-chamber had steps down
+to an orchard, full of apple and pear trees in their glory of pink bud
+and white blossom, borders of roses, gillyflowers, and lilies of the
+valley running along under the grey walls.&nbsp; There was a broad space
+of grass near the houses, whence could be seen the Round Tower of the
+Castle looking down in protection, while the background of the view
+was filled up with a mass of the foliage of Windsor forest, in the spring
+tints.</p>
+<p>Stephen never thought of its being beautiful, but he revelled in
+the refreshment of anything so like home, and he had nothing to wish
+for but his brother, and after all he was too contented and happy even
+to miss him much.</p>
+<p>Master Streatfield was an elderly man, fat and easygoing, to whom
+talking seemed rather a trouble than otherwise, though he was very good-natured.&nbsp;
+His wife was a merry, lively, active woman, who had been handed over
+to him by her father like a piece of Flanders cambric, but who never
+seemed to regret her position, managed men and maids, farm and guests,
+kept perfect order without seeming to do so, and made great friends
+with Perronel, never guessing that she had been one of the strolling
+company, who, nine or ten years before, had been refused admission to
+the Antelope, then crowded with my Lord of Oxford&rsquo;s followers.</p>
+<p>At first, it was enough for the prentices to spend most of their
+time in lying about on the grass under the trees.&nbsp; Giles, who was
+in the best condition, exerted himself so far as to try to learn chess
+from Aldonza, who seemed to be a proficient in the game, and even defeated
+the good-natured burly parson who came every evening to the Antelope,
+to imbibe slowly a tankard of ale, and hear any news there stirring.</p>
+<p>She and Giles were content to spend hours over her instructions in
+chess on that pleasant balcony in the shade of the house.&nbsp; Though
+really only a year older than Dennet Headley, she looked much more,
+and was so in all her ways.&nbsp; It never occurred to her to run childishly
+wild with delight in the garden and orchard as did Dennet, who, with
+little five-years-old Will Streatfield for her guide and playfellow,
+rushed about hither and thither, making acquaintance with hens and chickens,
+geese and goslings, seeing cows and goats milked, watching butter churned,
+bringing all manner of animal and vegetable curiosities to Stephen to
+be named and explained, and enjoying his delight in them, a delight
+which after the first few days became more and more vigorous.</p>
+<p>By and by there was punting and fishing on the river, strawberry
+gathering in the park, explorations of the forest, expeditions of all
+sorts and kinds, Jasper being soon likewise well enough to share in
+them.&nbsp; The boys and girls were in a kind of fairy hand under Perronel&rsquo;s
+kind wing, the wandering habits of whose girlhood made the freedom of
+the country far more congenial to her than it would have been to any
+regular Londoner.</p>
+<p>Stephen was the great oracle, of course, as to the deer respectfully
+peeped at in the park, or the squirrels, the hares and rabbits, in the
+forest, and the inhabitants of the stream above or below.&nbsp; It was
+he who secured and tamed the memorials of their visit&mdash;two starlings
+for Dennet and Aldonza.&nbsp; The birds were to be taught to speak,
+and to do wonders of all kinds, but Aldonza&rsquo;s bird was found one
+morning dead, and Giles consoled her by the promise of something much
+bigger, and that would talk much better.&nbsp; Two days after he brought
+her a young jackdaw.&nbsp; Aldonza clasped her hands and admired its
+glossy back and queer blue eye, and was in transports when it uttered
+something between &ldquo;Jack&rdquo; and &ldquo;good lack.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+But Dennet looked in scorn at it, and said, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a bird
+tamed already.&nbsp; He didn&rsquo;t catch it.&nbsp; He only bought
+it!&nbsp; I would have none such!&nbsp; An ugsome great thieving bird!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay now, Mistress Dennet,&rdquo; argued Perronel.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thou
+hast thy bird, and Alice has lost hers.&nbsp; It is not meet to grudge
+it to her.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I!&nbsp; Grudge it to her!&rdquo; said Dennet, with a toss
+of the head.&nbsp; &ldquo;I grudge her nought from Giles Headley, so
+long as I have my Goldspot that Stephen climbed the wall for, his very
+self.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And Dennet turned majestically away with her bird&mdash;Goldspot
+only in the future&mdash;perched on her finger; while Perronel shook
+her head bodingly.</p>
+<p>But they were all children still, and Aldonza was of a nature that
+was slow to take offence, while it was quite true that Dennet had been
+free from jealousy of the jackdaw, and only triumphant in Stephen&rsquo;s
+prowess and her own starling.</p>
+<p>The great pleasure of all was a grand stag-hunt, got up for the diversion
+of the French ambassadors, who had come to treat for the espousals of
+the infant Princess Mary with the baby &ldquo;Dolphyne.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Probably these illustrious personages did not get half the pleasure
+out of it that the Antelope party had.&nbsp; Were they not, by special
+management of a yeoman pricker who had recognised in Stephen a kindred
+spirit, and had a strong admiration for Mistress Randall, placed where
+there was the best possible view of hunters, horses, and hounds, lords
+and ladies, King and ambassadors, in their gorgeous hunting trim?&nbsp;
+Did not Stephen, as a true verdurer&rsquo;s son, interpret every note
+on the horn, and predict just what was going to happen, to the edification
+of all his hearers?&nbsp; And when the final rush took place, did not
+the prentices, with their gowns rolled up, dart off headlong in pursuit?&nbsp;
+Dennet entertained some hope that Stephen would again catch some runaway
+steed, or come to the King&rsquo;s rescue in some way or other, but
+such chances did not happen every day.&nbsp; Nay, Stephen did not even
+follow up the chase to the death, but left Giles to do that, turning
+back forsooth because that little Jasper thought fit to get tired and
+out of breath, and could not find his way back alone.&nbsp; Dennet was
+quite angry with Stephen and turned her back on him, when Giles came
+in all glorious, at having followed up staunchly all day, having seen
+the fate of the poor stag, and having even beheld the King politely
+hand the knife to Monsieur de Montmorency to give the first stroke to
+the quarry!</p>
+<p>That was the last exploit.&nbsp; There was to be a great tilting
+match in honour of the betrothal, and Master Alderman Headley wanted
+his apprentices back again, and having been satisfied by a laborious
+letter from Dennet, sent per carrier, that they were in good health,
+despatched orders by the same means, that they were to hire horses at
+the Antelope and return&mdash;Jasper coming back at the same time, though
+his aunt would fain have kept him longer.</p>
+<p>Women on a journey almost always rode double, and the arrangement
+came under debate.&nbsp; Perronel, well accustomed to horse, ass, or
+foot, undertook to ride behind the child, as she called Jasper, who&mdash;as
+a born Londoner&mdash;knew nothing of horses, though both the other
+prentices did.&nbsp; Giles, who, in right of his name, kindred, and
+expectations, always held himself a sort of master, declared that &ldquo;it
+was more fitting that Stephen should ride before Mistiness Dennet.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+And to this none of the party made any objection, except that Perronel
+privately observed to him that she should have thought he would have
+preferred the company of his betrothed.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I shall have quite enough of her by and by,&rdquo; returned
+Giles; then adding, &ldquo;She is a good little wench, but it is more
+for her honour that her father&rsquo;s servant should ride before her.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Perronel held her tongue, and they rode merrily back to London, and
+astonished their several homes by the growth and healthful looks of
+the young people.&nbsp; Even Giles was grown, though he did not like
+to be told so, and was cherishing the down on his chin.&nbsp; But the
+most rapid development had been in Aldonza, or Alice, as Perronel insisted
+on calling her to suit the ears of her neighbours.&nbsp; The girl was
+just reaching the borderland of maidenhood, which came all the sooner
+to one of southern birth and extraction, when the great change took
+her from being her father&rsquo;s childish darling to be Perronel&rsquo;s
+companion and assistant.&nbsp; She had lain down on that fatal May Eve
+a child, she rose in the little house by the Temple Gardens, a maiden,
+and a very lovely one, with delicate, refined, beautifully cut features
+of a slightly aquiline cast, a bloom on her soft brunette cheek, splendid
+dark liquid eyes shaded by long black lashes, under brows as regular
+and well arched as her Eastern cousins could have made them artificially,
+magnificent black hair, that could hardly be contained in the close
+white cap, and a lithe beautiful figure on which the plainest dress
+sat with an Eastern grace.&nbsp; Perronel&rsquo;s neighbours did not
+admire her.&nbsp; They were not sure whether she were most Saracen,
+gipsy, or Jew.&nbsp; In fact, she was as like Rachel at the well as
+her father had been to a patriarch, and her descent was of the purest
+Saracen lineage, but a Christian Saracen was an anomaly the London mind
+could not comprehend, and her presence in the family tended to cast
+suspicion that Master Randall himself, with his gipsy eyes, and mysterious
+comings and goings, must have some strange connections.&nbsp; For this,
+however, Perronel cared little.&nbsp; She had made her own way for many
+years past, and had won respect and affection by many good offices to
+her neighbours, one of whom had taken her laundry work in her absence.</p>
+<p>Aldonza was by no means indocile or incapable.&nbsp; She shared in
+Perronel&rsquo;s work without reluctance, making good use of her slender,
+dainty brown fingers, whether in cooking, household work, washing, ironing,
+plaiting, making or mending the stiff lawn collars and cuffs in which
+her hostess&rsquo;s business lay.&nbsp; There was nothing that she would
+not do when asked, or when she saw that it would save trouble to good
+mother Perronel, of whom she was very fond, and she seemed serene and
+contented, never wanting to go abroad; but she was very silent, and
+Perronel declared herself never to have seen any living woman so perfectly
+satisfied to do nothing.&nbsp; The good dame herself was industrious,
+not only from thrift but from taste, and if not busy in her vocation
+or in household business, was either using her distaff or her needle,
+or chatting with her neighbours&mdash;often doing both at once; but
+though Aldonza could spin, sew, and embroider admirably, and would do
+so at the least request from her hostess, it was always a sort of task,
+and she never seemed so happy as when seated on the floor, with her
+dark eyes dreamily fixed on the narrow window, where hung her jackdaw&rsquo;s
+cage, and the beads of her rosary passing through her fingers.&nbsp;
+At first Mistress Randall thought she was praying, but by and by came
+to the conviction that most of the time &ldquo;the wench was bemused.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+There was nothing to complain of in one so perfectly gentle and obedient,
+and withal, modest and devout; but the good woman, after having for
+some time given her the benefit of the supposition that she was grieving
+for her father, began to wonder at such want of activity and animation,
+and to think that on the whole Jack was the more talkative companion.</p>
+<p>Aldonza had certainly not taught him the phrases he was so fond of
+repeating.&nbsp; Giles Headley had undertaken his education, and made
+it a reason for stealing down to the Temple many an evening after work
+was done, declaring that birds never learnt so well as after dark.&nbsp;
+Moreover, he had possessed himself of a chess board, and insisted that
+Aldonza should carry on her instructions in the game; he brought her
+all his Holy Cross Day gain of nuts, and he used all his blandishments
+to persuade Mrs. Randall to come and see the shooting at the popinjay,
+at Mile End.</p>
+<p>All this made the good woman uneasy.&nbsp; Her husband was away,
+for the dread of sweating sickness had driven the Court from London,
+and she could only take counsel with Tibble Steelman.&nbsp; It was Hallowmas
+Eve, and Giles had been the bearer of an urgent invitation from Dennet
+to her friend Aldonza to come and join the diversions of the evening.&nbsp;
+There was a large number of young folk in the hall&mdash;Jasper Hope
+among them&mdash;mostly contemporaries of Dennet, and almost children,
+all keen upon the sports of the evening, namely, a sort of indoor quintain,
+where the revolving beam was decorated with a lighted candle at one
+end, and at the other an apple to be caught at by the players with their
+mouths, their hands being tied behind them.</p>
+<p>Under all the uproarious merriment that each attempt occasioned,
+Tibble was about to steal off to his own chamber and his beloved books,
+when, as he backed out of the group of spectators, he was arrested by
+Mistress Randall, who had made her way into the rear of the party at
+the same time.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Can I have a word with you, privily, Master Steelman?&rdquo;
+she asked.</p>
+<p>Unwillingly he muttered, &ldquo;Yea, so please you;&rdquo; and they
+retreated to a window at the dark end of the hall, where Perronel began&mdash;&ldquo;The
+alderman&rsquo;s daughter is contracted to young Giles, her kinsman,
+is she not?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not as yet in form, but by the will of the parents,&rdquo;
+returned Tibble, impatiently, as he thought of the half-hour&rsquo;s
+reading which he was sacrificing to woman&rsquo;s gossip.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;An it be so,&rdquo; returned Perronel, &ldquo;I would fain&mdash;were
+I Master Headley&mdash;that he spent not so many nights in gazing at
+mine Alice.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Forbid him the house, good dame.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Easier spoken than done,&rdquo; returned Perronel.&nbsp; &ldquo;Moreover,
+&rsquo;tis better to let the matter, such as it is, be open in my sight
+than to teach them to run after one another stealthily, whereby worse
+might ensue.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Have they spoken then to one another?&rdquo; asked Tibble,
+beginning to take alarm.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I trow not.&nbsp; I deem they know not yet what draweth them
+together.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Pish, they are mere babes!&rdquo; quoth Tib, hoping he might
+cast it off his mind.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Look!&rdquo; said Perronel; and as they stood on the somewhat
+elevated floor of the bay window, they could look over the heads of
+the other spectators to the seats where the young girls sat.</p>
+<p>Aldonza&rsquo;s beautiful and peculiar contour of head and face rose
+among the round chubby English faces like a jessamine among daisies,
+and at that moment she was undertaking, with an exquisite smile, the
+care of the gown that Giles laid at her feet, ere making his venture.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There!&rdquo; said Perronel.&nbsp; &ldquo;Mark that look on
+her face!&nbsp; I never see it save for that same youngster.&nbsp; The
+children are simple and guileless thus far, it may be.&nbsp; I dare
+be sworn that she is, but they wot not where they will be led on.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You are right, dame; you know best, no doubt,&rdquo; said
+Tib, in helpless perplexity.&nbsp; &ldquo;I wot nothing of such gear.&nbsp;
+What would you do?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Have the maid wedded at once, ere any harm come of it,&rdquo;
+returned Perronel promptly.&nbsp; &ldquo;She will make a good wife&mdash;there
+will be no complaining of her tongue, and she is well instructed in
+all good housewifery.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;To whom then would you give her?&rdquo; asked Tibble.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, that&rsquo;s the question.&nbsp; Comely and good she is,
+but she is outlandish, and I fear me &rsquo;twould take a handsome portion
+to get her dark skin and Moorish blood o&rsquo;erlooked.&nbsp; Nor hath
+she aught, poor maid, save yonder gold and pearl earrings, and a cross
+of gold that she says her father bade her never part with.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I pledged my word to her father,&rdquo; said Tibble, &ldquo;that
+I would have a care of her.&nbsp; I have not cared to hoard, having
+none to come after me, but if a matter of twenty or five-and-twenty
+marks would avail&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Wherefore not take her yourself?&rdquo; said Perronel, as
+he stood aghast.&nbsp; &ldquo;She is a maid of sweet obedient conditions,
+trained by a scholar even like yourself.&nbsp; She would make your chamber
+fair and comfortable, and tend you dutifully.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Whisht, good woman.&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis too dark to see, or you
+could not speak of wedlock to such as I.&nbsp; Think of the poor maid!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That is all folly!&nbsp; She would soon know you for a better
+husband than one of those young feather-pates, who have no care but
+of themselves.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, mistress,&rdquo; said Tibble, gravely, &ldquo;your advice
+will not serve here.&nbsp; To bring that fair young wench hither, to
+this very court, mind you, with a mate loathly to behold as I be, and
+with the lad there ever before her, would be verily to give place to
+the devil.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But you are the best sword-cutler in London.&nbsp; You could
+make a living without service.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am bound by too many years of faithful kindness to quit
+my master or my home at the Dragon,&rdquo; said Tibble.&nbsp; &ldquo;Nay,
+that will not serve, good friend.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then what can be done?&rdquo; asked Perronel, somewhat in
+despair.&nbsp; &ldquo;There are the young sparks at the Temple.&nbsp;
+One or two of them are already beginning to cast eyes at her, so that
+I dare not let her help me carry home my basket, far less go alone.&nbsp;
+&rsquo;Tis not the wench&rsquo;s fault.&nbsp; She shrinks from men&rsquo;s
+eyes more than any maid I ever saw, but if she bide long with me, I
+wot not what may come of it.&nbsp; There be rufflers there who would
+not stick to carry her off!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Tibble stood considering, and presently said, &ldquo;Mayhap the Dean
+might aid thee in this matter.&nbsp; He is free of hand and kind of
+heart, and belike he would dower the maid, and find an honest man to
+wed her.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Perronel thought well of the suggestion, and decided that after the
+mass on All Soul&rsquo;s Day, and the general visiting of the graves
+of kindred, she would send Aldonza home with Dennet, whom they were
+sure to meet in the Pardon Churchyard, since her mother, as well as
+Abenali and Martin Fulford lay there; and herself endeavour to see Dean
+Colet, who was sure to be at home, as he was hardly recovered from an
+attack of the prevalent disorder.</p>
+<p>Then Tibble escaped, and Perronel drew near to the party round the
+fire, where the divination of the burning of nuts was going on, but
+not successfully, since no pair hitherto put in would keep together.&nbsp;
+However, the next contribution was a snail, which had been captured
+on the wall, and was solemnly set to crawl on the hearth by Dennet,
+&ldquo;to see whether it would trace a G or an H.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>However, the creature proved sullen or sleepy, and no jogging of
+hands, no enticing, would induce it to crawl an inch, and the alderman,
+taking his daughter on his knee, declared that it was a wise beast,
+who knew her hap was fixed.&nbsp; Moreover, it was time for the rere
+supper, for the serving-men with the lanterns would be coming for the
+young folk.</p>
+<p>London entertainments for women or young people had to finish very
+early unless they had a strong escort to go home with, for the streets
+were far from safe after dark.&nbsp; Giles&rsquo;s great desire to convoy
+her home, added to Perronel&rsquo;s determination, and on All Souls&rsquo;
+Day, while knells were ringing from every church in London, she roused
+Aldonza from her weeping devotions at her father&rsquo;s grave, and
+led her to Dennet, who had just finished her round of prayers at the
+grave of the mother she had never known, under the protection of her
+nurse, and two or three of the servants.&nbsp; The child, who had thought
+little of her mother, while her grandmother was alert and supplied the
+tenderness and care she needed, was beginning to yearn after counsel
+and sympathy, and to wonder, as she told her beads, what might have
+been, had that mother lived.&nbsp; She took Aldonza&rsquo;s hand, and
+the two girls threaded their way out of the crowded churchyard together,
+while Perronel betook herself to the Deanery of St. Paul&rsquo;s.</p>
+<p>Good Colet was always accessible to the meanest, but he had been
+very ill, and the porter had some doubts about troubling him respecting
+the substantial young matron whose trim cap and bodice, and full petticoats,
+showed no tokens of distress.&nbsp; However, when she begged him to
+take in her message, that she prayed the Dean to listen to her touching
+the child of the old man who was slain on May Eve, he consented; and
+she was at once admitted to an inner chamber, where Colet, wrapped in
+a gown lined with lambskin, sat by the fire, looking so wan and feeble
+that it went to the good woman&rsquo;s heart and she began by an apology
+for troubling him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Heed not that, good dame,&rdquo; said the Dean, courteously,
+&ldquo;but sit thee down and let me hear of the poor child.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah, reverend sir, would that she were still a child&mdash;&rdquo;
+and Perronel proceeded to tell her difficulties, adding, that if the
+Dean could of his goodness promise one of the dowries which were yearly
+given to poor maidens of good character, she would inquire among her
+gossips for some one to marry the girl.&nbsp; She secretly hoped he
+would take the hint, and immediately portion Aldonza himself, perhaps
+likewise find the husband.&nbsp; And she was disappointed that he only
+promised to consider the matter and let her hear from him.&nbsp; She
+went back and told Tibble that his device was nought, an old scholar
+with one foot in the grave knew less of women than even he did!</p>
+<p>However it was only four days later, that, as Mrs. Randall was hanging
+out her collars to dry, there came up to her from the Temple stairs
+a figure whom for a moment she hardly knew, so different was the long,
+black garb, and short gown of the lawyer&rsquo;s clerk from the shabby
+old green suit that all her endeavours had not been able to save from
+many a stain of printer&rsquo;s ink.&nbsp; It was only as he exclaimed,
+&ldquo;Good aunt, I am fain to see thee here!&rdquo; that she answered,
+&ldquo;What, thou, Ambrose!&nbsp; What a fine fellow thou art!&nbsp;
+Truly I knew not thou wast of such good mien!&nbsp; Thou thrivest at
+Chelsea!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Who would not thrive there?&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;Nay,
+aunt, tarry a little, I have a message for thee that I would fain give
+before we go in to Aldonza.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;From his reverence the Dean?&nbsp; Hath he bethought himself
+of her?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, that hath he done,&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;He
+is not the man to halt when good may be done.&nbsp; What doth he do,
+since it seems thou hadst speech of him, but send for Sir Thomas More,
+then sitting at Westminster, to come and see him as soon as the Court
+brake up, and I attended my master.&nbsp; They held council together,
+and by and by they sent for me to ask me of what conditions and breeding
+the maid was, and what I knew of her father?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Will they wed her to thee?&nbsp; That were rarely good, so
+they gave thee some good office!&rdquo; cried his aunt.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, nay,&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;I have much to
+learn and understand ere I think of a wife&mdash;if ever.&nbsp; Nay!&nbsp;
+But when they had heard all I could tell them, they looked at one another,
+and the Dean said, &lsquo;The maid is no doubt of high blood in her
+own land&mdash;scarce a mate for a London butcher or currier.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;It were matching an Arab mare with a costard monger&rsquo;s
+colt,&rsquo; said my master, &lsquo;or Angelica with Ralph Roisterdoister.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to know what were better for the poor outlandish
+maid than to give her to some honest man,&rdquo; put in Perronel.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The end of it was,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;that Sir Thomas
+said he was to be at the palace the next day, and he would strive to
+move the Queen to take her countrywoman into her service.&nbsp; Yea,
+and so he did, but though Queen Katharine was moved by hearing of a
+fatherless maid of Spain, and at first spake of taking her to wait on
+herself, yet when she heard the maid&rsquo;s name, and that she was
+of Moorish blood, she would none of her.&nbsp; She said that heresy
+lurked in them all, and though Sir Thomas offered that the Dean or the
+Queen&rsquo;s own chaplain should question her on the faith, it was
+all lost labour.&nbsp; I heard him tell the Dean as much, and thus it
+is that they bade me come for thee, and for the maid, take boat, and
+bring you down to Chelsea, where Sir Thomas will let her be bred up
+to wait on his little daughters till he can see what best may be done
+for her.&nbsp; I trow his spirit was moved by the Queen&rsquo;s hardness!&nbsp;
+I heard the Dean mutter, &lsquo;<i>Et venient ab Oriente et Occidente</i>.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Perronel hooked alarmed.&nbsp; &ldquo;The Queen deemed her heretic
+in grain!&nbsp; Ah!&nbsp; She is a good wench, and of kind conditions.&nbsp;
+I would have no ill befall her, but I am glad to be rid of her.&nbsp;
+Sir Thomas&mdash;he is a wise man, ay, and a married man, with maidens
+of his own, and he may have more wit in the business than the rest of
+his kind.&nbsp; Be the matter instant?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Methinks Sir Thomas would have it so, since this being a holy
+day, the courts be not sitting, and he is himself at home, so that he
+can present the maid to his lady.&nbsp; And that makes no small odds.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, but what the lady is makes the greater odds to the maid,
+I trow,&rdquo; said Perronel anxiously.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Fear not on that score.&nbsp; Dame Alice More is of kindly
+conditions, and will be good to any whom her lord commends to her; and
+as to the young ladies, never saw I any so sweet or so wise as the two
+elder ones, specially Mistress Margaret.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well-a-day!&nbsp; What must be must!&rdquo; philosophically
+observed Perronel.&nbsp; &ldquo;Now I have my wish, I could mourn over
+it.&nbsp; I am loth to part with the wench; and my man, when he comes
+home, will make an outcry for his pretty Ally; but &rsquo;tis best so.&nbsp;
+Come, Alice, girl, bestir thyself.&nbsp; Here&rsquo;s preferment for
+thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Aldonza raised her great soft eyes in slow wonder, and when she had
+heard what was to befall her, declared that she wanted no advancement,
+and wished only to remain with mother Perronel.&nbsp; Nay, she clung
+to the kind woman, beseeching that she might not be sent away from the
+only motherly tenderness she had ever known, and declaring that she
+would work all day and all night rather than leave her; but the more
+reluctance she showed, the more determined was Perronel, and she could
+not but submit to her fate, only adding one more entreaty that she might
+take her jackdaw, which was now a spruce grey-headed bird.&nbsp; Perronel
+said it would be presumption in a waiting-woman, but Ambrose declared
+that at Chelsea there were all manner of beasts and birds, beloved by
+the children and by their father himself, and that he believed the daw
+would be welcome.&nbsp; At any rate, if the lady of the house objected
+to it, it could return with Mistress Randall.</p>
+<p>Perronel hurried the few preparations, being afraid that Giles might
+take advantage of the holiday to appear on the scene, and presently
+Aldonza was seated in the boat, making no more lamentations after she
+found that her fate was inevitable, but sitting silent, with downcast
+head, now and then brushing away a stray tear as it stole down under
+her long eyelashes.</p>
+<p>Meantime Ambrose, hoping to raise her spirits, talked to his aunt
+of the friendly ease and kindliness of the new home, where he was evidently
+as thoroughly happy as it was in his nature to be.&nbsp; He was much,
+in the position of a barrister&rsquo;s clerk, superior to that of the
+mere servants, but inferior to the young gentlemen of larger means,
+though not perhaps of better birth, who had studied law regularly, and
+aspired to offices or to legal practice.</p>
+<p>But though Ambrose was ranked with the three or four other clerks,
+his functions had more relation to Sir Thomas&rsquo;s literary and diplomatic
+avocations than his legal ones.&nbsp; From Lucas Hansen he had learnt
+Dutch and French, and he was thus available for copying and translating
+foreign correspondence.&nbsp; His knowledge of Latin and smattering
+of Greek enabled him to be employed in copying into a book some of the
+inestimable letters of Erasmus which arrived from time to time, and
+Sir Thomas promoted his desire to improve himself, and had requested
+Mr. Clements, the tutor of the children of the house, to give him weekly
+lessons in Latin and Greek.</p>
+<p>Sir Thomas had himself pointed out to him books calculated to settle
+his mind on the truth and catholicity of the Church, and had warned
+him against meddling with the fiery controversial tracts which, smuggled
+in often through Lucas&rsquo;s means, had set his mind in commotion.&nbsp;
+And for the present at least beneath the shadow of the great man&rsquo;s
+intelligent devotion, Ambrose&rsquo;s restless spirit was tranquil.</p>
+<p>Of course, he did not explain his state of mind to his aunt, but
+she gathered enough to be well content, and tried to encourage Aldonza,
+when at length they landed near Chelsea Church, and Ambrose led the
+way to an extensive pleasaunce or park, full of elms and oaks, whose
+yellow leaves were floating like golden rain in the sunshine.</p>
+<p>Presently children&rsquo;s voices guided them to a large chestnut
+tree.&nbsp; &ldquo;Lo you now, I hear Mistress Meg&rsquo;s voice, and
+where she is, his honour will ever be,&rdquo; said Ambrose.</p>
+<p>And sure enough, among a group of five girls and one boy, all between
+fourteen and nine years old, was the great lawyer, knocking down the
+chestnuts with a long pole, while the young ones flew about picking
+up the burrs from the grass, exclaiming joyously when they found a full
+one.</p>
+<p>Ambrose explained that of the young ladies, one was Mistress Middleton,
+Lady More&rsquo;s daughter by a former marriage, another a kinswoman.&nbsp;
+Perronel was for passing by unnoticed; but Ambrose knew better; and
+Sir Thomas, leaning on the pole, called out, &ldquo;Ha, my Birkenholt,
+a forester born, knowst thou any mode of bringing down yonder chestnuts,
+which being the least within reach, seem in course the meetest of all.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I would I were my brother, your honour,&rdquo; said Ambrose,
+&ldquo;then would I climb the thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou shouldst bring him one of these days,&rdquo; said Sir
+Thomas.&nbsp; &ldquo;But thou hast instead brought in a fair maid.&nbsp;
+See, Meg, yonder is the poor young girl who lost her father on Ill May
+day.&nbsp; Lead her on and make her good cheer, while I speak to this
+good dame.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Margaret More, a slender, dark-eyed girl of thirteen, went forward
+with a peculiar gentle grace to the stranger, saying, &ldquo;Welcome,
+sweet maid!&nbsp; I hope we shall make thee happy,&rdquo; and seeing
+the mournful countenance, she not only took Aldonza&rsquo;s hand, but
+kissed her cheek.</p>
+<p>Sir Thomas had exchanged a word or two with Perronel, when there
+was a cry from the younger children, who had detected the wicker cage
+which Perronel was trying to keep in the background.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A daw! a daw!&rdquo; was the cry.&nbsp; &ldquo;Is&rsquo;t
+for us?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, mistress,&rdquo; faltered Aldonza, &ldquo;&rsquo;tis mine&mdash;there
+was one who tamed it for me, and I promised ever to keep it, but if
+the good knight and lady forbid it, we will send it back.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay now, John, Cicely,&rdquo; was Margaret saying, &ldquo;&rsquo;tis
+her own bird!&nbsp; Wot ye not our father will let us take nought of
+them that come to him?&nbsp; Yea, Al-don-za&mdash;is not that thy name?&mdash;I
+am sure my father will have thee keep it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She led up Aldonza, making the request for her.&nbsp; Sir Thomas
+smiled.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Keep thy bird?&nbsp; Nay, that thou shalt.&nbsp; Look at him,
+Meg, is he not in fit livery for a lawyer&rsquo;s house?&nbsp; Mark
+his trim legs, sable doublet and hose, and grey hood&mdash;and see,
+he hath the very eye of a councillor seeking for suits, as he looketh
+at the chestnuts John holdeth to him.&nbsp; I warrant he hath a tongue
+likewise.&nbsp; Canst plead for thy dinner, bird?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I love Giles!&rdquo; uttered the black beak, to the confusion
+and indignation of Perronel.</p>
+<p>The perverse bird had heard Giles often dictate this avowal, but
+had entirely refused to repeat it, till, stimulated by the new surroundings,
+it had for the first time uttered it.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! thou foolish daw!&nbsp; Crow that thou art!&nbsp; Had
+I known thou hadst such a word in thy beak, I&rsquo;d have wrung thy
+neck sooner than have brought thee,&rdquo; muttered Perronel.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I had best take thee home without more ado.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was too late, however, the children were delighted, and perfectly
+willing that Aldonza should own the bird, so they might hear it speak,
+and thus the introduction was over.&nbsp; Aldonza and her daw were conveyed
+to Dame Alice More, a stout, good-tempered woman, who had too many dependents
+about her house to concern herself greatly about the introduction of
+another.</p>
+<p>And thus Aldonza was installed in the long, low, two-storied red
+house which was to be her place of home-like service.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX.&nbsp; CLOTH OF GOLD ON THE SEAMY SIDE</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;Then you lost<br />The
+view of earthly glory: men might say<br />Till this time pomp was single;
+but now married<br />To one above itself.&rdquo;&mdash;SHAKESPEARE.</p>
+<p>If Giles Headley murmured at Aldonza&rsquo;s removal, it was only
+to Perronel, and that discreet woman kept it to herself.</p>
+<p>In the summer of 1519 he was out of his apprenticeship, and though
+Dennet was only fifteen, it was not uncommon for brides to be even younger.&nbsp;
+However, the autumn of that year was signalised by a fresh outbreak
+of the sweating sickness, apparently a sort of influenza, and no festivities
+could be thought of.&nbsp; The King and Queen kept at a safe distance
+from London, and escaped, so did the inmates of the pleasant house at
+Chelsea; but the Cardinal, who, as Lord Chancellor, could not entirely
+absent himself from Westminster, was four times attacked by it, and
+Dean Colet, a far less robust man, had it three times, and sank at last
+under it.&nbsp; Sir Thomas More went to see his beloved old friend,
+and knowing Ambrose&rsquo;s devotion, let the young man be his attendant.&nbsp;
+Nor could those who saw the good man ever forget his peaceful farewells,
+grieving only for the old mother who had lived with him in the Deanery,
+and in the ninetieth year of her age, thus was bereaved of the last
+of her twenty-one children.&nbsp; For himself, he was thankful to be
+taken away from the evil times he already beheld threatening his beloved
+St. Paul&rsquo;s, as well as the entire Church both in England and abroad;
+looking back with a sad sweet smile to the happy Oxford days, when he,
+with More and Erasmus,</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;Strained the watchful eye<br />If chance the golden hours
+were nigh<br />By youthful hope seen gleaming round her walls.&rdquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;But,&rdquo; said he, as he laid his hand in blessing for the
+last time on Ambrose&rsquo;s head, &ldquo;let men say what they will,
+do thou cling fast to the Church, nor let thyself be swept away.&nbsp;
+There are sure promises to her, and grace is with her to purify herself,
+even though it be obscured for a time.&nbsp; Be not of little faith,
+but believe that Christ is with us in the ship, though He seem to be
+asleep.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He spoke as much to his friend as to the youth, and there can be
+no doubt that this consideration was the restraining force with many
+who have been stigmatised as half-hearted Reformers, because though
+they loved truth, they feared to lose unity.</p>
+<p>He was a great loss at that especial time, as a restraining power,
+trusted by the innovators, and a personal friend both of King and Cardinal,
+and his preaching and catechising were sorely missed at St. Paul&rsquo;s.</p>
+<p>Tibble Steelman, though thinking he did not go far enough, deplored
+him deeply; but Tibble himself was laid by for many days.&nbsp; The
+epidemic went through the Dragon court, though some had it lightly,
+and only two young children actually died of it.&nbsp; It laid a heavy
+hand on Tibble, and as his distaste for women rendered his den almost
+inaccessible to Bet Smallbones, who looked after most of the patients,
+Stephen Birkenholt, whose nursing capacities had been developed in Newgate,
+spent his spare hours in attending him, sat with him in the evenings,
+slept on a pallet by his side, carried him his meals and often administered
+them, and finally pulled him through the illness and its effects, which
+left him much broken and never likely to be the same man again.</p>
+<p>Old Mistress Headley, who was already failing, did not have the actual
+disease severely, but she never again left her bed, and died just after
+Christmas, sinking slowly away with little pain, and her memory having
+failed from the first.</p>
+<p>Household affairs had thus shipped so gradually into Dennet&rsquo;s
+hands that no change of government was perceptible, except that the
+keys hung at the maiden&rsquo;s girdle.&nbsp; She had grown out of the
+child during this winter of trouble, and was here, there, and everywhere,
+the busy nurse and housewife, seldom pausing to laugh or play except
+with her father, and now and then to chat with her old friend and playfellow,
+Kit Smallbones.&nbsp; Her childish freedom of manner had given way to
+grave discretion, not to say primness, in her behaviour to her father&rsquo;s
+guests, and even the apprentices.&nbsp; It was, of course, the unconscious
+reaction of the maidenly spirit, aware that she had nothing but her
+own modesty to protect her.&nbsp; She was on a small scale, with no
+pretensions to beauty, but with a fresh, honest, sensible young face,
+a clear skin, and dark eyes that could be very merry when she would
+let them, and her whole air and dress were trimness itself, with an
+inclination to the choicest materials permitted to an alderman&rsquo;s
+daughter.</p>
+<p>Things were going on so smoothly that the alderman was taken by surprise
+when all the good wives around began to press on him that it was incumbent
+on him to lose no time in marrying his daughter to her cousin, if not
+before Lent, yet certainly in the Easter holidays.</p>
+<p>Dennet looked very grave thereon.&nbsp; Was it not over soon after
+the loss of the good grandmother?&nbsp; And when her father said, as
+the gossips had told him, that she and Giles need only walk quietly
+down some morning to St Faith&rsquo;s and plight their troth, she broke
+out into her girlish wilful manner, &ldquo;Would she be married at all
+without a merry wedding?&nbsp; No, indeed!&nbsp; She would not have
+the thing done in a corner!&nbsp; What was the use of her being wedded,
+and having to consort with the tedious old wives instead of the merry
+wrenches?&nbsp; Could she not guide the house, and rule the maids, and
+get in the stores, and hinder waste, and make the pasties, and brew
+the possets?&nbsp; Had her father found the crust hard, or missed his
+roasted crab, or had any one blamed her for want of discretion?&nbsp;
+Nay, as to that, she was like to be more discreet as she was, with only
+her good old father to please, than with a husband to plague her.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>On the other hand, Giles&rsquo;s demeanour was rather that of one
+prepared for the inevitable than that of an eager bridegroom; and when
+orders began to pour in for accoutrements of unrivalled magnificence
+for the King and the gentlemen who were to accompany him to Ardres,
+there to meet the young King of France just after Whitsuntide, Dennet
+was the first to assure her father that there would be no time to think
+of weddings till all this was over, especially as some of the establishment
+would have to be in attendance to repair casualties at the jousts.</p>
+<p>At this juncture there arrived on business Master Tiptoff, husband
+to Giles&rsquo;s sister, bringing greetings from Mrs. Headley at Salisbury,
+and inquiries whether the wedding was to take place at Whitsuntide,
+in which case she would hasten to be present, and to take charge of
+the household, for which her dear daughter was far too young.&nbsp;
+Master Tiptoff showed a suspicious alacrity in undertaking the forwarding
+of his mother-in-law and her stuff.</p>
+<p>The faces of Master Headley and Tib Steelman were a sight, both having
+seen only too much of what the housewifery at Salisbury had been.&nbsp;
+The alderman decided on the spot that there could be no marriage till
+after the journey to France, since Giles was certainly to go upon it;
+and lest Mrs. Headley should be starting on her journey, he said he
+should despatch a special messenger to stay her.&nbsp; Giles, who had
+of course been longing for the splendid pageant, cheered up into great
+amiability, and volunteered to write to his mother, that she had best
+not think of coming, till he sent word to her that matters were forward.&nbsp;
+Even thus, Master Headley was somewhat insecure.&nbsp; He thought the
+dame quite capable of coming and taking possession of his house in his
+absence, and therefore resolved upon staying at home to garrison it;
+but there was then the further difficulty that Tibble was in no condition
+to take his place on the journey.&nbsp; If the rheumatism seized his
+right arm, as it had done in the winter, he would be unable to drive
+a rivet, and there would be every danger of it, high summer though it
+were; for though the party would carry their own tent and bedding, the
+knights and gentlemen would be certain to take all the best places,
+and they might be driven into a damp corner.&nbsp; Indeed it was not
+impossible that their tent itself might be seized, for many a noble
+or his attendants might think that beggarly artisans had no right to
+comforts which he had been too improvident to afford, especially if
+the alderman himself were absent.</p>
+<p>Not only did Master Headley really love his trusty foreman too well
+to expose him to such chances, but Tibble knew too well that there were
+brutal young men to whom his contorted-visage would be an incitement
+to contempt and outrage, and that if racked with rheumatism, he would
+only be an incumbrance.&nbsp; There was nothing for it but to put Kit
+Smallbones at the head of the party.&nbsp; His imposing presence would
+keep off wanton insults, but on the other hand, he had not the moral
+weight of authority possessed by Tibble, and though far from being a
+drunkard, he was not proof against a carouse, especially when out of
+reach of his Bet and of his master, and he was not by any means Tib&rsquo;s
+equal in fine and delicate workmanship.&nbsp; But on the other hand,
+Tib pronounced that Stephen Birkenholt was already well skilled in chasing
+metal and the difficult art of restoring inlaid work, and he showed
+some black and silver armour, that was in hand for the King, which fully
+bore out his words.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And thou thinkst Kit can rule the lads!&rdquo; said the alderman,
+scarce willingly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;One of them at least can rule himself,&rdquo; said Tibble.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;They have both been far more discreet since the fright they got
+on Ill May day; and, as for Stephen, he hath seemed to me to have no
+eyes nor thought save for his work of late.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I have marked him,&rdquo; said the master, &ldquo;and have
+marvelled what ailed the lad.&nbsp; His merry temper hath left him.&nbsp;
+I never hear him singing to keep time with his hammer, nor keeping the
+court in a roar with his gibes.&nbsp; I trust he is not running after
+the new doctrine of the hawkers and pedlars.&nbsp; His brother was inclined
+that way.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There be worse folk than they, your worship,&rdquo; protested
+Tib, but he did not pursue their defence, only adding, &ldquo;but &rsquo;tis
+not that which ails young Stephen.&nbsp; I would it were!&rdquo; he
+sighed to himself, inaudibly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the good-natured alderman, &ldquo;it may
+be he misseth his brother.&nbsp; The boys will care for this raree-show
+more than thou or I, Tib!&nbsp; We&rsquo;ve seen enough of them in our
+day, though verily they say this is to surpass all that ever were beheld!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The question of who was to go had not been hitherto decided, and
+Giles and Stephen were both so excited at being chosen that all low
+spirits and moodiness were dispelled, and the work which went on almost
+all night was merrily got through.&nbsp; The Dragon court was in a perpetual
+commotion with knights, squires, and grooms, coming in with orders for
+new armour, or for old to be furbished, and the tent-makers, lorimers,
+mercers, and tailors had their hands equally full.&nbsp; These lengthening
+mornings heard the hammer ringing at sunrise, and in the final rush,
+Smallbones never went to bed at all.&nbsp; He said he should make it
+up in the waggon on the way to Dover.&nbsp; Some hinted that he preferred
+the clang of his hammer to the good advice his Bet lavished on him at
+every leisure moment to forewarn him against French wine-pots.</p>
+<p>The alderman might be content with the party he sent forth, for Kit
+had hardly his equal in size, strength, and good humour.&nbsp; Giles
+had developed into a tall, comely young man, who had got rid of his
+country slouch, and whose tall figure, light locks, and ruddy cheeks
+looked well in the new suit which gratified his love of finery, sober-hued
+as it needs must be.&nbsp; Stephen was still bound to the old prentice
+garb, though it could not conceal his good mien, the bright sparkling
+dark eyes, crisp black hair, healthy brown skin, and lithe active figure.&nbsp;
+Giles had a stout roadster to ride on, the others were to travel in
+their own waggon, furnished with four powerful horses, which, if possible,
+they were to take to Calais, so as to be independent of hiring.&nbsp;
+Their needments, clothes, and tools, were packed in the waggon, with
+store of lances, and other appliances of the tourney.&nbsp; A carter
+and Will Wherry, who was selected as being supposed to be conversant
+with foreign tongues, were to attend on them; Smallbones, as senior
+journeyman, had the control of the party, and Giles had sufficiently
+learnt subordination not to be likely to give himself dangerous airs
+of mastership.</p>
+<p>Dennet was astir early to see them off, and she had a little gift
+for each.&nbsp; She began with her oldest friend.&nbsp; &ldquo;See here,
+Kit,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;here&rsquo;s a wallet to hold thy nails
+and rivets.&nbsp; What wilt thou say to me for such a piece of stitchery?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Say, pretty mistress?&nbsp; Why this!&rdquo; quoth the giant,
+and he picked her up by the slim waist in his great hands, and kissed
+her on the forehead.&nbsp; He had done the like many a time nine or
+ten years ago, and though Master Headley laughed, Dennet was not one
+bit embarrassed, and turned to the next traveller.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thou
+art no more a prentice, Giles, and canst wear this in thy bonnet,&rdquo;
+she said, holding out to him a short silver chain and medal of St. George
+and the Dragon.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thanks, gentle maid,&rdquo; said Giles, taking the handsome
+gift a little sheepishly.&nbsp; &ldquo;My bonnet will make a fair show,&rdquo;
+and he bent down as she stood on the step, and saluted her lips, then
+began eagerly fastening the chain round his cap, as one delighted with
+the ornament.</p>
+<p>Stephen was some distance off.&nbsp; He had turned aside when she
+spoke to Giles, and was asking of Tibble last instructions about the
+restoration of enamel, when he felt a touch on his arm, and saw Dennet
+standing by him.&nbsp; She looked up in his face, and held up a crimson
+silken purse, with S. B embroidered on it with a wreath of oak and holly
+leaves.</p>
+<p>With the air that ever showed his gentle blood, Stephen put a knee
+to the ground, and kissed the fingers that held it to him, whereupon
+Dennet, a sudden burning blush overspreading her face under her little
+pointed hood, turned suddenly round and ran into the house.&nbsp; She
+was out again on the steps when the waggon finally got under weigh,
+and as her eyes met Stephen&rsquo;s, he doffed his flat cap with one
+hand, and laid the other on his heart, so that she knew where her purse
+had taken up its abode.</p>
+<p>Of the Field of the Cloth of Gold not much need be said.&nbsp; To
+the end of the lives of the spectators, it was a tale of wonder.&nbsp;
+Indeed without that, the very sight of the pavilions was a marvel in
+itself, the blue dome of Francis spangled in imitation of the sky, with
+sun, moon, and stars; and the feudal castle of Henry, a three months&rsquo;
+work, each surrounded with tents of every colour and pattern which fancy
+could devise, with the owners&rsquo; banners or pennons floating from
+the summits, and every creature, man, and horse, within the enchanted
+precincts, equally gorgeous.&nbsp; It was the brightest and the last
+full display of magnificent pseudo chivalry, and to Stephen&rsquo;s
+dazzled eye, seeing it beneath the slant rays of the setting sun of
+June, it was a fairy tale come to life.&nbsp; Hal Randall, who was in
+attendance on the Cardinal, declared that it was a mere surfeit of jewels
+and gold and silver, and that a frieze jerkin or leathern coat was an
+absolute refreshment to the sight.&nbsp; He therefore spent all the
+time he was off duty in the forge far in the rear, where Smallbones
+and his party had very little but hard work, mending, whetting, furbishing,
+and even changing devices.&nbsp; Those six days of tilting when &ldquo;every
+man that stood, showed like a mine,&rdquo; kept the armourers in full
+occupation night and day, and only now and then could the youths try
+to make their way to some spot whence they could see the tournament.</p>
+<p>Smallbones was more excited by the report of fountains of good red
+and white wines of all sorts, flowing perpetually in the court of King
+Henry&rsquo;s splended mock castle; but fortunately one gulp was enough
+for an English palate nurtured on ale and mead, and he was disgusted
+at the heaps of country folk, men-at-arms, beggars and vagabonds of
+all kinds, who swilled the liquor continually, and, in loathsome contrast
+to the external splendours, lay wallowing on the ground so thickly that
+it was sometimes hardly possible to move without treading on them.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I stumbled over a dozen,&rdquo; said the jester, as he strolled
+into the little staked inclosure that the Dragon party had arranged
+round their tent for the prosecution of their labours, which were too
+important to all the champions not to be respected.&nbsp; &ldquo;Lance
+and sword have not laid so many low in the lists as have the doughty
+Baron Burgundy and the heady knight Messire Sherris Sack.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Villain Verjuice and Varlet Vinegar is what Kit there calls
+them,&rdquo; said Stephen, looking up from the work he was carrying
+on over a pan of glowing charcoal.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea,&rdquo; said Smallbones, intermitting his noisy operations,
+&ldquo;and the more of swine be they that gorge themselves on it.&nbsp;
+I told Jack and Hob that &rsquo;twould be shame for English folk to
+drown themselves like French frogs or Flemish hogs.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hogs!&rdquo; returned Randall.&nbsp; &ldquo;A decent Hampshire
+hog would scorn to be lodged as many a knight and squire and lady too
+is now, pigging it in styes and hovels and haylofts by night, and pranking
+it by day with the best!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sooth enough,&rdquo; said Smallbones.&nbsp; &ldquo;Yea, we
+have had two knights and their squires beseeching us for leave to sleep
+under our waggon!&nbsp; Not an angel had they got among the four of
+them either, having all their year&rsquo;s income on their backs, and
+more too.&nbsp; I trow they and their heirs will have good cause to
+remember this same Field of Gold.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And what be&rsquo;st thou doing, nevvy?&rdquo; asked the jester.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Thy trade seems as brisk as though red blood were flowing instead
+of red wine.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am doing my part towards making the King into Hercules,&rdquo;
+said Stephen, &ldquo;though verily the tailor hath more part therein
+than we have; but he must needs have a breastplate of scales of gold,
+and that by to-morrow&rsquo;s morn.&nbsp; As Ambrose would say, &lsquo;if
+he will be a pagan god, he should have what&rsquo;s-his-name, the smith
+of the gods, to work for him.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I heard of that freak,&rdquo; said the jester.&nbsp; &ldquo;There
+be a dozen tailors and all the Queen&rsquo;s tirewomen frizzling up
+a good piece of cloth of gold for the lion&rsquo;s mane, covering a
+club with green damask with pricks, cutting out green velvet and gummed
+silk for his garland!&nbsp; In sooth, these graces have left me so far
+behind in foolery that I have not a jest left in my pouch!&nbsp; So
+here I be, while my Lord Cardinal is shut up with Madame d&rsquo;Angoul&ecirc;me
+in the castle&mdash;the real old castle, mind you&mdash;doing the work,
+leaving the kings and queens to do their own fooling.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Have you spoken with the French King, Hal?&rdquo; asked Smallbones,
+who had become a great crony of his, since the anxieties of May Eve.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;So far as I may when I have no French, and he no English!&nbsp;
+He is a comely fellow, with a blithe tongue and a merry eye, I warrant
+you a chanticleer who will lose nought for lack of crowing.&nbsp; He&rsquo;ll
+crow louder than ever now he hath given our Harry a fall.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No! hath he?&rdquo; and Giles, Stephen, and Smallbones, all
+suspended their work to listen in concern.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay marry, hath he!&nbsp; The two took it into their royal
+noddles to try a fall, and wrestled together on the grass, when by some
+ill hap, this same Francis tripped up our Harry, so that he was on the
+sward for a moment.&nbsp; He was up again forthwith, and in full heart
+for another round, when all the Frenchmen burst in gabbling; and, though
+their King was willing to play the match out fairly, they wouldn&rsquo;t
+let him, and my Lord Cardinal said something about making ill blood,
+whereat our King laughed and was content to leave it.&nbsp; As I told
+him, we have given the French falls enough to let them make much of
+this one.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I hope he will yet give the mounseer a good shaking,&rdquo;
+muttered Smallbones.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How now, Will!&nbsp; Who&rsquo;s that at the door?&nbsp; We
+are on his grace&rsquo;s work and can touch none other man&rsquo;s were
+it the King of France himself, or his Constable, who is finer still.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>By way of expressing &ldquo;No admittance except on business,&rdquo;
+Smallbones kept Will Wherry in charge of the door of his little territory,
+which having a mud wall on two sides, and a broad brook with quaking
+banks on a third, had been easily fenced on the fourth, so as to protect
+tent, waggon, horses, and work from the incursions of idlers.&nbsp;
+Will however answered, &ldquo;The gentleman saith he hath kindred here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay!&rdquo; and there pushed in, past the lad a tall, lean
+form, with a gay but soiled short cloak over one shoulder, a suit of
+worn buff, a cap garnished with a dilapidated black and yellow feather,
+and a pair of gilt spurs.&nbsp; &ldquo;If this be as they told me, where
+Armourer Headley&rsquo;s folk lodge&mdash;I have here a sort of a cousin.&nbsp;
+Yea, yonder&rsquo;s the brave lad who had no qualms at the flash of
+a good Toledo in a knight&rsquo;s fist.&nbsp; How now, my nevvy!&nbsp;
+Is not my daughter&rsquo;s nevvy&mdash;mine?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Save your knighthood!&rdquo; said Smallbones.&nbsp; &ldquo;Who
+would have looked to see you here, Sir John?&nbsp; Methought you were
+in the Emperor&rsquo;s service!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A stout man-at-arms is of all services,&rdquo; returned Fulford.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m here with half Flanders to see this mighty show, and
+pick up a few more lusty Badgers at this encounter of old comrades.&nbsp;
+Is old Headley here?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, he is safe at home, where I would I were,&rdquo; sighed
+Kit.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And you are my young master his nephew, who knew where to
+purvey me of good steel,&rdquo; added Fulford, shaking Giles&rsquo;s
+hand.&nbsp; &ldquo;You are fain, doubtless, you youngsters, to be forth
+without the old man.&nbsp; Ha! and you&rsquo;ve no lack of merry company.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Harry Randall&rsquo;s first impulse had been to look to the right
+and left for the means of avoiding this encounter, but there was no
+escape; and he was moreover in most fantastic motley, arrayed in one
+of the many suits provided for the occasion.&nbsp; It was in imitation
+of a parrot, brilliant grass-green velvet, touched here and there with
+scarlet, yellow, or blue.&nbsp; He had been only half disguised on the
+occasion of Fulford&rsquo;s visit to his wife, and he perceived the
+start of recognition in the eyes of the Condottiere, so that he knew
+it would be vain to try to conceal his identity.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You sought Stephen Birkenholt,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp; &ldquo;And
+you&rsquo;ve lit on something nearer, if so be you&rsquo;ll acknowledge
+the paraquito that your Perronel hath mated with.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The Condottiere burst into a roar of laughter so violent that he
+had to lean against the mud wall, and hold his sides.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ha,
+ha! that I should be father-in-law to a fool!&rdquo; and then he set
+off again.&nbsp; &ldquo;That the sober, dainty little wench should have
+wedded a fool!&nbsp; Ha! ha! ha!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; cried Stephen hotly, &ldquo;I would have you to
+know that mine uncle here, Master Harry Randall, is a yeoman of good
+birth, and that he undertook his present part to support your own father
+and child!&nbsp; Methinks you are the last who should jeer at and insult
+him!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Stephen is right,&rdquo; said Giles.&nbsp; &ldquo;This is
+my kinsman&rsquo;s tent, and no man shall say a word against Master
+Harry Randall therein.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well crowed, my young London gamebirds,&rdquo; returned Fulford,
+coolly.&nbsp; &ldquo;I meant no disrespect to the gentleman in green.&nbsp;
+Nay, I am mightily beholden to him for acting his part out and taking
+on himself that would scarce befit a gentleman of a company&mdash;<i>impedimenta</i>,
+as we used to say in the grammar school.&nbsp; How does the old man?&mdash;I
+must find some token to send him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He is beyond the reach of all tokens from you save prayers
+and masses,&rdquo; returned Randall, gravely.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay?&nbsp; You say not so?&nbsp; Old gaffer dead?&rdquo;&nbsp;
+And when the soldier was told how the feeble thread of life had been
+snapped by the shock of joy on his coming, a fit of compunction and
+sorrow seized him.&nbsp; He covered his face with his hands and wept
+with a loudness of grief that surprised and touched his hearers; and
+presently began to bemoan himself that he had hardly a mark in his purse
+to pay for a mass; but therewith he proceeded to erect before him the
+cross hilt of poor Abenali&rsquo;s sword, and to vow thereupon that
+the first spoil and the first ransom, that it should please the saints
+to send him, should be entirely spent in masses for the soul of Martin
+Fulford.&nbsp; This tribute apparently stilled both grief and remorse,
+for looking up at the grotesque figure of Randall, he said, &ldquo;Methought
+they told me, master son, that you were in the right quarters for beads
+and masses and all that gear&mdash;a varlet of Master Butcher-Cardinal&rsquo;s,
+or the like&mdash;but mayhap &rsquo;twas part of your fooling.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not so,&rdquo; replied Randall.&nbsp; &ldquo;&rsquo;Tis to
+the Cardinal that I belong,&rdquo; holding out his sleeve, where the
+scarlet hat was neatly worked, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;ll brook no word against
+his honour.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ho! ho!&nbsp; Maybe you looked to have the hat on your own
+head,&rdquo; quoth Fulford, waxing familiar, &ldquo;if your master comes
+to be Pope after his own reckoning.&nbsp; Why, I&rsquo;ve known a Cardinal
+get the scarlet because an ape had danced on the roof with him in his
+arms!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You forget!&nbsp; I&rsquo;m a wedded man,&rdquo; said Randall,
+who certainly, in private life, had much less of the buffoon about him
+than his father-in-law.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Impedimentum</i> again,&rdquo; whistled the knight.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Put a halter round her neck, and sell her for a pot of beer.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather put a halter round my own neck for good and
+all,&rdquo; said Hal, his face reddening; but among other accomplishments
+of his position, he had learnt to keep his temper, however indignant
+he felt.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well&mdash;she&rsquo;s a knight&rsquo;s daughter, and preferments
+will be plenty.&nbsp; Thou&rsquo;lt make me captain of the Pope&rsquo;s
+guard, fair son&mdash;there&rsquo;s no post I should like better.&nbsp;
+Or I might put up with an Italian earldom or the like.&nbsp; Honour
+would befit me quite as well as that old fellow, Prosper Colonna; and
+the Badgers would well become the Pope&rsquo;s scarlet and yellow liveries.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The Badgers, it appeared, were in camp not far from Gravelines, whence
+the Emperor was watching the conference between his uncle-in-law and
+his chief enemy; and thence Fulford, who had a good many French acquaintance,
+having once served under Francis I., had come over to see the sport.&nbsp;
+Moreover, he contrived to attach himself to the armourer&rsquo;s party,
+in a manner that either Alderman Headley himself, or Tibble Steelman,
+would effectually have prevented; but which Kit Smallbones had not sufficient
+moral weight to hinder, even if he had had a greater dislike to being
+treated as a boon companion by a knight who had seen the world, could
+appreciate good ale, and tell all manner of tales of his experiences.</p>
+<p>So the odd sort of kindred that the captain chose to claim with Stephen
+Birkenholt was allowed, and in right of it, he was permitted to sleep
+in the waggon; and thereupon his big raw-boned charger was found sharing
+the fodder of the plump broad-backed cart horses, while he himself,
+whenever sport was not going forward for him, or work for the armourers,
+sat discussing with Kit the merits or demerits of the liquors of all
+nations, either in their own yard or in some of the numerous drinking
+booths that had sprung up around.</p>
+<p>To no one was this arrangement so distasteful as to Quipsome Hal,
+who felt himself in some sort the occasion of the intrusion, and yet
+was quite unable to prevent it, while everything he said was treated
+as a joke by his unwelcome father-in-law.&nbsp; It was a coarse time,
+and Wolsey&rsquo;s was not a refined or spiritual establishment, but
+it was decorous, and Randall had such an affection and respect for the
+innocence of his sister&rsquo;s young son, that he could not bear to
+have him exposed to the company of one habituated to the licentiousness
+of the mercenary soldier.&nbsp; At first the jester hoped to remove
+the lads from the danger, for the brief remainder of their stay, by
+making double exertion to obtain places for them at any diversion which
+might be going on when their day&rsquo;s work was ended, and of these,
+of course, there was a wide choice, subordinate to the magnificent masquing
+of kings and queens.&nbsp; On the last midsummer evening, while their
+majesties were taking leave of one another, a company of strolling players
+were exhibiting in an extemporary theatre, and here Hal incited both
+the youths to obtain seats.&nbsp; The drama was on one of the ordinary
+and frequent topics of that, as of all other times, and the dumb show
+and gestures were far more effective than the words, so that even those
+who did not understand the language of the comedians, who seemed to
+be Italians, could enter into it, especially as it was interspersed
+with very expressive songs.</p>
+<p>An old baron insists on betrothing his daughter and heiress to her
+kinsman freshly knighted.&nbsp; She is reluctant, weeps, and is threatened,
+singing afterwards her despair (of course she really was a black-eyed
+boy).&nbsp; That song was followed by a still more despairing one from
+the baron&rsquo;s squire, and a tender interview between them followed.</p>
+<p>Then came discovery, the baron descending as a thunderbolt, the banishment
+of the squire, the lady driven at last to wed the young knight, her
+weeping and bewailing herself under his ill-treatment, which extended
+to pulling her about by the hair, the return of the lover, notified
+by a song behind the scenes, a dangerously affectionate meeting, interrupted
+by the husband, a fierce clashing of swords, mutual slaughter by the
+two gentlemen, and the lady dying of grief on the top of her lover.</p>
+<p>Such was the argument of this tragedy, which Giles Headley pronounced
+to be very dreary pastime, indeed he was amusing himself with an exchange
+of comfits with a youth who sat next him all the time&mdash;for he had
+found Stephen utterly deaf to aught but the tragedy, following every
+gesture with eager eyes, lips quivering, and eyes filling at the strains
+of the love songs, though they were in their native Italian, of which
+he understood not a word.&nbsp; He rose up with a heavy groan when all
+was over, as if not yet disenchanted, and hardly answered when his uncle
+spoke to him afterwards.&nbsp; It was to ask whether the Dragon party
+were to return at once to London, or to accompany the Court to Gravelines,
+where, it had just been announced, the King intended to pay a visit
+to his nephew, the Emperor.</p>
+<p>Neither Stephen nor Giles knew, but when they reached their own quarters
+they found that Smallbones had received an intimation that there might
+be jousts, and that the offices of the armourers would be required.&nbsp;
+He was very busy packing up his tools, but loudly hilarious, and Sir
+John Fulford, with a flask of wine beside him, was swaggering and shouting
+orders to the men as though he were the head of the expedition.</p>
+<p>Revelations come in strange ways.&nbsp; Perhaps that Italian play
+might be called Galeotto to Stephen Birkenholt.&nbsp; It affected him
+all the more because he was not distracted by the dialogue, but was
+only powerfully touched by the music, and, in the gestures of the lovers,
+felt all the force of sympathy.&nbsp; It was to him like a kind of prophetic
+mirror, revealing to him the true meaning of all he had ever felt for
+Dennet Headley, and of his vexation and impatience at seeing her bestowed
+upon a dull and indifferent lout like her kinsman, who not only was
+not good enough for her, but did not even love her, or accept her as
+anything but his title to the Dragon court.&nbsp; He now thrilled and
+tingled from head to foot with the perceptions that all this meant love&mdash;love
+to Dennet; and in every act of the drama he beheld only himself, Giles,
+and Dennet.&nbsp; Watching at first with a sweet fascination, his feelings
+changed, now to strong yearning, now to hot wrath, and then to horror
+and dismay.&nbsp; In his troubled sleep after the spectacle, he identified
+himself with the lover, sang, wooed, and struggled in his person, woke
+with a start of relief, to find Giles snoring safely beside him, and
+the watch-dog on his chest instead of an expiring lady.&nbsp; He had
+not made unholy love to sweet Dennet, nor imperilled her good name,
+nor slain his comrade.&nbsp; Nor was she yet wedded to that oaf, Giles!&nbsp;
+But she would be in a few weeks, and then!&nbsp; How was he to brook
+the sight, chained as he was to the Dragon court&mdash;see Giles lord
+it over her, and all of them, see her missing the love that was burning
+for her elsewhere.&nbsp; Stephen lost his boyhood on that evening, and,
+though force of habit kept him like himself outwardly, he never was
+alone, without feeling dazed, and torn in every direction at once.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI.&nbsp; SWORD OR SMITHY</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;Darest thou be so valiant as to play the coward with thy indenture,
+and to show it a fair pair of heels and run from it?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>SHAKESPEARE.</p>
+<p>Tidings came forth on the parting from the French King that the English
+Court was about to move to Gravelines to pay a visit to the Emperor
+and his aunt, the Duchess of Savoy.&nbsp; As it was hoped that jousts
+might make part of the entertainment, the attendance of the Dragon party
+was required.&nbsp; Giles was unfeignedly delighted at this extension
+of holiday, Stephen felt that it deferred the day&mdash;would it be
+of strange joy or pain?&mdash;of standing face to face with Dennet;
+and even Kit had come to tolerate foreign parts more with Sir John Fulford
+to show him the way to the best Flemish ale!</p>
+<p>The knight took upon himself the conduct of the Dragons.&nbsp; He
+understood how to lead them by routes where all provisions and ale had
+not been consumed; and he knew how to swagger and threaten so as to
+obtain the best of liquor and provisions at each <i>kermesse</i>&mdash;at
+least so he said, though it might be doubted whether the Flemings might
+not have been more willing to yield up their stores to Kit&rsquo;s open,
+honest face and free hand.</p>
+<p>However, Fulford seemed to consider himself one with the party; and
+he beguiled the way by tales of the doings of the Badgers in Italy and
+Savoy, which were listened to with avidity by the lads, distracting
+Stephen from the pain at his heart, and filling both with excitement.&nbsp;
+They were to have the honour of seeing the Badgers at Gravelines, where
+they were encamped outside the city to serve as a guard to the great
+inclosure that was being made of canvas stretched on the masts of ships
+to mark out the space for a great banquet and dance.</p>
+<p>The weather broke however just as Henry, his wife and his sister,
+entered Gravelines; it rained pertinaciously, a tempestuous wind blew
+down the erection, and as there was no time to set it up again, the
+sports necessarily took place in the castle and town hall.&nbsp; There
+was no occasion for the exercise of the armourer&rsquo;s craft, and
+as Charles had forbidden the concourse of all save invited guests, everything
+was comparatively quiet and dull, though the entertainment was on the
+most liberal scale.&nbsp; Lodgings were provided in the city at the
+Emperor&rsquo;s expense, and wherever an Englishman was quartered each
+night, the imperial officers brought a cast of fine manchet bread, two
+great silver pots with wine, a pound of sugar, white and yellow candles,
+and a torch.&nbsp; As Randall said, &ldquo;Charles gave solid pudding
+where Francis gave empty praise&rdquo;!</p>
+<p>Smallbones and the two youths had very little to do, save to consume
+these provisions and accept the hospitality freely offered to them at
+the camp of the Badgers, where Smallbones and the Ancient of the troop
+sat fraternising over big flagons of Flemish ale, which did not visibly
+intoxicate the honest smith, but kept him in the dull and drowsy state,
+which was his idea of the <i>dolce far niente</i> of a holiday.&nbsp;
+Meanwhile the two youths were made much of by the warriors, Stephen&rsquo;s
+dexterity with the bow and back-sword were shown off and lauded, Giles&rsquo;s
+strength was praised, and all manner of new feats were taught them,
+all manner of stories told them; and the shrinking of well-trained young
+citizens from these lawless me &ldquo;full of strange oaths and bearded
+like the pard,&rdquo; and some very truculent-looking, had given way
+to judicious flattery, and to the attractions of adventure and of a
+free life, where wealth and honour awaited the bold.</p>
+<p>Stephen was told that the gentleman in him was visible, that he ought
+to disdain the flat cap and blue gown, that here was his opportunity,
+and that among the Badgers he would soon be so rich, famous, glorious,
+as to wonder that he had ever tolerated the greasy mechanical life of
+a base burgher.&nbsp; Respect to his oaths to his master&mdash;Sir John
+laughed the scruple to scorn; nay, if he were so tender, he could buy
+his absolution the first time he had his pouch full of gold.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What shall I do?&rdquo; was the cry of Stephen&rsquo;s heart.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;My honour and my oath.&nbsp; They bind me.&nbsp; <i>She</i> would
+weep.&nbsp; My master would deem me ungrateful, Ambrose break his heart.&nbsp;
+And yet who knows but I should do worse if I stayed, I shall break my
+own heart if I do.&nbsp; I shall not see&mdash;I may forget.&nbsp; No,
+no, never! but at least I shall never know the moment when the lubber
+takes the jewel he knows not how to prize!&nbsp; Marches&mdash;sieges&mdash;there
+shall I quell this wild beating!&nbsp; I may die there.&nbsp; At least
+they will allay this present frenzy of my blood.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And he listened when Fulford and Will Marden, a young English man-at-arms
+with whom he had made friends, concerted how he should meet them at
+an inn&mdash;the sign of the Seven Stars&mdash;in Gravelines, and there
+exchange his prentice&rsquo;s garb for the buff coat and corslet of
+a Badger, with the Austrian black and yellow scarf.&nbsp; He listened,
+but he had not promised.&nbsp; The sense of duty to his master, the
+honour to his word, always recurred like &ldquo;first thoughts,&rdquo;
+though the longing to escape, the restlessness of hopeless love, the
+youthful eagerness for adventure and freedom, swept it aside again and
+again.</p>
+<p>He had not seen his uncle since the evening of the comedy, for Hal
+had travelled in the Cardinal&rsquo;s suite, and the amusements being
+all within doors, jesters were much in request, as indeed Charles V.
+was curious in fools, and generally had at least three in attendance.&nbsp;
+Stephen, moreover, always shrank from his uncle when acting professionally.&nbsp;
+He had learnt to love and esteem the man during his troubles, but this
+only rendered the sight of his buffoonery more distressing, and as Randall
+had not provided himself with his home suit, they were the more cut
+off from one another.&nbsp; Thus there was all the less to counteract
+or show the fallacy of Fulford&rsquo;s recruiting blandishments.</p>
+<p>The day had come on the evening of which Stephen was to meet Fulford
+and Marden at the Seven Stars and give them his final answer, in time
+to allow of their smuggling him out of the city, and sending him away
+into the country, since Smallbones would certainly suspect him to be
+in the camp, and as he was still an apprentice, it was possible, though
+not probable, that the town magistrates might be incited to make search
+on inquiry, as they were very jealous of the luring away of their apprentices
+by the Free Companies, and moreover his uncle might move the Cardinal
+and the King to cause measures to be taken for his recovery.</p>
+<p>Ill at ease, Stephen wandered away from the hostel where Smallbones
+was entertaining his friend, the Ancient.&nbsp; He had not gone far
+down the street when a familiar figure met his eye, no other than that
+of Lucas Hansen, his brother&rsquo;s old master, walking along with
+a pack on his back.&nbsp; Grown as Stephen was, the old man&rsquo;s
+recognition was as rapid as his own, and there was a clasp of the hand,
+an exchange of greeting, while Lucas eagerly asked after his dear pupil,
+Ambrose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Come in hither, and we can speak more at ease,&rdquo; said
+Lucas, leading the way up the common staircase of a tall house, whose
+upper stories overhung the street.&nbsp; Up and up, Lucas led the way
+to a room in the high peaked roof, looking out at the back.&nbsp; Here
+Stephen recognised a press, but it was not at work, only a young friar
+was sitting there engaged in sewing up sheets so as to form a pamphlet.&nbsp;
+Lucas spoke to him in Flemish to explain his own return with the English
+prentice.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Dost thou dwell here, sir?&rdquo; asked Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;I
+thought Rotterdam was thine home.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea,&rdquo; said Lucas, &ldquo;so it be, but I am sojourning
+here to aid in bearing about the seed of the Gospel, for which I walk
+through these lands of ours.&nbsp; But tell me of thy brother, and of
+the little Moorish maiden?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen replied with an account of both Ambrose and Aldonza, and
+likewise of Tibble Steelman, explaining how ill the last had been in
+the winter, and that therefore he could not be with the party.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I would I had a token to send him,&rdquo; said Lucas; &ldquo;but
+I have nought here that is not either in the Dutch or the French, and
+neither of those tongues doth he understand.&nbsp; But thy brother,
+the good Ambrose, can read the Dutch.&nbsp; Wilt thou carry him from
+me this fresh tractate, showing how many there be that make light of
+the Apostle Paul&rsquo;s words not to do evil that good may come?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen had been hearing rather listlessly, thinking how little the
+good man suspected how doubtful it was that he should bear messages
+to Ambrose.&nbsp; Now, on that sore spot in his conscience, that sentence
+darted like an arrow, the shaft finding &ldquo;mark the archer little
+meant,&rdquo; and with a start, not lost on Lucas, he exclaimed &ldquo;Saith
+the holy Saint Paul that?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Assuredly, my son.&nbsp; Brother Cornelis, who is one whose
+eyes have been opened, can show you the very words, if thou hast any
+Latin.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Perhaps to gain time, Stephen assented, and the young friar, with
+a somewhat inquisitive look, presently brought him the sentence &ldquo;<i>Et
+non faciamus mala ut veniant bona</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen&rsquo;s Latin was not very fresh, and he hardly comprehended
+the words, but he stood gazing with a frown of distress on his brow,
+which made Lucas say, &ldquo;My son, thou art sorely bestead.&nbsp;
+Is there aught in which a plain old man can help thee, for thy brother&rsquo;s
+sake?&nbsp; Speak freely.&nbsp; Brother Cornelis knows not a word of
+English.&nbsp; Dost thou owe aught to any man?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, nay&mdash;not that,&rdquo; said Stephen, drawn in his
+trouble and perplexity to open his heart to this incongruous confidant,
+&ldquo;but, sir, sir, which be the worst, to break my pledge to my master,
+or to run into a trial which&mdash;which will last from day to day,
+and may be too much for me&mdash;yea, and for another&mdash;at last?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The colour, the trembling of limb, the passion of voice, revealed
+enough to Lucas to make him say, in the voice of one who, dried up as
+he was, had once proved the trial, &ldquo;&rsquo;Tis love, thou wouldst
+say?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, sir,&rdquo; said Stephen, turning away, but in another
+moment bursting forth, &ldquo;I love my master&rsquo;s daughter, and
+she is to wed her cousin, who takes her as her father&rsquo;s chattel!&nbsp;
+I wist not why the world had grown dark to me till I saw a comedy at
+Ardres, where, as in a mirror, &rsquo;twas all set forth&mdash;yea,
+and how love was too strong for him and for her, and how shame and death
+came thereof.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Those players are good for nought but to wake the passions!&rdquo;
+muttered Lucas.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, methought they warned me,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;For, sir,&rdquo;&mdash;he hid his burning face in his hands as
+he leant on the back of a chair&mdash;&ldquo;I wot that she has ever
+liked me better, far better than him.&nbsp; And scarce a night have
+I closed an eye without dreaming it all, and finding myself bringing
+evil on her, till I deemed &rsquo;twere better I never saw her more,
+and left her to think of me as a forsworn runagate rather than see her
+wedded only to be flouted&mdash;and maybe&mdash;do worse.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Poor lad!&rdquo; said Lucas; &ldquo;and what wouldst thou
+do?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I have not pledged myself&mdash;but I said I would consider
+of&mdash;service among Fulford&rsquo;s troop,&rdquo; faltered Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Among those ruffians&mdash;godless, lawless men!&rdquo; exclaimed
+Lucas.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, I know what you would say,&rdquo; returned Stephen, &ldquo;but
+they are brave men, better than you deem, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Were they angels or saints,&rdquo; said Lucas, rallying his
+forces, &ldquo;thou hast no right to join them.&nbsp; Thine oath fetters
+thee.&nbsp; Thou hast no right to break it and do a sure and certain
+evil to avoid one that may never befall!&nbsp; How knowst thou how it
+may be?&nbsp; Nay, if the trial seem to thee over great, thine apprenticeship
+will soon be at an end.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not for two years&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Or thy master, if thou spakest the whole truth, would transfer
+thine indentures.&nbsp; He is a good man, and if it be as thou sayest,
+would not see his child tried too sorely.&nbsp; God will make a way
+for the tempted to escape.&nbsp; They need not take the devil&rsquo;s
+way.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said Stephen, lifting up his head, &ldquo;I thank
+you.&nbsp; Thus was what I needed.&nbsp; I will tell Sir John Fulford
+that I ought never to have heeded him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Must thou see him again?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I must.&nbsp; I am to give him his answer at the Seven Stars.&nbsp;
+But fear not me, Master Lucas, he shall not lead me away.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+And Stephen took a grateful leave of the little Dutchman, and charged
+himself with more messages for Ambrose and Tibble than his overburdened
+spirit was likely to retain.</p>
+<p>Lucas went down the stairs with him, and as a sudden thought, said
+at the foot of them, &ldquo;&rsquo;Tis at the Seven Stars thou meetest
+this knight.&nbsp; Take an old man&rsquo;s counsel.&nbsp; Taste no liquor
+there.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am no ale bibber,&rdquo; said Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, I deemed thee none&mdash;but heed my words&mdash;captains
+of landsknechts in <i>kermesses</i> are scarce to be trusted.&nbsp;
+Taste not.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen gave a sort of laugh at the precaution, and shook himself
+loose.&nbsp; It was still an hour to the time of meeting, and the Ave-bell
+was ringing.&nbsp; A church door stood open, and for the first time
+since he had been at Gravelines he felt that there would be the calm
+he needed to adjust the conflict of his spirits, and comprehend the
+new situation, or rather the recurrence to the old one.&nbsp; He seemed
+to have recovered his former self, and to be able to perceive that things
+might go on as before, and his heart really leapt at finding he might
+return to the sight of Dennet and Ambrose and all he loved.</p>
+<p>His wishes were really that way; and Fulford&rsquo;s allurements
+had become very shadowy when he made his way to the Seven Stars, whose
+vine-covered window allowed many loud voices and fumes of beer and wine
+to escape into the summer evening air.</p>
+<p>The room was perhaps cleaner than an English one would have been,
+but it was reeking with heat and odours, and the forest-bred youth was
+unwilling to enter, but Fulford and two or three Badgers greeted him
+noisily and called on him to partake of the supper they had ready prepared.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir knight, I thank you,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;I
+am bound for my quarters, I came but to thank you for your goodness
+to me, and to bid you farewell.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And how as to thy pledge to join us, young man?&rdquo; demanded
+Fulford sternly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I gave no pledge,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;I said
+I would consider of it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Faint-hearted! ha! ha!&rdquo; and the English Badgers translated
+the word to the Germans, and set them shouting with derision.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am not faint-hearted,&rdquo; said Stephen; &ldquo;but I
+will not break mine oath to my master.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And thine oath to me?&nbsp; Ha!&rdquo; said Fulford.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I sware you no oath, I gave you no word,&rdquo; said Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ha!&nbsp; Thou darest give me the lie, base prentice.&nbsp;
+Take that!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And therewith he struck Stephen a crushing blow on the head, which
+felled him to the ground.&nbsp; The host and all the company, used to
+pot-house quarrels, and perhaps playing into his hands, took little
+heed; Stephen was dragged insensible into another room, and there the
+Badgers began hastily to divest him of his prentice&rsquo;s gown, and
+draw his arms into a buff coat.</p>
+<p>Fulford had really been struck with his bravery, and knew besides
+that his skill in the armourer&rsquo;s craft would be valuable, so that
+it had been determined beforehand that he should&mdash;by fair means
+or foul&mdash;leave the Seven Stars a Badger.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;By all the powers of hell, you have struck too hard, sir.&nbsp;
+He is sped,&rdquo; said Marden anxiously.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ass! tut!&rdquo; said Fulford.&nbsp; &ldquo;Only enough to
+daze him till he be safe in our quarters&mdash;and for that the sooner
+the better.&nbsp; Here, call Anton to take his heels.&nbsp; We&rsquo;ll
+get him forth now as a fellow of our own.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hark!&nbsp; What&rsquo;s that?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Gentlemen,&rdquo; said the host hurrying in, &ldquo;here be
+some of the gentlemen of the English Cardinal, calling for a nephew
+of one of them, who they say is in this house.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>With an imprecation, Fulford denied all connection with gentlemen
+of the Cardinal; but there was evidently an invasion, and in another
+moment, several powerful-looking men in the crimson and black velvet
+of Wolsey&rsquo;s train had forced their way into the chamber, and the
+foremost, seeing Stephen&rsquo;s condition at a glance, exclaimed loudly,
+&ldquo;Thou villain! traitor! kidnapper!&nbsp; This is thy work.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ha! ha!&rdquo; shouted Fulford, &ldquo;whom have we here?&nbsp;
+The Cardinal&rsquo;s fool a masquing!&nbsp; Treat us to a caper, quipsome
+sir?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m more like to treat you to the gyves,&rdquo; returned
+Randall.&nbsp; &ldquo;Away with you!&nbsp; The watch are at hand.&nbsp;
+Were it not for my wife&rsquo;s sake, they should bear you off to the
+city jail; the Emperor should know how you fill your ranks.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was quite true.&nbsp; The city guard were entering at the street
+door, and the host hurried Fulford and his men, swearing and raging,
+out at a back door provided for such emergencies.&nbsp; Stephen was
+beginning to recover by this time.&nbsp; His uncle knelt down, took
+his head on his shoulder, and Lucas washed off the blood and administered
+a drop of wine.&nbsp; His first words were:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Was it Giles?&nbsp; Where is she?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Still going over the play!&rdquo; thought Lucas.&nbsp; &ldquo;Nay,
+nay, lad.&nbsp; &rsquo;Twas one of the soldiers who played thee this
+scurvy trick!&nbsp; All&rsquo;s well now.&nbsp; Thou wilt soon be able
+to quit this place.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I remember now,&rdquo; said Stephen, &ldquo;Sir John said
+I gave him the lie when I said I had given no pledge.&nbsp; But I had
+not!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou hast been a brave fellow, and better broken head than
+broken troth,&rdquo; said his uncle.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But how came you here,&rdquo; asked Stephen.&nbsp; &ldquo;In
+the nick of time?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was explained that Lucas, not doubting Stephen&rsquo;s resolution,
+but quite aware of the tricks of landsknecht captains with promising
+recruits in view, had gone first in search of Smallbones, but had found
+him and the Ancient so deeply engaged in potations from the liberal
+supply of the Emperor to all English guests, that there was no getting
+him apart, and he was too much muddled to comprehend if he could have
+been spoken with.</p>
+<p>Lucas then, in desperation, betook himself to the convent where Wolsey
+was magnificently lodged.&nbsp; Ill May Day had made him, as well as
+others, well acquainted with the relationship between Stephen and Randall,
+though he was not aware of the further connection with Fulford.&nbsp;
+He hoped, even if unable to see Randall, to obtain help on behalf of
+an English lad in danger, and happily he arrived at a moment when State
+affairs were going on, and Randall was refreshing himself by a stroll
+in the cloister.&nbsp; When Lucas had made him understand the situation,
+his dismay was only equalled by his promptitude.&nbsp; He easily obtained
+the loan of one of the splendid suits of scarlet and crimson, guarded
+with black velvet a hand broad, which were worn by the Cardinal&rsquo;s
+secular attendants&mdash;for he was well known by this time in the household
+to be very far from an absolute fool, and indeed had done many a good
+turn to his comrades.&nbsp; Several of the gentlemen, indignant at the
+threatened outrage on a young Englishman, and esteeming the craftsmen
+of the Dragon, volunteered to accompany him, and others warned the watch.</p>
+<p>There was some difficulty still, for the burgher guards, coming up
+puffing and blowing, wanted to carry off the victim and keep him in
+ward to give evidence against the mercenaries, whom they regarded as
+a sort of wolves, so that even the Emperor never durst quarter them
+within one of the cities.&nbsp; The drawn swords of Randall&rsquo;s
+friends however settled that matter, and Stephen, though still dizzy,
+was able to walk.&nbsp; Thus leaning on his uncle, he was escorted back
+to the hostel.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The villain!&rdquo; the jester said on the way, &ldquo;I mistrusted
+him, but I never thought he would have abused our kindred in this fashion.&nbsp;
+I would fain have come down to look after thee, nevvy, but these kings
+and queens are troublesome folk.&nbsp; The Emperor&mdash;he is a pale,
+shame-faced, solemn lad.&nbsp; Maybe he museth, but he had scarce a
+word to say for himself.&nbsp; Our Hal tried clapping on the shoulder,
+calling him fair coz, and the like, in his hearty fashion.&nbsp; Behold,
+what doth he but turn round with such a look about the long lip of him
+as my Lord of Buckingham might have if his scullion made free with him.&nbsp;
+His aunt, the Duchess of Savoy, is a merry dame, and a wise!&nbsp; She
+and our King can talk by the ell, but as for the Emperor, he speaketh
+to none willingly save Queen Katharine, who is of his own stiff Spanish
+humour, and he hath eyes for none save Queen Mary, who would have been
+his empress had high folk held to their word.&nbsp; And with so tongue-tied
+a host, and the rain without, what had the poor things to do by way
+of disporting themselves with but a show of fools.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ve
+had to go through every trick and quip I learnt when I was with old
+Nat Fire-eater.&nbsp; And I&rsquo;m stiffer in the joints and weightier
+in the heft than I was in those days when I slept in the fields, and
+fasted more than ever Holy Church meant.&nbsp; But, heigh ho!&nbsp;
+I ought to be supple enough after the practice of these three days.&nbsp;
+Moreover, if it could loose a fool&rsquo;s tongue to have a king and
+queen for interpreters, I had them&mdash;for there were our Harry and
+Moll catching at every gibe as fast as my brain could hatch it, and
+rendering it into French as best thy might, carping and quibbling the
+while underhand at one another&rsquo;s renderings, and the Emperor sitting
+by in his black velvet, smiling about as much as a felon at the hangman&rsquo;s
+jests.&nbsp; All his poor fools moreover, and the King&rsquo;s own,
+ready to gnaw their baubles for envy!&nbsp; That was the only sport
+I had!&nbsp; I&rsquo;m wearier than if I&rsquo;d been plying Smallbones&rsquo;
+biggest hammer.&nbsp; The worst of it is that my Lord Cardinal is to
+stay behind and go on to Bruges as ambassador, and I with him, so thou
+must bear my greetings to thy naunt, and tell her I&rsquo;m keeping
+from picking up a word of French or Flemish lest this same Charles should
+take a fancy to me and ask me of my master, who would give away his
+own head to get the Pope&rsquo;s fool&rsquo;s cap.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Wer da?&nbsp; Qui va l&agrave;</i>?&rdquo; asked a voice,
+and the summer twilight revealed two figures with cloaks held high and
+drooping Spanish hats; one of whom, a slender, youthful figure, so far
+as could be seen under his cloak, made inquiries, first in Flemish,
+then in French, as to what ailed the youth.&nbsp; Lucas replied in the
+former tongue, and one of the Englishmen could speak French.&nbsp; The
+gentleman seemed much concerned, asked if the watch had been at hand,
+and desired Lucas to assure the young Englishman that the Emperor would
+be much distressed at the tidings, asked where he was lodged, and passed
+on.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah ha!&rdquo; muttered the jester, &ldquo;if my ears deceive
+me now, I&rsquo;ll never trust them again!&nbsp; Mynheer Charles knows
+a few more tricks than he is fain to show off in royal company.&nbsp;
+Come on, Stevie!&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll see thee to thy bed.&nbsp; Old Kit
+is too far gone to ask after thee.&nbsp; In sooth, I trow that my sweet
+father-in-law set his Ancient to nail him to the wine pot.&nbsp; And
+Master Giles I saw last with some of the grooms.&nbsp; I said nought
+to him, for I trow thou wouldst not have him know thy plight!&nbsp;
+I&rsquo;ll be with thee in the morning ere thou partest, if kings, queens,
+and cardinals roar themselves hoarse for the Quipsome.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>With this promise Hal Randall bestowed his still dulled and half-stunned
+nephew carefully on the pallet provided by the care of the purveyors.&nbsp;
+Stephen slept dreamily at first, then soundly, and woke at the sound
+of the bells of Gravelines to the sense that a great crisis in his life
+was over, a strange wild dream of evil dispelled, and that he was to
+go home to see, hear, and act as he could, with a heartache indeed,
+but with the resolve to do his best as a true and honest man.</p>
+<p>Smallbones was already afoot&mdash;for the start for Calais was to
+be made on that very day.&nbsp; The smith was fully himself again, and
+was bawling for his subordinates, who had followed his example in indulging
+in the good cheer, and did not carry it off so easily.&nbsp; Giles,
+rather silent and surly, was out of bed, shouting answers to Smallbones,
+and calling on Stephen to truss his points.&nbsp; He was in a mood not
+easy to understand, he would hardly speak, and never noticed the marks
+of the fray on Stephen&rsquo;s temple&mdash;only half hidden by the
+dark curly hair.&nbsp; This was of course a relief, but Stephen could
+not help suspecting that he had been last night engaged in some revel
+about which he desired no inquiries.</p>
+<p>Randall came just as the operation was completed.&nbsp; He was in
+a good deal of haste, having to restore the groom&rsquo;s dress he wore
+by the time the owner had finished the morning toilet of the Lord Cardinal&rsquo;s
+palfreys.&nbsp; He could not wait to inquire how Stephen had contrived
+to fall into the hands of Fulford, his chief business being to put under
+safe charge a bag of coins, the largesse from the various princes and
+nobles whom he had diverted&mdash;ducats, crowns, dollars, and angels
+all jingling together&mdash;to be bestowed wherever Perronel kept her
+store, a matter which Hal was content not to know, though the pair cherished
+a hope some day to retire on it from fooling.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou art a good lad, Steve,&rdquo; said Hal.&nbsp; &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+right glad thou leavest this father of mine behind thee.&nbsp; I would
+not see thee such as he&mdash;no, not for all the gold we saw on the
+Frenchmen&rsquo;s backs.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>This was the jester&rsquo;s farewell, but it was some time before
+the waggon was under way, for the carter and one of the smiths were
+missing, and were only at noon found in an alehouse, both very far gone
+in liquor, and one with a black eye.&nbsp; Kit discoursed on sobriety
+in the most edifying manner, as at last he drove heavily along the street,
+almost the last in the baggage train of the king and queens&mdash;but
+still in time to be so included in it so as to save all difficulty at
+the gates.&nbsp; It was, however, very late in the evening when they
+reached Calais, so that darkness was coming on as they waited their
+turn at the drawbridge, with a cart full of scullions and pots and pans
+before them, and a waggon-load of tents behind.&nbsp; The warders in
+charge of the gateway had orders to count over all whom they admitted,
+so that no unauthorised person might enter that much-valued fortress.&nbsp;
+When at length the waggon rolled forward into the shadow of the great
+towered gateway on the outer side of the moat, the demand was made,
+who was there?&nbsp; Giles had always insisted, as leader of the party,
+on making reply to such questions, and Smallbones waited for his answer,
+but none was forthcoming.&nbsp; Therefore Kit shouted in reply, &ldquo;Alderman
+Headley&rsquo;s wain and armourers.&nbsp; Two journeymen, one prentice,
+two smiths, two waggoners.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Seven!&rdquo; rejoined the warder.&nbsp; &ldquo;One&mdash;two&mdash;three&mdash;four&mdash;five.&nbsp;
+Ha! your company seems to be lacking.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Giles must have ridden on,&rdquo; suggested Stephen, while
+Kit, growling angrily, called on the lazy fellow, Will Wherry, to wake
+and show himself.&nbsp; But the officials were greatly hurried, and
+as long as no dangerous person got into Calais, it mattered little to
+them who might be left outside, so they hurried on the waggon into the
+narrow street.</p>
+<p>It was well that it was a summer night, for lodgings there were none.&nbsp;
+Every hostel was full and all the houses besides.&nbsp; The earlier
+comers assured Kit that it was of no use to try to go on.&nbsp; The
+streets up to the wharf were choked, and he might think himself lucky
+to have his waggon to sleep in.&nbsp; But the horses!&nbsp; And food?&nbsp;
+However, there was one comfort&mdash;English tongues answered, if it
+was only with denials.</p>
+<p>Kit&rsquo;s store of travelling money was at a low ebb, and it was
+nearly exhausted by the time, at an exorbitant price, he had managed
+to get a little hay and water for the horses, and a couple of loaves
+and a haunch of bacon among the five hungry men.&nbsp; They were quite
+content to believe that Master Giles had ridden on before and secured
+better quarters and viands, nor could they much regret the absence of
+Will Wherry&rsquo;s wide mouth.</p>
+<p>Kit called Stephen to council in the morning.&nbsp; His funds would
+not permit waiting for the missing ones, if he were to bring home any
+reasonable proportion of gain to his master.&nbsp; He believed that
+Master Headley would by no means risk the whole party loitering at Calais,
+when it was highly probable that Giles might have joined some of the
+other travellers, and embarked by himself.</p>
+<p>After all, Kit&rsquo;s store had to be well-nigh expended before
+the horses, waggon, and all, could find means to encounter the miseries
+of the transit to Dover.&nbsp; Then, glad as he was to be on his native
+soil, his spirits sank lower and lower as the waggon creaked on under
+the hot sun towards London.&nbsp; He had actually brought home only
+four marks to make over to his master; and although he could show a
+considerable score against the King and various nobles, these debts
+were not apt to be promptly discharged, and what was worse, two members
+of his party and one horse were missing.&nbsp; He little knew how narrow
+an escape he had had of losing a third!</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII.&nbsp; AN INVASION</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;What shall be the maiden&rsquo;s fate?<br />Who shall be the
+maiden&rsquo;s mate?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>SCOTT.</p>
+<p>No Giles Headley appeared to greet the travellers, though Kit Smallbones
+had halted at Canterbury, to pour out entreaties to St. Thomas, and
+the vow of a steel and gilt reliquary of his best workmanship to contain
+the old shoe, which a few years previously had so much disgusted Erasmus
+and his companion.</p>
+<p>Poor old fellow, he was too much crest-fallen thoroughly to enjoy
+even the gladness of his little children; and his wife made no secret
+of her previous conviction that he was too dunderheaded not to run into
+some coil, when she was not there to look after him.&nbsp; The alderman
+was more merciful.&nbsp; Since there had been no invasion from Salisbury,
+he had regretted the not having gone himself to Ardres, and he knew
+pretty well that Kit&rsquo;s power lay more in his arms than in his
+brain.&nbsp; He did not wonder at the small gain, nor at the having
+lost sight of the young man, and confidently expected the lost ones
+soon to appear.</p>
+<p>As to Dennet, her eyes shone quietly, and she took upon herself to
+send down to let Mistress Randall know of her nephew&rsquo;s return,
+and invite her to supper to hear the story of his doings.&nbsp; The
+girl did not look at all like a maiden uneasy about her lost lover,
+but much more like one enjoying for the moment the immunity from a kind
+of burthen; and, as she smiled, called for Stephen&rsquo;s help in her
+little arrangements, and treated him in the friendly manner of old times,
+he could not but wonder at the panic that had overpowered him for a
+time like a fever of the mind.</p>
+<p>There was plenty to speak of in the glories of the Field of the Cloth
+of Gold, and the transactions with the knights and nobles; and Stephen
+held his peace as to his adventure, but Dennet&rsquo;s eyes were sharper
+than Kit&rsquo;s.&nbsp; She spied the remains of the bruise under his
+black curly hair; and while her father and Tib were unravelling the
+accounts from Kit&rsquo;s brain and tally-sticks, she got the youth
+out into the gallery, and observed, &ldquo;So thou hast a broken head.&nbsp;
+See here are grandmother&rsquo;s lily-leaves in strong waters.&nbsp;
+Let me lay one on for thee.&nbsp; There, sit down on the step, then
+I can reach.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&rsquo;Tis well nigh whole now, sweet mistress,&rdquo; said
+Stephen, complying however, for it was too sweet to have those little
+fingers busy about him, for the offer to be declined.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How gatst thou the blow?&rdquo; asked Dennet.&nbsp; &ldquo;Was
+it at single-stick?&nbsp; Come, thou mayst tell me.&nbsp; &rsquo;Twas
+in standing up for some one.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, mistress, I would it had been.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou hast been in trouble,&rdquo; she said, leaning on the
+baluster above him.&nbsp; &ldquo;Or did ill men set on thee?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the nearest guess,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;&rsquo;Twas that tall father of mine aunt&rsquo;s, the fellow
+that came here for armour, and bought poor Master Michael&rsquo;s sword.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And sliced the apple on thine hand.&nbsp; Ay?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He would have me for one of his Badgers.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thee!&nbsp; Stephen!&rdquo;&nbsp; It was a cry of pain as
+well as horror.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, mistress; and when I refused, the fellow dealt me a blow,
+and laid me down senseless, to bear me off willy nilly, but that good
+old Lucas Hansen brought mine uncle to mine aid&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Dennet clasped her hands.&nbsp; &ldquo;O Stephen, Stephen!&nbsp;
+Now I know how good the Lord is.&nbsp; Wot ye, I asked of Tibble to
+take me daily to St. Faith&rsquo;s to crave of good St. Julian to have
+you all in his keeping, and saith he on the way, &lsquo;Methinks, mistress,
+our dear Lord would hear you if you spake to Him direct, with no go-between.&rsquo;&nbsp;
+I did as he bade me, Stephen, I went to the high Altar, and prayed there,
+and Tibble went with me, and lo, now, He hath brought you back safe.&nbsp;
+We will have a mass of thanksgiving on the very morn.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen&rsquo;s heart could not but bound, for it was plain enough
+for whom the chief force of these prayers had been offered.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sweet mistress,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;they have availed me
+indeed.&nbsp; Certes, they warded me in the time of sore trial and temptation.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Dennet, &ldquo;thou <i>couldst</i> not have
+longed to go away from hence with those ill men who live by slaying
+and plundering?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The present temptation was to say that he had doubted whether this
+course would not have been for the best both for himself and for her;
+but he recollected that Giles might be at the gate, and if so, he should
+feel as if he had rather have bitten out his tongue than have let Dennet
+know the state of the case, so he only answered&mdash;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There be sorer temptations in the world for us poor rogues
+than little home-biding house crickets like thee wot of, mistress.&nbsp;
+Well that ye can pray for us without knowing all!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen had never consciously come so near love-making, and his honest
+face was all one burning glow with the suppressed feeling, while Dennet
+lingered till the curfew warned them of the lateness of the hour, both
+with a strange sense of undefined pleasure in the being together in
+the summer twilight.</p>
+<p>Day after day passed on with no news of Giles or Will Wherry.&nbsp;
+The alderman grew uneasy, and sent Stephen to ask his brother to write
+to Randall, or to some one else in Wolsey&rsquo;s suite, to make inquiries
+at Bruges.&nbsp; But Ambrose was found to have gone abroad in the train
+of Sir Thomas More, and nothing was heard till their return six weeks
+later, when Ambrose brought home a small packet which had been conveyed
+to him through one of the Emperor&rsquo;s suite.&nbsp; It was tied up
+with a long tough pale wisp of hair, evidently from the mane or tail
+of some Flemish horse, and was addressed, &ldquo;To Master Ambrose Birkenholt,
+menial clerk to the most worshipful Sir Thomas More, Knight, Under Sheriff
+of the City of London.&nbsp; These greeting&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Within, when Ambrose could open the missive, was another small parcel,
+and a piece of brown coarse paper, on which was scrawled&mdash;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Good Ambrose Birkenholt,&mdash;I pray thee to stand my friend,
+and let all know whom it may concern, that when this same billet comes
+to hand, I shall be far on the march to High Germany, with a company
+of lusty fellows in the Emperor&rsquo;s service.&nbsp; They be commanded
+by the good knight, Sir John Fulford.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If thou canst send tidings to my mother, bid her keep her
+heart up, for I shall come back a captain, full of wealth and honour,
+and that will be better than hammering for life&mdash;or being wedded
+against mine own will.&nbsp; There never was troth plight between my
+master&rsquo;s daughter and me, and my time is over, so I be quit with
+them, and I thank my master for his goodness.&nbsp; They shall all hear
+of me some of these days.&nbsp; Will Wherry is my groom, and commends
+him to his mother.&nbsp; And so, commending thee and all the rest to
+Our Lady and the saints,</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thine to command,</p>
+<p>&ldquo;GILES HEADLEY,</p>
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Man-at-Arms in the Honourable Company of Sir John Fulford,
+Knight</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>On a separate strip was written&mdash;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;Give this packet to the little Moorish maid, and tell her
+that I will bring her better by and by, and mayhap make her a knight&rsquo;s
+lady; but on thy life, say nought to any other.&rdquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>It was out now!&nbsp; Ambrose&rsquo;s head was more in Sir Thomas&rsquo;s
+books than in real life at all times, or he would long ago have inferred
+something&mdash;from the jackdaw&rsquo;s favourite phrase&mdash;from
+Giles&rsquo;s modes of haunting his steps, and making him the bearer
+of small tokens&mdash;an orange, a simnel cake, a bag of walnuts or
+almonds to Mistress Aldonza, and of the smiles, blushes, and thanks
+with which she greeted them.&nbsp; Nay, had she not burst into tears
+and entreated to be spared when Lady More wanted to make a match between
+her and the big porter, and had not her distress led Mistress Margaret
+to appeal to her father, who had said he should as soon think of wedding
+the silver-footed Thetis to Polyphemus.&nbsp; &ldquo;Tilley valley!&nbsp;
+Master More,&rdquo; the lady had answered, &ldquo;will all your fine
+pagan gods hinder the wench from starving on earth, and leading apes
+in hell.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Margaret had answered that Aldonza should never do the first, and
+Sir Thomas had gravely said that he thought those black eyes would lead
+many a man on earth before they came to the latter fate.</p>
+<p>Ambrose hid the parcel for her deep in his bosom before he asked
+permission of his master to go to the Dragon court with the rest of
+the tidings.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He always was an unmannerly cub,&rdquo; said Master Headley,
+as he read the letter.&nbsp; &ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;ve done my best to
+make a silk purse of a sow&rsquo;s ear!&nbsp; I&rsquo;ve done my duty
+by poor Robert&rsquo;s son, and if he will be such a fool as to run
+after blood and wounds, I have no more to say!&nbsp; Though &rsquo;tis
+pity of the old name!&nbsp; Ha! what&rsquo;s this?&nbsp; &lsquo;Wedded
+against my will&mdash;no troth plight.&rsquo;&nbsp; Forsooth, I thought
+my young master was mighty slack.&nbsp; He hath some other matter in
+his mind, hath he?&nbsp; Run into some coil mayhap with a beggar wench!&nbsp;
+Well, we need not be beholden to him.&nbsp; Ha, Dennet, my maid!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Dennet screwed up her little mouth, and looked very demure, but she
+twinkled her bright eyes, and said, &ldquo;My heart will not break,
+sir; I am in no haste to be wed.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Her father pinched her cheek and said she was a silly wench; but
+perhaps he marked the dancing step with which the young mistress went
+about her household cares, and how she was singing to herself songs
+that certainly were not &ldquo;Willow! willow!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose had no scruple in delivering to Aldonza the message and token,
+when he overtook her on the stairs of the house at Chelsea, carrying
+up a lapful of roses to the still-room, where Dame Alice More was rejoicing
+in setting her step-daughters to housewifely tasks.</p>
+<p>There came a wonderful illumination and agitation over the girl&rsquo;s
+usually impassive features, giving all that they needed to make them
+surpassingly beautiful.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Woe is me!&rdquo; was, however, her first exclamation.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;That he should have given up all for me!&nbsp; Oh! if I had thought
+it!&rdquo;&nbsp; But while she spoke as if she were shocked and appalled,
+her eyes belied her words.&nbsp; They shone with the first absolute
+certainty of love, and there was no realising as yet the years of silent
+waiting and anxiety that must go by, nay, perhaps an entire lifetime
+of uncertainty of her lover&rsquo;s truth or untruth, life or death.</p>
+<p>Dame Alice called her, and in a rambling, maundering way, charged
+her with loitering and gadding with the young men; and Margaret saw
+by her colour and by her eyes that some strange thing had happened to
+her.&nbsp; Margaret had, perhaps, some intuition; for was not her heart
+very tender towards a certain young barrister by name Roper whom her
+father doubted as yet, because of his Lutheran inclinations.&nbsp; By
+and by she discovered that she needed Aldonza to comb out her long dark
+hair, and ere long, she had heard all the tale of the youth cured by
+the girl&rsquo;s father, and all his gifts, and how Aldonza deemed him
+too great and too good for her (poor Giles!) though she knew she should
+never do more than look up to him with love and gratitude from afar.&nbsp;
+And she never so much as dreamt that he would cast an eye on her save
+in kindness.&nbsp; Oh yes, she knew what he had taught the daw to say,
+but then she was a child, she durst not deem it more.&nbsp; And Margaret
+More was more kind and eager than worldly wise, and she encouraged Aldonza
+to watch and wait, promised protection from all enforced suits and suitors,
+and gave assurances of shelter as her own attendant as long as the girl
+should need it.</p>
+<p>Master Headley, with some sighing and groaning, applied himself to
+write to the mother at Salisbury what had become of her son; but he
+had only spent one evening over the trying task, when just as the supper
+bell was ringing, with Master Hope and his wife as guests, there were
+horses&rsquo; feet in the court, and Master Tiptoff appeared, with a
+servant on another horse, which carried besides a figure in camlet,
+on a pillion.&nbsp; No sooner was this same figure lifted from her steed
+and set down on the steps, while the master of the house and his daughter
+came out to greet her, than she began, &ldquo;Master Alderman Headley,
+I am here to know what you have done with my poor son!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Alack, good cousin!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Alack me no alacks,&rdquo; she interrupted, holding up her
+riding rod.&nbsp; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have no dissembling, there hath
+been enough of that, Giles Headley.&nbsp; Thou hast sold him, soul and
+body, to one of yon cruel, bloodthirsty plundering, burning captains,
+that the poor child may be slain and murthered!&nbsp; Is this the fair
+promises you made to his father&mdash;wiling him away from his poor
+mother, a widow, with talking of teaching him the craft, and giving
+him your daughter!&nbsp; My son, Tiptoff here, told me the spousal was
+delayed and delayed, and he doubted whether it would ever come off,
+but I thought not of this sending him beyond seas, to make merchandise
+of him.&nbsp; And you call yourself an alderman!&nbsp; The gown should
+be stript off the back of you, and shall be, if there be any justice
+in London for a widow woman.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, cousin, you have heard some strange tale,&rdquo; said
+Master Headley, who, much as he would have dreaded the attack beforehand,
+faced it the more calmly and manfully because the accusation was so
+outrageous.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay, so I told her,&rdquo; began her son-in-law, &ldquo;but
+she hath been neither to have nor to hold since the&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And how should I be to have or to hold by a nincompoop like
+thee,&rdquo; she said, turning round on him, &ldquo;that would have
+me sit down and be content forsooth, when mine only son is kidnapped
+to be sold to the Turks or to work in the galleys, for aught I know.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mistress!&rdquo; here Master Hope&rsquo;s voice came in, &ldquo;I
+would counsel you to speak less loud, and hear before you accuse.&nbsp;
+We of the City of London know Master Alderman Headley too well to hear
+him railed against.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! you&rsquo;re all of a piece,&rdquo; she began; but by
+this time Master Tiptoff had managed at least to get her into the hall,
+and had exchanged words enough with the alderman to assure himself that
+there was an explanation, nay, that there was a letter from Giles himself.&nbsp;
+This the indignant mother presently was made to understand&mdash;and
+as the alderman had borrowed the letter in order to copy it for her,
+it was given to her.&nbsp; She could not read, and would trust no one
+but her son-in-law to read it to her.&nbsp; &ldquo;Yea, you have it
+very pat,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but how am I to be assured &rsquo;tis
+not all writ here to hoodwink a poor woman like me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&rsquo;Tis Giles&rsquo;s hand,&rdquo; averred Tiptoff.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And if you will,&rdquo; added the alderman, with wonderful
+patience, &ldquo;to-morrow you may speak with the youth who received
+it.&nbsp; Come, sit down and sup with us, and then you shall learn from
+Smallbones how this mischance befel, all from my sending two young heads
+together, and one who, though a good fellow, could not hold all in rule.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay&mdash;you&rsquo;ve your reasons for anything,&rdquo; she
+muttered, but being both weary and hungry, she consented to eat and
+drink, while Tiptoff, who was evidently ashamed of her violence, and
+anxious to excuse it, managed to explain that a report had been picked
+up at Romsey, by a bare-footed friar from Salisbury, that young Giles
+Headley had been seen at Ghent by one of the servants of a wool merchant,
+riding with a troop of Free Companions in the Emperor&rsquo;s service.&nbsp;
+All the rest was deduced from this intelligence by the dame&rsquo;s
+own imagination.</p>
+<p>After supper she was invited to interrogate Kit and Stephen, and
+her grief and anxiety found vent in fierce scolding at the misrule which
+had permitted such a villain as Fulford to be haunting and tempting
+poor fatherless lads.&nbsp; Master Headley had reproached poor Kit for
+the same thing, but he could only represent that Giles, being a freeman,
+was no longer under his authority.&nbsp; However, she stormed on, being
+absolutely convinced that her son&rsquo;s evasion was every one&rsquo;s
+fault but his own.&nbsp; Now it was the alderman for misusing him, overtasking
+the poor child, and deferring the marriage, now it was that little pert
+poppet, Dennet, who had flouted him, now it was the bad company he had
+been led into&mdash;the poor babe who had been bred to godly ways.</p>
+<p>The alderman was really sorry for her, and felt himself to blame
+so far as that he had shifted the guidance of the expedition to such
+an insufficient head as poor Smallbones, so he let her rail on as much
+as she would, till the storm exhausted itself, and she settled into
+the trust that Giles would soon grow weary and return.&nbsp; The good
+man felt bound to show her all hospitality, and the civilities to country
+cousins were in proportion to the rarity of their visits.&nbsp; So Mrs.
+Headley stayed on after Tiptoff&rsquo;s return to Salisbury, and had
+the best view feasible of all the pageants and diversions of autumn.&nbsp;
+She saw some magnificent processions of clergy, she was welcomed at
+a civic banquet and drank of the loving cup, and she beheld the Lord
+Mayor&rsquo;s Show in all its picturesque glory of emblazoned barges
+on the river.&nbsp; In fact, she found the position of denizen of an
+alderman&rsquo;s household so very agreeable that she did her best to
+make it a permanency.&nbsp; Nay, Dennet soon found that she considered
+herself to be waiting there and keeping guard till her son&rsquo;s return
+should establish her there, and that she viewed the girl already as
+a daughter&mdash;for which Dennet was by no means obliged to her!&nbsp;
+She lavished counsel on her hostess, found fault with the maidens, criticised
+the cookery, walked into the kitchen and still-room with assistance
+and directions, and even made a strong effort to possess herself of
+the keys.</p>
+<p>It must be confessed that Dennet was saucy!&nbsp; It was her weapon
+of self-defence, and she considered herself insulted in her own house.</p>
+<p>There she stood, exalted on a tall pair of pattens before the stout
+oaken table in the kitchen where a glowing fire burned; pewter, red
+and yellow earthenware, and clean scrubbed trenchers made a goodly show,
+a couple of men-cooks and twice as many scullions obeyed her behests&mdash;only
+the superior of the two first ever daring to argue a point with her.&nbsp;
+There she stood, in her white apron, with sleeves turned up, daintily
+compounding her mincemeat for Christmas, when in stalked Mrs. Headley
+to offer her counsel and aid&mdash;but this was lost in a volley of
+barking from the long-backed, bandy-legged, turnspit dog, which was
+awaiting its turn at the wheel, and which ran forward, yapping with
+malign intentions towards the dame&rsquo;s scarlet-hosed ankles.</p>
+<p>She shook her petticoats at him, but Dennet tittered even while declaring
+that Tray hurt nobody.&nbsp; Mrs. Headley reviled the dog, and then
+proceeded to advise Dennet that she should chop her citron finer.&nbsp;
+Dennet made answer &ldquo;that father liked a good stout piece of it.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Mistress Headley offered to take the chopper and instruct her how to
+compound all in the true Sarum style.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Grammercy, mistress, but we follow my grand-dame&rsquo;s recipe!&rdquo;
+said Dennet, grasping her implement firmly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Come, child, be not above taking a lesson from thine elders!&nbsp;
+Where&rsquo;s the goose?&nbsp; What?&rdquo; as the girl looked amazed,
+&ldquo;where hast thou lived not to know that a live goose should be
+bled into the mincemeat?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I have never lived with barbarous, savage folk,&rdquo; said
+Dennet&mdash;and therewith she burst into an irrepressible fit of laughter,
+trying in vain to check it, for a small and mischievous elf, freshly
+promoted to the office of scullion, had crept up and pinned a dish-cloth
+to the substantial petticoats, and as Mistress Headley whisked round
+to see what was the matter, like a kitten after its tail, it followed
+her like a train, while she rushed to box the ears of the offender,
+crying,</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You set him on, you little saucy vixen!&nbsp; I saw it in
+your eyes.&nbsp; Let the rascal be scourged.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not so,&rdquo; said Dennet, with prim mouth and laughing eyes.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Far be it from me!&nbsp; But &rsquo;tis ever the wont of the
+kitchen, when those come there who have no call thither.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Mistress Headley flounced away, dish-cloth and all, to go whimpering
+to the alderman with her tale of insults.&nbsp; She trusted that her
+cousin would give the pert wench a good beating.&nbsp; She was not a
+whit too old for it.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How oft did you beat Giles, good kinswoman?&rdquo; said Dennet
+demurely, as she stood by her father.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Whisht, whisht, child,&rdquo; said her father, &ldquo;this
+may not be!&nbsp; I cannot have my guest flouted.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If she act as our guest, I will treat her with all honour
+and courtesy,&rdquo; said the maiden; &ldquo;but when she comes where
+we look not for guests, there is no saying what the black guard may
+take it on them to do.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Master Headley was mischievously tickled at the retort, and not without
+hope that it might offend his kinswoman into departing; but she contented
+herself with denouncing all imaginable evils from Dennet&rsquo;s ungoverned
+condition, with which she was prevented in her beneficence from interfering
+by the father&rsquo;s foolish fondness.&nbsp; He would rue the day!</p>
+<p>Meantime if the alderman&rsquo;s peace on one side was disturbed
+by his visitor, on the other, suitors for Dennet&rsquo;s hand gave him
+little rest.&nbsp; She was known to be a considerable heiress, and though
+Mistress Headley gave every one to understand that there was a contract
+with Giles, and that she was awaiting his return, this did not deter
+more wooers than Dennet ever knew of, from making proposals to her father.&nbsp;
+Jasper Hope was offered, but he was too young, and besides, was a mercer&mdash;and
+Dennet and her father were agreed that her husband must go on with the
+trade.&nbsp; Then there was a master armourer, but he was a widower
+with sons and daughters as old as Dennet, and she shook her head and
+laughed at the bare notion.&nbsp; There also came a young knight who
+would have turned the Dragon court into a tilt-yard, and spent all the
+gold that long years of prudent toil had amassed.</p>
+<p>If Mistress Headley deemed each denial the result of her vigilance
+for her son&rsquo;s interests, she was the more impelled to expatiate
+on the folly of leaving a maid of sixteen to herself, to let the household
+go to rack and ruin; while as to the wench, she might prank herself
+in her own conceit, but no honest man would soon look at her for a wife,
+if her father left her to herself, without giving her a good stepmother,
+or at least putting a kinswoman in authority over her.</p>
+<p>The alderman was stung.&nbsp; He certainly had warmed a snake on
+his hearth, and how was he to be rid of it?&nbsp; He secretly winked
+at the resumption of a forge fire that had been abandoned, because the
+noise and smoke incommoded the dwelling-house, and Kit Smallbones hammered
+his loudest there, when the guest might be taking her morning nap; but
+this had no effect in driving her away, though it may have told upon
+her temper; and good-humoured Master Headley was harassed more than
+he had ever been in his life.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It puts me past my patience,&rdquo; said he, turning into
+Tibble&rsquo;s special workshop one afternoon.&nbsp; &ldquo;Here hath
+Mistress Hillyer of the Eagle been with me full of proposals that I
+would give my poor wench to that scapegrace lad of hers, who hath been
+twice called to account before the guild, but who now, forsooth, is
+to turn over a new leaf.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;So I wis would the Dragon under him,&rdquo; quoth Tibble.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I told her &rsquo;twas not to be thought of, and then what
+does the dame but sniff the air and protest that I had better take heed,
+for there may not be so many who would choose a spoilt, misruled maid
+like mine.&nbsp; There&rsquo;s the work of yonder Sarum woman.&nbsp;
+I tell thee, Tib, never was bull in the ring more baited than am I.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, sir,&rdquo; returned Tib, &ldquo;there&rsquo;ll be no
+help for it till our young mistress be wed.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ay! that&rsquo;s the rub!&nbsp; But I&rsquo;ve not seen one
+whom I could mate with her&mdash;let alone one who would keep up the
+old house.&nbsp; Giles would have done that passably, though he were
+scarce worthy of the wench, even without&mdash;&rdquo;&nbsp; An expressive
+shake of the head denoted the rest.&nbsp; &ldquo;And now if he ever
+come home at all, &rsquo;twill be as a foul-mouthed, plundering scarecrow,
+like the kites of men-at-arms, who, if they lose not their lives, lose
+all that makes an honest life in the Italian wars.&nbsp; I would have
+writ to Edmund Burgess, but I hear his elder brother is dead, and he
+is driving a good traffic at York.&nbsp; Belike too he is wedded.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Tibble, &ldquo;I could tell of one who would
+be true and faithful to your worship, and a loving husband to Mistress
+Dennet, ay, and would be a master that all of us would gladly cleave
+to.&nbsp; For he is godly after his lights, and sound-hearted, and wots
+what good work be, and can do it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That were a son-in-law, Tib!&nbsp; Of who speakest thou?&nbsp;
+Is he of good birth?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, of gentle birth and breeding.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And willing?&nbsp; But that they all are.&nbsp; Wherefore
+then hath he never made suit?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He hath not yet his freedom.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Who be it then?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He that made this elbow-piece for the suit that Queen Margaret
+ordered for the little King of Scots,&rdquo; returned Tibble, producing
+an exquisite miniature bit of workmanship.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Stephen Birkenholt!&nbsp; The fool&rsquo;s nephew!&nbsp; Mine
+own prentice!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, and the best worker in steel we have yet turned out.&nbsp;
+Since the sickness of last winter hath stiffened my joints and dimmed
+mine eyes, I had rather trust dainty work such as this to him than to
+myself.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Stephen!&nbsp; Tibble, hath he set thee on to this?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir.&nbsp; We both know too well what becometh us; but
+when you were casting about for a mate for my young mistress, I could
+not but think how men seek far, and overlook the jewel at their feet.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He hath nought!&nbsp; That brother of his will give him nought.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He hath what will be better for the old Dragon and for your
+worship&rsquo;s self, than many a bag of gold, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou sayst truly there, Tib.&nbsp; I know him so far that
+he would not be the ingrate Jack to turn his back on the old master
+or the old man.&nbsp; He is a good lad.&nbsp; But&mdash;but&mdash;I&rsquo;ve
+ever set my face against the prentice wedding the master&rsquo;s daughter,
+save when he is of her own house, like Giles.&nbsp; Tell me, Tibble,
+deemst thou that the varlet hath dared to lift his eyes to the lass?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I wot nothing of love!&rdquo; said Tibble, somewhat grimly.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I have seen nought.&nbsp; I only told your worship where a good
+son and a good master might be had.&nbsp; Is it your pleasure, sir,
+that we take in a freight of sea-coal from Simon Collier for the new
+furnace?&nbsp; His is purest, if a mark more the chaldron.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He spoke as if he put the recommendation of the son and master on
+the same line as that of the coal.&nbsp; Mr. Headley answered the business
+matters absently, and ended by saying he would think on the council.</p>
+<p>In Tibble&rsquo;s workroom, with the clatter of a forge close to
+them, they had not heard a commotion in the court outside.&nbsp; Dennet
+had been standing on the steps cleaning her tame starling&rsquo;s cage,
+when Mistress Headley had suddenly come out on the gallery behind her,
+hotly scolding her laundress, and waving her cap to show how ill-starched
+it was.</p>
+<p>The bird had taken fright and flown to the tree in the court; Dennet
+hastened in pursuit, but all the boys and children in the court rushing
+out after her, her blandishments had no chance, and &ldquo;Goldspot&rdquo;
+had fluttered on to the gateway.&nbsp; Stephen had by this time come
+out, and hastened to the gate, hoping to turn the truant back from escaping
+into Cheapside; but all in vain, it flew out while the market was in
+full career, and he could only call back to her that he would not lose
+sight of it.</p>
+<p>Out he hurried, Dennet waiting in a sort of despair by the tree for
+a time that seemed to her endless, until Stephen reappeared under the
+gate, with a signal that all was well.&nbsp; She darted to meet him.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Yea, mistress, here he is, the little caitiff.&nbsp; He was just
+knocked down by this country lad&rsquo;s cap&mdash;happily not hurt.&nbsp;
+I told him you would give him a tester for your bird.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;With all my heart!&rdquo; and Dennet produced the coin.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Oh!&nbsp; Stephen, are you sure he is safe?&nbsp; Thou bad Goldspot,
+to fly away from me!&nbsp; Wink with thine eye&mdash;thou saucy rogue!&nbsp;
+Wottest thou not but for Stephen they might be blinding thy sweet blue
+eyes with hot needles?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His wing is grown since the moulting,&rdquo; said Stephen.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;It should be cut to hinder such mischances.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Will you do it?&nbsp; I will hold him,&rdquo; said Dennet.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Ah! &rsquo;tis pity, the beauteous green gold-bedropped wing&mdash;that
+no armour of thine can equal, Stephen, not even that for the little
+King of Scots.&nbsp; But shouldst not be so silly a bird, Goldie, even
+though thou hast thine excuse.&nbsp; There!&nbsp; Peck not, ill birdling.&nbsp;
+Know thy friends, Master Stare.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And with such pretty nonsense the two stood together, Dennet in her
+white cap, short crimson kirtle, little stiff collar, and white bib
+and apron, holding her bird upside down in one hand, and with the other
+trying to keep his angry beak from pecking Stephen, who, in his leathern
+coat and apron, grimed, as well as his crisp black hair, with soot,
+stood towering above her, stooping to hold out the lustrous wing with
+one hand while he used his smallest pair of shears with the other to
+clip the pen-feathers.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;See there, Master Alderman,&rdquo; cried Mistress Headley,
+bursting on him from the gallery stairs.&nbsp; &ldquo;Be that what you
+call fitting for your daughter and your prentice, a beggar lad from
+the heath?&nbsp; I ever told you she would bring you to shame, thus
+left to herself.&nbsp; And now you see it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Their heads had been near together over the starling, but at this
+objurgation they started apart, both crimson in the cheeks, and Dennet
+flew up to her father, bird in hand, crying, &ldquo;O father, father!
+suffer her not.&nbsp; He did no wrong.&nbsp; He was cutting my bird&rsquo;s
+wing.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I suffer no one to insult my child in her own house,&rdquo;
+said the alderman, so much provoked as to be determined to put an end
+to it all at once.&nbsp; &ldquo;Stephen Birkenholt, come here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen came, cap in hand, red in the face, with a strange tumult
+in his heart, ready to plead guilty, though he had done nothing, but
+imagining at the moment that his feelings had been actions.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Stephen,&rdquo; said the alderman, &ldquo;thou art a true
+and worthy lad!&nbsp; Canst thou love my daughter?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&mdash;I crave your pardon, sir, there was no helping it,&rdquo;
+stammered Stephen, not catching the tone of the strange interrogation,
+and expecting any amount of terrible consequences for his presumption.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then thou wilt be a faithful spouse to her, and son to me?&nbsp;
+And Dennet, my daughter, hast thou any distaste to this youth&mdash;though
+he bring nought but skill and honesty&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;O, father, father!&nbsp; I&mdash;I had rather have him than
+any other!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then, Stephen Birkenholt and Dennet Headley, ye shall be man
+and wife, so soon as the young man&rsquo;s term be over, and he be a
+freeman&mdash;so he continue to be that which he seems at present.&nbsp;
+Thereto I give my word, I, Giles Headley, Alderman of the Chepe Ward,
+and thereof ye are witnesses, all of you.&nbsp; And God&rsquo;s blessing
+on it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>A tremendous hurrah arose, led by Kit Smallbones, from every workman
+in the court, and the while Stephen and Dennet, unaware of anything
+else, flew into one another&rsquo;s arms, while Goldspot, on whom the
+operation had been fortunately completed, took refuge upon Stephen&rsquo;s
+head.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;O, Mistress Dennet, I have made you black all over!&rdquo;
+was Stephen&rsquo;s first word.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Heed not, I ever loved the black!&rdquo; she cried, as her
+eyes sparkled.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;So I have done what was to thy mind, my lass?&rdquo; said
+Master Headley, who, without ever having thought of consulting his daughter,
+was delighted to see that her heart was with him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sir, I did not know fully&mdash;but indeed I should never
+have been so happy as I am now.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; added Stephen, putting his knee to the ground,
+&ldquo;it nearly wrung my heart to think of her as belonging to another,
+though I never durst utter aught&rdquo;&mdash;and while Dennet embraced
+her father, Stephen sobbed for very joy, and with difficulty said in
+broken words something about a &ldquo;son&rsquo;s duty and devotion.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>They were broken in upon by Mistress Headley, who, after standing
+in mute consternation, fell on them in a fury.&nbsp; She understood
+the device now!&nbsp; All had been a scheme laid amongst them for defrauding
+her poor fatherless child, driving him away, and taking up this beggarly
+brat.&nbsp; She had seen through the little baggage from the first,
+and she pitied Master Headley.&nbsp; Rage was utterly ungovernable in
+those days, and she actually was flying to attack Dennet with her nails
+when the alderman caught her by the wrists; and she would have been
+almost too much for him, had not Kit Smallbones come to his assistance,
+and carried her, kicking and screaming like a naughty child, into the
+house.&nbsp; There was small restraint of temper in those days even
+in high life, and below it, there was some reason for the employment
+of the padlock and the ducking stool.</p>
+<p>Floods of tears restored the dame to some sort of composure; but
+she declared she could stay no longer in a house where her son had been
+ill-used and deceived, and she had been insulted.&nbsp; The alderman
+thought the insult had been the other way, but he was too glad to be
+rid of her on any terms to gainsay her, and at his own charge, undertook
+to procure horse and escort to convey her safely to Salisbury the next
+morning.&nbsp; He advised Stephen to keep out of her sight for the rest
+of the day, giving leave of absence, so that the youth, as one treading
+on air, set forth to carry to his brother, his aunt, and if possible,
+his uncle, the intelligence that he could as yet hardly believe was
+more than a happy dream.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.&nbsp; UNWELCOME PREFERMENT</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;I am a poor fallen man, unworthy now<br />To be thy lord and
+master.&nbsp; Seek the king!<br />That sun I pray may never set.&rdquo;<br />SHAKESPEARE.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>Matters flowed on peaceably with Stephen and Dennet.&nbsp; The alderman
+saw no reason to repent his decision, hastily as it had been made.&nbsp;
+Stephen gave himself no unseemly airs of presumption, but worked on
+as one whose heart was in the business, and Dennet rewarded her father&rsquo;s
+trust by her discretion.</p>
+<p>They were happily married in the summer of 1522, as soon as Stephen&rsquo;s
+apprenticeship was over; and from that time, he was in the position
+of the master&rsquo;s son, with more and more devolving on him as Tibble
+became increasingly rheumatic every winter, and the alderman himself
+grew in flesh and in distaste to exertion.</p>
+<p>Ambrose meanwhile prospered with his master, and could easily have
+obtained some office in the law courts that would have enabled him to
+make a home of his own; but if he had the least inclination to the love
+of women, it was all merged in a silent distant worship of &ldquo;sweet
+pale Margaret, rare pale Margaret,&rdquo; the like-minded daughter of
+Sir Thomas More&mdash;an affection which was so entirely devotion at
+a shrine, that it suffered no shock when Sir Thomas at length consented
+to his daughter&rsquo;s marriage with William Roper.</p>
+<p>Ambrose was the only person who ever received any communication from
+Giles Headley.&nbsp; They were few and far between, but when Stephen
+Gardiner returned from his embassy to Pope Clement VII., who was then
+at Orvieto, one of the suite reported to Ambrose how astonished he had
+been by being accosted in good English by one of the imperial men-at-arms,
+who were guarding his Holiness in actual though unconfessed captivity.&nbsp;
+This person had sent his commendations to Ambrose, and likewise a laborious
+bit of writing, which looked as if he were fast forgetting the art.&nbsp;
+It bade Ambrose inform his mother and all his friends and kin that he
+was well and coming to preferment, and inclosed for Aldonza a small
+mother-of-pearl cross blessed by the Pope.&nbsp; Giles added that he
+should bring her finer gifts by and by.</p>
+<p>Seven years&rsquo; constancy!&nbsp; It gave quite a respectability
+to Giles&rsquo;s love, and Aldonza was still ready and patient while
+waiting in attendance on her beloved mistress.</p>
+<p>Ambrose lived on in the colony at Chelsea, sometimes attending his
+master, especially on diplomatic missions, and generally acting as librarian
+and foreign secretary, and obtaining some notice from Erasmus on the
+great scholar&rsquo;s visit to Chelsea.&nbsp; Under such guidance, Ambrose&rsquo;s
+opinions had settled down a good deal; and he was a disappointment to
+Tibble, whose views advanced proportionably as he worked less, and read
+and thought more.&nbsp; He so bitterly resented and deplored the burning
+of Tindal&rsquo;s Bible that there was constant fear that he might bring
+on himself the same fate, especially as he treasured his own copy and
+studied it constantly.&nbsp; The reform that Wolsey had intended to
+effect when he obtained the legatine authority seemed to fall into the
+background among political interests, and his efforts had as yet no
+result save the suppression of some useless and ill-managed small religious
+houses to endow his magnificent project of York College at Oxford, with
+a feeder at Ipswich, his native town.</p>
+<p>He was waiting to obtain the papacy, when he would deal better with
+the abuses.&nbsp; Randall once asked him if he were not waiting to be
+King of Heaven, when he could make root and branch work at once.&nbsp;
+Hal had never so nearly incurred a flogging!</p>
+<p>And in the meantime another influence was at work, an influence only
+heard of at first in whispered jests, which made loyal-hearted Dennet
+blush and look indignant, but which soon grew to sad earnest, as she
+could not but avow, when she beheld the stately pomp of the two Cardinals,
+Wolsey and Campeggio, sweep up to the Blackfriars Convent to sit in
+judgment on the marriage of poor Queen Katharine.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Out on them!&rdquo; she said.&nbsp; &ldquo;So many learned
+men to set their wits against one poor woman!&rdquo;&nbsp; And she heartily
+rejoiced when they came to no decision, and the Pope was appealed to.&nbsp;
+As to understanding all the explanations that Ambrose brought from time
+to time, she called them quirks and quiddities, and left them to her
+father and Tibble to discuss in their chimney corners.</p>
+<p>They had seen nothing of the jester for a good while, for he was
+with Wolsey, who was attending the King on a progress through the midland
+shires.&nbsp; When the Cardinal returned to open the law courts as Chancellor
+at the beginning of the autumn term, still Randall kept away from home,
+perhaps because he had forebodings that he could not bear to mention.</p>
+<p>On the evening of that very day, London rang with the tidings that
+the Great Seal had been taken from the Cardinal, and that he was under
+orders to yield up his noble mansion of York House and to retire to
+Esher; nay, it was reported that he was to be imprisoned in the Tower,
+and the next day the Thames was crowded with more than a thousand boats
+filled with people, expecting to see him landed at the Traitors&rsquo;
+Gate, and much disappointed when his barge turned towards Putney.</p>
+<p>In the afternoon, Ambrose came to the Dragon court.&nbsp; Even as
+Stephen figured now as a handsome prosperous young freeman of the City,
+Ambrose looked well in the sober black apparel and neat ruff of a lawyer&rsquo;s
+clerk&mdash;clerk indeed to the first lawyer in the kingdom, for the
+news had spread before him that Sir Thomas More had become Lord Chancellor.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou art come to bear us word of thy promotion&mdash;for thy
+master&rsquo;s is thine own,&rdquo; said the alderman heartily as he
+entered, shaking hands with him.&nbsp; &ldquo;Never was the Great Seal
+in better hands.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&rsquo;Tis true indeed, your worship,&rdquo; said Ambrose,
+&ldquo;though it will lay a heavy charge on him, and divert him from
+much that he loveth better still.&nbsp; I came to ask of my sister Dennet
+a supper and a bed for the night, as I have been on business for him,
+and can scarce get back to Chelsea.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And welcome,&rdquo; said Dennet.&nbsp; &ldquo;Little Giles
+and Bess have been wearying for their uncle.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I must not toy with them yet,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;I
+have a message for my aunt.&nbsp; Brother, wilt thou walk down to the
+Temple with me before supper?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, and how is it with Master Randall?&rdquo; asked Dennet.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Be he gone with my Lord Cardinal?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He is made over to the King,&rdquo; said Ambrose briefly.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;&rsquo;Tis that which I must tell his wife.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Have with thee, then,&rdquo; said Stephen, linking his arm
+into that of his brother, for to be together was still as great an enjoyment
+to them as in Forest days.&nbsp; And on the way, Ambrose told what he
+had not been willing to utter in full assembly in the hall.&nbsp; He
+had been sent by his master with a letter of condolence to the fallen
+Cardinal, and likewise of inquiry into some necessary business connected
+with the chancellorship.&nbsp; Wolsey had not time to answer before
+embarking, but as Sir Thomas had vouched for the messenger&rsquo;s ability
+and trustiness, he had bidden Ambrose come into his barge, and receive
+his instructions.&nbsp; Thus Ambrose had landed with him, just as a
+messenger came riding in haste from the King, with a kind greeting,
+assuring his old friend that his seeming disgrace was only for a time,
+and for political reasons, and sending him a ring in token thereof.&nbsp;
+The Cardinal had fallen on his knees to receive the message, had snatched
+a gold chain and precious relic from his own neck to reward the messenger,
+and then, casting about for some gift for the King, &ldquo;by ill luck,&rdquo;
+said Ambrose, &ldquo;his eye lit upon our uncle, and he instantly declared
+that he would bestow Patch, as the Court chooses to call him, on the
+King.&nbsp; Well, as thou canst guess, Hal is hotly wroth at the treatment
+of his lord, whom he truly loveth; and he flung himself before the Cardinal,
+and besought that he might not be sent from his good lord.&nbsp; But
+the Cardinal was only chafed at aught that gainsaid him; and all he
+did was to say he would have no more ado, he had made his gift.&nbsp;
+&lsquo;Get thee gone,&rsquo; he said, as if he had been ordering off
+a horse or dog.&nbsp; Well-a-day! it was hard to brook the sight, and
+Hal&rsquo;s blood was up.&nbsp; He flatly refused to go, saying he was
+the Cardinal&rsquo;s servant, but no villain nor serf to be thus made
+over without his own will.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He was in the right there,&rdquo; returned Stephen, hotly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, save that by playing the fool, poor fellow, he hath yielded
+up the rights of a wise man.&nbsp; Any way, all he gat by it was that
+the Cardinal bade two of the yeomen lay hands on him and bear him off.&nbsp;
+Then there came on him that reckless mood, which, I trow, banished him
+long ago from the Forest, and brought him to the motley.&nbsp; He fought
+with them with all his force, and broke away once&mdash;as if that were
+of any use for a man in motley!&mdash;but he was bound at last, and
+borne off by six of them to Windsor!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And thou stoodst by, and beheld it!&rdquo; cried Stephen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, what could I have done, save to make his plight worse,
+and forfeit all chance of yet speaking to him?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou wert ever cool!&nbsp; I wot that I could not have borne
+it,&rdquo; said Stephen.</p>
+<p>They told the story to Perronel, who was on the whole elated by her
+husband&rsquo;s promotion, declaring that the King loved him well, and
+that he would soon come to his senses, though for a wise man, he certainly
+had too much of the fool, even as he had too much of the wise man for
+the fool.</p>
+<p>She became anxious, however, as the weeks passed by without hearing
+of or from him, and at length Ambrose confessed his uneasiness to his
+kind master, and obtained leave to attend him on the next summons to
+Windsor.</p>
+<p>Ambrose could not find his uncle at first.&nbsp; Randall, who used
+to pervade York House, and turn up everywhere when least expected, did
+not appear among the superior serving-men and secretaries with whom
+his nephew ranked, and of course there was no access to the state apartments.&nbsp;
+Sir Thomas, however, told Ambrose that he had seen Quipsome Hal among
+the other jesters, but that he seemed dull and dejected.&nbsp; Then
+Ambrose beheld from a window a cruel sight, for the other fools, three
+in number, were surrounding Hal, baiting and teasing him, triumphing
+over him in fact, for having formerly outshone them, while he stood
+among them like a big dog worried by little curs, against whom he disdained
+to use his strength.&nbsp; Ambrose, unable to bear this, ran down stairs
+to endeavour to interfere; but before he could find his way to the spot,
+an arrival at the gate had attracted the tormentors, and Ambrose found
+his uncle leaning against the wall alone.&nbsp; He looked thin and wan,
+the light was gone out of his black eyes, and his countenance was in
+sad contrast to his gay and absurd attire.&nbsp; He scarcely cheered
+up when his nephew spoke to him, though he was glad to hear of Perronel.&nbsp;
+He said he knew not when he should see her again, for he had been unable
+to secure his suit of ordinary garments, so that even if the King came
+to London, or if he could elude the other fools, he could not get out
+to visit her.&nbsp; He was no better than a prisoner here, he only marvelled
+that the King retained so wretched a jester, with so heavy a heart.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Once thou wast in favour,&rdquo; said Ambrose.&nbsp; &ldquo;Methought
+thou couldst have availed thyself of it to speak for the Lord Cardinal.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What?&nbsp; A senseless cur whom he kicked from him,&rdquo;
+said Randall.&nbsp; &ldquo;&rsquo;Twas that took all spirit from me,
+boy.&nbsp; I, who thought he loved me, as I love him to this day.&nbsp;
+To send me to be sport for his foes!&nbsp; I think of it day and night,
+and I&rsquo;ve not a gibe left under my belt!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Ambrose, &ldquo;it may have been that the
+Cardinal hoped to secure a true friend at the King&rsquo;s ear, as well
+as to provide for thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Had he but said so&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, perchance he trusted to thy sharp wit.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>A gleam came into Hal&rsquo;s eyes.&nbsp; &ldquo;It might be so.&nbsp;
+Thou always wast a toward lad, Ambrose, and if so, I was cur and fool
+indeed to baulk him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Therewith one of the other fools danced back exhibiting a silver
+crown that had just been flung to him, mopping and mowing, and demanding
+when Patch would have wit to gain the like.&nbsp; Whereto Hal replied
+by pointing to Ambrose and declaring that that gentleman had given him
+better than fifty crowns.&nbsp; And that night, Sir Thomas told Ambrose
+that the Quipsome one had recovered himself, had been more brilliant
+than ever and had quite eclipsed the other fools.</p>
+<p>On the next opportunity, Ambrose contrived to pack in his cloak-bag,
+the cap and loose garment in which his uncle was wont to cover his motley.&nbsp;
+The Court was still at Windsor; but nearly the whole of Sir Thomas&rsquo;s
+stay elapsed without Ambrose being able to find his uncle.&nbsp; Wolsey
+had been very ill, and the King had relented enough to send his own
+physician to attend him.&nbsp; Ambrose began to wonder if Hal could
+have found any plea for rejoining his old master; but in the last hour
+of his stay, he found Hal curled up listlessly on a window seat of a
+gallery, his head resting on his hand.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Uncle, good uncle!&nbsp; At last!&nbsp; Thou art sick?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sick at heart, lad,&rdquo; said Hal, looking up.&nbsp; &ldquo;Yea,
+I took thy counsel.&nbsp; I plucked up a spirit, I made Harry laugh
+as of old, though my heart smote me, as I thought how he was wont to
+be answered by my master.&nbsp; I even brooked to jest with the night-crow,
+as my own poor lord called this Nan Boleyn.&nbsp; And lo you now, when
+his Grace was touched at my lord&rsquo;s sickness, I durst say there
+was one sure elixir for such as he, to wit a gold Harry; and that a
+King&rsquo;s touch was a sovereign cure for other disorders than the
+King&rsquo;s evil.&nbsp; Harry smiled, and in ten minutes more would
+have taken horse for Esher, had not Madam Nan claimed his word to ride
+out hawking with her.&nbsp; And next, she sendeth me a warning by one
+of her pert maids, that I should be whipped, if I spoke to his Grace
+of unfitting matters.&nbsp; My flesh could brook no more, and like a
+born natural, I made answer that Nan Boleyn was no mistress of mine
+to bid me hold a tongue that had spoken sooth to her betters.&nbsp;
+Thereupon, what think you, boy?&nbsp; The grooms came and soundly flogged
+me for uncomely speech of my Lady Anne!&nbsp; I that was eighteen years
+with my Lord Cardinal, and none laid hand on me!&nbsp; Yea, I was beaten;
+and then shut up in a dog-hole for three days on bread and water, with
+none to speak to, but the other fools jeering at me like a rogue in
+a pillory.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose could hardly speak for hot grief and indignation, but he
+wrung his uncle&rsquo;s hand, and whispered that he had hid the loose
+gown behind the arras of his chamber, but he could do no more, for he
+was summoned to attend his master, and a servant further thrust in to
+say, &ldquo;Concern yourself not for that rogue, sir, he hath been saucy,
+and must mend his manners, or he will have worse.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Away, kind sir,&rdquo; said Hal, &ldquo;you can do the poor
+fool no further good! but only bring the pack about the ears of the
+mangy hound.&rdquo;&nbsp; And he sang a stave appropriated by a greater
+man than he&mdash;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;Then let the stricken deer go weep,<br />The hart ungalled
+play.&rdquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>The only hope that Ambrose or his good master could devise for poor
+Randall was that Sir Thomas should watch his opportunity and beg the
+fool from the King, who might part with him as a child gives away the
+once coveted toy that has failed in its hands; but the request would
+need circumspection, for all had already felt the change that had taken
+place in the temper of the King since Henry had resolutely undertaken
+that the wrong should be the right; and Ambrose could not but dread
+the effect of desperation on a man whose nature had in it a vein of
+impatient recklessness.</p>
+<p>It was after dinner, and Dennet, with her little boy and girl, was
+on the steps dispensing the salt fish, broken bread, and pottage of
+the Lenten meal to the daily troop who came for her alms, when, among
+them, she saw, somewhat to her alarm, a gipsy man, who was talking to
+little Giles.&nbsp; The boy, a stout fellow of six, was astride on the
+balustrade, looking up eagerly into the face of the man, who began imitating
+the note of a blackbird.&nbsp; Dennet, remembering the evil propensities
+of the gipsy race, called hastily to her little son to come down and
+return to her side; but little Giles was unwilling to move, and called
+to her, &ldquo;O mother, come!&nbsp; He hath a bird-call!&rdquo;&nbsp;
+In some perturbation lest the man might be calling her bird away, Dennet
+descended the steps.&nbsp; She was about to utter a sharp rebuke, but
+Giles held out his hand imploringly, and she paused a moment to hear
+the sweet full note of the &ldquo;ouzel cock, with orange tawny bill&rdquo;
+closely imitated on a tiny bone whistle.&nbsp; &ldquo;He will sell it
+to me for two farthings,&rdquo; cried the boy, &ldquo;and teach me to
+sing on it like all the birds&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, good mistress,&rdquo; said the gipsy, &ldquo;I can whistle
+a tune that the little master, ay, and others, might be fain to hear.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Therewith, spite of the wild dress, Dennet knew the eyes and the
+voice.&nbsp; And perhaps the blackbird&rsquo;s note had awakened echoes
+in another mind, for she saw Stephen, in his working dress, come out
+to the door of the shop where he continued to do all the finer work
+which had formerly fallen to Tibble&rsquo;s share.</p>
+<p>She lifted her boy from his perch, and bade him take the stranger
+to his father, who would no doubt give him the whistle.&nbsp; And thus,
+having without exciting attention, separated the fugitive from the rest
+of her pensioners, she made haste to dismiss them.</p>
+<p>She was not surprised that little Giles came running back to her,
+producing unearthly notes on the instrument, and telling her that father
+had taken the gipsy into his workshop, and said they would teach him
+bird&rsquo;s songs by and by.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Steve, Steve,&rdquo; had been the first words uttered when
+the boy was out of hearing, &ldquo;hast thou a smith&rsquo;s apron and
+plenty of smut to bestow on me?&nbsp; None can tell what Harry&rsquo;s
+mood may be, when he finds I&rsquo;ve given him the slip.&nbsp; That
+is the reason I durst not go to my poor dame.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We will send to let her know.&nbsp; I thought I guessed what
+black ouzel &rsquo;twas!&nbsp; I mind how thou didst make the like notes
+for us when we were no bigger than my Giles!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou hast a kind heart, Stephen.&nbsp; Here!&nbsp; Is thy
+furnace hot enough to make a speedy end of this same greasy gipsy doublet?&nbsp;
+I trust not the varlet with whom I bartered it for my motley.&nbsp;
+And a fine bargain he had of what I trust never to wear again to the
+end of my days.&nbsp; Make me a smith complete, Stephen, and then will
+I tell thee my story.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We must call Kit into counsel, ere we can do that fully,&rdquo;
+said Stephen.</p>
+<p>In a few minutes Hal Randall was, to all appearance, a very shabby
+and grimy smith, and then he took breath to explain his anxiety and
+alarm.&nbsp; Once again, hearing that the Cardinal was to be exiled
+to York, he had ventured on a sorry jest about old friends and old wine
+being better than new; but the King, who had once been open to plain
+speaking, was now incensed, threatened and swore at him!&nbsp; Moreover,
+one of the other fools had told him, in the way of boasting, that he
+had heard Master Cromwell, formerly the Cardinal&rsquo;s secretary,
+informing the King that this rogue was no true &ldquo;natural&rdquo;
+at all, but was blessed (or cursed) with as good an understanding as
+other folks, as was well known in the Cardinal&rsquo;s household, and
+that he had no doubt been sent to serve as a spy, so that he was to
+be esteemed a dangerous person, and had best be put under ward.</p>
+<p>Hal had not been able to discover whether Cromwell had communicated
+his name, but he suspected that it might be known to that acute person,
+and he could not tell whether his compeer spoke out of a sort of good-natured
+desire to warn him, or simply to triumph in his disgrace, and leer at
+him for being an impostor.&nbsp; At any rate, being now desperate, he
+covered his parti-coloured raiment with the gown Ambrose had brought,
+made a perilous descent from a window in the twilight, scaled a wall
+with the agility that seemed to have returned to him, and reached Windsor
+Forest.</p>
+<p>There, falling on a camp of gipsies, he had availed himself of old
+experiences in his wild Shirley days, and had obtained an exchange of
+garb, his handsome motley being really a prize to the wanderers.&nbsp;
+Thus he had been able to reach London; but he did not feel any confidence
+that if he were pursued to the gipsy tent he would not be betrayed.</p>
+<p>In this, his sagacity was not at fault, for he had scarcely made
+his explanation, when there was a knocking at the outer gate, and a
+demand to enter in the name of the King, and to see Alderman Sir Giles
+Headley.&nbsp; Several of the stout figures of the yeomen of the King&rsquo;s
+guard were seen crossing the court, and Stephen, committing the charge
+of his uncle to Kit, threw off his apron, washed his face and went up
+to the hall, not very rapidly, for he suspected that since his father-in-law
+knew nothing of the arrival, he would best baffle the inquiries by sincere
+denials.</p>
+<p>And Dennet, with her sharp woman&rsquo;s wit, scenting danger, had
+whisked herself and her children out of the hall at the first moment,
+and taken them down to the kitchen, where modelling with a batch of
+dough occupied both of them.</p>
+<p>Meantime the alderman flatly denied the presence of the jester, or
+the harbouring of the gipsy.&nbsp; He allowed that the jester was of
+kin to his son-in-law, but the good man averred in all honesty that
+he knew nought of any escape, and was absolutely certain that no such
+person was in the court.&nbsp; Then, as Stephen entered, doffing his
+cap to the King&rsquo;s officer, the alderman continued, &ldquo;There,
+fair son, this is what these gentlemen have come about.&nbsp; Thy kinsman,
+it seemeth, hath fled from Windsor, and his Grace is mightily incensed.&nbsp;
+They say he changed clothes with a gipsy, and was traced hither this
+morn, but I have told them the thing is impossible.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Will the gentlemen search?&rdquo; asked Stephen.&nbsp; The
+gentlemen did search, but they only saw the smiths in full work; and
+in Smallbones&rsquo; forge, there was a roaring glowing furnace, with
+a bare-armed fellow feeding it with coals, so that it fairly scorched
+them, and gave them double relish for the good wine and beer that was
+put out on the table to do honour to them.</p>
+<p>Stephen had just with all civility seen them off the premises when
+Perronel came sobbing into the court.&nbsp; They had visited her first,
+for Cromwell had evidently known of Randall&rsquo;s haunts; they had
+turned her little house upside down, and had threatened her hotly in
+case she harboured a disloyal spy, who deserved hanging.&nbsp; She came
+to consult Stephen, for the notion of her husband wandering about, as
+a sort of outlaw, was almost as terrible as the threat of his being
+hanged.</p>
+<p>Stephen beckoned her to a store-room full of gaunt figures of armour
+upon blocks, and there brought up to her his extremely grimy new hand!</p>
+<p>There was much gladness between them, but the future had to be considered.&nbsp;
+Perronel had a little hoard, the amount of which she was too shrewd
+to name to any one, even her husband, but she considered it sufficient
+to enable him to fulfil the cherished scheme of his life, of retiring
+to some small farm near his old home, and she was for setting off at
+once.&nbsp; But Harry Randall declared that he could not go without
+having offered his services to his old master.&nbsp; He had heard of
+his &ldquo;good lord&rdquo; as sick, sad, and deserted by those whom
+he had cherished, and the faithful heart was so true in its loyalty
+that no persuasion could prevail in making it turn south.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said the wife, &ldquo;did he not cast thee off
+himself, and serve thee like one of his dogs?&nbsp; How canst thou be
+bound to him?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s the rub!&rdquo; sighed Hal.&nbsp; &ldquo;He
+sent me to the King deeming that he should have one full of faithful
+love to speak a word on his behalf, and I, brutish oaf as I was, must
+needs take it amiss, and sulk and mope till the occasion was past, and
+that viper Cromwell was there to back up the woman Boleyn and poison
+his Grace&rsquo;s ear.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;As if a man must not have a spirit to be angered by such treatment.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thou forgettest, good wife.&nbsp; No man, but a fool, and
+to be entreated as such!&nbsp; Be that as it may, to York I must.&nbsp;
+I have eaten of my lord&rsquo;s bread too many years, and had too much
+kindness from him in the days of his glory, to seek mine own ease now
+in his adversity.&nbsp; Thou wouldst have a poor bargain of me when
+my heart is away.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Perronel saw that thus it would be, and that this was one of the
+points on which, to her mind, her husband was more than half a veritable
+fool after all.</p>
+<p>There had long been a promise that Stephen should, in some time of
+slack employment, make a visit to his old comrade, Edmund Burgess, at
+York; and as some new tools and patterns had to be conveyed thither,
+a sudden resolution was come to, in family conclave, that Stephen himself
+should convey them, taking his uncle with him as a serving-man, to attend
+to the horses.&nbsp; The alderman gave full consent, he had always wished
+Stephen to see York, while he himself, with Tibble Steelman, was able
+to attend to the business; and while he pronounced Randall to have a
+heart of gold, well worth guarding, he still was glad when the risk
+was over of the King&rsquo;s hearing that the runaway jester was harboured
+at the Dragon.&nbsp; Dennet did not like the journey for her husband,
+for to her mind it was perilous, but she had had a warm affection for
+his uncle ever since their expedition to Richmond together, and she
+did her best to reconcile the murmuring and wounded Perronel by praises
+of Randall, a true and noble heart; and that as to setting her aside
+for the Cardinal, who had heeded him so little, such faithfulness only
+made her more secure of his true-heartedness towards her.&nbsp; Perronel
+was moreover to break up her business, dispose of her house, and await
+her husband&rsquo;s return at the Dragon.</p>
+<p>Stephen came back after a happy month with his friend, stored with
+wondrous tales and descriptions which would last the children for a
+month.&nbsp; He had seen his uncle present himself to the Cardinal at
+Cawood Castle.&nbsp; It had been a touching meeting.&nbsp; Hal could
+hardly restrain his tears when he saw how Wolsey&rsquo;s sturdy form
+had wasted, and his round ruddy cheeks had fallen away, while the attitude
+in which he sat in his chair was listless and weary, though he fitfully
+exerted himself with his old vigour.</p>
+<p>Hal on his side, in the dark plain dress of a citizen, was hardly
+recognisable, for not only had he likewise grown thinner, and his brown
+cheeks more hollow, but his hair had become almost white during his
+miserable weeks at Windsor, though he was not much over forty years
+old.</p>
+<p>He came up the last of a number who presented themselves for the
+Archiepiscopal blessing, as Wolsey sat under a large tree in Cawood
+Park.&nbsp; Wolsey gave it with his raised fingers, without special
+heed, but therewith Hal threw himself on the ground, kissed his feet,
+and cried, &ldquo;My lord, my dear lord, your pardon.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What hast done, fellow?&nbsp; Speak!&rdquo; said the Cardinal.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Grovel not thus.&nbsp; We will be merciful.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! my lord,&rdquo; said Randall, lifting himself up, but
+with clasped hands and tearful eyes, &ldquo;I did not serve you as I
+ought with the King, but if you will forgive me and take me back&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;How now?&nbsp; How couldst thou serve me?&nbsp; What!&rdquo;&mdash;as
+Hal made a familiar gesture&mdash;&ldquo;thou art not the poor fool;
+Quipsome Patch?&nbsp; How comest thou here?&nbsp; Methought I had provided
+well for thee in making thee over to the King.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! my lord, I was fool, fool indeed, but all my jests failed
+me.&nbsp; How could I make sport for your enemies?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And thou hast come, thou hast left the King to follow my fallen
+fortunes?&rdquo; said Wolsey.&nbsp; &ldquo;My poor boy, he who is sitting
+in sackcloth and ashes needs no jester.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, my lord, nor can I find one jest to break!&nbsp; Would
+you but let me be your meanest horse-boy, your scullion!&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Hal&rsquo;s voice was cut short by tears as the Cardinal abandoned to
+him one hand.&nbsp; The other was drying eyes that seldom wept.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My faithful Hal!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;this is love indeed!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And Stephen ere he came away had seen his uncle fully established,
+as a rational creature, and by his true name, as one of the personal
+attendants on the Cardinal&rsquo;s bed-chamber, and treated with the
+affection he well deserved.&nbsp; Wolsey had really seemed cheered by
+his affection, and was devoting himself to the care of his hitherto
+neglected and even unvisited diocese, in a way that delighted the hearts
+of the Yorkshiremen.</p>
+<p>The first idea was that Perronel should join her husband at York,
+but safe modes of travelling were not easy to be found, and before any
+satisfactory escort offered, there were rumours that made it prudent
+to delay.&nbsp; As autumn advanced, it was known that the Earl of Northumberland
+had been sent to attach the Cardinal of High Treason.&nbsp; Then ensued
+other reports that the great Cardinal had sunk and died on his way to
+London for trial; and at last, one dark winter evening, a sorrowful
+man stumbled up the steps of the Dragon, and as he came into the bright
+light of the fire, and Perronel sprang to meet him, he sank into a chair
+and wept aloud.</p>
+<p>He had been one of those who had lifted the broken-hearted Wolsey
+from his mule in the cloister of Leicester Abbey, he had carried him
+to his bed, watched over him, and supported him, as the Abbot of Leicester
+gave him the last Sacraments.&nbsp; He had heard and treasured up those
+mournful words which are Wolsey&rsquo;s chief legacy to the world, &ldquo;Had
+I but served my God, as I have served my king, He would not have forsaken
+me in my old age.&rdquo;&nbsp; For himself, he had the dying man&rsquo;s
+blessing, and assurance that nothing had so much availed to cheer in
+these sad hours as his faithful love.</p>
+<p>Now, Perronel might do what she would with him&mdash;he cared not.</p>
+<p>And what she did was to set forth with him for Hampshire, on a pair
+of stout mules with a strong serving-man behind them.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.&nbsp; THE SOLDIER</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;Of a worthy London prentice<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;My purpose
+is to speak,<br />And tell his brave adventures<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Done
+for his country&rsquo;s sake.<br />Seek all the world about<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And
+you shall hardly find<br />A man in valour to exceed<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A
+prentice&rsquo; gallant mind.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><i>The Homes of a London Prentice</i>.</p>
+<p>Six more years had passed over the Dragon court, when, one fine summer
+evening, as the old walls rang with the merriment of the young boys
+at play, there entered through the gateway a tall, well-equipped, soldierly
+figure, which caught the eyes of the little armourer world in a moment.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Oh, that&rsquo;s a real Milan helmet!&rdquo; exclaimed the one
+lad.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And oh, what a belt and buff coat!&rdquo; cried another.</p>
+<p>The subject of their admiration advanced muttering, &ldquo;As if
+I&rsquo;d not been away a week,&rdquo; adding, &ldquo;I pray you, pretty
+lads, doth Master Alderman Headley still dwell here?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea, sir, he is our grandfather,&rdquo; said the elder boy,
+holding a lesser one by the shoulder as he spoke.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Verily!&nbsp; And what may be your names?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am Giles Birkenholt, and this is my little brother, Dick.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Even as I thought.&nbsp; Wilt thou run in to your grandsire,
+and tell him?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The bigger boy interrupted, &ldquo;Grandfather is going to bed.&nbsp;
+He is old and weary, and cannot see strangers so late.&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis
+our father who heareth all the orders.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And,&rdquo; added the little one, with wide open grave eyes,
+&ldquo;Mother bade us run out and play and not trouble father, because
+uncle Ambrose is so downcast because they have cut off the head of good
+Sir Thomas More.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yet,&rdquo; said the visitor, &ldquo;methinks your father
+would hear of an old comrade.&nbsp; Or stay, where be Tibble Steelman
+and Kit Smallbones?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Tibble is in the hall, well-nigh as sad as uncle Ambrose,&rdquo;
+began Dick; but Giles, better able to draw conclusions, exclaimed, &ldquo;Tibble!&nbsp;
+Kit!&nbsp; You know them, sir!&nbsp; Oh! are you the Giles Headley that
+ran away to be a soldier ere I was born?&nbsp; Kit!&nbsp; Kit! see here&mdash;&rdquo;
+as the giant, broader and perhaps a little more bent, but with little
+loss of strength, came forward out of his hut, and taking up the matter
+just where it had been left fourteen years before, demanded as they
+shook hands, &ldquo;Ah!&nbsp; Master Giles, how couldst thou play me
+such a scurvy trick?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nay, Kit, was it not best for all that I turned my back to
+make way for honest Stephen?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>By this time young Giles had rushed up the stair to the hall, where,
+as he said truly, Stephen was giving his brother such poor comfort as
+could be had from sympathy, when listening to the story of the cheerful,
+brave resignation of the noblest of all the victims of Henry VIII.&nbsp;
+Ambrose had been with Sir Thomas well-nigh to the last, had carried
+messages between him and his friends during his imprisonment, had handed
+his papers to him at his trial, had been with Mrs. Roper when she broke
+through the crowd and fell on his neck as he walked from Westminster
+Hall with the axe-edge turned towards him; had received his last kind
+farewell, counsel, and blessing, and had only not been with him on the
+scaffold because Sir Thomas had forbidden it, saying, in the old strain
+of mirth, which never forsook him, &ldquo;Nay, come not, my good friend.&nbsp;
+Thou art of a queasy nature, and I would fain not haunt thee against
+thy will.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>All was over now, the wise and faithful head had fallen, because
+it would not own the wrong for the right; and Ambrose had been brought
+home by his brother, a being confounded, dazed, seeming hardly able
+to think or understand aught save that the man whom he had above all
+loved and looked up to was taken from him, judicially murdered, and
+by the King.&nbsp; The whole world seemed utterly changed to him, and
+as to thinking or planning for himself, he was incapable of it; indeed,
+he looked fearfully ill.&nbsp; His little nephew came up to his father&rsquo;s
+knee, pausing, though open-mouthed, and at the first token of permission,
+bursting out, &ldquo;Oh! father!&nbsp; Here&rsquo;s a soldier in the
+court!&nbsp; Kit is talking to him.&nbsp; And he is Giles Headley that
+ran away.&nbsp; He has a beauteous Spanish leathern coat, and a belt
+with silver bosses&mdash;and a morion that Phil Smallbones saith to
+be of Milan, but I say it is French.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Stephen had no sooner gathered the import of this intelligence than
+he sprang down almost as rapidly as his little boy, with his welcome.&nbsp;
+Nor did Giles Headley return at all in the dilapidated condition that
+had been predicted.&nbsp; He was stout, comely, and well fleshed, and
+very handsomely clad and equipped in a foreign style, with nothing of
+the lean wolfish appearance of Sir John Fulford.&nbsp; The two old comrades
+heartily shook one another by the hand in real gladness at the meeting.&nbsp;
+Stephen&rsquo;s welcome was crossed by the greeting and inquiry whether
+all was well.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea.&nbsp; The alderman is hale and hearty, but aged.&nbsp;
+Your mother is tabled at a religious house at Salisbury.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I know.&nbsp; I landed at Southampton and have seen her.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And Dennet,&rdquo; Stephen added with a short laugh, &ldquo;she
+could not wait for you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, verily.&nbsp; Did I not wot well that she cared not a
+fico for me?&nbsp; I hoped when I made off that thou wouldst be the
+winner, Steve, and I am right glad thou art, man.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I can but thank thee, Giles,&rdquo; said Stephen, changing
+to the familiar singular pronoun.&nbsp; &ldquo;I have oft since thought
+what a foolish figure I should have cut had I met thee among the Badgers,
+after having given leg bail because I might not brook seeing thee wedded
+to her.&nbsp; For I was sore tempted&mdash;only thou wast free, and
+mine indenture held me fast.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then it was so!&nbsp; And I did thee a good turn!&nbsp; For
+I tell thee, Steve, I never knew how well I liked thee till I was wounded
+and sick among those who heeded neither God nor man!&nbsp; But one word
+more, Stephen, ere we go in.&nbsp; The Moor&rsquo;s little maiden, is
+she still unwedded?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yea,&rdquo; was Stephen&rsquo;s answer.&nbsp; &ldquo;She is
+still waiting-maid to Mistress Roper, daughter to good Sir Thomas More;
+but alack, Giles, they are in sore trouble, as it may be thou hast heard&mdash;and
+my poor brother is like one distraught.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ambrose did indeed meet Giles like one in a dream.&nbsp; He probably
+would have made the same mechanical greeting, if the Emperor or the
+Pope had been at that moment presented to him; but Dennet, who had been
+attending to her father, made up all that was wanting in cordiality.&nbsp;
+She had always had a certain sense of shame for having flouted her cousin,
+and, as his mother told her, driven him to death and destruction, and
+it was highly satisfactory to see him safe and sound, and apparently
+respectable and prosperous.</p>
+<p>Moreover, grieved as all the family were for the fate of the admirable
+and excellent More, it was a relief to those less closely connected
+with him to attend to something beyond poor Ambrose&rsquo;s sorrow and
+his talk, the which moreover might be perilous if any outsider listened
+and reported it to the authorities as disaffection to the King.&nbsp;
+So Giles told his story, sitting on the gallery in the cool of the summer
+evening, and marvelling over and over again how entirely unchanged all
+was since his first view of the Dragon court as a proud, sullen, raw
+lad twenty summers ago.&nbsp; Since that time he had seen so much that
+the time appeared far longer to him than to those who had stayed at
+home.</p>
+<p>It seemed that Fulford had from the first fascinated him more than
+any of the party guessed, and that each day of the free life of the
+expedition, and of contact with the soldiery, made a return to the monotony
+of the forge, the decorous life of a London citizen, and the bridal
+with a child, to whom he was indifferent, seem more intolerable to him.&nbsp;
+Fulford imagining rightly that the knowledge of his intentions might
+deter young Birkenholt from escaping, enjoined strict secrecy on either
+lad, not intending them to meet till it should be too late to return,
+and therefore had arranged that Giles should quit the party on the way
+to Calais, bringing with him Will Wherry, and the horse he rode.</p>
+<p>Giles had then been enrolled among the Badgers.&nbsp; He had little
+to tell about his life among them till the battle of Pavia, where he
+had had the good fortune to take three French prisoners; but a stray
+shot from a fugitive had broken his leg during the pursuit, and he had
+been laid up in a merchant&rsquo;s house at Pavia for several months.&nbsp;
+He evidently looked back to the time with gratitude, as having wakened
+his better associations, which had been well-nigh stifled during the
+previous years of the wild life of a soldier of fortune.&nbsp; His host&rsquo;s
+young daughter had eyes like Aldonza, and the almost forgotten possibility
+of returning to his love a brave and distinguished man awoke once more.&nbsp;
+His burgher thrift began to assert itself again, and he deposited a
+nest-egg from the ransoms of his prisoners in the hands of his host,
+who gave him bonds by which he could recover the sum from Lombard correspondents
+in London.</p>
+<p>He was bound by his engagements to join the Badgers again, or he
+would have gone home on his recovery; and he had shared in the terrible
+taking of Rome, of which he declared that he could not speak&mdash;with
+a significant look at Dennet and her children, who were devouring his
+words.&nbsp; He had, however, stood guard over a lady and her young
+children whom some savage Spaniards were about to murder, and the whole
+family had overpowered him with gratitude, lodged him sumptuously in
+their house, and shown themselves as grateful to him as if he had given
+them all the treasure which he had abstained from seizing.</p>
+<p>The sickness brought on by their savage excesses together with the
+Roman summer had laid low many of the Badgers.&nbsp; When the Prince
+of Orange drew off the army from the miserable city, scarce seven score
+of that once gallant troop were in marching order, and Sir John Fulford
+himself was dying.&nbsp; He sent for Giles, as less of a demon than
+most of the troop, and sent a gold medal, the only fragment of spoil
+remaining to him, to his daughter Perronel.&nbsp; To Giles himself Fulford
+bequeathed Abenali&rsquo;s well-tested sword, and he died in the comfortable
+belief&mdash;so far as he troubled himself about the matter at all&mdash;that
+there were special exemptions for soldiers.</p>
+<p>The Badgers now incorporated themselves with another broken body
+of Landsknechts, and fell under the command of a better and more conscientious
+captain.&nbsp; Giles, who had been horrified rather than hardened by
+the experiences of Rome, was found trustworthy and rose in command.&nbsp;
+The troop was sent to take charge of the Pope at Orvieto, and thus it
+was that he had fallen in with the Englishmen of Gardiner&rsquo;s suite,
+and had been able to send his letter to Ambrose.&nbsp; Since he had
+found the means of rising out of the slough, he had made up his mind
+to continue to serve till he had won some honour, and had obtained enough
+to prevent his return as a hungry beggar.</p>
+<p>His corps became known for discipline and valour.&nbsp; It was trusted
+often, was in attendance on the Emperor, and was fairly well paid.&nbsp;
+Giles was their &ldquo;ancient&rdquo; and had charge of the banner,
+nor could it be doubted that he had flourished.&nbsp; His last adventure
+had been the expedition to Tunis, when 20,000 Christian captives had
+been set free from the dungeons and galleys, and so grand a treasure
+had been shared among the soldiery that Giles, having completed the
+term of service for which he was engaged, decided on returning to England,
+before, as he said, he grew any older, to see how matters were going.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;For the future,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it depended on how
+he found things.&nbsp; If Aldonza would none of him, he should return
+to the Emperor&rsquo;s service.&nbsp; If she would go with him, he held
+such a position that he could provide for her honourably.&nbsp; Or he
+could settle in England.&nbsp; For he had a good sum in the hands of
+Lombard merchants; having made over to them spoils of war, ransoms,
+and arrears when he obtained them; and having at times earned something
+by exercising his craft, which he said had been most valuable to him.&nbsp;
+Indeed he thought he could show Stephen and Tibble a few fresh arts
+he had picked up at Milan.</p>
+<p>Meantime his first desire was to see Aldonza.&nbsp; She was still
+at Chelsea with her mistress, and Ambrose, to his brother&rsquo;s regret,
+went thither every day, partly because he could not keep away, and partly
+to try to be of use to the family.&nbsp; Giles might accompany him,
+though he still looked so absorbed in his trouble that it was doubtful
+whether he had really understood what was passing, or that he was wanted
+to bring about an interview between his companion and Aldonza.</p>
+<p>The beautiful grounds at Chelsea, in their summer beauty, looked
+inexpressibly mournful, deprived of him who had planted and cherished
+the trees and roses.&nbsp; As they passed along in the barge, one spot
+after another recalled More&rsquo;s bright jests or wise words; above
+all, the very place where he had told his son-in-law Roper that he was
+merry, not because he was safe, but because the fight was won, and his
+conscience had triumphed against the King he loved and feared.</p>
+<p>Giles told of the report that the Emperor had said he would have
+given a hundred of his nobles for one such councillor as More, and the
+prospect of telling this to the daughters had somewhat cheered Ambrose.&nbsp;
+They found a guard in the royal livery at the stairs to the river, and
+at the door of the house, but these had been there ever since Sir Thomas&rsquo;s
+apprehension.&nbsp; They knew Ambrose Birkenholt, and made no objection
+to his passing in and leaving his companion to walk about among the
+borders and paths, once so trim, but already missing their master&rsquo;s
+hand and eye.</p>
+<p>Very long it seemed to Giles, who was nearly despairing, when a female
+figure in black came out of one of the side doors, which were not guarded,
+and seemed to be timidly looking for him.&nbsp; Instantly he was at
+her side.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not here,&rdquo; she said, and in silence led the way to a
+pleached alley out of sight of the windows.&nbsp; There they stood still.&nbsp;
+It was a strange meeting of two who had not seen each other for fourteen
+years, when the one was a tall, ungainly youth, the other well-nigh
+a child.&nbsp; And now Giles was a fine, soldierly man in the prime
+of life, with a short, curled beard, and powerful, alert bearing, and
+Aldonza, though the first flower of her youth had gone by, yet, having
+lived a sheltered and far from toilsome life, was a really beautiful
+woman, gracefully proportioned, and with the delicate features and clear
+olive skin of the Andalusian Moor.&nbsp; Her eyes, always her finest
+feature, were sunken with weeping, but their soft beauty could still
+be seen.&nbsp; Giles threw himself on his knee and grasped at her hand.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My love!&mdash;my only love!&rdquo; he cried.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! how can I think of such matters now&mdash;now, when it
+is thus with my dear mistress,&rdquo; said Aldonza, in a mournful voice,
+as though her tears were all spent&mdash;yet not withholding her hand.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You knew me before you knew her,&rdquo; said Giles.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;See, Aldonza, what I have brought back to you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And he half drew the sword her father had made.&nbsp; She gave a
+gasp of delight, for well she knew every device in the gold inlaying
+of the blade, and she looked at Giles with eyes fall of gratitude.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I knew thou wouldst own me,&rdquo; said Giles.&nbsp; &ldquo;I
+have fought and gone far from thee, Aldonza.&nbsp; Canst not spare one
+word for thine old Giles?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah, Giles&mdash;there is one thing which if you will do for
+my mistress, I would be yours from&mdash;from my heart of hearts.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Say it, sweetheart, and it is done.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You know not.&nbsp; It is perilous, and may be many would
+quail.&nbsp; Yet it may be less perilous for you than for one who is
+better known.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Peril and I are well acquainted, my heart.&rdquo;&nbsp; She
+lowered her voice as her eyes dilated, and she laid her hand on his
+arm.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thou wottest what is on London Bridge gates?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I saw it, a sorry sight.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My mistress will not rest till that dear and sacred head,
+holy as any blessed relic, be taken down so as not to be the sport of
+sun and wind, and cruel men gaping beneath.&nbsp; She cannot sleep,
+she cannot sit or stand still, she cannot even kiss her child for thinking
+of it.&nbsp; Her mind is set on taking it down, yet she will not peril
+her husband.&nbsp; Nor verily know I how any here could do the deed.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ha!&nbsp; I have scaled a wall ere now.&nbsp; I bare our banner
+at Goletta, with the battlements full of angry Moors, not far behind
+the Emperor&rsquo;s.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You would?&nbsp; And be secret?&nbsp; Then indeed nought would
+be overmuch for you.&nbsp; And this very night&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The sooner the better.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She not only clasped his hand in thanks, but let him raise her face
+to his, and take the reward he felt his due.&nbsp; Then she said she
+must return, but Ambrose would bring him all particulars.&nbsp; Ambrose
+was as anxious as herself and her mistress that the thing should be
+done, but was unfit by all his habits, and his dainty, scholarly niceness,
+to render such effectual assistance as the soldier could do.&nbsp; Giles
+offered to scale the gate by night himself, carry off the head, and
+take it to any place Mrs. Roper might appoint, with no assistance save
+such as Ambrose could afford.&nbsp; Aldonza shuddered a little at this,
+proving that her heart had gone out to him already, but with this he
+had to be contented, for she went back into the house, and he saw her
+no more.&nbsp; Ambrose came back to him, and, with something more like
+cheerfulness than he had yet seen, said, &ldquo;Thou art happy, Giles.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;More happy than I durst hope&mdash;to find her&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Tush!&nbsp; I meant not that.&nbsp; But to be able to do the
+work of the holy ones of old who gathered the remnants of the martyrs,
+while I have indeed the will, but am but a poor craven!&nbsp; It is
+gone nearer to comfort that sad-hearted lady than aught else.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It appeared that Mrs. Roper would not be satisfied unless she herself
+were present at the undertaking, and this was contrary to the views
+of Giles, who thought the further off women were in such a matter the
+better.&nbsp; There was a watch at the outer entrance of London Bridge,
+the trainbands taking turns to supply it, but it was known by experience
+that they did not think it necessary to keep awake after belated travellers
+had ceased to come in; and Sir Thomas More&rsquo;s head was set over
+the opposite gateway, looking inwards at the City.&nbsp; The most suitable
+hour would be between one and two o&rsquo;clock, when no one would be
+stirring, and the summer night would be at the shortest.&nbsp; Mrs.
+Roper was exceedingly anxious to implicate no one, and to prevent her
+husband and brother from having any knowledge of an act that William
+Roper might have prohibited, as if she could not absolutely exculpate
+him, it might be fatal to him.&nbsp; She would therefore allow no one
+to assist save Ambrose, and a few more devoted old servants, of condition
+too low for anger to be likely to light upon them.&nbsp; She was to
+be rowed with muffled oars to the spot, to lie hid in the shadow of
+the bridge till a signal like the cry of the pee-wit was exchanged from
+the bridge, then approach the stairs at the inner angle of the bridge
+where Giles and Ambrose would meet her.</p>
+<p>Giles&rsquo;s experience as a man-at-arms stood him in good stead.&nbsp;
+He purchased a rope as he went home, also some iron ramps.&nbsp; He
+took a survey of the arched gateway in the course of the afternoon,
+and shutting himself into one of the worksheds with Ambrose, he constructed
+such a rope ladder as was used in scaling fortresses, especially when
+seized at night by surprise.&nbsp; He beguiled the work by a long series
+of anecdotes of adventures of the kind, of all of which Ambrose heard
+not one word.&nbsp; The whole court, and especially Giles number three,
+were very curious as to their occupation, but nothing was said even
+to Stephen, for it was better, if Ambrose should be suspected, that
+he should be wholly ignorant, but he had&mdash;they knew not how&mdash;gathered
+somewhat.&nbsp; Only Ambrose was, at parting for the night, obliged
+to ask him for the key of the gate.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Brother,&rdquo; then he said, &ldquo;what is this work I see?&nbsp;
+Dost think I can let thee go into a danger I do not partake?&nbsp; I
+will share in this pious act towards the man I have ever reverenced.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>So at dead of night the three men stole out together, all in the
+plainest leathern suits.&nbsp; The deed was done in the perfect stillness
+of the sleeping City, and without mishap or mischance.&nbsp; Stephen&rsquo;s
+strong hand held the ladder securely and aided to fix it to the ramps,
+and just as the early dawn was touching the summit of St. Paul&rsquo;s
+spire with a promise of light, Giles stepped into the boat, and reverently
+placed his burden within the opening of a velvet cushion that had been
+ripped up and deprived of part of the stuffing, so as to conceal it
+effectually.&nbsp; The brave Margaret Roper, the English Antigone, well
+knowing that all depended on her self-control, refrained from aught
+that might shake it.&nbsp; She only raised her face to Giles and murmured
+from dry lips, &ldquo;Sir, God must reward you!&rdquo;&nbsp; And Aldonza,
+who sat beside her, held out her hand.</p>
+<p>Ambrose was to go with them to the priest&rsquo;s house, where Mrs.
+Roper was forced to leave her treasure, since she durst not take it
+to Chelsea, as the royal officers were already in possession, and the
+whole family were to depart on the ensuing day.&nbsp; Stephen and Giles
+returned safely to Cheapside.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV.&nbsp; OLD HAUNTS</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&ldquo;O the oak, and the birch, and the bonny holly tree,<br />They
+flourish best at home in my own countree.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>When the absence of the barbarous token of the execution was discovered,
+suspicion instantly fell on the More family, and Margaret, her husband,
+and her brother, were all imprisoned.&nbsp; The brave lady took all
+upon herself, and gave no names of her associates in the deed, and as
+Henry VIII. still sometimes had better moods, all were soon released.</p>
+<p>But that night had given Ambrose a terrible cough, so that Dennet
+kept him in bed two days.&nbsp; Indeed he hardly cared to rise from
+it.&nbsp; His whole nature, health, spirits, and mind, had been so cruelly
+strained, and he was so listless, so weak, so incapable of rousing himself,
+or turning to any fresh scheme of life, that Stephen decided on fulfilling
+a long-cherished plan of visiting their native home and seeing their
+uncle, who had, as he had contrived to send them word, settled down
+on a farm which he had bought with Perronel&rsquo;s savings, near Romsey.&nbsp;
+Headley, who was lingering till Aldonza could leave her mistress and
+decide on any plan, undertook to attend to the business, and little
+Giles, to his great delight, was to accompany them.</p>
+<p>So the brothers went over the old ground.&nbsp; They slept in the
+hostel at Dogmersfield where the Dragon mark and the badge of the Armourers&rsquo;
+Company had first appeared before them.&nbsp; They found the very tree
+where the alderman had been tied, and beneath which Spring lay buried,
+while little Giles gazed with ecstatic, almost religious veneration,
+and Ambrose seemed to draw in new life with the fresh air of the heath,
+now becoming rich with crimson bells.&nbsp; They visited Hyde Abbey,
+and the well-clothed, well-mounted travellers received a better welcome
+than had fallen to the lot of the hungry lads.&nbsp; They were shown
+the grave of old Richard Birkenholt in the cloister, and Stephen left
+a sum to be expended in masses for his behoof.&nbsp; They looked into
+St. Elizabeth&rsquo;s College, but the kind warden was dead, and a trembling
+old man who looked at them through the wicket hoped they were not sent
+from the Commissioners.&nbsp; For the visitation of the lesser religious
+houses was going on, and St. Elizabeth&rsquo;s was already doomed.&nbsp;
+Stephen inquired at the White Hart for Father Shoveller, and heard that
+he had grown too old to perform the office of a bailiff, and had retired
+to the parent abbey.&nbsp; The brothers therefore renounced their first
+scheme of taking Silkstede in their way, and made for Romsey.&nbsp;
+There, under the shadow of the magnificent nunnery, they dined pleasantly
+by the waterside at the sign of Bishop Blaise, patron of the woolcombers
+of the town, and halted long enough to refresh Ambrose, who was equal
+to very little fatigue.&nbsp; It amused Stephen to recollect how mighty
+a place he had once thought the little town.</p>
+<p>Did mine host know Master Randall?&nbsp; What, Master Randall of
+Baddesley?&nbsp; He should think so!&nbsp; Was not the good man or his
+good wife here every market day, with a pleasant word for every one!&nbsp;
+Men said he had had some good office about the Court, as steward or
+the like&mdash;for he was plainly conversant with great men, though
+he made no boast.&nbsp; If these guests were kin of his, they were welcome
+for his sake.</p>
+<p>So the brothers rode on amid the gorse and heather till they came
+to a broad-spreading oak tree, sheltering a farmhouse built in frames
+of heavy timber, filled up with bricks set in zigzag patterns, with
+a high-pitched roof and tall chimneys.&nbsp; Barns and stacks were near
+it, and fields reclaimed from the heath were waving with corn just tinged
+with the gold of harvest.&nbsp; Three or four cows, of the tawny hue
+that looked so home-like to the brothers, were being released from the
+stack-yard after being milked, and conducted to their field by a tall,
+white-haired man in a farmer&rsquo;s smock with a little child perched
+on his shoulder, who gave a loud jubilant cry at the sight of the riders.&nbsp;
+Stephen, pushing on, began the question whether Master Randall dwelt
+there, but it broke off half way into a cry of recognition on either
+side, Harry&rsquo;s an absolute shout.&nbsp; &ldquo;The lads, the lads!&nbsp;
+Wife, wife! &rsquo;tis our own lads!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And as Perronel, more buxom and rosy than London had ever made her,
+came forth from her dairy, and there was a m&ecirc;l&eacute;e of greetings,
+and Stephen would have asked what homeless little one the pair had adopted,
+he was cut short by an exulting laugh.&nbsp; &ldquo;No more adopted
+than thy Giles there, Stephen.&nbsp; &rsquo;Tis our own boy, Thomas
+Randall!&nbsp; Yea, and if he have come late, he is the better loved,
+though I trow Perronel there will ever look on Ambrose as her eldest
+son.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And by my troth, he needs good country diet and air!&rdquo;
+cried Perronel.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thou hast had none to take care of thee,
+Ambrose.&nbsp; They have let thee pine and dwine over thy books.&nbsp;
+I must take thee in hand.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&rsquo;Tis what I brought him to thee for, good aunt,&rdquo;
+said Stephen, smiling.</p>
+<p>Great was the interchange of news over the homely hearty meal.&nbsp;
+It was plain that no one could be happier, or more prosperous in a humble
+way, than the ex-jester and his wife; and if anything could restore
+Ambrose it would surely be the homely plenty and motherly care he found
+there.</p>
+<p>Stephen heard another tale of his half-brother.&nbsp; His wife had
+soon been disgusted by the loneliness of the verdurer&rsquo;s lodge,
+and was always finding excuses for going to Southampton, where she and
+her daughter had both caught the plague, imported in some Eastern merchandise,
+and had died.&nbsp; The only son had turned out wild and wicked, and
+had been killed in a broil which he had provoked: and John, a broken-down
+man, with no one to enjoy the wealth he had accumulated, had given up
+his office as verdurer, and retired to an estate which he had purchased
+on the skirts of the Forest.</p>
+<p>Stephen rode thither to see him, and found him a dying man, tyrannised
+over and neglected by his servants, and having often bitterly regretted
+his hardness towards his young brothers.&nbsp; All that Stephen did
+for him he received as tokens of pardon, and it was not possible to
+leave him until, after a fortnight&rsquo;s watching, he died in his
+brother&rsquo;s arms.&nbsp; He had made no will, and Ambrose thus inherited
+a property which made his future maintenance no longer an anxiety to
+his brother.</p>
+<p>He himself seemed to care very little for the matter.&nbsp; To be
+allowed to rest under Perronel&rsquo;s care, to read his Erasmus&rsquo;
+Testament, and attend mass on Sundays at the little Norman church, seemed
+all that he wished.&nbsp; Stephen tried to persuade him that he was
+young enough at thirty-five to marry and begin life again on the fair
+woodland river-bordered estate that was his portion, but he shook his
+head.&nbsp; &ldquo;No, Stephen, my work is over.&nbsp; I could only
+help my dear master, and that is at an end.&nbsp; Dean Colet is gone,
+Sir Thomas is gone, what more have I to do here?&nbsp; Old ties are
+broken, old bonds severed.&nbsp; Crime and corruption were protested
+against in vain; and, now that judgment is beginning at the house of
+God, I am thankful that I am not like to live to see it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Perronel scolded and exhorted him, and told him he would be stronger
+when the hot weather was over, but Ambrose only smiled, and Stephen
+saw a change in him, even in this fortnight, which justified his forebodings.</p>
+<p>Stephen and his uncle found a trustworthy bailiff to manage the estate,
+and Ambrose remained in the house where he could now be no burthen.&nbsp;
+Stephen was obliged to leave him and take home young Giles, who had,
+he found, become so completely a country lad, enjoying everything to
+the utmost, that he already declared that he would much rather be a
+yeoman and forester than an armourer, and that he did not want to be
+apprenticed to that black forge.</p>
+<p>This again made Ambrose smile with pleasure as he thought of the
+boy as keeping up the name of Birkenholt in the Forest.&nbsp; The one
+wish he expressed was that Stephen would send down Tibble Steelman to
+be with him.&nbsp; For in truth they both felt that in London Tib might
+at any time be laid hands on, and suffer at Smithfield for his opinions.&nbsp;
+The hope of being a comfort to Ambrose was perhaps the only idea that
+could have counterbalanced the sense that he ought not to fly from martyrdom;
+and as it proved, the invitation came only just in time.&nbsp; Three
+days after Tibble had been despatched by the Southampton carrier in
+charge of all the comforts Dennet could put together, Bishop Stokesley&rsquo;s
+grim &ldquo;soumpnour&rdquo; came to summon him to the Bishop&rsquo;s
+court, and there could be little question that he would have courted
+the faggot and stake.&nbsp; But as he was gone out of reach, no further
+inquiries were made after him.</p>
+<p>Dennet had told her husband that she had been amazed to find how,
+in spite of a very warm affection for her, her husband, and children,
+her father hankered after the old name, and grieved that he could not
+fulfil his old engagement to his cousin Robert.&nbsp; Giles Headley
+had managed the business excellently during Stephen&rsquo;s absence,
+had shown himself very capable, and gained good opinions from all.&nbsp;
+Rubbing about in the world had been very good for him; and she verily
+believed that nothing would make her father so happy as for them to
+offer to share the business with Giles.&nbsp; She would on her part
+make Aldonza welcome, and had no fears of not agreeing with her.&nbsp;
+Besides&mdash;if little Giles were indeed to be heir to Testside was
+not the way made clear?</p>
+<p>So thus it was.&nbsp; The alderman was very happy in the arrangement,
+and Giles Headley had not forfeited his rights to be a freeman of London
+or a member of the Armourers&rsquo; Guild.&nbsp; He married Aldonza
+at Michaelmas, and all went well and peacefully in the household.&nbsp;
+Dennet never quitted her father while he lived; but Stephen struggled
+through winter roads and floods, and reached Baddesley in time to watch
+his brother depart in peace, his sorrow and indignation for his master
+healed by the sense of his martyrdom, and his trust firm and joyful.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;If this be, as it is, dying of grief,&rdquo; said Hal Randall,
+&ldquo;surely it is a blessed way to die!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>A few winters later Stephen and Dennet left Giles Headley in sole
+possession of the Dragon, with their second son as an apprentice, while
+they themselves took up the old forest life as Master and Mistress Birkenholt
+of Testside, where they lived and died honoured and loved.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<p>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE ARMOURER'S PRENTICES ***</p>
+<pre>
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