Six gay girls sat together, laughing and talking, under the shadow of
the ancient yew-trees that guard the eastern corner of Swarthmoor
Hall. The interlaced boughs of the gloomy old trees made a cool canopy
of shadow above the merry maidens. It was a breathless day of late
June, 1652, at the very end of the 'wonderful fortnight.'
There they were, Judge Fell's six fair daughters: Margaret, Bridget,
Isabel, Sarah, Mary and little Susanna, who was but three years old,
on that hot summer afternoon.
''Tis a pity that there are only six of us,' Sarah was saying with
mock melancholy. 'Now, suppose my brother George instead of being a
boy had been a girl, then there would have been seven. The Seven
Sisters of Swarthmoor Hall! In truth it has a gallant sound like unto
a play. Seven Young Sisters and Seven Ancient Yew Trees! Each of us
might have a yew-tree then for her very own.' So saying, Sarah leant
back against the huge gnarled trunk behind her, her golden curls
rippling like sunshine over the wrinkled wood, while her blue eyes
peered into the dark-green depths overhead.
'Moreover, in that case,' continued Isabel, with a touch of sarcasm in
her voice, 'and supposing the Seventh Sister, who doth not exist, were
to have seven more daughters in her turn,--then it might be expected
that the Seventh Daughter of that Seventh Daughter would have keener
than mortal hearing, and sharper than mortal sight. She would be able
to hear the grass growing, and know when the fairies were making
their rings, and be able to catch the Brownies at their tasks, so the
country people say. Heigh ho! I wish she were here! Or I would that I
myself were the Seventh Daughter of a Seventh Daughter, or still
better the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, for they have real true
second sight, and can look in magic crystals and foresee things to
come.'
'Now it is my turn,' chimed in Bridget, 'I am the eldest but one, and
it is time I talked a little. Then when the Seventh Daughter of the
Seventh Daughter walks hand in hand with the Seventh Son of a Seventh
Son (neither of whom, allow me to remind you in passing, ever have
existed, or, it is to be hoped, ever will exist in a well-connected
family like ours), when they walk hand in hand under the shade of the
Seven Ancient Yew-trees which, we all know, have guarded Swarthmoor
for centuries ... the Seven Ancient Trees will be sure to overhear
them whispering honeyed nothings to each other. Then the oldest and
wisest of all the Trees (by the bye, it is that one behind you,
Isabel!) will say, "Dearly beloved Children, although the words you
say are incredibly foolish, yet to me they sound almost wise compared
with the still more incredibly foolish conversation carried on beneath
my old boughs in the Year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and
fifty-two by your ever venerable Great Aunt Isabel and your still more
venerable Great Aunt Sarah!"'
'O _Bridget_,' came in aggrieved tones from the two younger girls as
they flung themselves upon her and put laughing hands over her mouth,
'that is too bad, that is unkind.'
The eldest sister, Margaret, looked up from the low bench where she
was sitting with Mary and Susanna, the two youngest children beside
her. Seeing the struggling heap of muslin and ribbons on the grass she
resolutely turned the talk into less personal channels. 'I do not at
all agree with Sarah,' she said calmly, 'besides it is much too hot to
argue. For my part, _I_ think Six Sisters are fully enough for any
household. If I had more than five younger ones to look after, I don't
know what I should do. Even for the yew-trees it is better. There is
one now for each of us to sit under, and one to spare for my mother
when at last she comes home. I wonder what makes her so late? When
will she be here?'
A ripple of expectation stirred the maidens. Moved by the same
impulse, they all looked out under the dark yew branches and over the
sunlit orchard, beyond which lay the high road leading up the hill
from Ulverston. Nothing as yet was to be seen and no faintest rumble
of approaching wheels reached any of the listeners.
Everywhere the hot air quivered in the sunshine. Even the stately
Elizabethan Hall with its high stone chimneys and mullioned bay
windows looked drowsy and half asleep. A pale wisp of smoke was
ascending listlessly in a straight line above the gabled roofs high up
into the far still air. Scarcely a sound came from the outbuildings
that lay beyond the Hall. Even the pigeons on the roof were too hot to
coo. In the herb garden beneath, the flowers drooped in the scorching
light. Glare everywhere. Only under the yew-trees was there to be
found a pool of grateful shadow. And even that pool had a sunshine of
its own radiating from the group of merry maidens, with their bright
faces and gay voices raised in perpetual talk, or laughter, or song.
For a little while they seemed to be busy practising a madrigal. Then
the irrepressible chatter burst out afresh. Cool and fragrant all the
maidens looked, in their dresses of clear sprigged muslin, each tied
at waist, wrists, and throat with ribbons of a different colour:
lilac, lavender, primrose, cherry, emerald, and blue. The garden roses
might droop in the hot garden outside, but the roses on the girls'
cheeks, instead of fading, flushed and deepened with growing
excitement. They all seemed full of suppressed eagerness, evidently
waiting for something much desired to happen.
At length tall Bridget, exclaiming, 'It must be time now!' sprang to
her feet, and, stooping under the clinging boughs of the yew-tree
temple, drew herself up to her full height outside its shade. Her gaze
roamed over the long grass of the orchard and down the broad path, to
the high stone arch of the entrance gate through which she could just
catch sight of a glimpse of dusty road.
'Nothing yet!' she reported, 'not even a sign of the black horses'
ears or heads above the hedge and not a sound upon the road.'
Margaret raised her head to listen. She inherited her mother's placid,
Madonna-like beauty, and was at this time the fairest of the whole
sisterhood. Sarah, who was hereafter to be considered not only the wit
but also the beauty of the family, was at this time a child of ten,
and not yet grown into her full inheritance of comeliness. In after
years it was said of Sarah that she was 'not only beautiful and lovely
to a high degree, but was wonderfully happy in ingeny and memory.'
But even at her loveliest it was never said of her, as it was of
Margaret, that she was 'glorious, comely, and beautiful in that which
never fades away,' 'lovely in the truth, an example of holiness and
wisdom.'
This comely Margaret, seeing and hearing nothing of what she sought,
bent her fair face down once more to the little sisters seated on each
side of her. To beguile the waiting time she was making for them a
chain of the daisies they had gathered as they flitted about, like gay
white butterflies, over the grass. Mary was eight years old, and
therefore able to pick daisies with discretion; but the stalks of the
flowers gathered by little Susanna were all sadly too short and the
flowers themselves suffered in her tight hot hand. At this moment
Isabel ran to join Bridget and, standing on tiptoe beside her, tried
hard to see as much as her taller sister.
'Nothing yet,' she reported, 'not a sign of the black horses nor even
the top of the coach.' Sarah, not to be outdone, swung herself up,
with a laugh, on to one of the lower boughs of the oldest yew-tree,
and standing on it thrust her golden head through the thick canopy
overhead. She peered out in her turn looking across the orchard and
over the hedge to the road, then, bending down with a laughing face to
Margaret and the little ones, 'I'm tallest now,' she exclaimed, 'and I
shall be the first to spy the coach when it reaches the top of the
hill!'
But agile Isabel, ever ready to follow a sister's lead, had already
left Bridget's side and swung herself up, past Sarah, on to a yet
higher bough.
'Methinks not, Mistress Sarah,' she called over her head, slowly and
demurely, 'for now I can see yet farther, and there are the horses'
ears and heads; yea and the chariot also, and now, at last! our
mother's face!'
But the group below had not waited for her tidings. They had heard the
rumble of the wheels and the horses' feet on the road. With cries of
joy, off they all sped down the path and across the orchard; to see
who should be first at the gate to welcome their mother. Only Margaret
stayed behind on her bench among the scattered daisies, with a
slightly pensive expression on her lovely face.
'All of them flying to greet her!' Margaret thought to herself. 'See,
Bridget has caught up even Susanna in her arms, that she shall not be
left too far behind; while I, the eldest, whom my mother doth ever
call her right hand, am forced to stay here. But my mother knows that
my knee prevents me. She will not forget her Margaret. Already she
sees me, and is beckoning the others to come this way.'
In truth Mistress Fell had already alighted and was now passing
swiftly under the high stone arch of the gateway. Never did she come
through that gate without a flash of remembrance of the first time she
entered there, leaning on her husband's arm, a bride of seventeen
summers, younger than her own fair Margaret now. She entered, this
time, leaning on the arm of tall Bridget, walking as if she were a
trifle weary, yet stooping to pick up little Susanna and to cover her
with kisses as she moved up the path surrounded by her cloud of girls.
'Not the house, maids,' she cried, 'the yew-trees first! I see my
Margaret waiting there. Your news, how marvellous soever, must wait
until I have greeted my right-hand daughter and learned how she
fares.'
'How art thou, dear Heart?' she enquired, as she stooped down and
kissed her eldest daughter, and sat down beside her. 'Hath thy knee
pained thee a little less this afternoon?'
'Much less,' answered Margaret gaily, 'in fact I had almost forgotten
it, and was about to rise and welcome you with the rest, when a sudden
ache reminded me that I must not run yet awhile.'
Mistress Fell shook her head. 'I fear that I shall have to take thee
to London and to Wapping for the waters some day. I cannot have my
bird unable to fly like the rest of the brood, and obliged to wait
behind with a clipped wing.'
'Young Margrett,' as she was called, to distinguish her from her
mother, laughed aloud. 'Nay now, sweet mother, 'tis nothing,' she
replied. 'Let us think of more cheerful things. In truth we have much
to tell you, for we have had an afternoon of visitors and many
happenings in thy absence.'
'Visitors?' A slight furrow showed itself in the elder Margaret's
smooth forehead. 'Well, that is not strange, since the door of
Swarthmoor stands ever open to welcome guests, as all the country
knows. Still I would that I had been at home, or thy father. Who were
the visitors, daughter?'
It was Bridget who answered.
'My father hath often said that there has been scarce a day without a
visitor at Swarthmoor since he first brought you here as its
mistress,' she began primly, 'but in all these years, mother, I doubt
you have never set eyes on such an one as our guest of to-day. Priest
Lampitt said the same.'
'Priest Lampitt? Hath he been here? And I not at home. Truly, it
grieves me, children, to have missed our good neighbour. Did he then
bring a stranger with him?'
'No, No, No,' a chorus of dissent broke from the girls, all now seated
round their mother on the grass, each eager to be the first to tell
the tale, yet at a loss for words. Bridget, as usual, stepped into the
gap. She explained that 'the Priest had been amazed to find the
Stranger here. They had had much discourse. Till at last, Priest
Lampitt, waxing hot and fiery ere he departed, strode down the flagged
path slashing all the flowers with his cane and never seemed to know
what he was doing, though you know, mother, that he loves our garden.'
A shade of real annoyance crossed Mistress Fell's face. 'The good
Priest angered in my house,' she said, with real concern in her voice,
'and I not there, but only a pack of giddy maids, who had not wit
enough between them to keep a discourteous stranger in his place and
prevent his being rude to an old friend! Nay, now, maidens, speak not
all together. Ye are too young and do but babble. Let Bridget
continue, or my Margaret. Either of them I can trust.' But 'young
Margrett' was bending her head still lower, seemingly over her daisy
chain.
'Truly, mother,' she said in a low voice close to her mother's ear,
'there are no words for him. He is so--different; I knew not that
earth held a man like him. And he will be coming back shortly to the
house--maybe he is already awaiting you!'
Mistress Fell looked up now in undisguised alarm. Who was this
nameless Stranger who had invaded her house during her absence, and
had apparently stolen the heart of her discreet and dignified
Margaret, in one interview, by the mere sight of his charms? Young,
handsome, quarrelsome; who could he be? What had brought him to
Swarthmoor to destroy its peace?
She turned to capable Bridget for information. Bridget, never at a
loss, understood her mother's fears, or some of them, and immediately
answered reassuringly, 'Be not disquieted, sweet mother. Nothing
really untoward has happened. It is true the Stranger disputed hotly
with Lampitt, but it was the Priest's blame as much as the Stranger's
at first, though afterwards, when Lampitt held out his hand and wished
to be friendly, the Stranger turned from him and shook him off. Yet,
though his actions were harsh there was gentleness in his face and
bearing. He is a man of goodly presence, this Stranger, but quite,
quite old, thirty or thereabouts by my guessing.'
The elder Margaret smiled. Bridget continued hastily: 'Or may be more.
Any way he seemed older from his gravity, and from his outlandish
dress. Under his coat could be seen a leather doublet and breeches,
and on his head he wore a large, soft, white hat.'
At these words the concern in Mistress Fell's face disappeared in a
moment. A quick look of welcome sprang into her eyes.
'A man in a white hat!' she exclaimed. 'Perhaps, then, his coming
forbodes good to us after all. It was only the other night that, as I
lay a-dreaming, I saw a man in a large white hat coming towards me. I
had been seeking for guidance on my knees, for often I fear we are not
wholly in the right way, with all our seeking and religious exercises.
In answer to my prayer there came towards me, in my dream, a man, and
I knew that he was to be the messenger of God to me and to all my
household. Tell me more, maidens, of this Stranger, how he came and
whence, and why he left and when he will return.'
This time it was 'young Margrett' who answered. Seeing the sympathy in
her Mother's eyes, she found her voice at last, and rejoined quickly:
'He resembleth a Priest somewhat, yet not altogether. He speaketh with
more authority than anyone I ever heard. Grave he is too. Grave as my
father when he is executing justice. Yet, for all his gravity, as
Bridget says, he is wondrous gentle. None of us were affrighted at
him, and the little maids ran to him as they do to my father.
Moreover, he showed them a curious seal he carried in his pocket with
letters intertwined among roses, a "G" I saw, and an "F." Afterwards
he took them on his knees and blessed them and they were wholly at
ease. Priest Lampitt, who had been watching through a window, his
countenance strangely altered by his rage, now took his departure.
Seeing him go, the Stranger put down the children gently, setting
Susanna with both her feet squarely on the polished floor, as I have
seen a shepherd set down a lamb, as if afeared that it might slip.
Then he turned in sorrow and spoke a few words to his companion. This
was the man who brought him hither, one of the Seekers from
Wensleydale or thereabouts, I should judge from his language; but
truly none of us paid much heed to him. The two of them left the Hall
together, and passed down through the herb-garden, and over the
stream. Once I noticed the Stranger turn and gaze back at the house,
searching each window, as if looking for something he found not
there. Also he smiled at sight of the yew-trees, with a greeting as if
they were old friends. Bridget declares that she heard the Stranger,
our Stranger, say that he would return hither shortly, when he had set
his companion a short distance on his homeward way. But that is now
more than two hours agone, and as yet he hath not reappeared.'
'Well then, maids,' replied Mistress Fell briskly, 'let us not linger
here. It is high time we went back to the house to welcome our guest,
on his return.' So saying, she rose to her feet, and aiding 'young
Margrett' with one hand, she drew aside with the other the thick
screen of the branches. A ray of sunshine fell upon Margaret Fell,
standing there, in the velvety gloom of the old yew-trees, with her
six young daughters round her. Sunshine was in her heart too, as she
looked down fondly at them for a moment.
Then, lifting up her eyes, she recognised the unknown man she had seen
in her dream. In the full blaze of sunlight, coming straight up the
flagged path towards her was a Stranger, wearing a white hat. And thus
did Mistress Margaret Fell behold for the first time GEORGE FOX.
[Illustration]