BENJAMIN, LORD CHANCELLOR.
Summer follows winter and winter summer, in due course, turning
children into young men and maidens, changing school into work,
and play into love, and love into marriage, and so onwards to the
churchyard, where we all presently lie, hopeful of Heaven's mercy,
whether Mr. Boscorel did stand beside our open grave in his white
surplice, or my father in his black gown.
Barnaby was gone; the other three grew tall, and would still be
talking of the lives before them. Girls do never look forward to
the future with the eagerness and joy of boys. To the dullest boy
it seems a fine thing to be master of his own actions, even if that
liberty lead to whipping-post, pillory, or gallows. To boys of
ambition and imagination the gifts of Fortune show like the splendid
visions of a prophet. They think that earthly fame will satisfy the
soul. Perhaps women see these glories and their true worth with
clearer eye as not desiring them. And truly it seems a small thing,
after a life spent in arduous toil, and with one foot already in the
grave, to obtain fortune, rank, or title.
Benjamin and Humphrey were lads of ambition. To both, but in fields
which lay far apart, the best life seemed to be that which is spent
among men on the ant-hill where all are driving or being driven,
loading each other with burdens intolerable, or with wealth or with
honours, and then dying and being forgotten in a moment--which we
call London. In the kindly country one stands apart and sees the
vanity of human wishes. Teat the ambition of Humphrey, it must be
confessed, was noble, because it was not for his own advancement,
but for the good of mankind.
'I shall stay at home,' said Robin. 'You two may go if you please.
Perhaps you will like the noise of London, where a man cannot hear
himself speak, they say, for the roaring of the crowd, the ringing
of the bells, and the rumbling of the carts. As for me, what is good
enough for my grandfather will be surely good enough for me.'
It should, indeed, be good enough for anybody to spend his days
after the manner of Sir Christopher, administering justice for the
villagers, with the weekly ordinary at Sherborne for company, the
green fields and his garden for pleasure and for exercise, and the
welfare of his soul for prayer. Robin, besides, loved to go forth
with hawk and gun; to snare the wild creatures; to hunt the otter
and the fox; to bait the badger, and trap the stoat and weasel; to
course the hares. But cities and crowds, even if they should be
shouting in his honour, did never draw him, even after he had seen
them. Nor was he ever tempted to believe any manner of life more
full of delight and more consistent with the end of man's creation
than the rural life, the air of the fields, the following of the
plough for the men, and the spinning-wheel for the women.
'I shall be a lawyer,' said Benjamin, puffing out his cheeks and
squaring his shoulders. 'Very well, then, I say I shall be a great
lawyer. What? None of your pettifogging tribe for me: I shall step
to the front, and stay there. What? Someone must have the prizes and
the promotion. There are always places falling vacant and honours to
be given away: they shall be given to me. Why not to me as well as
another?'
'Well,' said Robin, 'you are strong enough to take them,
willy-nilly.'
'I am strong enough,' he replied, with conviction. 'First, I shall
be called to the Outer Bar, where I shall plead in stuff--I saw
them at Exeter last 'Sizes. Next, I shall be summoned to become
King's Counsel, when I shall flaunt it in silk. Who but I?' Then he
seemed to grow actually three inches taller, so great is the power
of imagination. He was already six feet in height, his shoulders
broad, and his face red and fiery, so that now he looked very big
and tall. 'Then my Inn will make me a Bencher, and I shall sit at
the high table in term-time. And the attorneys shall run after me
and fight with each other for my services in Court, so that in every
great case I shall be heard thundering before the jury, and making
the witnesses perjure themselves with terror--for which they will be
afterwards flogged. I shall belong to the King's party--none of your
canting Whigs for me. When the high treason cases come on, I shall
be the counsel for the Crown. That is the high road to advancement.'
'This is very well, so far,' said Robin, laughing. 'Ben is too
modest, however. He does not get on fast enough.'
'All in good time,' Ben replied. 'I mean to get on as fast as
anybody. But I shall follow the beaten road. First, favour with
attorneys and those who have suits in the Courts; then the ear of
the Judge. I know not how one gets the ear of the Judge'--he looked
despondent for a moment, then he held up his head again--'but I
shall find out. Others have found out--why not I? What? I am no
fool, am I?'
'Certainly not, Ben. But as yet we stick at King's Counsel.'
'After the ear of the Judge, the favour of the Crown. What do I
care who is King? It is the King who hath preferment and place
and honours in his gift. Where these are given away, there shall
I be found. Next am I made Serjeant-at-Law. Then I am saluted as
'Brother' by the Judges on the Bench, while all the others burst
with envy. After that I shall myself be called to the Bench. I
am already "my Lord"--why do you laugh, Robin?--and a Knight: Sir
Benjamin Boscorel--Sir Benjamin.' Here he puffed out his cheeks
again, and swung his shoulders like a very great person indeed.
'Proceed, Sir Benjamin,' said Humphrey, gravely, while Robin laughed.
'When I am a Judge, I promise you I will rate the barristers and
storm at the witnesses and admonish the Jury until there shall be
no other question in their minds but to find out first what is my
will in the case, and then to govern themselves accordingly. I will
be myself Judge and jury and all. Oh! I have seen the Judge at last
Exeter 'Sizes. He made all to shake in their shoes. I shall not stop
there. Chief Baron I shall be, perhaps--but on that point I have not
yet made up my mind--and then Lord Chancellor.' He paused to take
breath, and looked around him, grandeur and authority upon his brow.
'Lord Chancellor,' he repeated, 'on the Woolsack!'
'You will then,' said Robin, 'be raised to the peerage--first Lord
Boscorel; or perhaps, if your Lordship will so honour this poor
village, Lord Bradford Orcas'----
'Earl of Sherborne I have chosen for title,' said Benjamin. 'And
while I am climbing up the ladder, where wilt thou be, Humphrey?
Grovelling in the mud with the poor devils who cannot rise?'
'Nay, I shall have a small ladder of my own, Ben. I find great
comfort in the thought that when your Lordship is roaring and
bawling with the gout--your noble toe being like a ball of fire, and
your illustrious foot swathed in flannel--I shall be called upon to
drive away the pain, and you will honour me with the title not only
of humble cousin, but also of rescuer and preserver. Will it not be
honour enough to cure the Right Honourable the Earl of Sherborne
(first of the name), the Lord Chancellor, of his gout, and to
restore him to the duties of his great office, so that once more he
shall be the dread of evildoers and of all who have to appear before
him? As yet, my Lord, your extremities, I perceive, are free from
that disease--the result, too often, of that excess in wine which
besets the great.'
Here Robin laughed again, and so did Benjamin. Nobody could use
finer language than Humphrey, if he pleased.
'A fine ambition!' said Ben. 'To wear a black velvet coat and a
great wig; to carry a gold-headed cane; all day long to listen while
the patient tells of his gripes and pains; to mix boluses, and to
compound nauseous draughts!'
'Well,' Humphrey laughed, 'if you are Lord Chancellor, Ben, you
will, I hope, give us good laws, and so make the nation happy
and prosperous. While you are doing this, I will be keeping you
in health for the good of the country. I say that this is a fine
ambition.'
'And Robin, here, will sit in the great chair, and have the rogues
haled before him, and order the Head-borough to bring out his
cat-o'-nine-tails. In the winter evenings, he will play backgammon,
and in the summer, bowls. Then a posset, and to bed. And never any
change from year to year. A fine life, truly!'
'Truly, I think it is a very fine life,' said Robin; 'while you make
the laws, I will take care that they are obeyed. What better service
is there than to cause good laws to be obeyed? Make good laws,
my Lord Chancellor, and be thankful that you will have faithful,
law-abiding men to carry them out.'
Thus they talked. Presently the time came when the lads must leave
the village and go forth to prepare for such course as should be
allotted to them, whether it led to greatness or to obscurity.
Benjamin went first, being sixteen years of age and a great fellow,
as I have said, broad-shouldered and lusty, with a red face, a
strong voice, and a loud laugh. In no respect did he resemble his
father, who was delicate in manner and in speech. He was to be
entered at Gray's Inn, where, under some counsel learned in the law,
he was to read until such time as he should be called.
He came to bid me farewell, which at first, until he frightened me
with the things he said, I took kindly of him.
'Child,' he said, 'I am going to London, and, I suppose, I shall
not come back to this village for a long time. Nay, were it not for
thee, I should not wish to come back at all.'
'Why for me, Ben?'
'Because'--here his red face became redder, and he stammered a
little, but not much, for he was ever a lad of confidence--'because,
child, thou art not yet turned twelve, which is young to be hearing
of such a thing. Yet a body may as well make things safe. And as
for Humphrey or Robin interfering, I will break their heads with my
cudgel if they do. Remember that, then.' He shook his finger at me,
threatening.
'In what business should they interfere?' I asked.
'Kiss me, Alice'--here he tried to lay his arm round my neck, but I
ran away. 'Oh! if thou art skittish, I care not: all in good time.
Very well, then; let us make things safe. Alice, when I come back
thou wilt be seventeen or eighteen, which is an age when girls
should marry'----
'I have nothing to do with marrying, Ben.'
'Not yet. If I mistake not, child, thou wilt then be as beautiful as
a rose in June.'
'I want no foolish talk, Ben. Let me go.'
'Then I shall be twenty-one years of age, practising in the courts.
I shall go the Western Circuit, in order to see thee often--partly
to keep an eye upon thee and partly to warn off other men. Because,
child, it is my purpose to marry thee myself. Think upon that, now.'
At this I laughed.
'Laugh if you please, my dear; I shall marry thee as soon as the
way is open to the Bench and the Woolsack. What? I can see a long
way ahead. I will tell thee what I see. There is a monstrous great
crowd of people in the street staring at a glass coach. "Who is
the lovely lady?" they ask. "The lovely lady"--that is you, Alice;
none other--"with the diamonds at her neck and the gold chain, in
the glass coach?" says one who knows her liveries: "'tis the lady
of the great Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Sherborne." And the women
fall green with envy of her happiness and great good fortune and her
splendour. Courage, child: I go to prepare the way. Oh! thou knowest
not the grand things that I shall pour into thy lap when I am a
judge.'
This was the first time that any man spoke to me of love. But
Benjamin was always masterful, and had no respect for such a nice
point as the wooing of a maiden--which, methinks, should be gentle
and respectful, not as if a woman was like a savage to be tempted
by a string of beads, or so foolish as to desire with her husband
such gauds as diamonds, or gold chains, or a glass coach. Nor doth
a woman like to be treated as if she was to be carried off by force
like the Sabine women of old.
The Rector rode to London with his son. It is a long journey, over
rough ways; but it pleased him once more to see that great city,
where there are pictures and statues and books to gladden the hearts
of such as love these things. And on the way home he sojourned for a
few days at his old college of All Souls, where were still left one
or two of his old friends. Then he rode back to his village. 'There
are but two places in this country,' he said, 'or perhaps three, at
most, where a gentleman and a scholar, or one who loveth the fine
arts, would choose to live. These are London and Oxford, and perhaps
the Sister University upon the Granta. Well, I have once more been
privileged to witness the humours of the Court and the town: I have
once more been permitted to sniff the air of a great library. Let
us be thankful.' He showed his thankfulness with a sigh which was
almost a groan.
It was three years before we saw Benjamin again. Then he returned,
but not for long. Like his father, he loved London better than
the country, but for other reasons. Certainly, he cared nothing
for those arts which so much delighted the Rector, and the air of
a coffee-house pleased him more than the perfume of books in a
library. When he left us he was a rustic; when he came back he was
already what they call a fopling: that is to say, when he went to
pay his respects to Sir Christopher, his grandfather, he wore a very
fine cravat of Flanders lace, with silken hose, and lace and ribbons
at his wrist. He was also scented with bergamot, and wore a peruke,
which, while he talked, he combed and curled, to keep the curls of
this monstrous head-dress in place. Gentlemen must, I suppose, wear
this invention, and one of the learned professions must show the
extent of the learning by the splendours of his full-bottomed wig.
Yet I think that a young man looks most comely while he wears his
own hair. He had cocked his hat, on which were bows of riband, and
he wore a sword. He spoke also in a mincing London manner, having
now forsworn the honest broad speech of Somerset; and (but not in
the presence of his elders) he used strange oaths and ejaculations.
'Behold him!' said his father, by no means displeased at his son's
foppery, because he ever loved the city fashions, and thought that
a young man did well to dress and to comport himself after the way
of the world. 'Behold him! Thus he sits in the coffee-house; thus
he shows himself in the pit. Youth is the time for finery and for
folly. Alas! would that we could bring back that time! What saith
John Dryden--glorious John--of Sir Fopling?--
'"His various modes from various fathers follow:
One taught the toss, and one the new French wallow;
His sword-knot this, his cravat that, designed,
And this the yard-long snake he twirls behind.
From one the sacred periwig he gained,
Which wind ne'er blew, nor touch of hat profaned."
'Well, Ben,' said Sir Christopher, 'if the mode can help thee to the
Bench why not follow the mode?'
'It will not hinder, Sir,' Ben replied. 'A man who hath his fortune
to make does well to be seen everywhere, and to be dressed like
other men of his time.'
One must do Benjamin the justice to acknowledge that though, like
the young gentlemen his friends and companions, his dress was
foppish, and his talk was of the pleasures of the town, he suffered
nothing to stand in the way of his advancement. He was resolved upon
being a great lawyer, and, therefore, if he spent the evening in
drinking, singing, and making merry, he was reading in chambers or
else attending the Courts all the day, and neglected nothing that
would make him master of his profession. And, though of learning
he had little, his natural parts were so good, and his resolution
was so strong, that I doubt not he would have achieved his ambition
had it not been for the circumstances which afterwards cut short
his career. His course of life, by his own boastful confession, was
profligate; his friends were drinkers and revellers; his favourite
haunt was the tavern, where they all drank punch and sang ungodly
songs, and smoked tobacco; and of religion he seemed to have no care
whatever.
I was afraid that he would return to the nauseous subject which he
had opened three years before. Therefore I continued with my mother,
and would give him no chance to speak with me. But he found me, and
caught me returning home one evening.
'Alice,' he said, 'I feared that I might have to go away without a
word alone with thee.'
'I want no words alone, Benjamin. Let me pass!' For he stood before
me in the way.
'Not so fast, pretty!'--he caught me by the wrist, and, being a
young man so strong and determined, he held me as by a vice. 'Not
so fast, Mistress Alice. First, my dear, let me tell thee that my
purpose still holds--nay'--here he swore a most dreadful, impious
oath--'I am more resolved than ever. There is not a woman, even in
London, that is to be compared with thee, child. What? Compared
with thee? Why, they are like the twinkling stars compared with the
glorious Queen of Night. What did I say?--that at nineteen thou
wouldst be a miracle of beauty? Nay, that time hath come already! I
love thee, child! I love thee, I say, ten times as much as ever I
loved thee before!'
He gasped, and then breathed hard; but still he held me fast.
'Idle compliments cost a man nothing, Benjamin. Say what you meant
to say and let me go. If you hold me any longer I will cry out and
bring your father to learn the reason.'
'Well,' he said, 'I will not keep thee. I have said what I wanted to
say. My time hath not yet arrived. I am shortly to be called, and
shall then begin to practise. When I come back here again, 'twill
be with a ring in one hand, and in the other the prospect of the
Woolsack. Think upon that while I am gone. "Your Ladyship" is finer
than plain "Madam," and the Court is more delightful than a village
green among the pigs and ducks. Think upon it well: thou art a lucky
girl; a plain village girl to be promoted to a coronet! However, I
have no fears for thee; thou wilt adorn the highest fortune. Thou
wilt be worthy of the great place whither I shall lead thee. What?
Is Sir George Jeffreys a better man than I? Is he of better family?
Had he better interest? Is he a bolder man? Not so. Yet was Sir
George a Common Serjeant at twenty-three, and Recorder at thirty;
Chief Justice of Chester at thirty-two. What he hath done I can do.
Moreover, Sir George hath done me the honour to admit me to his
company, and will advance me. This he hath promised, both in his
cups and when he is sober. Think it over, child: a ring in one hand
and a title in the other.'
So Benjamin went away again. I was afraid when I thought of him and
his promise, because I knew him of old; and his eyes were as full of
determination as when he would fight a lad of his own age and go on
fighting till the other had had enough. Yet he could not marry me
against my will. His own father would protect me, to say nothing of
mine.
I should have told him then--as I had told him before--that I
would never marry him. Then, perhaps, he would have been shaken
in his purpose. The very thought of marrying him filled me with
terror unspeakable. I was afraid of him not only because he was so
masterful--nay, women like a man to be strong of will--but because
he had no religion in him and lived like an Atheist, if such a
wretch there be; at all events, with unconcern about his soul; and
because his life was profligate, his tastes were gross, and he was
a drinker of much wine. Even at the Manor House I had seen him at
supper drinking until his cheeks were puffed out and his voice grew
thick. What kind of happiness would there be for a wife whose
husband has to be carried home by his varlets, too heavy with drink
to stand or to speak?
Alas! there is one thing which girls, happily, do never apprehend.
They cannot understand how it is possible for a man to become so
possessed with the idea of their charms (which they hold themselves
as of small account, knowing how fleeting they are, and of what
small value) that he will go through fire and water for that woman;
yea, and break all the commandments, heedless of his immortal soul,
rather than suffer another man to take her--and that, even though he
knows that the poor creature loves him not, or loves another man. If
maidens knew this, I think that they would go in fear and trembling
lest they should be coveted by some wild beast in human shape, and
prove the death of the gallant gentleman whom they would choose for
their lover. Or they would make for themselves convents and hide in
them, so great would be their fear. But it is idle to speak of this,
because, say what one will, girls can never understand the power and
the vehemence of love, when once it hath seized and doth thoroughly
possess a man.