OF MATTERS AT ENSTONE.
How we felt, seeing the axe fall upon that sacred head, I shall not
seek to write. We stood, as it were, astonished, looking, it may be,
for vengeance to fall from Heaven on the city that had suffered such
things to be done in its midst. After a while, when the people were
now all dispersed, and the soldiers began to look as if they would
question them that still tarried, we went very sadly to our lodging,
and there debated between ourselves what it were best to do. Our
errand in London was now at an end; nor had we the desire to tarry
there any longer; and, indeed, so to do had imperilled our lives, or,
at the least, our liberty. For it was manifest that they who had slain
the King were determined to make an end of the business; and whom,
indeed, having done such a deed, were they like to spare? I say not
that they used their power with cruelty. 'Tis not so; rather they
showed more mercy than could have been reasonably looked for. Yet this
was afterwards to be proved; the danger for the present seemed
imminent.
On the fourth day of February, therefore, John Ellgood and I departed
from London, habited in Roundhead fashion for greater security of
travelling. But there was no watch kept on them that would leave
London, so we met with none to question us on our road. We travelled
on foot, a mode that suited the slenderness of our purses, and also
lent itself more readily to secrecy, for a man can hide himself when
he cannot hide his horse; and on the third day came to our journey's
end.
We found Dorothy and her husband in no little trouble; not yet,
indeed, dispossessed but almost daily expecting so to be. At supper,
Master Blagrove set forth to us how his affairs stood.
"I doubt," said he, "but that the end is well nigh come; and, indeed,
I marvel, not without thankfulness, that it has been delayed so long:
'_Quem sors dierum cunque dabit lucro Appone_,'[11]
as the poet Horace has it. And, indeed, I have had many days that have
been denied to my neighbours. But for more I can, scarce hope. The
good knight, my patron, is in disgrace with the powers that be, and
can scarce keep himself out of prison, much less help his friends.
Therefore, I am looking every day for a summons, and can but pray for
God's grace to help me play valiantly a confessor's part."
[11] "Reckon for gain whatever days Fate shall give thee."
And even while he was speaking his expectation was fulfilled, for
there came a loud knocking at the door, and soon after a message
brought into the parlour, which the little countrymaid could scarce
deliver for fear, that a constable would speak with the parson.
"Let him come in hither," quoth my brother, whereupon the constable
comes into the parlour. He was a rough fellow and given to some
insolence of speech, but now he was civil enough, partly, may be,
seeing he had to do with them that could presently chastise any
liberty of speech; and partly, I do believe, because he was ashamed to
show rudeness to so gracious a woman as was my sister Dorothy, and to
Master Blagrove that was honoured both for courtesy and learning
through the whole country side. He now delivered a brief to my
brother, excusing his coming as a matter of necessity, and so, having
first drunk a cup of ale to our health, which he did though 'twas
against his principles, presently departed.
The brief summoned my brother to appear the day following at ten of
the clock in the forenoon, at a tavern in Enstone, before certain
Commissioners therein named, there to answer sundry charges made
against his doctrine and manner of life. We had much talk about the
matter, sitting up together till near upon midnight, but there was
small comfort to be got concerning it, and I could see that my brother
had no hope of a good ending.
The next day when he came back from the sitting of the Court (which
was not till about three of the clock in the afternoon), he seemed
somewhat more cheerful of aspect; but Dorothy crying to him, "Things,
then, are better than you looked for," he said, "Nay, sweet love, 'tis
only that I am easier in my mind, as a man will be, after long
battling for life, when sentence has been pronounced, even though it
be sentence of death. But hear my tale. As for the goodly list of
Commissioners, 'twas, as I expected, all moonshine. There was not
present one gentleman of birth and education. Timothy Fenn, the
miller, whom they had chosen for their president, was as good a man as
any; and Timothy, as you know, though passably honest, is not a
shining light either for wit or knowledge. Others were rude fellows
that could scarce put their names to a paper, and one or two had been
to my knowledge in time past men of evil life; what they are I know
not, but they were, I noted, especially bitter against me. But now for
their doings. First, they examined me concerning doctrine. Were I to
tell you what they said, what questions they asked, and in what way
they received my answers, 'twould sound as a foolish jest. Let it
suffice to say that there was not one that knew a word of Greek or
even of Latin. When I quoted a few words of this last they took it as
an affront, though it was but a common saw that every lawyer, and many
a one that is no lawyer, has on the tip of his tongue. When I offered
to prove that I had taught nothing but what was agreeable to Holy
Scripture and the Fathers, they stopped me peremptorily. 'As for the
Fathers, we desire to hear nothing of such papistical writers; but as
for Scripture it is not you, but we that must be judges of what agrees
thereto.' But these questions kept them but a little while; and,
indeed, they were not at their ease in them.
"After this they proceeded to examine me about certain things in my
life and conversation. I marvelled what charges would be brought
against me, for, though I am not blameless, God knows, yet I have
always walked soberly and discreetly, even denying myself in what I
judged to be lawful recreations that I might not give offence to any;
for I know that in these times any stick is good enough to beat a dog
withal, especially if the dog be a poor parson.
"'We are credibly informed,' says Master President, 'that you have
been seen coursing hares on the Sabbath day. What say you to this?'
"For a while I could say nothing, having no remembrance of anything
that could be made to bear such a colour; but at the last I remembered
something that might by great malice and ingenuity be so interpreted.
My brother going abroad after Naseby fight, gave me a greyhound to
keep, and though I cared not much for the beast, this kind of dog
having but little in him of wit or of affection, I received him for
his master's sake. Well, walking abroad one Sunday evening, for the
poor creature had been kept at home for some days by ill-weather, a
hare chanced to cross my path, which the dog, almost before I could
speak his name, had caught and killed. I thought that none had been
offended in the matter, save, may be, my patron, and his pardon I had,
when I confessed my offence to him. Master President looked mighty
grave when I told my story, and said that the Court would consider it.
"After this breaks in another Commissioner with, 'We have been
informed, Master Parson, that you were seen to stand by a bonfire some
three years since.'
"''Tis true,' said I, 'I do remember hearing a great shouting in the
village; I went forth and found three parts, as I should guess, of my
parishioners assembled about a bonfire, but I had no other concern
with it.'
"'Know you not,' said the Commissioner, 'that there is something
superstitious and papistical about bonfires?'
"'This, at the least,' said I, 'was not papistical, for 'twas lighted
on the fifth of November, and the people had burned--for so I heard,
being myself too late to see it--the effigies of the Pope of Rome.'
"Then another Commissioner had his turn at me. 'We have heard that you
suffer your children to play at cards for pins. Is this so?'
"'Am I bound,' said I, 'to answer any question to my own damage?' (For
I was minded to have a little sport with them.)
"'We shall know how to interpret your silence,' says Master President.
"'Nay, then,' said I, 'if I must answer, I will. Children I have not,
but one child only, a babe of six months only, who, I warrant you, so
careful a mother has he--has never so much as had a pin in his
fingers. And as for cards, he knows no more of such things than you
yourself, Master Commissioner,' at which speech he reddened, having
been not so long since, till he found his account in other ways, a
noted card player and gamester. To make a long matter short, they made
out no case against me, for all that they brought every
good-for-nothing fellow in the whole country side to give testimony
against me. But I build not on this; I know right well that sentence
was passed on me before ever I came into court."
And so indeed it turned out. Two days after my brother was summoned by
the Commissioners to appear before them, and received sentence of
deprivation, but to have as a _solatium_ one fifth part of the
proceeds of the living. This fifth part, I should here say, he never
received, for the intruding minister alleged that he had some temporal
means of his own, and that he had but one child (which was true, but
scarce relevant, seeing that one child must eat as well as two), and
that he himself could scarce get anything of tithes; which also I
believe, for the farmers, who love not paying tithes at any time, were
more especially set against them when they were to be received by the
intruding minister.
My brother had angered some of the Commissioners by the freedom of his
answering, and receiving warning that he had best be absent when the
sentence was executed, went into hiding in a neighbour's house. The
next day comes the constable, with some soldiers at his back, with a
warrant to apprehend his person, and was greatly enraged when he found
that the bird was flown. He and his fellows had at the best but little
civility in them, and this they had done their best to banish by too
plentiful cups, and indeed they behaved themselves more like savages
than Christian men. They searched the house through for my brother,
the constable running his sword two or three times through the bed
from which my sister was but newly risen (for they came before seven
o'clock in the forenoon), pretending that he might be there hidden.
All the stores in the house they wasted most cruelly, spoiling that
which they could not carry away. Indeed, they were bent on insult
rather than plunder. Thus the troopers pulled the bridles off their
horses, and whipped them round the garden to tread all under foot.
After that they brake open the barn door and turned them into the
sacks of corn to fill their bellies. Indeed, they would have burned
the barn and all the hay and corn, but that the neighbours hindered
them, fearing the fire for their own stack-yards. Nor would these
suffer them to profane the church, which they would have done under
cover of destroying papistical ornaments. Verily, I know not what
these savages would have left undone but for the singular affection
which the people had for my brother, who, indeed, had well discharged
his priest's office among them since his coming into the parish,
ministering without wearying both to their souls and bodies. Many of
his brethren suffered worse things than he, especially in the
cruelties that were wrought upon their wives and children, for these
poor creatures were ofttimes driven out of their homes in the very
depth and severity of winter, and forced to find such shelter as they
could in barns and stables, and to live upon any broken victuals which
they could beg or pick up, robbing the very swine. I know that the
clergy which suffered such things were not blameless. Some had borne
themselves haughtily and wantonly in the day of their prosperity, as
lords of God's heritage rather than as shepherds of the flock; and
some had been careless livers, or worse, tippling at ale-houses, or
wandering about the country to bull-baiting, and village feasts, and
church ales, where they brought the name of the Church into great
disrepute. That these were rightly dispossessed I deny not. Such men
are not worthy to labour in the garden of the Lord. But many pious men
also suffered for nought else than that they kept that which they had
vowed and promised. And when they who are now trodden under foot shall
get the upper hand, as I doubt not they will--before we that are now
young are come to middle-age--they, I fear me, will use the same
cruelty. So does wrong beget wrong, and hatreds are stored up for the
time to come that many generations shall not exhaust. I pray God that
He may give my countrymen a better mind.