and armorial bearings,[13] there was a narrow table, covered with a
white cloth, and on it the prayer-book, open at the marriage
formulary. Four stools were placed for those more immediately
interested in the ceremony. Rosemary and bay-leaves, gilt and dipped
in scented water, were scattered about the marriage-altar in
love-knots and many fanciful and ingenious devices. A bride-cup rested
upon it, in which lay a sprig of gilded rosemary--a relic or semblance
of the ancient hymeneal torch. Huge tables, groaning with garniture
for the approaching feast, were laid round the apartment--room being
left in the central floor for all who chose to mingle in the games and
dances that were expected after supper.
The company were now assembled, and the ceremony about to commence.
The bride, clothed in white, with a veil of costly workmanship thrown
over her, was led in by her maidens and a train of friends. The
bridegroom taking her hand, they stood before the altar, and the brief
but indissoluble knot was tied. The kiss being given, the happy
husband led away his partner into the parlour or guest chamber,
followed by many of those who had witnessed the ceremony. Alice and
her brother were amongst them; and the bride, perceiving their
entrance, drew the hand of the maiden within hers, and retained her
for a short season by her side.
The feast was begun; those who were for the mask took but a hasty
refreshment, being anxious to proceed into the 'tiring rooms, there to
array for the more interesting part of the night's revel. In due time
issued forth from their crowded bowers lords and ladies gay, buffoons,
morris-dancers, and the like; gypsies, fortune-tellers, and a medley
of giddy mummers, into the hall, where the more sedate or more sensual
were still carousing after the feast.
"Room for the masks!" was the general cry; and the musicians, each
after his kind, did pierce and vex the air with such a medley of
disquieting sounds that the talkers were fain to cease, and the
dancers to fall to in good earnest. Alice and her brother were
disguised as the cunning beggar had predicted--to wit, as the virgin
queen and her unfortunate lover. Masks were often dropping in, so that
the hall and adjoining chambers were fully occupied, resounding in
wild echoes with noise and revelry.
Loud and long was the merriment, increasing even until the roofs rung
with the din, and the revellers themselves grew weary of the tumult.
Alice was standing by the oaken screen during a temporary cessation on
her part from the labours incident to royalty, when there came from
behind it a tawny Moor, wearing a rich shawl turban, with a beard of
comely aspect. His arms were bare and hung with massive bracelets, and
he wore a tight jacket of crimson and gold. His figure was tall and
commanding; but his face was concealed by a visor of black crape,
which hindered not his speech from being clearly apprehended, though
the sound came forth in a muffled tone, as if feigned for the
occasion. Immediately there followed an Arabic or Turkish doctor,
clad in a long dark robe, and his head surmounted by a four-cornered
fur cap. In one hand he held a glass phial, and a box under his left
arm. Of an erect and majestic stature, he stood for a moment
apparently surveying the scene ere he mingled in the busy crowd. His
face also was covered with black crape, and through the "eyelet-holes"
a bright and burning glance shot forth, hardly repressed by the shadow
from his disguise. Alice, being unattended, shunned these unknown
intruders, and mingled again with a merry group who were pelting one
another with comfits and candied almonds. The stately Elizabeth
beckoned to her maidens; but they merely curtsied to their royal
mistress, without discontinuing their boisterous hilarity. Indeed, the
mumming hitherto had been more in dress than manners, so little
restraint had their outward disguise occasioned, or their behaviour
been altered thereby. The two late comers, however, produced a change.
It appeared that their business was to enact a play or cunning device
for the amusement of the company who, regarding them with a curious
eye, one by one left off their several sports to gaze upon the
strangers.
The rest were generally known to each other; but whispers and
inquiries now went round, from which it appeared that the new
visitants were strictly concealed, and their presence unexpected.
"Now, o' my faith," said Harry Cheetham, whose skill in dancing and
drollery had been conspicuous throughout the evening, "yon barbarians
be come from the Grand Turk, with his kerchief, recruiting for the
seraglio."
"Out upon thee!" said a jingling Morisco, enacted by young Hellawell
of Pike House; "the Grand Signior loveth not maidens such as ours for
his pavilion. They be too frosty to melt, even in Afric's sunny
clime." This was said with a malicious glance at Alice, whose
queen-like dignity and haughty bearing had kept many an ardent admirer
at bay through the evening.
"Sure the master of the feast hath withheld this precious delectation
until now," said Essex; "for they, doubtless, be of his providing."
"And give promise of more novel but less savoury entertainment," said
Hamer of Hamer. But Holt either knew them not, or his look of
surprise, not unmixed with curiosity and expectation, showed that he
was playing the masker too, without other disguise than his own proper
features--the kind hospitable face of an honest north-country squire,
ruddy with health and conviviality.
At the farther end of the hall the bride and her bride-maidens were
standing, with the bridegroom at her side, whispering soft gallantries
in her ear. The strangers, on their entrance, rendered neither token
nor obeisance, as courtesy required, to the bride and her train, but
followed Alice, who had joined her brother in the merry crowd, now
watching the motions of these unexpected visitants. They approached
with stately and solemn steps; and, without once deigning to notice
the rest of the company, the gaudy Moor bowed himself in a most
dignified _salaam_ before the queen. Alice, apparently with some
trepidation at being thus singled out from the rest, clung to her
brother, she hardly knew why.
"My sublime master, emperor of the world, lord of the sun, and ruler
of the seven celestial configurations, sendeth his slave unto the most
high and mighty Queen--whose beauty, as a girdle, doth encompass the
whole earth--with greeting."
"And who is he?" said Alice, timidly enough.
"The Sultan Ibrahim, lord of the seven golden towers, the emerald
islands, and ruler over an hundred nations. He bade his slave kiss the
hem of his mistress's garment, and beseech her to put her foot on the
neck of his bondsman, her slave's slave, and accept his gift."
"And who is this thy companion?" said Alice, growing bolder, while the
company were gradually gathering round them.
"This, whom your unworthy slave hath brought, most gracious Queen, is
the renowned Doctor Aboulfahrez, high conjuror to the Khan of Tartary,
and physician to the Great Mogul. He doth drive hence all pains and
diseases whatsoever, and will cure your great majesty of any disorder
of the spirit, by reason of charms or love-philtres heretofore
administered."
With a slight bend of his illustrious person, as though the high
conjuror to the Khan of Tartary, and physician to the Great Mogul,
thought himself too nearly on an equality with her "high mightinesse"
the Queen, the learned doctor for the first time broke silence--
"Will it please the Queen's grace to command an ensample of mine art?"
"We must first be assured unto what purpose. Hast thou not heard,"
said Alice, with increasing confidence, "that it is treason to put
forth strange or unlawful devices before the Queen?"
The stranger bowed. "But your grace hath traitors in those fair eyes
which do prompt treason if they practise none."
This gallant speech was much applauded by the company, and relieved
Alice from the necessity of a speedy and suitable answer; for she
began to be somewhat perplexed by the address of these bold admirers.
"Look at this precious phial, the incomparable elixir, the pabulum of
life, the grand arcanum, the supernaculum, the mother and regenerator
of nature, the source and the womb of all existence, past, present,
and to come!" The learned doctor paused, more from want of breath than
from scarcity of epithets wherewith to blazon forth the great virtues
of his discovery. Soon, however, he breathed again through the
mouth-slit in his mask, and blew on the phial, when lo! a vapour
issued from within, curling in long-drawn wreaths down the side, in a
manner most wonderful to behold.
This trick roused the admiration of his audience, but he made a sign
that they should be still, as their breath and acclamations might
disturb the process. He now thrust one finger into the vapour, when it
appeared to wind round his hand; then, letting the bottle drop, it
fell, suspended from the finger by this novel and extraordinary
chain--the vapour seeming to be the link by which it hung. This
unexpected feat repressed the noisy burst of applause which might have
been the result of a less wonderful device. Every one looked anxiously
and uneasily at his neighbour, and at the renowned Doctor Aboulfahrez,
not feeling comfortable, perhaps, or even safe, in the presence of so
exalted a personage. But new wonders were at hand. The mysterious
visitor uttered some cabalistic words, and lo! flames burst forth from
the magic phial, to the additional wonder and dismay of the beholders.
"When the Queen's grace doth will it, this box shall be opened; but it
will behove her to be discreet in what may follow, lest the charm be
evaded."
The Moorish slave was silent during this procedure, standing with
arms folded, as though he had been one of the mutes of his master's
harem, rather than ambassador to his "ladye love." With the assent of
Alice, the Doctor took in one hand the casket, which he cautiously
unlocked. The lid flew open by a secret spring, and a peacock of
surprising beauty and glittering plumage rose out of the box,
imitating the motions of the real bird to admiration. The mimic thing,
being placed on the floor, flapped its wings, and unfolded its tail
with all the pride and precision of the original.
"Beshrew me!" said Holt, approaching nearer to the performer, "but
thou hast been bred to the black art, I think. Some o' ye have catered
excellently for our pastime." But who it was none could ascertain,
each giving his neighbour credit secretly for the construction of
these dainty devices. Yet new wonders were about to follow, when the
bride and bridegroom, though wedded to each other's company, came
forward to see the spectacle. Not a guest was missing. Even those most
pleasantly occupied at the tables left their sack and canary, their
spices and confections. The musicians, too, and the menials, seemed to
have forgotten their several duties, and stood gaping and marvelling
at the show. Suddenly there flew open a little door in the breast of
the automaton bird, and out jumped a fair white pigeon, which, after
having performed many surprising feats, in its turn became the parent
of another progeny--to wit, a beautiful singing bird, or nightingale,
which warbled so sweetly, fluttering its wings with all the ecstacy of
that divine creature, that the listeners were nearly beside themselves
with ravishment and admiration. The nightingale now opened, and a
little humming-bird of most surprising brilliancy hopped forth, and
jumping up to the Queen, held out its beak, having a label therein,
apparently beseeching her to accept the offering. She stooped down to
receive the billet, which she hastily unfolded. What effect was
visible on her countenance we cannot pretend to say, inasmuch as the
mask precluded observation; but there was an evident tremor in her
frame. She seemed to be overpowered with surprise, and held out the
note as though for the moment incapable of deciding whether to accept
it or no. Then with a sudden effort she crumpled it together, and
thrust it behind her stomacher. Wonder sat silent and watchful on the
face of every beholder. The actors in this strange drama had replaced
the automata in the box again, closing its lid. The Moor had made his
_salaam_, the Doctor his obeisance, disappearing behind the screen
from which they had so mysteriously come forth. But at their departure
a train of fire followed upon their track, and a lambent flame played
curiously upon the wooden crockets for a few seconds, and then
disappeared.
Now was there a Babel of tongues unloosed, at first by sudden impulses
and whispers, then breaking forth by degrees into a loud and
continuous din of voices, all at once seeking to satisfy their
inquiries touching this strange and unexpected visit. Their host was
mightily pestered and besieged with questions and congratulations on
the subject, which he has promptly and peremptorily disclaimed,
attempting to fix the hatching of the plot upon the astonished
bridegroom. But even he would not father the conceit; and, in the end,
it began to be surmised that these were indeed what their appearance
betokened, or something worse, which cast a sudden gloom on the whole
assembly. Some sallied out of the door to watch, and others blamed the
master for not seizing and detaining these emissaries of Satan. Alice
was closely questioned as to the communication she had received; but
she replied, evasively perhaps, that it was only one of the usual
stale conceits appropriate to the masque.
Nothing more was heard or seen of them; and it was now high time they
should accompany the bridegroom to his own dwelling at Foxholes--a
goodly house situate on a pretty knoll near the town of Rochdale, and
about two miles distant from Stubley.
Now was there mustering and hurrying to depart. An unwieldy coach was
drawn up, into which the bride and her female attendants were
forthwith introduced, the bridegroom and his company going on foot. On
arriving at Foxholes, the needful ceremonies were performed. Throwing
the stocking, a custom then universally practised, was not omitted;
which agreeable ceremony was performed as follows:--
The female friends and relations conducted the bride to her chamber,
and the men the bridegroom. The latter then took the bride's
stockings, and the females those of the bridegroom. Sitting at the
bottom of the bed, the stockings were thrown over their heads. When
one of the "hurlers" hit the owner, it was deemed an omen that the
party would shortly be married. Meanwhile the posset was got ready,
and given to the newly-married couple.[14]
It was past midnight, yet Alice sat, solitary and watchful, at her
little casement. One fair white arm supported her cheek, and she was
gazing listlessly on the silver clouds as they floated in liquid
brightness across the full round disc of the moon, then high in the
meridian. Her thoughts were not on the scene she beheld. The mellow
sound of the waterfalls, the murmur from the river, came on with the
breeze, rising and falling like the deep pathos of some wild and
mysterious music. Memory, that busy enchanter, was at work; and the
scenes she had lately witnessed, so full of disquietude and mystery,
mingled with the returning tide of past and almost forgotten emotions.
We have said that the prevailing bent or bias of her disposition was
that of romance; and this idol of the imagination, this love of
strange and enervating excitement, had not been repressed by the
occurrences of the last few hours; on the contrary, she felt as though
some wondrous event was impending--some adventure which she alone
should achieve--some power that her own arm should contend with and
subdue.
She took the billet from her bosom; the moonlight alone fell upon it;
but the words were so indeliby fixed upon her imagination that she
fancied she could trace every word on that mystic tablet.
"To-morrow, at midnight, in the haunted chamber! If thou hast
courage, tarry there a while. Its occupant will protect
thee."--['Wherefore am I so bent on this adventure? To visit
the beggar in his lair!' thought she; and again she threw her
eyes on the billet.] "Peril threatens thine house, which thy
coming can alone prevent. Shouldest thou reveal but one word of
this warning, thy life, and those dear to thee, will be the
forfeit. From thine unknown monitor,
"THESE."
The guest in the boggart-chamber was Noman, to whom it had been
allotted, and though he told of terrible sights and harrowing
disclosures, he seemed to brave them all with unflinching hardihood,
and even exulted in their repetition. To remain an hour or two with
such a companion was in itself a sufficiently novel adventure; but
that harm could come from such a source scarcely entered her
imagination. A feeling of irrepressible curiosity stimulated her, and
prevailed over every other consideration. It was not like spending the
time alone; this certainly would have been a formidable condition to
have annexed. Besides, would it not be a wicked and a wanton thing to
shrink from difficulty or danger when the welfare and even life of one
so dear as her brother, peradventure, depended on her compliance.
Another feeling, too, more complicated, and a little more selfish it
might be, was the hidden cause to which her inclinations might be
traced.
"Mine unknown monitor!" she repeated the words, and a thousand strange
and wayward fancies rose to her recollection. Often had she seen, when
least expecting it, a stranger, who, in whatsoever place they met,
preserved a silence respectful but mysterious. She had seen him in the
places of public resort, in the solitary woods, and in the highways;
but his reserve and secrecy were unbroken. When she inquired, not an
individual knew him; and though his form and features were indelibly
traced on her memory, she could never recall them without an effort,
which, whether it was attended with more of pain than of pleasure, we
will not venture to declare. Once or twice she had fancied, when
awaking in the dead stillness of the night, that an invisible
something was near and gazing upon her; but this feeling was soon
forgotten, though often revived whenever she was more than usually
sensitive or excited. The figure of the Moor was wonderfully similar
to the form of the mysterious unknown. But the secret was now, at any
rate, to be divulged; and a few hours would put her into possession of
the key to unlock this curious cabinet. So thought Alice, and her own
secret chambers of imagery were strangely distempered thereby. Was she
beloved by one of a higher order of beings, a denizen of the invisible
world, who tracked her every footstep, and hovered about her unseen?
She had heard that such things were, and that they held intercourse
with some favoured mortals--unlimited duration, and a nature more
exalted, subject to no change, being vouchsafed to the chosen ones.
The exploits at Stubley seemed to favour this hypothesis, and Alice
fell into a delicious reverie, as we have seen, well prepared for the
belief and reception of any stray marvels that might fall out by the
way.
Looking upon the moat which lay stagnant and unruffled beneath the
quiet gaze of the moon, she thought that a living form emerged from
the bushes on the opposite bank;--she could not be mistaken, it was
her unknown lover. Breathless she awaited the result; but the shadows
again closed around him, and she saw him not again. Bewildered,
agitated, and alarmed, the day was springing faintly in the dim east
when her eyelids lay heavy in the dew of their repose.
Morning was high and far risen in the clear blue atmosphere, but its
first and balmy freshness was passed when Alice left her chamber. She
looked paler and more languid than she was wont, and her brother
rallied her playfully on the consequences of last night's dissipation;
but her thoughts were otherwise engrossed, and she replied carelessly
and with an air of abstraction far different from her usual playful
and unrestrained spirit. The mind was absorbed, restricted to one sole
avenue of thought: all other impressions ceased to communicate their
impulse. Her brother departed soon afterwards to his morning
avocations; but Alice sat in the porch. She looked out on the hills
with a vacant, but not unwistful eye. Their slopes were dotted with
many a fair white dwelling, but the rigour of cultivation had not
extended so far up their barren heathery sides as now; yet many a
bright paddock, green amid the dark waste, and the little homestead,
the nucleus of some subsequent and valuable inheritance, proclaimed
the unceasing toil, the primeval curse, and the sweat of the brow,
that was here also.
To enjoy the warmth and freshness of the morning, Alice had removed
her spinning-wheel into the porch. Here she was engaged in the
primitive and good old fashion of preparing yarn for the wants of the
household--an occupation not then perfected into the system to which
it is now degraded. The wives and daughters of the wealthiest would
not then disdain to fabricate material for the household linen,
carrying us far back into simpler, if not happier times, when Homer
sung, and kings' daughters found a similar employment.
Alice was humming in unison with her wheel, her thoughts more free
from the very circumstance that her body was the subject of this
mechanical exercise.
"Good morrow, Mistress Alice!" said a sonorous voice at the entrance.
Turning suddenly, she espied the athletic beggar standing erect, with
his staff and satchel, on one side of the porch.
"Ha' ye an awmous to-day, lady?" He doffed his cap and held it forth,
more with the air of one bestowing a favour than soliciting one.
"Thou hast been i' the kitchen, I warrant," said Alice, "by the
breadth of thy satchel."
"An' what the worse are ye for that?" replied the saucy mendicant;
"your hounds and puppies would lick up the leavings, if I did not."
"Go to," said Alice, impatiently; "thou dost presume too far to escape
correction. Begone!"
"This air, I reckon--ay, this blessed air--is as free unto my use as
thine," said Noman, sullenly, and without showing any symptoms of
obedience.
"My brother shall know of thine insolence, and the menials shall drive
thee forth."
"Thy brother!--tell him, pretty maiden, that though he is a lawyer,
and his uncle, he who built this house to boot, he hath little left in
this misgoverned realm but to deal out injustice. Other folks' money
sticks i' their skirts that have precious little o' their own, I wis."
"I know not the nature of thine allusions, nor care I to bandy weapons
with such an adversary."
"Hark ye, lady! it was to solder down as pretty a piece of roguery as
one would wish to leave to one's heirs that Theophilus Ashton, thine
uncle, thy mother's brother, now deceased, went to London when he had
builded this house."
"Roguery!--mine uncle Ashton! Darest thou?"----
"Ay, the same. The spoils of my patrimony built this goodly dwelling,
and the battle of Marston Moor gave thy brother wherewith to buy the
remainder of the inheritance. I was made a beggar by my loyalty, he a
rich man by his treason."
"What means this foul charge?" said Alice, astounded by the audacity
of this accusation.
"But fear not. Had it not been for thee and another--whose well-being
is bound up in thine own--long ago would this goodly heritage have
been spoiled; for--revenge is sweeter even than possession; so
good-morrow, Mistress Alice."
"What, then, is thy business with me?"
"Wentest thou not from the masque with thy pretty love-billet behind
thy stomacher?"
"Insolent vagrant, this folly shall not go unpunished!"
"Hold, wench! provoke not an"----he paused for one second, but in that
brief space there came a change over his spirit, which in a moment was
subdued as though by some over-mastering effort--"an impotent old
man." His voice softened, and there was a touch even of pathos in the
expression. "To-night--fail not--I, ay even _I_, will protect thee.
Fear not; thy welfare hangs on that issue!"