"Not see me?" exclaimed George Brooke, with a flushed cheek and a
flashing eye. "Not see me, for reasons I will know! Body of Satan! but
the lady is courteous. Pray tell her, master lackey, that I know no
reason why any lady in the land should so forget that which is civil
as to send so rough a message by such a messenger. Now for my horses
and my people!--Ha! there she comes across the terrace; but I were
wanting as much as herself in courtesy, were I to force the audience
she refuses to request. My horses, sir, I say!"
"They are coming round, sir," replied the servant.
"What!" cried George Brooke, in the same angry tone, "you ordered them
round as you came? See how meanness can mimic the arrogance of its
masters. The cobbler's cur flies at the beggar to whom his master
refuses a farthing. But every dog has its day, sirrah, and I forgive
thee. There's a crown for thee, to buy thee better manners, if thou
canst find them--though, by my faith, I think they are all exported."
"No, sir," replied the man, putting away the crown piece with the back
of his hand; "I take not money and hard words together. Neither must
you say more against my lady, as sweet a one and gentle as any in the
land, who never said or did an unkind thing, nor refused her presence
to any who deserved it. There's not a man in this house, but will
break the pate of any one who dares say aught against her, be he
gentle or simple."
Brooke gave him a look of contempt, and put his foot into the stirrup,
his horses having by this time been brought round; and swinging
himself into the saddle, he rode slowly and sullenly away. His
thoughts were all on fire, however, and his heart filled with anything
but the dull sulkiness that he displayed upon the surface.
"What is to be done?" he asked himself; "the matter is clear; she has
betrayed us to the King. Cobham is an idiot, to write her a letter
under his own hand, when I had promised to speak to her by word of
mouth. See what it is to trust fools; and yet we could not well go
forward without him. Still what is to be done now? That is the
question. If Grey were ready, we might act at once, seize upon James
at Wilton, and complete the affair at a blow. If not, it were better
for all of us to fly. But I must show no haste, so long as there
are other eyes upon me. Once past the park gates, then spur on to
London, and let them know our misfortune. There is time yet; for this
fatal letter could but reach her late last night, or early this
morning.--Here, Jones!"
A servant rode up; and his master, after musing for a moment,
continued, "As soon as we are out of the gates, ride to Salisbury with
all speed; find out Dr. Watson, who is at the third house from the
gate near the city wall. Tell him to come to London with all speed;
say, that this being summer time, the swallows are beginning to fly;
then follow me to Cobham House. Baldock, you away to Wilton, and offer
my humble duty to Sir Robert Cecil, my good brother-in-law.--'A little
more than kin, and less than kind,' as the player has it. Ask after
his health; and tell my good sister that the gloves have come from
France, and I would send them if I feared not the infection; but they
have lain in London for some days. This done, come both of you and
join me at Cobham House. Let each use well his eyes, and tell me what
you see. You, Baldock, mark shrewdly Sir Robert's face, when you
compliment him on my part. I would fain know," he added, in a careless
tone, "whether I should have a good reception at the Court, were I to
venture thither. You are quick and keen, remark all things, and let me
know the result. You may, if you make haste, overtake me before I
reach London, as I shall go but slowly."
At the park gates, the men took leave of their master, and rode on in
the direction of Salisbury; while he pursued a narrow lane which
joined the high London road after winding through the country for
about five miles. The moment his servants were out of sight, he set
spurs to his horse, which was a powerful charger, and galloped on over
the sandy ground for about three miles without drawing a rein.
Suddenly, however, the animal showed symptoms of going lame, and on
dismounting to see what was the matter, he found that it had cast a
shoe.
"Now out upon fortune!" he cried; "if I could reach London ere
to-morrow morning, the affair might yet go forward; if I be delayed
another day, there's nothing for it but flight."
He had to blame his own folly, however, rather than the fortune that
awaited him; and had the delay which took place been no greater than
that which was necessary to repair the little accident that had
happened, all might have gone well with him. But small vices have more
frequently ruined vast enterprises than even great crimes. Ere he had
proceeded half a mile, leading his horse by the bridle, he came to a
little open spot, where an object attracted his attention, of which we
must give some account. On the left hand side of the road was a high
bank of sandstone, retiring about thirty yards from the path, and
topped with some feathery trees, which were waving their green
branches in the sunshine. The foot of the cliff was covered with soft
turf; and, hollowed out of the stone, was a little niche lined with
masonry, having a shallow basin at the bottom to receive the clear,
bright water of a spring, which issued from the bank, and, welling
over the edge, formed a little rivulet running at the side of the
lane.
Close to this well, which some kind hand had erected for the solace of
the thirsty traveller, was seated a young girl of seventeen or
eighteen years of age, dressed in a quaint and singular costume, very
different from that of the English peasantry. She had a tall pointed
hat upon her head, adorned with bugles, a black bodice and red
petticoat, bordered with a tinsel lace, a snowy apron of fine lawn,
and some gay bracelets on her arms. She was lightly but beautifully
made; and, though her complexion was somewhat dark, her skin seemed
smooth and soft, her features fine, her hair rich and luxuriant, and
her hands and feet small and delicate. The attitude in which she had
cast herself down was full of grace, but the whole expression of her
figure, as well as her face, was that of deep sorrow, and the tears
were running rapidly from her large dark eyes.
The attention of George Brooke was instantly, as we have said,
attracted towards her; and, although it is scarcely possible to
conceive that the sight of sorrow in a woman could fail to awaken
compassion in the breast of anything deserving the name of man,
certain it is that less than holy feelings mingled in the sensations
of him who now paused to regard her.
"Well," he thought, "I suppose Dame Fortune has determined that I
shall have to fly my country, and has sent me a fair companion to
cheer the hours of exile. By my life! she is a pretty creature, and as
enticing as a royal banquet.--What is the matter, I wonder? A quarrel
with a lover?--if so, I may help her to a better--or a lost
pigeon?--if so, I'll be her dove.--Why, pretty one, what ails thee?"
he continued, advancing towards her.
"I am very unhappy," sobbed the girl, with a strong foreign accent.
"I see that," replied George Brooke; "and I grieve that those bright
eyes should run over. But what is the cause?"
"I know not where to go to," exclaimed the girl, clasping her hands
together, and addressing her words rather to Heaven than him.
"Go to?" cried her companion, gazing at her with his wild and reckless
spirit ready for any folly or for any crime. "Why, come with me, sweet
one.--I will take good care of thee."
The girl looked up in his face with an inquiring glance; but there was
in it no look of that deep feeling, that kindhearted benevolence,
which gives confidence and hope. There was the light, half-serious,
half-jesting smile, which mocks at all things, even while they are
felt most weighty; the sort of scoffing carelessness with which the
wicked strive to alleviate the burden of their own conscience. There
was, moreover, that expression of habitual dissipation which always
soon marks the man who gives himself up to vice.
The girl shook her head mournfully, and made no answer.
"Nay, nay," continued George Brooke, assuming a more serious and more
feeling tone; "if any evil have really befallen you, tell me what it
is, and I will help you if I can."
"You cannot," said the girl, "you cannot. I have left a very wicked
old man, who brought me over to this country two years ago, to sing
before the gentry and play upon the lute; and I know not where to go
to."
"But why did you leave him?" asked George Brooke.
"Because he wanted me to do what is wrong," replied the girl, the
colour mounting in her face and temples; and again she burst into
tears. Alas! she spoke to one who had no respect for, scarcely any
belief in, virtue; and his evil purposes were but confirmed by what he
saw and heard.
"Nay," he said, "you shall tell me the whole story, and if it is as I
think, I will bring you to a place where you shall be well taken care
of and kindly treated. My horse has gone lame, so I will tie him to a
tree, and sit down by you to hear your little history."
The girl offered no opposition; and he did as he said, fully resolved
to take her with him to London, under the pretence of providing for
her, and then using his opportunities as he might think fit.
All the first part of her tale she told without hesitation, that she
was a Milanese by birth, and had been brought over--purchased, in
fact, from her parents, by an English perfumer and charlatan, who had
visited Italy in search of rare drugs and essences. For some time his
expectations of making money by her little talents had not been
disappointed. She had sung and played upon the lute, she said, before
the Lord Southampton, and even the Queen; but the state of agitation
at the English Court during the illness of Elizabeth put a stop to his
gains; and he had taken her from place to place through the country,
obtaining but little repayment for his trouble. Of the causes which
induced her suddenly to quit him, however, he could obtain no farther
account than that which she had already given, "that he wished her to
do what was wrong." But George Brooke put his own construction on her
words, and as she had described the charlatan as old and ugly,
expressing great personal disgust towards him, he fancied that she
might entertain very different feelings towards a younger and a
handsomer man. What farther took place may not require detail.
Notwithstanding the urgent necessity for his presence in London, he
sat talking with her for nearly an hour, and whither passion hurried
him on, matters not; but at the end of that time a loud scream and cry
for help rang along the lane, and reached the ears of a party of
horsemen coming slowly from the side of Salisbury.
"Ha! there is some violence going forward," cried Sir Harry West,
putting his horse into a gallop. "Come on, come on!--Why, how now,
Master Brooke?" he continued, as he rode up to the little well, beside
which the girl was standing, all trembling and in tears. "Offering
violence to a woman? Fie, sir, fie!"
"Ride on your way, Sir Harry West," replied Brooke, fiercely, "and
mind your own affairs." But even while he spoke, two or three men on
foot came down the lane, from the other side, exclaiming, "Ah, here
she is, here she is, and here's the fellow who has lured her
away.--Have them both before the justice; he will put the rogue in the
stocks, I warrant you, and give the wench an exhortation."
George Brooke would now have given his right hand that he had not been
tempted to lose time which was but too precious in his circumstances;
for he easily comprehended that he might now be detained somewhat
longer than would be pleasant to him. Indeed, the manner in which the
men approached him, and the words which they used, showed him clearly
that he himself was one of the objects of their constabular
indignation; and, if anything had been wanting, one of the rural
Dogberries exclaimed, running up to lay his hand upon the gentleman's
collar, "I comprehend you, sir, in the King's name, and charge you go
along with me."
At the same time, two of his companions took hold of the girl by the
arm, saying, "Come along, pretty mistress, come along to Justice
Scully."
George Brooke, however, grasped the hilt of his sword, exclaiming,
"Stand back, fellow--put a finger on me if you dare! You are a fool,
and know not what you are about. I am a gentleman, the brother of Lord
Cobham."
"Gentle or not gentle," replied the constable, "lord or no lord, I am
sent to comprehend you, and, please God, so I will, for enticing the
girl away from her master. Draw your sword against the law, if you
dare. All you standers-by, I charge you in the King's name, give me
help. You see he has got his sword out, and may do me a damage."
"You had better go quietly," said Sir Harry West; "it is your duty not
to resist the civil power."
"I have no time, Sir Harry, to spend upon such fooleries," said George
Brooke; "I am in haste for London, sir."
"You had plenty of time," replied Sir Harry West, "to offer violence
to an undefended girl. You were in no haste but now."
"Pshaw!" cried George Brooke, who saw that he had placed himself in an
unpleasant predicament, "my horse had cast a shoe, and it takes no
long time to snatch a kiss from a pair of ruddy lips by the roadside."
"Nor to do any other bad action," said Sir Harry West; "but you had
better go quietly, sir; for if the man requires us in the King's name,
we must give him aid to make you."
"I had thought," replied the other, thrusting his sword angrily into
the sheath, "that gentlemen were bound to aid gentlemen."
"When their deeds are those of gentlemen," replied Sir Harry West; "if
yours be such, you have nothing to fear; if they be not, you have no
right to apply to me for assistance: I will go with you, however, and
vouch for who you are. Do you intend to resist?"
"Not unless he puts his hand upon me," replied George Brooke; "if he
do, I will as surely send my sword through him as I live. Let him lead
on; there is no fear of my escaping, with Sir Harry West at the head
of the watch."
"You cannot make me angry, sir," replied the old knight. "Constable,
do not touch him, he will go quietly.--What is it, Lakyn?" he
continued, speaking to his worthy servant, who had dismounted, and,
after conversing for a minute or two with the girl, had approached his
master and pulled his sleeve.
"The poor thing would fain speak to your worship," said Matthew Lakyn,
in a low voice; "she seems even more afraid of this master they talk
of than of Mister Brooke, though she says he used her ill enough."
"Well, hold my horse then," replied the old knight; and dismounting,
he approached the girl, as she stood trembling between the two
constables, who continued to hold her tight by either graceful arm, as
if they had to do with some furious criminal.
"Nay, nay, good fellows," said Sir Harry West; "take off your hands,
she will go quietly enough. Now, what would you with me, my poor
thing?"
"Oh, don't give me back to that wicked old man," cried the girl. "You
must not; indeed, you must not."
"Are you an Italian?" asked Sir Harry West, remarking her accent. "If
so, I can speak your language; and you can tell me more of this affair
in your own tongue."
The joy of the poor girl at hearing this intelligence sparkled
brightly in her eyes; and she poured forth upon the old knight a
torrent of Italian, accompanied by a thousand wild but graceful
gestures, which made the sober constables of ungesticulating England
begin to fancy she was crazed. In five minutes, Sir Harry West was
acquainted with her whole history, and had learned that her name was
Ida Mara; that her father was a carver in Milan; her mother dead, a
step-mother acting towards her the step-mother's part; and her only
surviving parent careless and unfeeling enough to sell her for a sum
of ready money to the charlatan who had brought her to England. Not
even to the old knight, whose manner was certainly well calculated to
encourage confidence, would she enter into particulars of the conduct
of her master, as she called him. But Sir Harry West had no curiosity
on the subject; she assured him, with tears, that the man had wanted
her to do what was very wrong; and he easily conceived that she had
received just cause to quit him.
When her tale was ended, and she looked up in the old knight's face
with an appealing glance, he replied, with a kindly smile, "Do not be
alarmed. If it is all exactly as you say, this man can have no power
over you in England. We do not recognise here such purchases of our
fellow Christians. The case will be different, indeed, if you have
yourself signed any paper obliging you to serve him as an apprentice;
but even then the law will protect you against wrong."
"I have signed nothing!--I have signed nothing!" cried the girl,
vehemently; "it was all my father's doing, and I do not think he
signed anything either."
"Well, we shall soon see," said Sir Harry West; "the only difficulty
is, what is to become of you if you are taken from this man?"
The girl looked down thoughtfully and sadly; and then replied, raising
her eyes with a beam of hope in them, "I can knit, I can sew, I can
work all kind of things--I hate singing and playing on the lute--I
used to love it once; and it was my only comfort when my mother died;
but I hate it, now that I am obliged to do it for strange men to stare
at me."
"I dare say thou dost," replied the knight, with feelings of deep
interest growing upon him. "I will see what may be done for you, my
poor girl; so take comfort, for this is a land where it seldom happens
that those who are really good and in distress, do not find some one
to help them."
While they had been thus conversing, the whole party had proceeded on
their way, George Brooke walking first, with the constable keeping a
respectable distance, holding the gentleman's sword, it must be
confessed, in great reverence, after he had seen how readily it sprang
out of its sheath. The way was somewhat long, and quitting the lane in
which they were, they turned into another on the left, before they
reached the high road, upon which--as it led him in an opposite
direction to that in which he wished to go--George Brooke burst forth
with one of the blasphemous oaths so common in those days, adding to
the constable, "In the name of Satan, and all the devils, is this
never to come to an end? Why, you are taking me quite out of my way!"
"'Tis but a short mile farther to Browbury House, master," replied the
constable; "and there Justice Scully will soon settle your affair, I
warrant ye."
"Warrant!" exclaimed George Brooke; "I wish you and your warrants were
at the devil. If I have any say in the world to come, you shall be
kept sitting in a pair of red-hot stocks till the marrow fries in your
ankle bones."
"Where will you be then yourself?" asked the constable; and there
dropped the pleasant conversation.
At length they approached the house of the justice, which was a good
old country mansion, with a village round about it. All parties seemed
glad to see it, except poor Ida Mara, who, terrified at the thought of
meeting her tyrant, crept up to the side of the old knight's horse,
which he had remounted at the close of their conversation.
"Do not be afraid, my dear," he said; "I will see that justice is done
to you. Here, Lakyn, you look to her; and take care that she be well
treated. I will go in and speak to worshipful Master Scully."
"And so will I," cried George Brooke; "I am not to be kept like a
lackey waiting in a hall."
The knight's name soon procured admission, but Lord Cobham's brother
was kept for several minutes in the antechamber with the constables
and Ida Mara. At first he expressed some haughty indignation; but,
becoming calmer and more thoughtful by degrees, he turned to one of
the constables, saying, "Hark ye, good fellow, there's a crown for
you, tell some of the servants to have my horse shod, while I am kept
waiting."
The man took the crown readily enough, the sight of the well-filled
purse from which it came making a considerable difference in his
estimation of the prisoner's culpability.
"The smith lives two miles off, sir," he answered; "at the corner of
the high road; but they can run up with the beast in a minute."
"Let them do so, let them do so," replied the gentleman; "it will save
time, at all events."
He then approached the side of the poor girl, and spoke a few words to
her in a low tone.
"No," she cried, aloud; "no, I will die first!"
George Brooke bit his lip, murmuring, "You are an idiot;" and the
moment after the whole party were summoned before the justice.
He was a fat, good-humoured-looking man, who seemed to reckon his
years by barrels of ale, but on whose brow sat a slight frown of
habitual self-importance. Sir Harry West was seated beside him, with a
clerk at the end of the table; and standing on his right hand was a
tall, thin man, apparently about sixty years of age, of a very
unprepossessing countenance. His white hair was thrust back from his
forehead, which was narrow and low, but prominent over the eyes, which
were shaded by bushy grey brows. The eyes themselves were keen and
fiery; his lips were thin and in continual movement, even when he was
not speaking; and his ears unnaturally large, with a gold ring in one
of them, and a topaz in the other. His nose was aquiline, and
depressed at the point, his complexion sallow, but his teeth
brilliantly white and perfect, for a man of his age. He was dressed
more richly than his condition warranted, and with a degree of
extravagance in the colour and form of his habiliments which made
their costliness the more remarkable. His ruff was of the finest lace,
his coat of Genoa velvet; and his hands were covered with innumerable
rings.
"That is the girl," he cried, as soon as Ida Mara appeared; "that is
the girl; and I claim her as my property."
"Silence!" exclaimed worshipful Master Scully; "and let nobody speak
till they are spoken to. What were you saying, Sir Harry?"
"Merely that I thought it would be best," replied the knight, "to
enter into the charge against Mr. Brooke in the first instance, as I
understand that he is in haste."
"I am in haste," rejoined George Brooke; "and as to a charge, there is
none that I know of against me. Methinks I must have got into the
kingdom of jackasses, to be thus brought by one fool before another,
for no reason whatsoever but to gratify their mutual stupidity."
Mr. Justice Scully looked perfectly thunder-struck at the insolence of
this speech; and the clerk, who, having lost one of his fore-teeth,
whistled somewhat in the utterance, strongly recommended that the
gentleman should be committed. Sir Harry West, however, interposed;
and the regular course of proceeding was commenced.
"Now, sir, what is your name?" asked the justice, turning to the old
man on his right.
"My name is Jonas Weston," was the reply; "by trade a perfumer and
druggist."
"Well, Master Jonas," said the justice, "if you ever do get into the
whale's belly, you are just the man to give him an emetic."
The clerk and the constables laughed, but Sir Harry West looked grave,
though such jests were then not uncommon, even on serious occasions;
and the court proceeded to ask the perfumer what was his charge
against Master George Brooke.
"None that I know of," replied the perfumer; "I never saw the
gentleman before in my life, that I know of."
"Yes thou hast, thou imp of evil!" cried George Brooke, "when thou
wert playing deputy devil to Mrs. Turner, of Shore Lane. But if he has
no charge against me, why am I brought hither?"
"Why, your worship," said the chief constable, advancing, "that man
with the earrings swore he thought the girl had gone off with some
young man from the inn at Hadleigh, so as we found him with her, we
brought them both."
"You did right," said the magistrate, "there was just cause for
suspicion; and constables have a right to apprehend all suspicious
persons."
George Brooke burst into a loud laugh. "I have heard of Hampshire
hogs," he cried, "and this seems to be hog law. Sir Harry West, I wish
you joy of your company, and unto the whole court a very good morning.
As there is no charge against me, I shall go." Thus saying, he stuck
his beaver on his head, and walked towards the door.
"Shall I stop him?" cried the constable; but Mr. Justice Scully seemed
to be decidedly of the opinion of Dogberry, "The watch ought to offend
no man! and it is an offence to stay a man against his will;" so that
George Brooke was suffered to depart in peace, though not without
having lost nearly three hours of time, which to him and his fellows
was invaluable.
"Now then," cried the justice, as soon as he was gone, "Master Jonas
Weston, if you have nothing to say against the man, what have you to
say against the woman?"
"That she ran away without my consent," answered the perfumer.
"That is a very grave offence," said Master Scully; "is it not,
clerk?"
"That will depend upon the particulars of the case," replied the
clerk, with a grave look.
"How are we to proceed?" inquired the justice; and he turned his eyes
towards Sir Harry West.
"I do not presume to interfere," said the old knight; "but I think,
Master Scully, I have had some cases similar to this brought before
me, and if you will permit me to ask a few questions----"
"Pray do, pray do," cried the justice, delighted to be delivered from
an inquiry which he knew not how to conduct; "I always think it a
proper compliment, Sir Harry West, to a brother magistrate, when he
does me the honour to visit me, to let him do just as he likes in my
court."
"You are extremely polite and courteous, Master Scully," answered the
old knight. "Now, sir, upon your oath, what right have you to this
girl's services?"
"Why, I bought and paid for her with my own money," replied the man,
boldly.
"In this country?" asked Sir Harry.
"No," answered Weston, "in Italy."
"Lucky for yourself it is so," said the old knight; "otherwise, it
would have been a misdemeanour, for which you must have been instantly
committed."
"Please your worship," rejoined Weston, who was not one easily to lose
his hold, "the girl is my apprentice."
"Show me her indentures," said Sir Harry West; "we may have cause to
cancel them before we have done."
"I have them not here with me," answered the man, with a sullen look.
"Well, 'tis no great matter," replied Sir Harry West; "for, according
to your own statement, they are null in themselves, if they do exist.
You paid for her, you say, instead of receiving with her an apprentice
fee--the law of England recognises no such transactions."
"Well," said the man, "she is my servant, at least, and has no right
to quit me without due notice, that I might provide myself with
another. A runaway servant is punishable by all laws!"
"If they run away without due cause," answered Sir Harry West; "but if
there be cause, I think, Master Scully, we have no law to punish
them."
"Certainly not," replied his worship. "If any master requires his
servant to do what is against the law of God or man, the servant has a
right to run away. When you brought her to my house last night to play
on the lute, she seemed very well contented."
"No, she was not," answered Weston; "she told me a month ago that she
would leave me."
"But what made me tell you so?" cried Ida Mara, bursting forth; "why
don't you tell what you said to me? Will you tell what you wanted me
to do?"
"Nothing, you fool," cried Weston, with his sharp eyes flashing fire;
"you mistook what I said; but if ever I catch you, I'll take the skin
off your back."
"That you shall never do," said Sir Harry West. "I think your
worship," he continued, turning to the justice, "that the case is very
clear."
"So I think too, Sir Harry," replied the magistrate; "the girl must be
discharged--the girl must be discharged; and if he attempts to molest
her, we will punish him."
"I have some doubts whether he does not deserve punishment already,"
said Sir Harry West. "However, as we have no charge against him, I
suppose he must be suffered to depart for the present."
"I should think, your worships," observed the clerk, in a sweet tone,
while the perfumer took two or three steps towards the door, and then
paused, as if unwilling to depart without making another effort--"I
should think he might be put in the stocks, as a vagabond going about
from place to place, not in his lawful calling."
"He is a vagrant certainly, your worships," said the constable, "that
I can certify, for he does go from place to place."
Master Jonas Weston, seeing that he was in sufficiently distressed
circumstances to have an ill word from everybody, determined not to
provoke further hostility by his presence, and consequently made his
way out without loss of time, while Sir Harry West and the justice
consulted together for a moment, as to whether he should be suffered
to depart.
"It is better, perhaps," said the knight, "to let him go. I think I
have seen the man's face somewhere before; but as no one has made a
charge against him of which you can take cognizance, I do not know how
we could proceed with him--and now, my poor girl, what is to be done
with you, I wonder?"
"Oh, sir," cried Ida Mara, clasping her hands, and speaking in
Italian, "you said you would protect me. Do not, do not abandon me.
You think because I am in this strange dress, that I am a wild light
girl, and can do nothing but sing songs and play upon the lute; but I
can do a great many things, and will do anything to show how grateful
I am, if you but protect me. Think what I am to do, if you send me out
into the world, without money, without friends, without a home. Oh,
let me go with you, I am sure you are good and kind. I see it in your
face, I hear it in your voice. Let me be the lowest of your servants--
anything, rather than cast me out upon the world again. For the love
of God, have pity upon me!"
"I fear, my poor child," said the knight, "that in my sober and
homely house, we could find no occupation for hands like yours. On my
life, I believe that you are as good a girl as ever lived, and
something I will certainly do for you; but the only question is,
what,--I am very much perplexed, worshipful Master Scully," he
continued, turning to the magistrate, who was sitting with his eyes
very wide open at hearing such a torrent of a foreign language, which
had never met his ear before--"I am very much perplexed as to what
is to be done with this poor girl. I evidently saw she had been
ill-treated as I came along, and promised she should have protection."
"Oh, let her find her way back to her own country," replied Master
Scully; "I dare say she's a slut."
"I think not," replied Sir Harry West. "All I have seen of her, though
it is not much, to be sure, makes me think her a good and virtuous
girl; and at near sixty years, sir, after much mingling with the
world, one is not easily deceived in such things. At all events, to
turn her out and let her find her way back to Italy, will not be the
means to keep her good, if she be so."
"Oh, if she is a virtuous maiden," replied the justice, "that's
another thing. Come nearer to me, mistress, and let me look at you."
The girl approached timidly; but Sir Harry West, who had no great
confidence in the delicacy of the justice, determined to cut the
matter short, and take her away with him for the time. "Come," he
said, "Ida Mara; for the present, you shall go with me; and I will put
you under the care of the good landlady where I lodge, in the small
town of Andover. Methinks I recollect hearing a high lady say, that
one of her maids is going to leave her to be married. Now, if you be
really what you seem, I will tell her your history, and see whether
she will like to take you."
Ida Mara clasped her hands together, and gave a low cry of joy; but
the old knight continued, raising his finger--"Mark me, however, Ida
Mara. Before recommending you, I shall make the strictest inquiries at
every place where you say you have been; and if your conduct has not
been what it should be, in every respect, I can do nothing of the kind
for you."
The girl caught his hand and kissed it eagerly, saying, "Ask, ask! I
desire no better. If you can find I have ever done what is wrong, upon
good witness, cast me off altogether. But do not take that man's
word," she added, suddenly, "for he will tell you that I am
headstrong, and passionate, and disobedient, though I never refused to
do anything he told me that was right."
"Well," answered Sir Harry West, "so shall it be, then; but in the
meanwhile, I do not know well how to convey you to Andover, my poor
girl."
"Why, Sir Harry," said his servant Lakyn, who had been watching the
whole course of proceedings with some interest, looking upon Ida Mara
as a sort of protegée of his own, "why, Sir Harry, if we could get a
pillion, she could ride behind me, or one of the other men to
Andover--'tis but seven miles, and the horses are quite fresh."
"Oh, my worshipful friend," cried Mr. Justice Scully, "we can lend
you a pillion. Having a house full of women here, I am always ample
provided in that sort. You can send it back to me by the carrier who
passes to Winchester."
"Many thanks, many thanks," replied Sir Harry West. "I will gladly
accept your offer. Take her behind thee, thyself, Lakyn, for thou
art older, and more sedate than the other fellows; and make as much
haste as you can, for we have intruded too long upon Master Scully."
"Not at all, not at all," exclaimed the justice. "I count boldly that
you will stay and take your noon-meal with me; your people and the
girl shall be cared for in the buttery.--What, shaking your head?
No time, I'll warrant; your courtiers are always as busy as a
merchant.--Well, you must come in at least, and let me introduce you
to the ladies. You must break bread and taste a cup of wine; to that
there is no denial."
Feeling that, in courtesy, he could not refuse, Sir Harry West
accompanied the worthy justice to another part of the house, while the
servants and Ida Mara were taken to the buttery, and treated with true
old English hospitality. In about half an hour, however, the whole
party were once more on horseback, and riding slowly away towards
Andover.