BEFORE THE WEDDING.
"Let come what will, there is one thing worth,
To have had fair love in the life upon earth."
--SWINBURNE.
The winter months wore away quickly and happily for Primrose. Under
Lady Rosamond's roof the days could hardly be dull or uneventful,
even when they brought her into no communication with her mother or
affianced husband; for her warm-hearted friend, whom Lord Bryn Afon
might rightly call "madcap," was ever ready with the suggestion of
some new diversion wherewith to chase away the slightest shadow from
her young guest's brow, though indeed but little diversion was needed
outside the walls of her own nurseries, where Primrose would
willingly have spent whole days in playing with the little new-born
heir of Caer Caradoc, the baby Elidore, who, after their many years
of wedded life, had this winter come to the fond parents as a blessed
Christmas gift, almost overpowering in the new joy and delight it
brought them, and right royally welcomed to their hitherto childless
home. But amid the new joys and cares of motherhood Lady Rosamond
entered into the joy of her young friend's betrothal and future
prospects with an eagerness of sympathy and delight which greatly
cheered the girl's heart under circumstances which she might
otherwise have found to be somewhat trying. For the restraint she
was ever bound to maintain in those occasional meetings with the earl
which her mother judged it wise to permit, and which, in the Court
life into which she entered with Lady Rosamond, could not well be
avoided, was an effort to her greater than any one knew, so fondly
did her girlish heart yearn towards this gay and handsome father, and
long to know the sad secret which had already drawn deep furrows on
his brow, and which often clouded his merry blue eyes with its horrid
shadow--those blue eyes which in her childhood had so strangely
fascinated her, but in which she now often noticed a certain wild
glitter, which terrified her against her will. Her mother and
Percival visited her at frequent intervals, and these visits of the
chaplain were a source of great delight to Lady Rosamond, who was
wont to tease him and her young charge most unmercifully, assuring
Primrose that he had most certainly in time past pronounced her to be
a child of the Evil One, and that had she but heard the exorcisms
which passed his lips as he stood by the lake's edge on that eventful
Midsummer Eve, daring her to rise again from the dark waters to
torment him, she could never have summoned courage to consent to be
his bride! For which banter the grave Sir Ivor brought her to task
frequently and severely; but it fell lightly enough on the ears of
the lovers themselves, who on these happy occasions of meeting were
able to hear little beyond the sound of each other's voice.
Whatever curiosity Sir Ivor and Lady Rosamond might feel as to
Primrose herself, and her fitness by birth to mate with one of such
ancient lineage as their favourite Sir Galahad, they were obliged to
restrain until such time as Lady Bryn Afon thought fit to reveal to
them the secret of her fair young attendant's parentage; but such was
their regard for the beautiful girl, and their appreciation of her
innate nobleness, that they could but give to his choice their
fullest approval, and this, from well-known and valued friends of his
mother's family, Percival received with pleasure, though content, in
his inmost heart, to love and cherish his river-maiden, if need be,
against the opinion of the whole world. And of all the kindnesses
received by the lovers during those happy months of renewed
intercourse, none were so dearly treasured as the words of blessing
on their union spoken by the honoured lips of their loved king
himself, who in the midst of his own thickly-gathering sorrows yet
found space to enter with deep interest and kindliness into their
love-story, and made Shanno's heart to glow with a
never-to-be-forgotten devotion by the words of love and praise in
which he spoke to her of her pure and true knight, Sir Galahad, and
congratulated her on having won the love of so holy and devoted a
servant of God; while he also praised to Percival the marvellous
beauty and grace of his intended bride, showing so keen a discernment
of that beautiful soul within, which looked forth from her glorious
eyes, that the chaplain's heart swelled with pride and joy in such
kingly discernment. And among other kind expressions of interest and
affection, valued not much less than the former, were such as were
spoken by Master John Milton and Master Jeremy Taylor, both of whom
were frequent guests in Lady Rosamond's house, and who, in spite of
their widely-differing opinions on matters of Church and State, found
a common meeting-ground in their warm affection for Percival Vere, to
whose side both were attracted equally, and with regard to whose
special companionship each maintained with the other a generous
rivalry. To Master Taylor, however, the chaplain could not fail to
be personally drawn in an especial love and sympathy, their mutual
love and devotion to the cause of their church and their king
knitting their hearts together in a bond of union which every day
grew stronger as the strife of parties waxed bolder, and grew daily
more fiercely apparent. To Master Milton, on the other hand, his
senior by some few years, he was the rather drawn by the power of an
immense intellectual admiration, while the strong line already openly
taken by the magnificent young poet on the side of Republicanism and
religious independence raised between them a barrier of thought which
stood in the way of such an intimate communion of spirit as he
enjoyed with his friend Jeremy. Yet in spite of these strong
differences of opinion--so strong indeed that the discussion of
matters religious and political was tacitly avoided by the three
friends in their intercourse with each other--they shared alike one
common aim and lofty ideal, in their mutual strife after a life of
such purity and holiness as was attained by few men of their time,
and in which strife they found a union destined to outlive all
outward disturbance and disagreement. Master Milton's poetic pen was
at this time almost wholly laid by, while in his quiet school-house
in Aldersgate Street he plunged hotly into all the controversies of
the day; and to the entreaties of his two young friends, that he
would indite more glorious verse rather than waste his energies on
the pouring forth of pamphlets against bishops and others in high
estate, he made no answer, save by promising, with a quiet smile,
that for the sake of his friend Jeremy he would e'en for the present
spare the great Archbishop Laud the scathing censure of his political
pen.
And ere we pass from these scenes we must not omit to make mention of
Sir Tristram Ap Thomas, who, though in constant attendance upon
bevies of fair ladies, must needs for ever haunt the steps of Lady
Rosamond's beautiful companion like some dismal sprite, assuring her
that his affection for her was undying, and that he did but play with
other damsels awhile, to hide the breaking of his heart, which he
would smite valiantly with his hand as he sank on one knee before her
in tragic attitude of grief and misery, raising to her face eyes of
such woful despair that Primrose could have wept for his sorrows, had
she not been fain, but some moments later, to burst into laughter, as
she again beheld him disporting with a gay companion in some far
corner, with heart as sound as ever. Whereupon she one day asked her
lover saucily whether all men's hearts were fashioned after so
strange a manner, and whether he could likewise so easily forget his
sorrow did she bid him depart from her. On which he made answer,
that were it ever the will of God that she should bid him take up so
grievous a burden, she should then see the answer to her query, and
know the love eternal and unalterable of which some men's hearts were
capable. Which words were destined to bring to her own heart a
future comfort, the need of which she yet but little dreamed.
After remaining in town some two or three months, until the Christmas
season was well over and the New Year had gained a firm foothold for
its brighter days and dawning promises of spring-tide joys, Primrose
returned, by her mother's and her own wish, to spend the last few
weeks of her girlhood in her own sheltered home on the banks of the
Gwynnon, where for a short time she again gladdened the heart of her
old grandfather by her bright presence, and ministered with tender
hands and willing feet to the wants of the scattered villagers, who
from her childhood had loved her dearly, and had lately looked
forward with rejoicing to the happy time when she would come to dwell
among them as their new vicar's bride. Even Master Jones could not
find it in his heart to speak one word of harshness or utter one
gloomy foreboding to one so sweet and fair as the far-famed Maid of
Gwynnon, although behind her back he was heard to lament with
grievous nasal whine over the increase of Popery, which, on the
arrival of a new vicar, but lately fresh from an Oxford Fellowship
and known to be a zealous adherent of King Charles and his Popish
Queen, and moreover gifted by Satan with the gifts of powerful
eloquence and great charm of presence, could not fail to drown the
whole valley in perdition. Wherefore he and his most zealous
followers made long prayers night after night in the chapel,
commending their king and their church, whom they had forsworn, to
the Evil One, and invoking the blessing of Providence on their own
heresy and schism, which they hastened to sow yet more broadcast
through the valley, wearing ever sadder countenances, and rolling
more dismally the whites of their eyes than before. Seeing which,
the good old vicar, whose days of labour were well-nigh ended,
rejoiced more and more in the thought that ere long his troublous and
anxious charge would be resigned into the hands of one with strong
and willing hands and heart, better able than he to call back the
simple village folk from the errors but of late years grown rife
among them, and to fight for his church and country. And many a
time, when Primrose sat with him in his beloved library, thinking
with strange feelings how soon she would sit there, no longer to pore
over the fortunes of the ideal Sir Galahad, but sharing those of her
own true, living knight, they talked much together over the great
work which Percival would find to do in the valley; and good old
Master Rhys would sorely lament that his books had ever been to him a
snare, perchance keeping him far more often than he had dreamed from
the performance of other sacred duties. Whereupon Primrose cheered
him to the best of her power, and oft prayed at evensong, as she saw
his venerable hands uplifted to Heaven, that she and her husband
might be found worthy to walk in the footsteps of so good and holy a
servant of God. So passed the days away, and early in March came, to
her great delight, the Lord and Lady Bryn Afon to their castle on the
hill-top, there to remain until her presentation to her father, so
long dreaded and yet hoped-for, and the wedding itself--dream of
bliss as yet scarce fully realised in thought--should be over. And
with them came the chaplain and the Black Horseman, ever in faithful
attendance; and Percival, being inducted to his living, entered upon
his new work in all the joy and gladness of his marriage prospects,
drowning his impatience for his bride by incessant labour and study,
varied only by those preparations in the now-vacated vicarage which
were necessary ere they entered it together as their home. Those
well-loved volumes, cherished companions of Shanno's childhood and
youth, were, to her great joy, not far removed, Master Rhys choosing
still to reside in the parish, and taking for himself a snug,
ivy-covered cot but a stone's-throw from the parsonage door, where
she herself arranged for him his treasured books in the order he
loved, and which she knew so well. And so, the wedding being fixed
to take place in the merry month of May, Lady Bryn Afon, ere
presenting her daughter to her still unknown father, or permitting
her birth to be made known in the neighbourhood, took her once
more--during a brief visit of the earl to town--to the lonely
farmstead Glyn Melen, to spend some few last days with her alone in
the quiet solitudes below Craig Aran heights, and there to gain
strength herself for the impending revelation.