_LED FORTH TO DIE._
The dusky shades of night fell upon the ancient Castle of Rougemont,
the feudal pile of the proud Norman, and deepened the gloom of its
dungeons; and in particular of that one, wherein poor Cuthbert was
pining in silence and solitude.
For his spirit seemed broken; those three days of absolute silence,
followed by the torture, the anticipation of further suffering in that
dismal chamber underground, and of the shame of a traitor’s death
beyond; all these combined to crush his soul in the dust; poor youth,
bred up by kind and loving hearts; spared hardships and sorrow for so
many bright years, how had the scene changed before him!
And again, he could not help feeling some little doubt concerning the
cause for which he bore all this suffering; his faith in it had been
the transplanted faith of others; he knew that the majority of his
countrymen held with the King, while they were yet staunch Catholics
in every other point; papal supremacy had never been a matter of faith
with the bulk of the English people, and might not the majority be
right after all? in which case he was madly throwing away all the joys
of his opening manhood, for a cause which had not the approbation of
heaven.
Against these thoughts fought the remembrance of the last Abbot of
Glastonbury, and the present strong feeling of allegiance, which he
felt to his protector, Sir Walter Trevannion; but there was a struggle,
which he felt ashamed to acknowledge even to himself.
Sometimes the sounds of the revelry of the youth of the city, engaged
in their sports, found their way in through the grated window, and
mocked the poor heart-sick captive; he strove to find refuge in prayer,
but prayer fled him, his mind wandered. “No, I cannot pray,” he said,
“the very saints forsake me now.”
Who knows what might have been the consequence of those hours of pain
and loneliness, had they been prolonged? but suddenly the door opened.
Cuthbert scarcely looked up, thinking it was but the gaoler bringing
him food, when he heard a voice, a well-known one.
“My son, my dear son.”
It was Father Ambrose, alias Sir Walter, and Cuthbert jumped up, and
threw himself into his arms with a self-abandonment which shewed how
far his feelings had been strained by their separation.
“My father, my more than father,” he cried.
“We are to be together till the end,” said Sir Walter, after a few
moments of silence, during which they had grasped each other’s hands.
“To whom do we owe this mercy; to the governor? he seemed to feel for
us.”
“No, he could not have ventured to oppose Sir John Redfyrne, who was
armed with the authority of the Privy Council.”
Cuthbert flushed up at the sound of the hated name.
“_He_ has no hand in this indulgence.”
“Indeed he has, my dear son, whatever his motives may be; he may repent
of his ingratitude.”
Cuthbert shook his head.
“Let us not think of him; he comes between us and our God, if we would
be forgiven we must needs forgive; God has forgiven us the ten thousand
talents for His dear Son’s sake, shall we not forgive the hundred
pence?”
“My father, I am so glad, so glad you are here, my faith was failing
me.”
“In what?”
“In the justice of our cause; why do we stand almost alone, against
the great majority of our countrymen?”
“Would’st thou have been with the majority or minority at the Flood? at
Sodom? in guilty Jerusalem? Dear boy, majorities are nothing; indeed
too often they but mark the broad way which leadeth to destruction; nor
have they even the _majority_ on their side, miserable as the support
drawn from thence would be; for England stands alone amongst the
Christian commonwealths in her present schism.[45]
“Then, again, my dear boy, remember the words of your beloved
benefactor, when he stood before his judges at Wells; and again in that
hour when he parted from you with words of blessing, in the gatehouse
chamber at Glastonbury; methinks it would pain his blessed spirit,
even in Paradise, to hear that his adopted son, whom he loved so well,
doubted.”
The good father was using the very best means which could be used to
keep his _protegé_ firm in the path, which he believed the only road
to heaven; argument might have failed to convince where faith was
shaken, but the love of one who had died so nobly and patiently for the
impugned tenet, carrying his mute appeal to the judgment seat on high,
lit again the expiring embers of faith--“I will be true to him till
death,” he said; “as _he_ died so will I die; and will stake soul and
body on the creed which trained so noble a martyr, ‘sit anima mea cum
illo.’”
“Methinks,” said the good Prior, “I see him looking down upon thee now;
see through these thick walls, and this murky autumnal sky, to the
heaven beyond where he sits waiting, near the gate, for his adopted
son, whom he committed to my care! Well! when I see him, I shall say
‘Behold father, here am I, and the lad whom thou gavest me.’”
Cuthbert wept upon the shoulder of the good Prior.
“He shall not be deceived in me; I will tread the path he trod.”
“By God’s grace, which alone can strengthen us weak ones; and what is
the worst we have to bear--the gibbet and quartering block? Well, they
cannot protract it more than half-an-hour; half-an-hour! why had it
begun when I entered this cell, it had been over now, and we safe on
the other side.”
“Would it had.”
“Yes, and then heaven had already been revealed to our enraptured
sight, our eyes would have seen the King in His beauty and the land
which is very far off.”
“Where is that land, that glory land?”
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear drunk in its sweet songs of joy; words
cannot picture it, nor can the heart of man conceive its bliss, but it
lies beyond the gibbet and quartering block, my son; let them do their
worst, they know not what they do, and we will pray for them till the
last, yes and for King Harry too; God turn his heart, and shew him his
sin, and all will be well in dear old England again.”
* * * * *
But the reader is doubtless eager to learn what had taken place to
frustrate, as it would seem at first sight, the plans of Sir John
Redfyrne.
Perhaps they had not been _frustrated_, but changed.
That same evening he had informed the governor that he had received a
messenger from court to inform him, that the secret chamber was already
discovered, and that there was therefore no further occasion, either
to put Cuthbert to the torture again, or delay the execution. “Let the
criminals have the consolation of each other’s society to-night, and
die to-morrow,” he added.
Much surprised, the governor pleaded hard for time to lay the whole
case again before the Crown, and to implore mercy for the prisoners,
whose execution he said “would shock all Devon.”
But Sir John was armed with full authority from the Crown, and hinting
to the governor, that the King would not be best pleased to hear of
his backwardness in the royal cause, and his love for traitors, so
frightened that worthy functionary on his own account, that no further
opposition was made, and orders were given to erect the scaffold.
Meanwhile every indulgence was given to the prisoners, whose fate many
pitied--even in that stony-hearted gaol, the Castle of Rougemont.
A priest was admitted to their cells, that very priest who had so
nearly stumbled upon the secret of Cuthbert’s birth, and early in the
morning he provided all that was necessary for the celebration of Mass,
whereat Father Ambrose, for the last time as he supposed, with tears
of devotion, officiated; and the three received the Holy Communion
together.
Fortified by this heavenly food, they scarcely noticed the heavy boom
of the cathedral bell, which told the city and the country around that
two souls were about to be forcibly divorced from their bodies, and
sent to appear before the judgment seat on High.
Boom! boom! The deep solemn sound penetrated each court and alley
of the ancient city, and struck awe to the hearts even of the most
hardened; boom! boom! the swelling tones startled the boatmen on the
Exe, awoke the echoes of the hills around the fair city of the west,
nay reached the rich purple moorland, and startled the children who
played amongst the heather or gathered whortle-berries.
And beneath the two grand old towers in front of the great west door of
the historical fane, was erected that disgrace to the civilization of
our forefathers, the scaffold with its gibbet and quartering block, its
hideous butchering apparatus, in the very cathedral yard.
What a multitude had now assembled! men, women, boys, girls; the noble
and the simple, the burgher and the vagrant; there were many stalwart
country men too from Dartmoor, each wearing a sprig of heather in his
hat, that his companions might recognise him.
“_Here they come!_”
The bell booms out faster and faster, the multitude stretch their
necks to gaze and catch the first glimpse of the sufferers. Oh, what a
strange, morbid interest clings to those about to die; the very fact
that that body framed by God as His noblest work, and sanctified by
being limb for limb the same as the Incarnate Son took as His own, the
very fact that that body is to be so ruthlessly desecrated, causes
this awful excitement, this panting, breathless interest, in the poor
victims.
Forward they come, between two lines of halberdiers; how calm and
resigned they look as they approach the scaffold. The litany of
the dying with its perpetual response--_Ora pro eis_ (pray for
them)--addressed in turn to each saint and angel of the calendar,
is now audible. The multitude catch up the strain and join in the
response; now it is _Miserere Domine_, now again _Ora pro eis_; but
it is no longer one feeble voice, but the breath of a multitude which
bears the sweet sad refrain to heaven.
They are close to the fatal spot, and first the youth, then the old
man ascends the steps, clad in white, for such was their choice,
in testimony of their innocence of all crime before men. The fair
attractive face of the younger sufferer, so sad, yet resigned, that it
seems of itself a petition for pity, the reverend face of the senior,
like to that of some holy patriarch or prophet, so soon too to be
dabbled in blood and stuck up on rusty nails over the Guild hall in
the High Street; truly this is piteous, and the gentler portion of the
spectators can hardly forbear weeping as they still cry _Miserere_ or
_Ora pro eis_, while the _cannibals_ who are there smack their lips at
the dainty sight prepared for them.
They are on the scaffold, and the bell still booms as it shall boom
until the victims swing between heaven and earth--a mockery of God and
man. The priest of S. Mary Steppes has given his parting Benediction.
The younger, to whom is given the privilege of dying first, has already
meekly turned to the executioner--a brute with a masked face, clad in
light leather, with two similarly dressed assistants, when----
A tremendous shout--
“Dartmoor to the rescue!”
And the whole body of men with the sprigs of heather in their hats,
clear all the incumbrances, carrying off their feet the few halberdiers
at a rush, and are on the scaffold: they kick the executioners off
their own boards, upset the governor and the sheriff, but do not hurt
them, cut the prisoners’ bonds, pass them from hand to hand, and before
anyone can prevent, they, the two, are lost to sight in the vast and
sympathizing crowd.
Then the multitude spy Sir John Redfyrne sitting upon a horse in the
cathedral yard, ready to start to town when all is over; the story
of his ingratitude is known, and they manifest a playful desire to
duck him in the Exe; and it is only with the greatest difficulty that
setting spurs to his steed, and riding over one unlucky old dame in his
path, he escapes their pressing attentions, and rides away with the
cry ringing in his ears, the unwelcome cry, “Dartmoor to the rescue!”
“Saved, saved!”
FOOTNOTES
[45] The reader will perceive that there is something contradictory in
these pious expressions; first he seems to think it dangerous to be
with the majority, then he claims it as on his side.