Tan household of Lady Margaret Langley was increased, during the day
following the adventures related in the last two chapters, by the
return of two stout servants, whom she had sent upon various errands
to a considerable distance from Langley Hall; and in the evening the
steward and his man came back, as they termed it--though, in truth,
they both ordinarily lived in a house and cottage about two miles
off--to the dwelling of the good lady. The hind, too, arrived, and
took up his lodging in the house; and the shrewd servant, William, was
busy amongst the farmers and tenants, talking with one, whispering
with another, winking at a third. Langley Hall in truth became quite a
gay place; for, in addition to the militia-men from Beverley, every
morning saw five or six good yeomen, sometimes eight or nine,
attending Lady Margaret's orders and directions about farming matters.
Captain Hargood felt somewhat uneasy; for these visiters, all stout
men and generally armed, became so numerous that he saw it was not at
all unlikely that in process of time he might be outnumbered in the
Hall. He perceived that, should such be the case, at any unexpected
moment he might easily be overpowered, if the disposition which he had
at first made of his men continued; for, scattered over that large,
rambling mansion, in order to watch what was taking place in every
part at once, there were not to be found more than two or three of the
militia together at any one given point; and it was by no means an
easy or rapid process to gather them from their several quarters into
one body for the stairs and passages, the rooms and ante-rooms, the
lobbies and galleries, the halls and corridors, were so intricate and
in such number, that it was a good half-hour's march from one end of
the house to the other; and the shutting of a door or barricading of a
passage might in a moment isolate any one party from the rest. He
could not help fancying, too, that Lady Margaret felt the advantage of
her position, and that there was something more than chance in this
influx of tenantry; and thus the feeling of security with which he had
taken possession of Langley Hall soon disappeared, and he became very
uneasy indeed.
In after periods of the civil war, when the bold and decided tone of
the parliament had spread to the whole party, and the simple justice
or petty commissioner, knowing that any violence against a malignant
would receive countenance and applause from those who had the power of
the state in their hands, ventured every excess against their enemies,
Captain Hargood would have overcome the difficulty at once by marching
off Lady Margaret and the principal members of her household to
Beverley or Hull. But the Roundhead party, in remote provinces, had
not yet acquired full confidence either in its strength or in its
leaders; and steps afterwards taken as a matter of course were now not
even thought of. His only resource, therefore, was to reinforce his
numbers, if possible, and to make such changes in the disposition of
his men in the mean while as would guard against surprise.
During the hours, then, at which the hall was thronged with the
tenants and farmers, he gathered his men together into one part of the
house, and there kept them till he found that the visiters who alarmed
him were departing. But this was all that Lady Margaret desired; and,
the unpleasant espial being removed from about nine in the morning
till about one o'clock, ample time was afforded for very easy
communication with the Earl of Beverley, both to cheer him by the
society of his friends and supply him with all that might be necessary
to his comfort.
As only one of the party could venture to be absent at a time, it may
easily be supposed that Annie Walton was the person most frequently
fixed upon, as she was certainly the one best fitted to console the
weary hours of the earl in the strange sort of captivity to which he
was reduced; and many and many a happy hour, during the next four
days, did the two lovers spend together.
Of the present they had but little to say. No news of any importance
reached the Hall, and the brief laugh excited by the success of Lady
Margaret's stratagem for driving the militia-men into one particular
portion of the house soon passed away. It was upon the past and upon
the future, then, that their thoughts and conversation principally
turned; but, though the mind of Annie Walton certainly rested more
often and more anxiously upon the coming years than upon the past, yet
the apprehensions that she entertained regarding them, the too intense
interest they excited, and the agitation which the contemplation of
all that might take place produced, naturally led her to seek relief
in the softened influences of the past; and she would willingly dwell
with her lover upon all the thousand little events of early days,
showing him, without reserve, all the secrets of her own pure and
guileless heart, and seeking playfully and yet eagerly to discover
those of his.
Nor did he much strive to conceal them, although there were, of
course, some things that he would not say; but whenever he saw that
she was deeply interested, and that mystery might create doubts
injurious to her peace, he was as frank and free as she was: sporting,
perhaps, a little with her curiosity, but always satisfying it in the
end. He did not, indeed, amuse himself or her, to use the words of a
sweet old song that one time cheered my infancy, by
Tales telling of loves long ago,
although she was curious to know whether the heart, the possession of
which she so much valued, had never been given to any but herself; and
indeed could hardly believe that, amongst all the scenes through which
he had passed, amongst the fair and beautiful with whom he had
mingled, and in all the varying events in which he had taken a part,
some one had not been found to love and be beloved, by one whom she
felt it difficult to imagine any woman could behold without feeling
the same sensation towards him that she experienced herself.
At first, indeed, she did not venture to question, but merely
suggested with playful smiles the confession which she strove to
extort. Then, when he spoke of beautiful scenes in other lands, or of
bright and happy moments in former days, she would laugh, and ask
whether there had not been some one near to give light to the light
and add sweet to the sweetness; and he would reply sportively, "Oh! a
multitude, dear Annie! I can assure you that in those days every woman
was fair to my young eyes, and every smiling jest was full of wit."
But when she pressed him closer still, and inquired whether, amongst
the many, there had not been one brighter than them all, who had found
means to eclipse the loveliness around and make herself the beloved,
the earl would draw her closer to him, and, gazing on the lids of her
downcast eyes, would answer, "Nay, Annie, but I must have your
confession first. Have you never loved before? Has no one, ere I knew
you, brushed off with a touch the bloom of that dear heart before it
was ripe for me?"
"Never, never!" she cried. "Never, Francis! I have had no one to love.
Little as I have seen of the world, few as were those who have
frequented our house since I was a mere girl, it was not likely, that
I should meet with any who should either care to make themselves
agreeable to me or have the power of doing so. I can assure you that,
had it not been for my brother Charles, till I met with you I should
have thought men very dull things indeed. We had, it is true, more
than once, a crowd of roystering Cavaliers, and, more frequently
still, half-a-dozen prim Puritans, staying in the house or in the
neighbourhood; but the first were all too gay for me, the others all
too sad; the one set too fond of their fine clothes and their fine
horses, the others too fond of their own selves, for them to care for
me or I to care for them. One man, indeed, asked my father for my hand
when I was a girl of fifteen; but my father saved me the trouble of
saying no, by valuing me at too high a price to part with me. But with
you, Francis, it is very different: you have mingled with the bright
dames of France and the beautiful ones of Italy and Spain; and I
cannot even hope that you should have escaped heart-whole, to lay your
first affections at the feet of poor Annie Walton, a country girl,
well-nigh ignorant of courts, and of all the graces that you must have
seen elsewhere."
"I have seen none like her, Annie," said Lord Beverley, in a tone of
deep earnestness; "and I will tell you in truth and sincerity, I never
loved till I did see her. I may have admired; I may have been pleased;
but there have been things in my fate and history which came dimly
between me and all others, like those glasses which star-gazers use to
look upon the sun without having their eyes dazzled; and even, dearest
Annie, when that thick veil was over me the moat, I was still the
gayest, jesting with the light, laughing with the gay, and draining
the bowl of pleasure to the dregs, even when the draught was most
tasteless to my lips."
"Indeed!" said Annie Walton, gravely; "that seems strange to me."
"And yet it is true," replied the earl: "nay, more--it is common,
Annie. Every man has his own secrets in his heart, and each his own
way of hiding them--one in a dark, gloomy pall, one in a gay and
glittering veil; and the latter was my case, sweet one. But perchance
you have never heard the tale of what happened to my house in older
times. My mother's brother was an Irish lord of a high and noble
nature--wild, daring, and somewhat rash. For some poor and trifling
fault he was pursued, unjustly, I believe--at all events, with unjust
severity--in courts he did not recognise, to the confiscation of his
property. He laughed such laws to scorn, however, defied them to take
him from his mountain-holds, and added attainture to the judgment
against him; but he had strong enemies even in his native country.
Troops were led up through passes that he thought secure, by men who
knew them but too well. His castle--for it was a house well
fortified--was attacked and stormed, he being absent from it at the
time; and my poor sister, a young child I loved most dearly, then but
waiting for an opportunity of returning to her own home, perished in
the flames, for they burned his dwelling to the ground. He himself was
taken on his return, and, with indecent haste and many illegal
circumstances, was condemned and executed."
"Good heaven!" cried Annie Walton, a wild fancy suddenly presenting
itself to her mind. "Can it be that Arrah Neil is your sister? There
are several strange things regarding her, and I may tell you she is
not what she seems."
"No," answered Lord Beverley; "oh, no, my beloved! that could not be.
My sister would now be seven or eight years older than poor Arrah,
and, besides, the body was not so disfigured that it could not be
recognised. She died beyond all doubt. In grief and indignation my
father and my mother appealed to the king of England, strove to remove
my uncle's trial to some more fit and competent tribunal before his
sentence was pronounced, showed the evident illegality of many of the
proceedings against him, petitioned, prayed--in vain. He died as I
have said, and then to remonstrances they added complaints and
reproaches, withdrew from the court, and uttered words which were
construed into high offences; fines and punishments followed upon
those whose hands had aided to uphold the monarch, and in bitter
disgust at man's ingratitude, in abhorrence of his falsehood and
indignation at his injustice, I quitted England, wandering over many
distant lands, and resolving never to return. I sought forgetfulness,
Annie; I sought pleasure, amusement--anything which, if it could not
take the thorn out of my heart, might at least assuage the pain.--But,
hark! there is the signal that you must return," and with one brief
caress they parted.