MASTER ADAM WARNER AND KING HENRY THE SIXTH.
The next morning Hilyard revisited Warner with the letters for Henry.
The conspirator made Adam reveal to him the interior mechanism of the
Eureka, to which Adam, who had toiled all night, had appended one of
the most ingenious contrivances he had as yet been enabled (sans the
diamond) to accomplish, for the better display of the agencies which
the engine was designed to achieve. This contrivance was full of
strange cells and recesses, in one of which the documents were placed.
And there they lay, so well concealed as to puzzle the minutest
search, if not aided by the inventor, or one to whom he had
communicated the secrets of the contrivance.
After repeated warnings and exhortations to discretion, Hilyard then,
whose busy, active mind had made all the necessary arrangements,
summoned a stout-looking fellow, whom he had left below, and with his
aid conveyed the heavy machine across the garden, to a back lane,
where a mule stood ready to receive the burden.
"Suffer this trusty fellow to guide thee, dear Adam; he will take thee
through ways where thy brutal neighbours are not likely to meet and
molest thee. Call all thy wits to the surface. Speed and prosper!"
"Fear not," said Adam, disdainfully. "In the neighbourhood of kings,
science is ever safe. Bless thee, child," and he laid his hand upon
Sibyll's head, for she had accompanied them thus far in silence, "now
go in."
"I go with thee, Father," said Sibyll, firmly. "Master Hilyard, it is
best so," she whispered; "what if my father fall into one of his
reveries?"
"You are right: go with him, at least, to the Tower gate. Hard by is
the house of a noble dame and a worthy, known to our friend Hugh,
where thou mayest wait Master Warner's return. It will not suit thy
modesty and sex to loiter amongst the pages and soldiery in the yard.
Adam, thy daughter must wend with thee."
Adam had not attended to this colloquy, and mechanically bowing his
head, he set off, and was greatly surprised, on gaining the river-side
(where a boat was found large enough to accommodate not only the human
passengers, but the mule and its burden), to see Sibyll by his side.
The imprisonment of the unfortunate Henry, though guarded with
sufficient rigour against all chances of escape, was not, as the
reader has perceived, at this period embittered by unnecessary
harshness. His attendants treated him with respect, his table was
supplied more abundantly and daintily than his habitual abstinence
required, and the monks and learned men whom he had favoured, were, we
need not repeat, permitted to enliven his solitude with their grave
converse.
On the other hand, all attempts at correspondence between Margaret or
the exiled Lancastrians and himself had been jealously watched, and
when detected, the emissaries had been punished with relentless
severity. A man named Hawkins had been racked for attempting to
borrow money for the queen from the great London merchant, Sir Thomas
Cook. A shoemaker had been tortured to death with red-hot pincers for
abetting her correspondence with her allies. Various persons had been
racked for similar offences; but the energy of Margaret and the zeal
of her adherents were still unexhausted and unconquered.
Either unconscious or contemptuous of the perils to which he was
subjected, the student, with his silent companions, performed the
voyage, and landed in sight of the Fortress-Palatine. And now Hugh
stopped before a house of good fashion, knocked at the door, which was
opened by an old servitor, disappeared for a few moments, and
returning, informed Sibyll, in a meaning whisper, that the gentlewoman
within was a good Lancastrian, and prayed the donzell to rest in her
company till Master Warner's return.
Sibyll, accordingly, after pressing her father's hand without fear--
for she had deemed the sole danger Adam risked was from the rabble by
the way--followed Hugh into a fair chamber, strewed with rushes, where
an aged dame, of noble air and aspect, was employed at her broidery
frame. This gentlewoman, the widow of a nobleman who had fallen in
the service of Henry, received her graciously, and Hugh then retired
to complete his commission. The student, the mule, the model, and the
porter pursued their way to the entrance of that part of the gloomy
palace inhabited by Henry. Here they were stopped, and Adam, after
rummaging long in vain for the chamberlain's passport, at last happily
discovered it, pinned to his sleeve, by Sibyll's forethought. On this
a gentleman was summoned to inspect the order, and in a few moments
Adam was conducted to the presence of the illustrious prisoner.
"And what," said a subaltern officer, lolling by the archway of the
(now styled) "Bloody Tower," hard by the turret devoted to the
prisoner, [The Wakefield Tower] and speaking to Adam's guide, who
still mounted guard by the model,--"what may be the precious burden of
which thou art the convoy?"
"Marry, sir," said Hugh, who spoke in the strong Yorkshire dialect,
which we are obliged to render into intelligible English--"marry, I
weet not,--it is some curious puppet-box, or quiet contrivance, that
Master Warner, whom they say is a very deft and ingenious personage,
is permitted to bring hither for the Lord Henry's diversion."
"A puppet-box!" said the officer, with much animated curiosity.
"'Fore the Mass! that must be a pleasant sight. Lift the lid,
fellow!"
"Please your honour, I do not dare," returned Hugh,--"I but obey
orders."
"Obey mine, then. Out of the way," and the officer lifted the lid of
the pannier with the point of his dagger, and peered within. He drew
back, much disappointed. "Holy Mother!" said he, "this seemeth more
like an instrument of torture than a juggler's merry device. It looks
parlous ugly!"
"Hush!" said one of the lazy bystanders, with whom the various
gateways and courts of the Palace-Fortress were crowded, "hush--thy
cap and thy knee, sir!"
The officer started; and, looking round, perceived a young man of low
stature, followed by three or four knights and nobles, slowly
approaching towards the arch, and every cap in the vicinity was off,
and every knee bowed.
The eye of this young man was already bent, with a searching and keen
gaze, upon the motionless mule, standing patiently by the Wakefield
Tower; and turning from the mule to the porter, the latter shrunk, and
grew pale, at that dark, steady, penetrating eye, which seemed to
pierce at once into the secrets and hearts of men.
"Who may this young lord be?" he whispered to the officer.
"Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, man," was the answer. "Uncover,
varlet!"
"Surely," said the prince, pausing by the gate, "surely this is no
sumpter-mule, bearing provisions to the Lord Henry of Windsor. It
would be but poor respect to that noble person, whom, alas the day!
his grace the king is unwillingly compelled to guard from the
malicious designs of rebels and mischief-seekers, that one not bearing
the king's livery should attend to any of the needful wants of so
worshipful a lord and guest!"
"My lord," said the officer at the gate, "one Master Adam Warner hath
just, by permission, been conducted to the Lord Henry's presence, and
the beast beareth some strange and grim-looking device for my lord's
diversion."
The singular softness and urbanity which generally characterized the
Duke of Gloucester's tone and bearing at that time,--which in a court
so full of factions and intrigues made him the enemy of none and
seemingly the friend of all, and, conjoined with abilities already
universally acknowledged, had given to his very boyhood a pre-eminence
of grave repute and good opinion, which, indeed, he retained till the
terrible circumstances connected with his accession to the throne,
under the bloody name of Richard the Third, roused all men's hearts
and reasons into the persuasion that what before had seemed virtue was
but dissimulation,--this singular sweetness, we say, of manner and
voice, had in it, nevertheless, something that imposed and thrilled
and awed. And in truth, in our common and more vulgar intercourse
with life, we must have observed, that where external gentleness of
bearing is accompanied by a repute for iron will, determined
resolution, and a serious, profound, and all-inquiring intellect, it
carries with it a majesty wholly distinct from that charm which is
exercised by one whose mildness of nature corresponds with the outward
humility; and, if it does not convey the notion of falseness, bears
the appearance of that perfect self-possession, that calm repose of
power, which intimidates those it influences far more than the
imperious port and the loud voice. And they who best knew the duke,
knew also that, despite this general smoothness of mien, his
temperament was naturally irritable, quick, and subject to stormy
gusts of passion, the which defects his admirers praised him for
labouring hard and sedulously to keep in due control. Still, to a
keen observer, the constitutional tendencies of that nervous
temperament were often visible, even in his blandest moments, even
when his voice was most musical, his smile most gracious. If
something stung or excited him, an uneasy gnawing of the nether lip, a
fretful playing with his dagger, drawing it up and down from its
sheath, [Pol. Virg. 565] a slight twitching of the muscles of the
face, and a quiver of the eyelid, betokened the efforts he made at
self-command; and now, as his dark eyes rested upon Hugh's pale
countenance, and then glanced upon the impassive mule, dozing quietly
under the weight of poor Adam's model, his hand mechanically sought
his dagger-hilt, and his face took a sinister and sombre expression.
"Thy name, friend?"
"Hugh Withers, please you, my lord duke."
"Um! North country, by thine accent. Dost thou serve this Master
Warner?"
"No, my lord, I was only hired with my mule to carry--"
"Ah, true! to carry what thy pannier contains; open it. Holy Paul! a
strange jonglerie indeed! This Master Adam Warner,--methinks, I have
heard his name--a learned man--um--let me see his safe conduct.
Right,--it is Lord Hastings's signature." But still the prince held
the passport, and still suspiciously eyed the Eureka and its
appliances, which, in their complicated and native ugliness of doors,
wheels, pipes, and chimney, were exposed to his view. At this moment,
one of the attendants of Henry descended the stairs of the Wakefield
Tower, with a request that the model might be carried up to divert the
prisoner.
Richard paused a moment, as the officer hesitatingly watched his
countenance before giving the desired permission. But the prince,
turning to him, and smoothing his brow, said mildly, "Certes! all that
can divert the Lord Henry must be innocent pastime. And I am well
pleased that he hath this cheerful mood for recreation. It gainsayeth
those who would accuse us of rigour in his durance. Yes, this warrant
is complete and formal;" and the prince returned the passport to the
officer, and walked slowly on through that gloomy arch ever more
associated with Richard of Gloucester's memory, and beneath the very
room in which our belief yet holds that the infant sons of Edward IV.
breathed their last; still, as Gloucester moved, he turned and turned,
and kept his eye furtively fixed upon the porter.
"Lovell," he said to one of the gentlemen who attended him, and who
was among the few admitted to his more peculiar intimacy, "that man is
of the North."
"Well, my lord?"
"The North was always well affected to the Lancastrians. Master
Warner hath been accused of witchcraft. Marry, I should like to see
his device--um; Master Catesby, come hither,--approach, sir. Go back,
and the instant Adam Warner and his contrivance are dismissed, bring
them both to me in the king's chamber. Thou understandest? We too
would see his device,--and let neither man nor mechanical, when once
they reappear, out of thine eye's reach. For divers and subtle are
the contrivances of treasonable men!"
Catesby bowed, and Richard, without speaking further, took his way to
the royal apartments, which lay beyond the White Tower, towards the
river, and are long since demolished.
Meanwhile the porter, with the aid of one of the attendants, had
carried the model into the chamber of the august captive. Henry,
attired in a loose robe, was pacing the room with a slow step, and his
head sunk on his bosom,--while Adam with much animation was enlarging
on the wonders of the contrivance he was about to show him. The
chamber was commodious, and furnished with sufficient attention to the
state and dignity of the prisoner; for Edward, though savage and
relentless when his blood was up, never descended into the cool and
continuous cruelty of detail.
The chamber may yet be seen,--its shape a spacious octagon; but the
walls now rude and bare were then painted and blazoned with scenes
from the Old Testament. The door opened beneath the pointed arch in
the central side (not where it now does), giving entrance from a small
anteroom, in which the visitor now beholds the receptacle for old
rolls and papers. At the right, on entering, where now, if our memory
mistake not, is placed a press, stood the bed, quaintly carved, and
with hangings of damascene. At the farther end the deep recess which
faced the ancient door was fitted up as a kind of oratory. And there
were to be seen, besides the crucifix and the Mass-book, a profusion
of small vessels of gold and crystal, containing the relics, supposed
or real, of saint and martyr, treasures which the deposed king had
collected in his palmier days at a sum that, in the minds of his
followers, had been better bestowed on arms and war-steeds. A young
man named Allerton--one of the three gentlemen personally attached to
Henry, to whom Edward had permitted general access, and who, in fact,
lodged in other apartments of the Wakefield Tower, and might be said
to share his captivity--was seated before a table, and following the
steps of his musing master, with earnest and watchful eyes.
One of the small spaniels employed in springing game--for Henry,
despite his mildness, had been fond of all the sports of the field--
lay curled round on the floor, but started up, with a shrill bark, at
the entrance of the bearer of the model, while a starling in a cage by
the window, seemingly delighted at the disturbance, flapped his wings,
and screamed out, "Bad men! Bad world! Poor Henry!"
The captive paused at that cry, and a sad and patient smile of
inexpressible melancholy and sweetness hovered over his lips. Henry
still retained much of the personal comeliness he possessed at the
time when Margaret of Anjou, the theme of minstrel and minne singer,
left her native court of poets for the fatal throne of England. But
beauty, usually so popular and precious a gift to kings, was not in
him of that order which commanded the eye and moved the admiration of
a turbulent people and a haughty chivalry. The features, if regular,
were small; their expression meek and timid; the form, though tall,
was not firm-knit and muscular; the lower limbs were too thin, the
body had too much flesh, the delicate hands betrayed the sickly
paleness of feeble health; there was a dreamy vagueness in the clear
soft blue eyes, and a listless absence of all energy in the habitual
bend, the slow, heavy, sauntering tread,--all about that benevolent
aspect, that soft voice, that resigned mien, and gentle manner, spoke
the exquisite, unresisting goodness, which provoked the lewd to taunt,
the hardy to despise, the insolent to rebel; for the foes of a king in
stormy times are often less his vices than his virtues.
"And now, good my lord," said Adam, hastening, with eager hands, to
assist the bearer in depositing the model on the table--"now will I
explain to you the contrivance which it hath cost me long years of
patient toil to shape from thought into this iron form."
"But first," said Allerton, "were it not well that these good people
withdrew? A contriver likes not others to learn his secret ere the
time hath come to reap its profits."
"Surely, surely!" said Adam, and alarmed at the idea thus suggested,
he threw the folds of his gown over the model.
The attendant bowed and retired; Hugh followed him, but not till he
had exchanged a significant look with Allerton. As soon as the room
was left clear to Adam, the captive, and Master Allerton, the last
rose, and looking hastily round the chamber, approached the
mechanician. "Quick, sir!" said he, in a whisper, "we are not often
left without witnesses."
"Verily," said Adam, who had now forgotten kings and stratagems, plots
and counterplots, and was all absorbed in his invention, "verily,
young man, hurry not in this fashion,--I am about to begin. Know, my
lord," and he turned to Henry, who, with an indolent, dreamy gaze,
stood contemplating the Eureka,--"know that more than a hundred years
before the Christian era, one Hero, an Alexandrian, discovered the
force produced by the vapour begot by heat on water. That this power
was not unknown to the ancient sages, witness the contrivance, not
otherwise to be accounted for, of the heathen oracles; but to our
great countryman and predecessor, Roger Bacon, who first suggested
that vehicles might be drawn without steeds or steers, and ships
might--"
"Marry, sir," interrupted Allerton, with great impatience, "it is not
to prate to us of such trivial fables of Man, or such wanton sports of
the Foul Fiend, that thou hast risked limb and life. Time is
precious. I have been prevised that thou hast letters for King Henry;
produce them, quick!"
A deep glow of indignation had overspread the enthusiast's face at the
commencement of this address; but the close reminded him, in truth, of
his errand.
"Hot youth," said he, with dignity, "a future age may judge
differently of what thou deemest trivial fables, and may rate high
this poor invention when the brawls of York and Lancaster are
forgotten."
"Hear him," said Henry, with a soft smile, and laying his hand on the
shoulder of the young man, who was about to utter a passionate and
scornful retort,--"hear him, sir. Have I not often and ever said
this same thing to thee? We children of a day imagine our contests
are the sole things that move the world. Alack! our fathers thought
the same; and they and their turmoils sleep forgotten! Nay, Master
Warner,"--for here Adam, poor man, awed by Henry's mildness into shame
at his discourteous vaunting, began to apologize,--"nay, sir, nay--
thou art right to contemn our bloody and futile struggles for a crown
of thorns; for--"
'Kingdoms are but cares,
State is devoid of stay
Riches are ready snares,
And hasten to decay.'
[Lines ascribed to Henry VI., with commendation "as a prettie verse,"
by Sir John Harrington, in the "Nugae Antiquate." They are also given,
with little alteration, to the unhappy king by Baldwin, in his tragedy
of "King Henry VI."]
"And yet, sir, believe me, thou hast no cause for vain glory in thine
own craft and labours; for to wit and to lere there are the same
vanity and vexation of spirit as to war and empire. Only, O would-be
wise man, only when we muse on Heaven do our souls ascend from the
fowler's snare!"
"My saint-like liege," said Allerton, bowing low, and with tears in
his eyes, "thinkest thou not that thy very disdain of thy rights makes
thee more worthy of them? If not for thine, for thy son's sake,
remember that the usurper sits on the throne of the conqueror of
Agincourt!--Sir Clerk, the letters."
Adam, already anxious to retrieve the error of his first
forgetfulness, here, after a moment's struggle for the necessary
remembrance, drew the papers from the labyrinthine receptacle which
concealed them; and Henry uttered an exclamation of joy as, after
cutting the silk, his eye glanced over the writing--
"My Margaret! my wife!" Presently he grew pale, and his hands
trembled. "Saints defend her! Saints defend her! She is here,
disguised, in London!"
"Margaret! our hero-queen! the manlike woman!" exclaimed Allerton,
clasping his hands. "Then be sure that--" He stopped, and abruptly
taking Adam's arm, drew him aside, while Henry continued to read--
"Master Warner, we may trust thee,--thou art one of us; thou art sent
here, I know; by Robin of Redesdale,--we may trust thee?"
"Young sir," replied the philosopher, gravely, "the fears and hopes of
power are not amidst the uneasier passions of the student's mind. I
pledged myself but to bear these papers hither, and to return with
what may be sent back."
"But thou didst this for love of the cause, the truth, and the right?"
"I did it partly from Hilyard's tale of wrong, but partly, also, for
the gold," answered Adam, simply; and his noble air, his high brow,
the serene calm of his features, so contrasted with the meanness
implied in the latter words of his confession, that Allerton stared at
him amazed, and without reply.
Meanwhile Henry had concluded the letter, and with a heavy sigh
glanced over the papers that accompanied it. "Alack! alack! more
turbulence, more danger and disquiet, more of my people's blood!" He
motioned to the young man, and drawing him to the window, while Adam
returned to his model, put the papers in his hand. "Allerton," he
said, "thou lovest me, but thou art one of the few in this distraught
land who love also God. Thou art not one of the warriors, the men of
steel. Counsel me. See: Margaret demands my signature to these
papers; the one, empowering and craving the levy of men and arms in
the northern counties; the other, promising free pardon to all who
will desert Edward; the third--it seemeth to me more strange and less
kinglike than the others--undertaking to abolish all the imposts and
all the laws that press upon the commons, and (is this a holy and
pious stipulation?) to inquire into the exactions and persecutions of
the priesthood of our Holy Church!"
"Sire!" said the young man, after he had hastily perused the papers,
"my lady liege showeth good argument for your assent to two, at least,
of these undertakings. See the names of fifty gentlemen ready to take
arms in your cause if authorized by your royal warrant. The men of
the North are malcontent with the usurper, but they will not yet stir,
unless at your own command. Such documents will, of course, be used
with discretion, and not to imperil your Grace's safety."
"My safety!" said Henry, with a flash of his father's hero soul in his
eyes--"of that I think not! If I have small courage to attack, I have
some fortitude to bear. But three months after these be signed, how
many brave hearts will be still! how many stout hands be dust! O
Margaret! Margaret! why temptest thou? Wert thou so happy when a
queen?" The prisoner broke from Allerton's arm, and walked, in great
disorder and irresolution, to and fro the chamber; and strange it was
to see the contrast between himself and Warner,--both in so much
alike, both so purely creatures out of the common world, so gentle,
abstract, so utterly living in the life apart: and now the student so
calm, the prince so disturbed! The contrast struck Henry himself! He
paused abruptly, and, folding his arms, contemplated the philosopher,
as, with an affectionate complacency, Adam played and toyed, as it
were, with his beloved model; now opening and shutting again its
doors, now brushing away with his sleeve some particles of dust that
had settled on it, now retiring a few paces to gaze the better on its
stern symmetry.
"Oh, my Allerton!" cried Henry, "behold! the kingdom a man makes out
of his own mind is the only one that it delighteth man to govern!
Behold, he is lord over its springs and movements; its wheels revolve
and stop at his bidding. Here, here, alone, God never asketh the
ruler, 'Why was the blood of thousands poured forth like water, that a
worm might wear a crown?'"
"Sire," said Allerton, solemnly, "when our Heavenly King appoints his
anointed representative on earth, He gives to that human delegate no
power to resign the ambassade and trust. What suicide is to a man,
abdication is to a king! How canst thou dispose of thy son's rights?
And what becomes of those rights if thou wilt prefer for him the
exile, for thyself the prison, when one effort may restore a throne!"
Henry seemed struck by a tone of argument that suited both his own
mind and the reasoning of the age. He gazed a moment on the face of
the young man, muttered to himself, and suddenly moving to the table,
signed the papers, and restored them to Adam, who mechanically
replaced them in their iron hiding-place.
"Now begone, Sir!" whispered Allerton, afraid that Henry's mind might
again change.
"Will not my lord examine the engine?" asked Warner, half-
beseechingly.
"Not to-day! See, he has already retired to his oratory, he is in
prayer!" and, going to the door, Allerton summoned the attendants in
waiting to carry down the model.
"Well, well, patience, patience! thou shalt have thine audience at
last," muttered Adam, as he retired from the room, his eyes fixed upon
the neglected infant of his brain.