CHAPTER I

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PENSHURST CASTLE

[Illustration: THE ENTRANCE TOWER, PENSHURST CASTLE.]

PENSHURST CASTLE

_IN THE TIME OF_

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY

BY

EMMA MARSHALL

_Author of 'Under Salisbury Spire,' 'Winchester Meads,' etc._

'A right man-like man, such as Nature, often erring,

yet shows sometimes she fain would make.'--Sir Philip Sidney.

LONDON

SEELEY AND CO. LIMITED

ESSEX STREET, STRAND

1894

_PREFACE_

For the incidents in the life of Sir Philip Sidney, who is the central

figure in this story of 'the spacious times of great Elizabeth,' I am

indebted to Mr H. R. Fox Bourne's interesting and exhaustive Memoir of this

noble knight and Christian gentleman.

In his short life of thirty-one years are crowded achievements as scholar,

poet, statesman and soldier, which find perhaps few, if indeed any equal,

in the records of history; a few only of these chosen from among many

appear in the following pages. The characters of Mary Gifford and her

sister, and the two brothers, Humphrey and George Ratcliffe, are wholly

imaginary.

The books which have been consulted for the poetry of Sir Philip Sidney and

the times in which he lived are--Vol. I. of _An English Garner;_ M.

Jusserand's _Roman du Temps de Shakespere,_ and a very interesting essay on

Sir Philip Sidney and his works, published in Cambridge in 1858.

WOODSIDE, LEIGH WOODS,

CLIFTON, _October_ 5, 1893.

_CONTENTS_

BOOK I.

PAGE

I. THE SISTERS, 1

II. IN THE PARK, 17

III. A STRANGE MEETING, 35

IV. THE HAWK AND THE BIRD, 60

V. RESISTANCE, 82

VI. THREE FRIENDS, 101

VII. WHITSUNTIDE, 1581, 121

VIII. DEFEAT, 146

IX. ACROSS THE FORD, 171

BOOK II.

X. AT WILTON, 207

XI. LUMEN FAMILIAE SUAE, 223

XII. FIRE AND SWORD, 243

XIII. RESTORED, 258

XIV. WHAT RIGHT? 276

XV. THE PASSING OF PHILIP, 296

XVI. FOUR YEARS LATER--1590, 311

_LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS_

THE ENTRANCE TOWER, PENSHURST CASTLE, _Frontispiece_

PAGE

PENSHURST CHURCH AND CASTLE, 4

THE LYCH GATE, PENSHURST, 64

PENSHURST CASTLE, FROM THE PARK, 70

OLD HOUSES BY THE LYCH GATE, PENSHURST, 130

THE TILT YARD, WHITEHALL, 148

THE GREAT HALL, PENSHURST CASTLE, 224

THE BARON'S COURT, PENSHURST CASTLE, 288

BOOK I.

'What man is he that boasts of fleshly might,

And vaine assurance of mortality;

Which, all so soone as it doth come to fight

Against spirituall foes, yields by and by:

Or from the field most cowardly doth fly?

No, let the man ascribe it to his skill,

That thorough grace hath gained victory.

If any strength we have, it is to ill;

But all the good is God's, both power and will.'

_The Faery Queene_, Book I. Canto 10.

Penshurst Castle

CHAPTER I

THE SISTERS

'She was right faire and fresh as morning rose,

But somewhat sad and solemne eke in sight,

As if some pensive thought constrained her gentle spright.'

SPENSER.

1581.--'There is time yet ere sunset; let me, I pray you, go down to the

lych gate with the wheaten cake for Goody Salter.'

'Nay, Lucy; methinks there are reasons for your desire to go down to the

village weightier than the wheaten cake you would fain carry with you. Rest

quietly at home; it may be Humphrey will be coming to let us know if Mr

Sidney has arrived at Penshurst. Why such haste, little sister?'

'Because I do covet a place where I can witness the grand tourney at

Whitehall. It may suit your mood, Mary, to live always on this hilltop,

with naught to see and naught to do; with no company but a cross-grained

stepmother, and the cows and sheep. I am sick of it. Even a run down to the

village is a change. Yes, I am going; one hour, and I will be back.'

Mary Gifford laid a detaining hand on her young sister's shoulder.

'Have a care, dear child, nor let your wild fancies run away with your

discretion. Am I not one who has a right to caution you? I who have come

back as a widow to my old home, bereft and lonely.'

'Because you married a bad man, and rued the day, it is no reason that I

should do the same. Trust me, good sister. I may be young, but I have my

wits about me, and no soft speeches catch me in a net.'

The elder sister's beautiful face, always grave and mournful in its

earnestness, grew even more mournful than was its wont, as she looked down

into her sister's lovely eyes, and kissed her forehead.

'Child, I pray God to keep you safe; but the net you speak of is not spread

in the sight of any bird, and it is captured all unawares.'

Lucy's answer was to return her sister's kiss with a quick, warm embrace,

and then she was off, with the basket on her arm, and her glad, young voice

ringing out,--

'Good-bye! good-bye! I'll be back in an hour.'

Mary Gifford stood under the old stone porch, watching the light figure as

it tripped away, and then was turning into the house again, when a sharp

voice she knew too well called,--

'Lucy! Lucy! Where's that hussy? There's two pails of milk to set for cream

in the pans, and the cakes are scorching before the fire. Lucy! Where's

Lucy?'

Mary Gifford did not reply to the question, but said,--

'I will go to the dairy, mother, and see to the milk.'

'And take your boy with ye, I'll warrant, who will be up to mischief. No,

no; it's Lucy's work, and she shall do it. It will be bedtime before we

know it, for the sun is going down. Lucy!'

This time a child's voice was heard, as little feet pattered along the

terrace outside Ford Manor.

'Aunt Lou is gone,' the child said. 'I saw her running down the hill.'

'Is she? She shall repent it, then, gadding off like that. More shame to

you,' Mrs Forrester said wrathfully, 'to let her go, Mary, and cheat me by

not telling me the truth. You want the child to go to ruin as you did

yourself, I suppose.'

Mary Gifford's face flushed crimson, as she said,--

'It ill becomes my father's wife to taunt his daughter, when he is not here

to defend her. Come with me, Ambrose, nor stay to listen to more hard

words.'

But the child doubled his small fists, and said, approaching his

grandmother,--

'I'll beat you. I'll kill you if you make mother cry! I will, you--'

'Hush, my little son,' Mary said, drawing the boy away. 'It is near thy

bedtime. Come with me; nor forget thy manners if other folk are not mindful

of theirs.'

The tears of mingled sorrow and anger were coursing each other down Mary

Gifford's face, but she wiped them hastily away, and, putting her arm round

the child, she led him up the narrow stairs leading from the large kitchen

to the room above, where she sat down, with Ambrose clasped close to her

heart, by the square bay window, which was flung open on this lovely April

evening.

Ford Manor stood on the slope of the hill, commanding a view of the meadows

stretching down to the valley, where the home of the Sidneys and the tower

of the old church could be seen amongst the trees, now golden in the

brilliant western sunshine of the spring evening. Perhaps there can

scarcely be found a more enchanting prospect than that on which Mary

Gifford looked, as she sat with her boy clasped in her arms, her heart,

which had been pierced with many sorrows, still smarting with the sharp

thrust her stepmother had given her.

[Illustration: PENSHURST CHURCH AND CASTLE.]

That young sister whom she loved so passionately, about whom, in her gay

thoughtless youth, she was so anxious, whom she was ever longing to see

safe under the shelter of a good man's love--it was hard that her boy

should hear such words from those pitiless lips--'lead her to

ruin!'--when her one desire was to shield her from all contamination of the

evil world, of which she had herself had such bitter experience.

Little Ambrose was tired, after a day of incessant running hither and

thither, and lay quiet with his head on his mother's breast, in that

blissful state of contentment to find himself there, which gives the thrill

of deepest joy to a mother's heart.

Ambrose was six years old, and a fair and even beautiful child. The stiff,

ugly dress of the time, could not quite hide the symmetry of his rounded

limbs, and the large ruff, now much crumpled after the day's wear, set off

to advantage the round chin which rested on it and the rosy lips, which had

just parted with a smile, as Mary said,--

'Is my boy sleepy?'

'No, mother; don't put me a-bed yet'

Mary was not unwilling to comply with the request, and so they sat on, the

boy's red-gold curls making a gleam of brightness on the sombre black

garments of widowhood which Mary still wore.

Presently the boy said,--

'When I'm a man, will Mr Philip Sidney let me be his esquire? Aunt Lou says

p'raps he will, if you ask him.'

'My boy will not be a man for many a year yet,' Mary said, pressing the

child closer. 'And he would not leave his mother even for Mr Philip

Sidney.'

Ambrose sat upright, and said,--

'I would come back to you, as Humphrey Ratcliffe comes back to his mother,

but I'd like to ride off with Mr Sidney when I am a man.'

'Yes, yes, my boy, all in good time.'

'And I must learn to ride and wrestle, and--oh! a hundred things. I wish to

be a man like Mr Philip Sidney.'

'May you ever be as good, noble, and learned, my son; but come, the sun is

gone to bed, and Ambrose must go too.'

Then, with loving hands, she prepared her child for his bed, smoothing back

the shining hair from the pure white brow, where the blue veins were

clearly traced, and Ambrose knelt at her knee and repeated his little

prayer, adding, with childlike simplicity, after the Amen,--

'Pray, God, make me a good man, like Mr Philip Sidney.'

While Mary Gifford and little Ambrose were thus together in the upper

chamber of Ford Manor, Lucy Forrester had reached the old timbered house by

the lych gate of Penshurst Church, and had obtained admission at Goody

Salter's door, and put the wheaten cake and two eggs on the little rickety

table which stood against the wall in the dark, low room. The old woman's

thanks were not very profuse, hers was by no means a grateful disposition,

and, perhaps, there was no great inducement for Lucy to prolong her visit.

However that might be, it was very short, and she was soon outside again,

and standing in the village street, looking right and left, as if

expecting to see someone coming in either direction. It had not escaped

Mary Gifford's notice that Lucy dressed herself with more than ordinary

care. She wore the short skirt of the time, which displayed her small feet

and ankles to advantage.

Over the skirt was a crimson kirtle of fine cloth, cut square in the

bodice, and crossed by a thick white kerchief, edged with lace. Lucy's

slender neck was set in a ruff, fastened at the throat by a gold brooch,

which sparkled in the light.

Her chestnut hair was gathered up from her forehead, and a little pointed

cap of black velvet, edged with gold, was set upon it, and contrasted well

with the bright locks, from which a curl, either by accident or design, had

been loosened, and rippled over her shoulder, below her waist.

Lucy was well known in the village, and, as she stood debating whether she

should go home or wait for a few minutes longer, a man, with the badge of

the Sidneys on his arm, came up on horseback, and turned into the park

gate, which was near this end of the village.

'They must be coming now,' she said; 'they must be coming. Perhaps I shall

see Humphrey, and he will tell me if Mr Sydney is returning this evening. I

can hide behind the trees just outside the gate. No one will see me.'

Presently another horseman came riding slowly along. He was hailed by one

of the loiterers in the street, and Lucy heard the question asked and

answered.

'Yes, Mr Sidney is on the road. He is gone round by the main entrance, with

two of his gentlemen.'

'He won't pass this way, then, to-night,' Lucy thought. 'Oh, I wish I could

see him. Humphrey is so dull, and he won't ask him to do what I want. I

know my Lady Mary would take me to see the show if Mr Philip wished, and--'

'Lucy, why are you here alone?' and the speaker dismounted, and, throwing

the reins of his horse to a groom, he was at her side in a moment.

'I came down to bring food to the hungry. Where's the harm of that?'

'It is getting late. I'll walk up the hill with you. Lucy, does Mistress

Gifford know of your coming?'

'What if she doesn't? I please myself; tell me, Humphrey, is Mr Sidney come

home?'

'For a few days. He returns shortly for the great tournament at Whitehall

in honour of the French Embassy.'

'On Sunday next. Oh, Humphrey, I do want to see it--to see Mr Sidney tilt.

I would walk to London to see it, if I can't ride. There is so little time

left. Why won't you ask--beg--pray someone to take me?'

'The tournament is put off. There is time enough and to spare. Her Majesty

the Queen has desired delay, and a day in May is now fixed. Three weeks

hence--'

'Three weeks hence! Then there is hope. I shall go to Lady Mary myself, if

I don't see Mr Sidney.'

'Well, well, come home now, or Mistress Gifford will be full of fears about

you. I marvel that you should add a drop of bitterness to her full cup.'

'I hate you to talk like that,' Lucy said. 'I love Mary better than all the

world beside. No one loves her as I do.'

Humphrey Ratcliffe sighed.

'You speak rashly, like the wayward child you are. In sober earnest, Lucy,

you are too fair to wander into the village alone, and you know it.'

'I wanted to go into the park, and then you came and stopped me.'

'If I did, so much the better,' was the reply. 'I will see you over the

river, at least. Then I must return, to find out if Mr Sidney has any

commands for the morrow.'

They had reached the River Medway now--in these days scarcely more than a

shallow stream, crossed by stepping-stones, or by a narrow plank, with a

handrail on one side only. When the river was low, it was easy to cross the

ford, but, when swollen by heavy rains, it required some skill to do so,

and many people preferred to use the plank as a means of crossing the

stream.

Just as Lucy had put her foot on the first stepping-stone, and rejected all

Humphrey's offers of help with a merry laugh, they were joined by

Humphrey's brother, who was coming down the hill in the opposite direction.

'Stop! hold, Mistress Lucy!' he cried. 'Mistress Forrester, hold!'

'What for?' she said. 'I am coming over,' and with extraordinary swiftness,

Lucy sprang from stone to stone, and, reaching the opposing bank, curtseyed

to George Ratcliffe, saying,--

'Your pleasure, sir?'

'My pleasure is that you should not put your limbs in peril by scaling

those slippery stones. Why not take the bridge?'

'Because I like the ford better. Good-bye. Good-bye, Humphrey,' she called,

waving her hand to the other brother who stood on the bank.

'Good-bye, Mistress Lucy, George will take care of you now. And make all

haste homewards.'

Lucy now began to race up the steep hill at full speed, and her faithful

squire had much difficulty to keep up with her light, airy footsteps.

He was a giant in height and build, and was breathless, when, at the turn

on the side of the hill leading to Ford Manor, Lucy paused.

'You have no cause to come a step further,' she said, laughing. 'Why,

Master Ratcliffe, you are puffing like old Meg when she has pulled the cart

up the hill! Good even to you.'

'Stop, Mistress Forrester.'

'Well, now you are more respectful, I will stop. Well, pray thee, take

breath, and make short work of what you are going to say.'

George hesitated, as much from shyness as from want of breath.

'My mother bids me say that she would fain have you sup with her on the

morrow. Say yes, Lucy; say yes.'

'Oh! I must ask permission first,' she said, 'for, you know, I am a dutiful

step-daughter; but commend me to your mother, and say I will come if they

will permit me, for I love Madam Ratcliffe's sweet pasties. We do not get

sweet pasties yonder. We are bidden to think all sweet and pleasant things

unwholesome, and so we ought to believe it is true; but I don't, for one.

Good-night.'

And Lucy was away along the rugged path at the side of the lane, with its

deep ruts and loose stones, before George Ratcliffe could say another word.

He pursued his way for another mile up the hill, till he came to a house of

rather more pretension than Ford Manor, but of the same character, with a

heavy stone portico and square bays on either side. The diamond-shaped

panes of the lattice were filled in with thick glass, which had only,

within the last few years, replaced the horn which had admitted but little

light into the room, and had been the first attempt at filling in the

windows to keep out rain and storm. Until the latter years of Henry the

Eighth's reign wooden shutters were universal even in the homes of the rich

and great.

The Ratcliffes had held their land under the lords of Penshurst for more

than two centuries, and had, as in duty bound, supplied men and arms, when

called upon to do so by their chief.

The Forresters held also the same tenure of the pasture lands and meadows

which sloped down from Ford Manor, and, in earlier times, they had been the

keepers of the woods which clothed the undulating ground about Penshurst,

and the stately beeches and chestnut trees which stand almost unrivalled in

the far stretching park, where the grand old house of the Sidneys is

situated.

But Mr Forrester, the father of Mary Gifford and Lucy, was the last of his

race, and, though his widow and daughter still occupied the Manor Farm, the

office of keeper of the woods had fallen to another family on a more

distant part of the estate, and it was only by courtesy that Mrs Forrester

was permitted to remain in the house for her life.

The Ratcliffes occupied a superior position, and Mrs Ratcliffe prided

herself on her family, and considered Mrs Forrester very much beneath her

in the social scale.

Was not her younger son the favourite squire of Mr Philip Sidney, an honour

coveted by many, and had he not acquired the air and bearing of the

gentlemen about the Court of the Maiden Queen, and was he not, moreover,

educated in book learning as befitted his position. George, if more homely

in his person and manner, was known in the whole district as a man of

honour, and celebrated for his breed of horses, and for the excellence of

his farm produce.

He superintended everything connected with the small estate, and supplied

the neighbouring gentry with horses, when, perhaps for some hastily formed

expedition, they were suddenly required.

Both brothers were respected in the neighbourhood, and Mrs Ratcliffe had

indeed cause to be satisfied with the sons who had so well taken up the

place their father had left vacant, by a sudden death in the prime of his

manhood.

George Ratcliffe found his mother seated at the head of the long table,

where the men and maidens employed on the farm were gathered at the lower

end.

All rose when George entered, and he said, addressing his mother, as he

seated himself near her,--

'I am later than I thought. I crave pardon, good mother.'

'Granted, my son,' was the reply, with an inclination of the head, which

was, to say the least of it, very stately.

Mrs Ratcliffe stood always upon her dignity before her household, and never

forgot herself, or allowed others to forget, that she was the daughter of a

Knight of the Shire, and that her own family was connected with some of the

leading people at Court. Distantly connected, but still the fact remained,

and Mrs Ratcliffe made the most of it.

When the horn-handled knife had been struck thrice on the board by the

bailiff, who sat at the lower end, the large party rose. George rose also,

and said a short grace. Then the hall was deserted, the servants waiting

till Madam retired to her room, before they cleared away the dishes.

George made a hasty meal, and then, giving his hand to his mother, he led

her through a door at the upper end of the hall to her own parlour.

The spring twilight was deepening, and the figures of both mother and son

were but dimly visible.

Perhaps George was not sorry that there was but little light for his mother

to discover the blush which rose to his honest face, as he said,--

I saw Mistress Lucy Forrester an hour agone, and I bid her to sup with us

on the morrow. I gained your consent to do so,' he added hurriedly.

'You told me of your purpose, George,' his mother said coldly. 'I did not

forbid it, but I could hardly be said to consent. The poor girl may be well

favoured; I do not deny it.'

'Who could deny it?' George exclaimed, with some heat.

'I said I did not deny it; but her relations are, methinks, very coarse.'

'Mother, there is not a gentler lady in the land than Mistress Gifford. If

you doubt my word inquire of Mr Sidney or Lady Mary.'

'There is no occasion for this heat, George; it is unbecoming.'

'Pardon, my mother, but I cannot brook hearing Mistress Gifford and

Mistress Lucy put down as coarse. Coarse!' he repeated--'it is too much!

They can't help themselves that their father chose to marry a virago like

their stepmother. More shame to him; no shame to them.'

'Well-a-day, George, you are really upsetting me. I can hear no more. Stop

this tirade, or I shall swoon; you know I never am fitted to bear loud

voices, or contention and strife. You have bidden the girl to sup, and, as

your cousin Dolly will be here, it will not be amiss for once. But I never

desire to have intercourse with the folk at Ford Place. Although I am a

widow, I must not forget your father's standing. I visit at the Castle, and

dear Lady Mary is so good as to call me her friend. Thus, to be a friend of

Mistress Forrester also is beyond my wish or desire, and surely you could

not desire it.'

George did not reply at first, then he said,--

'Mr Philip Sidney does not despise Mistress Gifford; indeed, it is true,

there is no scorn in him towards anyone that breathes, save only against

mean cowards, liars and traitors. But I wish you a goodnight, mother. I

have to see how the mare does that foaled this morning. She is of great

value to me, and I would fain save her life, if may be.'

When her son was gone, Mistress Ratcliffe resigned herself to meditation.

'He is in love with that child, poor, silly boy. She may be pretty, but it

is the beauty which soon fades. I must keep Dolly with me. She has a pretty

fortune, if not a fair face, and is of our blood, and a meet match for my

home-loving son. I have other hopes for Humphrey. He will wed with some

gentlewoman about the Court. If Mr Philip Sidney wills to bring it about,

it is done. Then I shall be a proud, happy mother, and I shall get out my

taffeta with the old lace, and the ornaments I have not worn since my

husband died, to do honour to the wedding. Humphrey will be knighted some

fine day, and then he shall raise the family again to its proper level.'