"Sorry--yes--but there is no time for sorrow," said the noble lady;
"we must be up and doing. We are betrayed."
"Did your son, the noble Viscount Mallerden, tell you this?"
"He is one of the betrayers--know you not what manner of man he
is?--Then I will tell you." And here a strange light flashed from
her eyes, and her lips became compressed till all the colour
disappeared--"He is a viper that stung me once--and would sting me
again if I took him to my bosom, and laid it open for his poisonous
tooth. I tell you the Lord Mallerden is a godless, hopeless, faithless
man--bound hand and foot to the footstool of the despotic, cruel
monster--the Jesuit who has now his foot upon the English throne. He
is a Papist, fiercer, bitterer, crueller, because he has no belief
neither in priest nor pope--but he is ambitious, reckless, base, a
courtier. He prideth himself in his shame, and says he has openly
professed. It is to please the hypocritical master he serves. And he
boasts that our late king--defender of the faith--was shrived on his
deathbed by a Popish friar."
"I cannot believe it, my lady."
"You are a good man--a good simple man, Master Willis," she said; and
although the words of her designation were above my deserts, seeing
that simplicity and goodness are the great ornaments of the Christian
character, still the tone in which she spoke did not partake of the
nature of a compliment, and I bowed, but made no observation in reply.
"But it needs men of other minds in these awful times which I see
approaching--men of firmness, men of boldness--yea, who can shed blood
and shudder not; for great things are at stake."
"I trust not, my lady--albeit the shedding of blood"----
"I know, is generally condemned; yet be there texts which make it
imperative, and I think I foresee that the occasion for giving them
forth is at hand. All means in their power they will try; yes, though
James of York has been but four days a king, he had already made
perquisition for such as may be useful to him, not in settling the
crown upon his head, but in carrying off this people and kingdom, a
bound sacrifice to the blind idol which he worshippeth at Rome. You
know not the history of that man; no, nor of my son. Alas! that a
mother's lips should utter such words about her own flesh and blood!
The one of them I tell you is a bigot, a pursuer, a persecutor--the
other a sensualist, a Gallio, a tool. For many years he has never
beheld his mother's face; he married in his youth; he injured,
deserted, yea, he killed his wife--not with his own hand or with the
dagger, but by the surer weapons of hatred, neglect, unkindness. And
she died. He has but one child; that child was left in charge of my
honoured and loving daughter, the Lady Pevensey of Notts, and hath
been brought up in a Christian manner; but now he--this man of
Belial--wishes to get this infant in his own hands; nay, he boldly has
made a demand of her custody both on me and Pevensey, my daughter. We
will not surrender her; he is now great and powerful. The king will
back his efforts with all the weight of the crown; and we have
considered, if we could confide the persecuted dove to the hands of
some assured friend--some true son of our holy church--some steady,
firm-hearted, strong-nerved man, who in such cause would set lord and
king at defiance"----
Here she paused, and looked upon me with her eyes dilated, and her
nostrils panting with some great thought which was within her; and I
availed myself of the pause to say--
"Oh, my lady! if you did mean me for such charge, I confess my
deficiency for such a lofty office; for I do feel in me no stirrings
of an ambitious spirit. Sufficient is it for me to take care of the
innocent flock committed to my care, in the performance of which
charge I have the approbation of my own heart, and also, I make bold
to hope it, of your ladyship, seeing that I have instructed them in
the true principles both of faith and practice; and although there are
shortcomings in them all, by reason the answers in the Catechism are
not adapted to the capacities of the younger ones, especially of
Charles (who, notwithstanding, has abilities and apprehensions above
his years), yet are they all imbued with faithful doctrine, from Alice
Snowton, which is the most advanced in stature, to the honourable
Master Fitzoswald, which is somewhat deficient in growth, being only
three inches taller than my little Charles."
The great lady looked at me while I spoke, and made no answer for a
long time. At last she said with a sort of smile, which at the same
time was not hilarious or jocular in its nature--
"Perhaps 'tis better as it is. There is a providence in all things,
and our plans and proposals are all overruled for the best--for which
may God be praised! Therefore I will press you no more on the subject
of the guardianship of my grandchild. But Mallerden will move heaven
and earth to get her into his power--yes, though he has neglected her
so long, never caring to see her since her childhood; yet now, when he
sees 'twill gain him the treasurership of the royal household to sell
the greatest heiress and noblest blood in England to the Papists, he
will make traffic of his own child, and marry her to some
prayer-mumbler to a wooden doll. Let us save her, good sir--but I
forgot. No--I will save her myself. I, that have steered her through
so many quicksands, will not let her make shipwreck at last. I will
guard her like the apple of my eye, and possess my soul in patience
until this tyranny be overpast." And so ended the interview, during
which my heart was tossed to and fro with the utmost agitation, and my
whole frame so troubled that I various times lost all mastery of
myself, and only saw before me a great black gulf of ruin, into which
some invisible power was pushing me and all my little ones. Great,
therefore, was my delight, and sweet the relief to my soul, when the
great lady left me unconnected with her quarrels. For, in the crash of
such contending powers, there was no chance of escape for such a weak
instrument as I was; and fervent were my hopes, and deep my prayers,
that the perils and evils prognosticated by the religious fears of my
great protectress might be turned aside, and all good subjects and
sincere churchmen left each under his own vine and his own fig-tree,
with nobody to make them afraid. But vain are the hopes of men. We
read in no long time in all men's looks the fate we were condemned to;
for it seemed as if a great cloud, filled with God's wrath, was spread
out over this realm of England, and the faces of all men grew dark. We
heard the name of Jeffreys whispered in corners, and trembled as if it
had been a witch's spell to make our blood into water. The great lady
kept herself much in solitude in the ancient Court, and saw not even
her favourite companion, my daughter Waller, for many months; but did
ever write affectionate letters to her, and sent presents of rich
fruits, and other delectations in which the young take pleasure. There
was much riding to and fro of couriers, but whither, or whence, she
did never tell, and it was not my province to enquire; but at last an
order came for me to send up my Waller and her friend to the mansion.
And at evening they were conveyed on horseback as before; but on this
occasion their escort was not Master Wilkinson the under butler, but
no less a person than my lady's kinsman, the senior brother of my
honourable pupil, the honourable Master Fitzoswald of Yorkshire, a
stately young cavalier as could be seen, strong and tall, and his
style and title was the Lord Viscount Lessingholm--being the eldest
son and heir to that ancient earldom. He was an amiable and pleasant
gentleman, full of courtesies and kindness, and particularly pleased
with the newfangled fashion of a handsome cap which formed the
headpiece of my excellent wife. He said also many handsome things
about the brightness of my Waller's eyes, and assured my excellent
wife that he saw so promising an out-sprout of talent in my Charles,
that he doubted not to see him one of the judges of the realm, if so
be he applied his intellectuals to the bar. He was also extreme civil
to Alice Snowton, which answered his civilities in like manner; and
seldom in so short a space as half an hour has any person made so
favourable an impression as he did, particularly on his brother, by
reason of his bestowing on him a large Spanish doubloon, and promising
him a delicate-coloured maneged horse immediately on his return to
Yorkshire. It is a pleasant sight to see (and reflected some credit on
my ministration of the moralities in this particular instance) the
disinterested love of brethren, one towards another; and I failed not
to ascertain that the Lord Lessingholm had been boarded in the house
of an exemplary divine, to wit, Mr Savage of Corpus Christi College,
Oxford--a fact which I think it proper to mention to the honour of
that eloquent member of our church--inasmuch as any man might be proud
of having had the training up in the way he should go, of so excellent
and praiseworthy a youth.
It was many days before my young ones came back (I would be understood
to include in this Alice Snowton, whom I looked upon with the
tenderness of a father and the pride of a teacher all in one); and
when they returned to me, I thought I perceived that they were both
more sorrowful than of wont. Alice (and my Waller also) looked
oppressed with some secret that weighed upon their hearts, and I was
fearful the great lady had made them partakers of her cares in the
matter of her son and her grandchild. Yet did I not think such a thing
possible as that either of them should have been taken into her
confidence on so high and momentous a concernment, by reason of my
Waller being so young, though thoughtful and considerate, and also
fuller grown than persons much more advanced in life; and Alice
Snowton was of so playful and gentle a disposition, that she seemed
unfitted for the depository of any secret, unless those more strictly
appertaining to her youth and sex, and moreover was a stranger to this
part of the country; being of a respectable family, as I have
observed, in Wilts--namely, a brother of Mr Snowton, my kind patron
and friend. I called them into my study, after my labours were over
with the other pupils, and I said to them--
"Dear children, ill would it become me to pry into the secrets of my
honoured lady, the Lady Mallerden; yet may there arise occasions
wherein it is needful for one in my situation (parent to the one of
you, and _in loco parentis_ to the other), to make perquisition into
matters of weight and importance to your well-being, even at the risk
of appearing inquisitive into other peoples' affairs. Answer me,
therefore, Alice, my dear child, has the Lady Mallerden instructed you
in any portion of her family story?"
"She has in some degree, sir," said Alice Snowton, "but not deeply."
"You know of her disagreement on certain weighty points with her son,
the Lord Viscount, and how that he is a wicked man, seeking to break
into the pasture of the Lord, and tear down the hedges and destroy the
boundaries thereof; and that in this view he is minded to get his
daughter into his power, to use her as an instrument towards his
temporal elevation?"
"Something of all this we have heard, but not much," said Alice
Snowton.
"And furthermore, I must tell you that overtures were made to me to
aid and assist in the resistance to be offered to this man of sin, and
I did, for deep and wholesome reasons, refuse my assent thereto, and
in this refusal I meant you, my children, to be included; therefore,
whatever propositions may be made to you, to hear, or know, or
receive, or in any manner aid, in the concealment of the Lord
Viscount's daughter--which is at present in charge of an honourable
lady in the north--I charge you, refuse them; they may bring ruin on
an unambitious and humble household, and in no case can do good. We
must fear God ever, and honour the king while he is intrusted with the
sword of power; and family arrangements we must leave to the strong
hands and able head of the great Lady Mallerden herself. In this
caution I know I fulfil the intentions of my honoured friend, your
esteemed uncle, Mr William Snowton, which is concerned with too many
noble families to desire to get into enmity with any--and therefore be
grateful for all the kindness you experience from my honoured lady;
but if perchance she brings her grandchild to the Court, and wishes to
make you of her intimates, inform me thereof; and greatly as it would
be to be regretted, I would break off the custom of your visits to the
noble house, for even that honour may be too dearly purchased by the
enmity of powerful and unscrupulous men--if with sceptres in their
hands, so much the more to be held in awe." And I ended with Æsopus
his fable of the frogs and bulls. This discourse (whereof I had
prepared the heads in the course of the morning) I delivered with the
full force of my elocution, and afterwards I dismissed them, leaving
to my excellent wife the duty of enlarging on the same topic, and also
of giving such advice to Alice, which was now a full-grown young
woman, and very fair to look on, in respect of the young cavaliers she
might see at the great house, particularly the noble lord, the Lord
Lessingholm. Such advice I considered useless in regard to my Waller,
she being only about fourteen years of age, but in other respects a
fair and womanly creature to see; for her waist was nearly twice as
large as Alice Snowton's, and her shoulders also, and in weight she
would have been greatly an overmatch; and certes, putting aside all
parental fondness, which we know to be such a beautifier of one's own
kindred as to make the crow a more lovely animal than the dove (in the
eyes of the parent crow), I will confess that in my estimation, and
also in that of my excellent wife, there was no comparison between the
two fair maidens, either in respect of fulness of growth or redness of
complexion--the advantage being, in both these respects, on the side
of the junior. Some sentiment of this sort I saw at the time must have
possessed the honourable breast of the Viscount Lessingholm; for
although he made much profession of visiting at the parsonage for the
sake of seeing his juvenile brother, still there were certain looks
and tokens whereby I was clearly persuaded that the magnet was of a
different kind; and whereas it would have been vain and ambitious in
me to lift my eyes so high, in view of matrimonial proposals, as to
nearly the topmost branch in the peerage of England (the Earls
Fitzoswald being known to have been barons of renown at the period of
the Norman Conquest); still it would ill have become me to prevent my
daughter from gathering golden apples if they fell at her feet,
because they had grown on such a lofty bough of the tree; and I will
therefore confess, that it was with no little gratification I saw the
unfoldings of a pure and virtuous disposition in the honourable young
nobleman. And I will further state, that it seemed as if his presence
when he came (and that was often, nay, sometimes twice in one day),
did make holiday in the whole house; and Charles was by no means
backward in his friendship--receiving the fishing-rods presented unto
him by the right honourable with so winning an eagerness, and pressing
Alice (his constant friend) to go with him and the noble donor with so
much zeal to the brook, therein to try the virtues of the gift, that I
found it impossible to refuse permission; and therefore did those
three often consume valuable hours (yet also I hope not altogether
wasted)--_videlicet_, Alice and Charles, and the honourable
viscount--in endeavouring to catch the finny tribe, yet seldom with
much success. But whatever was the result of their industry--yea,
though it was but a minnow--it was brought and presented to my Waller
by the honourable hands of the young man, with so loving an air, that
it was easy to behold how gladly he would have consented, if she had
been the companion of their sports, if by any means Charles could have
been persuaded to have exchanged Alice Snowton for her. But the very
mention of such an idea did throw the child into such wrathful
indignation, that the right honourable was fain to bestow on him whole
handfuls of sugar-plums, and promise that Alice should not be left
behind. So fared the time away; and at last I began to hope that the
fears of the great lady were unfounded, and that nothing would occur
to trouble her repose. The manner of living had been resumed again,
with the difference that, on the days the young maidens did not visit
the noble mansion, the honourable viscount was, as it were, domiciled
in the parsonage; and I perceived that, by this arrangement, the great
lady was highly pleased; perhaps because the presence of a kinsman, a
courageous gentleman, gave her some security against the rudenesses
she seemed to be afraid of on the part of her own son--a grievous
state of human affairs when the fifth commandment is not held in
honour, and reducing us below the level of puppy-dogs and kittens, to
whom that commandment, along with the rest of the decalogue, is
totally unknown. Sundry times I did observe symptoms of alarm; and
care did write a sad story of mental suffering on the brow of the
great lady, which was a person of the magnanimity of an ancient
matron, and bore up in a manner surprising to behold in one who stood,
as it were, with one hand upon her coffin, while her other stretched
backward through the shadow of fourscore years to touch her cradle.
And ever, from time to time, couriers came to the noble mansion, while
others flew in various directions on swift horses at utmost speed; and
looking up into that lofty atmosphere, we saw clouds and ominous signs
of coming storms, before we could hear the voice of the thunder. And
once a royal messenger (called a pursuivant-at-arms) came down in
person, and carried the great lady to London, and there she staid
many days, and was threatened with many things and great punishments,
yea, even to be tried by the Lord Jeffreys for high treason, in
resisting the king's order to deliver up her grandchild to its natural
guardian--which was its father the Viscount Mallerden, now created by
royal favour Marquess of Danfield. But even this last danger she
scorned; and after months of confinement near the royal court, her
enemies gave up persecuting her for that season, and at last she came
back to Mallerden Court. In the meanwhile, we went on in a quiet and
comfortable manner in the parsonage--the Viscount Lessingholm
frequently with us (almost as if he were a pupil of the house); and on
one or two occasions we had a visit for an evening from my honoured
friend, Mr William Snowton of Wilts. He was pleased to use great
commendations, both of my excellent wife and me, for the mode in which
we attended to the mind and manners of his niece, the culinary and
other accomplishments, and the rational education wherein he saw her
advanced. He never staid later than day-dawn on the following morning,
and kept himself reserved, as one used to the intimacy of the great,
and not liking to make his news patent to humble people such as we;
and he would on no account open his mouth on the quarrels of our great
lady and her son, the new Marquess of Danfield, but kept the
conversation in equable channels of everyday matters, and expounded
how my glebe-lands might be made to yield a greater store of provision
by newer modes of cultivation--the which I considered, however, a
tampering with Providence, which gives to every field its increase,
and no more. But by this time my glebe was not the only land on which
I could plant my foot and say, Lo, thou art mine! for I had so
prospered in the five years during which I had held a ladder for my
pupils to the tree of knowledge, that much golden fruit had fallen to
my share (being kicked down, as it were, by their climbing among the
branches); so that I had purchased the fee-simple of the estate of my
friend, Master George Sprowles, who had taken some alarm at the state
of public affairs, and gone away over the seas to the plantation
called, I think, Massachusetts, in the great American continent.
It was in the beginning of October 1688, that another call was made on
the great lady to make her appearance within a month from that time in
the city of London, to give a final answer for her contumacy in
refusing obedience to the King and the Lord High Treasurer. I felt in
hopes the object of their search (namely, the young maiden his
daughter, for it was bruited they rummaged to find her out in all
directions) was safe with some foreign friends which the great lady
possessed in the republic of Holland, where the Prince of Orange was
then the chief magistrate; but of this I had no certain assurance.
For some days no preparations were made at the noble mansion for so
momentous a journey; but at length there were great signs of something
being in prospect. First of all, the Viscount Lessingholm rode up from
Yorkshire, whither he had been gone three weeks, attended by near a
score of fine dressed serving-men, and took up his abode at Mallerden
Court; then came sundry others of the great lady's kinsfolk, attended
also by their servants in stately liveries; and we did expect that the
proud imperial-minded lady was to go up with such great escort as
should impress the king with a just estimate of her power and dignity.
With this expectation we kept ourselves ready to see the noble
procession when it should start on its way; but far other things were
in store for me, and an instrument called a pea-spitter, wherewith
Charles had provided himself for the purpose of saluting various of
the serving-men as they passed, was rendered useless. It was on the
first day of November that the Lord Viscount Lessingholm (who had
conveyed the young maidens, _videlicet_ Alice Snowton and my Waller,
to the Court on the previous day) did ride post haste up to my door,
making his large grey horse jump over the gate at the end of the walk,
as if he had been Perseus flying on his winged steed to the rescue of
Andromede (as the same is so elegantly described in the ancient poet),
and did summon me to go that moment to the noble mansion on matter of
the highest import. Much marvelling, and greatly out of breath, I
followed the noble gentleman's motions as rapidly as was beseeming one
in my responsible situation, in regard to the spiritual ministrations
in the parish, while in sight of any of my flock; for nothing detracts
more from the dignity of the apostolical character than rapid
motions--such as running, or jumping, or an unordered style of
apparel, without hatband or cassock. When out of the village street, I
put (as the vulgar phrase expresses it) my best foot foremost, and
enacted the part of a running serving-man in the track of my noble
conductor; and finally I arrived, in such state as may be conceived,
at the entrance-hall of the noble mansion. In the courtyard were
numerous serving-men mounted in silent gravity, and ranged around the
wall. Each man was wrapped up in a dark-coloured cloak; and underneath
it I saw, depending from each, the clear polished extremity of a steel
sword-sheath. They did bear their reins tightened, and their heels
ornamented with spurs, as if ready to spring forth at a word, and
great tribulation came over my soul. Howbeit I mounted the grand
staircase, and following the western corridor, I opened the door of
the green-damask withdrawing-room, and found myself in the middle of a
large and silent company. There were, perhaps, a dozen persons there
assembled--motionless in their chairs; and at the further end of the
apartment sat the great lady in whispered conversation with a tall
dark gentleman of mature years, say fifty or thereabouts, and with a
wave of her hand, having instructed me to be seated, she pursued her
colloquies in the same under-tones as before. When I had placed myself
in a chair, and was in somewhat recovering my breath, which much
hurrying and the surprising scene I saw had greatly impaired, a hand
was laid upon my shoulder, and I turned round, and, sitting in the
next chair to me, I beheld my honoured friend Mr William Snowton of
Wilts.
"Good Master Willis," he said, "you little expected to see me here, I
do well believe; but it was but lately I was summoned."
"And know you wherefore we are here assembled?" I inquired.
"Somewhat I know, but not all. The persons here be men of great power,
some of them being those by whom I am employed in managing their
worldly affairs, and shortly we shall hear what is determined on."
"On what subject do they mean to consult us? I shall be ready," said
I, "to give what advice may be needed, if peradventure it suits with
my sacred calling."
"I fear they will hardly consult a person of your holy profession,"
said Mr Snowton with a sober kind of smile. "It is of life or death
we are now to take our choice."
A great fear fell upon me, as a great shadow falls upon the earth
before a thunder-storm. "What mean ye?" I whispered. "There is no
shedding of blood."
"There will be _much_ shedding of blood, good Master Willis; yea, the
rivers in England will run red with the same, unless some higher power
interferes to deliver us."
"And wherefore am I summoned to such fearful conference? I am no man
of blood. I meddle not with lofty matters. I----"
But here I was interrupted by Mr Snowton in a low grave tone. "Then
you have not heard that the wicked man of sin, the false Papist, the
Marquess of Danfield, hath discovered his child?"
"No, I have not been informed thereof. And hath he gained possession
of her?"
"No, nor shall not!" and hereupon he frowned a great frown, and let
his sword-sheath strike heavily upon the floor. All the company looked
sharply round; but seeing it was by hazard, they took no notice of
what occurred.
"And where, then, is the maiden bestowed?" I demanded.
"In this house; you shall see her soon."
"And what have I to do with these matters? They are above my
concernment!" I exclaimed, in great anguish of mind.
"You have to unite her in the holy bands of wedlock."
"Nay, that is clearly impossible! Where, I pray thee, is the license?"
"All that has been cared for by means of a true bishop of our church.
There can be no scruple on canonical grounds; and if there be
hesitation in obeying the Lady Mallerden's orders (provided she
finally makes up her mind to deliver the same), I would not answer for
the recusant's life, no, not for an hour."
"But wherefore in such secresy, with such haste?" I said, in dreadful
sort.
"Because we know that the father slept at Oxford last night with store
of troops, and that he will be here this night with a royal warrant to
enforce his right to the bestowal of his child; and he hath already
promised her to the leader of the malignant Papists."
"And are we here to resist the king's soldiers and the mandate of the
king?"
"Yea, to the death!" he said, and sank into gloomy thoughts and said
no more.
I looked around among the assembly, and recognised no other faces that
I knew, and in a short space the great lady, having finished her
colloquy with her next neighbour, rose up and said--"My lords, I
believe ye be all of kin to this house, and the other gentlemen be its
friends--a falling house, as represented by a feeble woman of
fourscore years and five. Yet in the greatness of the cause, may we
securely expect a gift of strength even to so frail an instrument as I
am. I have consulted with you all, and finally I have taken counsel
with my kind cousin and sweet friend, the Earl of Fitzoswald, now at
my side, and he hath agreed to what I have proposed. It now, then, but
remains to carry our project into effect; and for that purpose I have
summoned hither a good man and excellent divine, Master Willis of this
neighbourhood, to be efficacious in that behalf."
I started up, and said in great agitation--"Oh, my lady!"----but had
not proceeded further when I was broken in upon by a voice of
thunder--
"Silence, I say! What, is it for the frailness of a reed like you that
such noble enterprise must perish? Make no remonstrance, sir, but do
what is needed, or----"
Although the great lady did not finish her words, I felt an assurance
steal like ice over my soul that my hours were numbered if I
hesitated, and I bowed low, while Mr William Snowton did privily pull
me down into my seat by the hinder parts of my cassock.
"You--you, Master Willis, of all men, should least oppose this godly
step. For the noise thereof will sound unto the ends of the earth, and
make the old Antichrist on his seven hills quake and tremble, and
shake the pitiful spirit of the apostate of Whitehall. Say I not well,
my lords?"
"You say well," ran round the room in a murmur of consent.
"And you--you, Master Willis," she went on, "least of all, should
object to keep a lamb within the true fold--yea, a lamb which you did
see with your own eyes introduced into the same. Remember you nought
of godly Master Waller's in Berkshire, or of the scene you saw in a
certain chamber, where the baptismal waters were poured forth, and
murmured like a pleasant fountain in the dying ears of a devout
Christian woman?"