HOW IDONIA TAUGHT ME AND A CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD HOW TO KEEP BOOKS
"Now, cry you mercy, Mr. Denis!" said Idonia, "for indeed I guessed not
that affairs of trade were to be in debate between us."
But so confused as I was by her laughter, I could neither deny nor
confirm that saying, but stood before her very hot in the face and, I
make no question, as sour to look upon as she was merry to see me so.
"I had thought you had forced your way hither," she continued, setting
her head a little aside, "in order to rid me of such dangers as might
beset me here, albeit I know of none."
"And knew you of any," said I, pretty desperate by this, "my sword
should make it none, if you would."
Perhaps it was the bitter tone I used, or the knowledge that I spoke
not in mere idle boastfulness; but upon the sudden her manner changed
wholly and she was pleading with me in so tender and deep a voice as it
thrilled me through to hear it.
"Ah, Mr. Denis," said she, coming close and laying her hand on my arm,
"we be friends surely, or if we be not, I know not where I am to seek
for a friend as true hearted, nor one that would venture as far to aid
me. I meant no harm, indeed I did not, though my tongue played my
meaning false, as it doth, alas! too often. If I laughed, 'twas to
fend off weeping, for once I fall to that, I know not when I should be
done."
"Yet you said you had no especial trouble," I returned.
"Nay, if I did, I lied," said Idonia, "for I am beset with troubles
here."
"I thought no less," said I, "and 'twas for that very reason, and in
despite of your refusal to admit me awhile since, that I sought out
other ways to come to you."
She smiled when she heard this honest confession. "So much trade as
that comes to, Mr. Denis, will hardly satisfy your father's debts, I
think."
"I gave myself this one day more," I told her, "but to-morrow I must
necessarily seek employment, though the doing of it I can scarce abide
to think of."
"Having but an half-handful of shillings," said she, "poor lad! there
seemeth nought else to do, unless indeed you steal."
"Steal!" cried I.
"And wherefore not?" said Idonia, with a little hard laugh, "seeing we
all do worse than steal here, or if we do not all so, yet do we stand
by permissively while others do. Oh, sir," she cried, "I warned you
this very morning I was not worth your thought of me, and 'twas truth,
or less than the truth, I told, who live amongst evil folk in this
place and secret men that whisper as they come and go."
She hid her face in her hands so overcome was she by the horror she had
waked, and how to comfort her I knew not.
"Of what quality be these men you speak of?" I demanded, thinking
perhaps they were the thieves beyond the partition wall, who overran
into this place too. "I will lay information against them, before the
magistrate if you will."
Idonia looked at me with a sort of wonder.
"But you know them not," said she, "nor where they bide, when they
leave us."
"Is it not yonder then?" I asked her, and pointed to the little door
aloft in the wall.
"They--poor folk!" she cried. "A pitiful lean company; would they were
no worse I ope the gate to! ... If you had known, when you would have
had me admit you, Mr. Denis.... But they be gone for this while ...
oh, I fear them!" said she, and fell again to weeping.
'Twas evident she dared not be open with me as touching the business
nor estate of those she consorted with, nor, I found, dared give over
this life she led amongst them, for all the fear and horror she had of
it. So, notwithstanding I returned again and again to the question,
she put me off with a manifest dismay.
"No, no," she would cry. "Even so much as I have already let fall is
haply more than wise for me to speak and you to hear. But now," in
conclusion she said, "let us return to your own affairs, in the which
it may chance I may assist you."
She conceived from the first an infinite admiration of my father,
bidding me tell over again the tale of his renouncing all his wealth in
order to the ending his brother's supposed confinement, as well as to
pay that added debt which I had so foolishly incurred. Idonia drew in
her breath sharply when I had done, and then looking me full in the
face, said--
"Whatever may befall you to do, Mr. Denis, 'twill be less than he hath
the right to exact of you; although I believe that the least you will
do he will give you thanks for it."
'Twas my father's nature just, and none could have bettered the
character.
"What can you do?" she demanded briefly, and bade me sit (for we had
both stood this while); she sitting too, on a bundle of folded sails
that lay by the wall.
I hesitated to reply, for leaving the few scraps of Latin and logick
that Master Jordan had been at such pains to drive into me and I had as
easy let slip again, my studies had been woefully neglected, or rather
I had profited by them so little, that there was nothing I knew anyways
whole. I stammered out at last that what I could do, I doubted would
scarce earn me a scavenger's wages, and looked (I suppose) so glum,
that Idonia laughed outright.
"Come, there be books of account," said she, "can you not make shift to
cast moneys in figure?"
I told her I thought I might compass that if I were given time enough;
though for that matter I did not see how I was like greatly to profit
the merchant that should employ me.
But without replying by so much as a word, Idonia went over to an oaken
press by the stair, presently returning with a soiled leathern volume
clasped with a deal of brass and so heavy as to be hardly portable.
This she set open before me saying it was a record of trade done, and
had belonged to one Mr. Enos Procter, whom she knew, and bade me read
in it.
"Lord!" said I, very grave, for I had never seen so intricate and
mysterious a labyrinth of words and cyphers as she then discovered.
"If Dives the rich man got his wealth that way, I suppose his life to
have been something less easy than our divines would have us believe."
"It is a ledger-book," said Idonia.
"Let it be what it will," said I, "it is more than I bargained for."
"Nay, but observe this superscription," she went on, eagerly, "where it
commenceth as is customary: _Laus Deo_ in London, and so following."
She ran her finger along the line commenting with a facility that
astonished me. "This is the accompt of one Mendoza, as you see, a
wool-stapler of Antwerp, and as the Jews ever be, a punctual man of his
money. Look you, now, how differently this other sets to work, Jacob
Hornebolt of Amsterdam, and with what gross irregularity he
transmitteth his bills of exchange ... nay, here, I mean, upon the
Creditor side," cried she, for my eyes ran hither and thither, up and
down the page, like any Jack-apparitor, in quest of her accursed Dutch
Jacob and his pestilent bills.
"Oh, a truce to this," quoth I, "or else turn o'er to a page where a
man's doings be set down in fair Queen's English, and not in such
crabbed and alchemist terms as one must have gone to school to the
Black Witch that should understand 'em. You point me here and you
point me there, and there's Creditor this and Debitor that, with an
whole history between them, good lack! mistress, but it makes my head
reel to hear tell of."
"I had thought you understood me," said she very simply.
"Then 'tis time you understood I did not," said I, roundly, "and what's
more I think you should not neither. It is not maidenly reading;" and
indeed I was staggered that so much of a man's actions should lie open
to any girl's eye that had the trick of cyphers, to peruse them.
Idonia lifted her eyebrows pretty high, hearing me speak so, but
presently shut up the book, and putting it by, said a little wearily--
"I had meant to help you, Denis, but you are over-dull, I find; or if
you be apt 'tis not in learning. Some lads there be think to get a
living other ways, though other ways I know not to be so honest, though
haply as easy."
'Twas on my tongue to retort upon her with a speech in the same kind,
but I had to confess I could not frame one half so wittily, and
therefore said very tragical--
"I stay not where I am not welcome," and taking up my cap, bowed very
low to Idonia, who for her part, paid no heed to me, and although I
halted once or twice on my way to the door, stood averse from me, as
being careless whether I stayed or went.
"I am not reckoned over-dull at sword play," I muttered, when I had got
as far as I could, without departing altogether.
"Oh, if you think to fence for a living, sir," said Idonia, over her
shoulder, "I pity your father."
"He needs none of your pity, mistress," cried I.
"I know not where better to bestow it," she replied, "unless it be upon
a boy with twelve shillings and no wit to add to them."
Now, how one I had so handsomely benefited could yet run into this
excess of obstinacy as she did, I stood astonished to consider, and in
my heart called her a thankless wench, and myself a preposterous ass to
remain there any longer. Notwithstanding had I had the sense to read
the account between us whole, I doubt Mistress Avenon owed not a whit
more to me than I to her; although in my resentment she seemed then a
very Jacob Hornebolt, and as gross a defaulter upon the balance as that
dilatory Hollander.
"Then I leave you to better companionship," said I, having run my
length, "and to such as have at the least the wit to please you, which
I have not, all done."
What she would have said to that I cannot guess, for before she could
speak there came a thundering rattle at the door and a voice calling
upon her to open in the Queen's name.
"Dear God!" whispered the girl. "'Tis the soldiers come," and stood
facing me, distraught and quaking.
"Is it you they seek?" I asked, quick, but could not hear what she
answered me, for the knocking drowned all.
"Up the ladder," I bade her. "Go, and draw it after. I will abide the
event."
'Twas this advice steadied her, although she refused it. Instead, she
shook off my hand that would have led her, and going to the ladder by
which I had descended, drew it away from the trap in the wall and laid
it along the floor.
"They would but use the same means to follow me," she said, and so
without more ado went to the door and opened it. A score of
halberdiers burst into the hall.
"What is your will, masters?" demanded Idonia; and her pride I had
before denounced I found commendable enough, now she directed it
against these intruders.
One that seemed to be their Captain stepped forth, and having slightly
saluted her with a hand to his morion, turned leisurely to his
following, and bade them shut the gate; which done, he posted them,
some before the ways accessible to the hall, and the rest under a
sergeant, in the rooms above it, that he commanded them strictly to
scrutinize. The soldiers had no sooner obeyed him than he drew forth a
paper largely sealed, which he told us, with a great air, was Her
Grace's commission and gave warrant to search this messuage of Petty
Wales for any such as might seem to be obnoxious to the Queen's peace,
there harbouring.
The Captain was a tall, ill-favoured youth, of a behaviour quite
lacking of courtesy, yet well enough matched to the task he had in
hand; for he spoke in a slow and overbearing voice that betokened as
much doubt of another's honesty, as satisfaction for the power given
him to apprehend all that should withstand him. Idonia and I stood
some distance apart, and after a swift glance at me, the Captain
addressed himself to the girl solely, and with so evident a mistrust of
her, as it maddened me to hear him.
"Your name, mistress?" said the Captain.
"Idonia Avenon," she replied carelessly, though I could not but grieve
to note how pale she continued.
"And your father, he lives here with you?"
"He is dead," said she.
"Who inhabits here, then, besides yourself?"
"A many," replied Idonia, "though I have not their names."
The Captain turned aside to his lieutenant with some whispered word of
offence that made the fellow smile broadly; and at that I could no
further refrain myself.
"Stay within the limits of your commission, sir," said I hotly, "and
keep your jests for other seasons."
He troubled not so much as to turn his head my way, but took up his
examination of Idonia again.
"Nor you know not their trades either, I suppose?" said he with a sneer.
"Saving this man's here present," replied the girl, "who keeps the
books of accompt in a great merchant's counting-house."
You may judge whether I gasped at that, or no; and perhaps the Captain
noted my alarm, for he inquired at once who the merchant might be I
served.
"'Tis Mr. Edward Osborne," said Idonia, "unless I mistake."
"It is," said I, and remembering Mr. Nelson's words, added boldly that
he was Governor of the Turkey Company; but inwardly I said, "Whither
doth this lying tend?"
"And what purposeth he in this house?" demanded the soldier, somewhat
taken aback by our credible answers.
"What, but to learn me in the keeping of accompts?" replied she.
"Ah, an apt scholar, I doubt not," cried the other, raising his chin
insolently.
"I think I am not so backward for a maid," said Idonia modestly, and
reached forth her hand to the great ledger-book I had so maligned; the
which I now saw turned to an engine of our salvation; for opening it at
the former place she continued:
"He instructs me that herein is set down the merchant's commerce with
one Mendoza, a wool-stapler of Antwerp, and a Jew, who despite the
scandal of his unbelief, is, as appeareth plainly, an honest man. I
pray you, sir, follow me," said she, and directed him to the page, "to
the end you may correct me if I be in error."
I never saw a man's countenance fall so as the Captain's did then; who
having formerly stood so stiff upon his right, was now ready to
compound upon almost any terms; only Idonia would not, but interrupted
his pish's, and his well-well's, and go-to's, with a clear exposition
of the whole matter of wool, the while I, her supposed tutor, stood by
with open mouth and a heart charged with admiration of her wit.
"Enough," shouted the Captain, at last. "I came not hither for this,
as you know, mistress, who are either the completest accountant or else
the prettiest wanton this side Bridewell Dock. Halberdiers, have a
care!" cried he, and so returning to them with a curse, marshalled them
into a body and would have withdrawn them forthwith, when a cry from
one of the chambers aloft suddenly sounding out, he ordered them again
to stand to their arms and ran forward to the foot of the stairs. I
chanced to look at Idonia then, and blessed Heaven that her examination
was done, and all eyes save mine averted from her, for she shook like
one in a palsy and staggered backward to the wall. I had bare leisure
to follow her thither and support her, before the whole troop of those
that had gone above returned down, bearing along with them in their
midst a man whom they held, or rather dragged along with them, so
without strength was he, and all aghast.
"A good capture," said the Captain in his slow, cruel voice, and bade
the guard stand back from the abject fellow, but be ready to prevent
his escape. "I thought not to have had so fair a fortune," said he,
"although our information was exact enough that you lay here, Master
Jesuit, whom I believe to be (and require you to answer to it) that
notorious Jacques de Courcy, by some called Father Jacques, a Frenchman
and plotting Jesuit."
"I am a poor schoolmaster of Norfolk," said the man, very humbly.
"Do you deny you are this Courcy, and a devilish Papist?" asked the
Captain again.
The prisoner looked around wildly, as if he hoped even now to get free,
but the ring about him was too close for that, and the pikes all
levelled at his breast. Something of the dignity which despair will
throw over a man that hath come into the extreme of peril, sustained
him mercifully then, so that he who was before but a pitiful shrinking
coward, became (and so remained to the end) a figure not all unmeet to
the part he played.
"Were I to recite my creed," said he very low, "you would but make mock
of it; while for yourself, I see you be already minded to work your
will upon me."
"We go no further than our Prince commands us," said the other loftily.
"And I, no further than my Prince hath enjoined long since," said the
Jesuit.
"Pish! words!" replied the Captain. "Do you still persist in denying
that you are Jacques de Courcy?"
But the prisoner stood silent. Then one of the soldiers that stood
behind him went forward and took him something roughly by the collar,
bidding him answer; but the Jesuit turning about to see who it was
detained him thus, his coat burst open, and we saw he wore a little
leaden crucifix about his neck. A shout of laughter greeted the
discovery. "To the Tower with him, march!" cried the Captain. But ere
they could seize the man he had leapt forward upon the pikes, and by
main force taking one of the pike-heads into his two hands he thrust it
deep under his shoulder.
After that I thank Heaven that I saw no more, for Idonia swooned away,
and I almost, in horror of that poor hunted man's death. The
halberdiers bore the body off with them, nor paid the least regard to
us twain, but left us where we were, Idonia prone upon the cold flags
of the hall, and me above her, tending her.