"THEY WON'T MAKE ME!"
"What! Agnes Bongeor taken to the Moot Hall? Humph! they'll be
a-coming for me next. I must get on with my work. Let's do as much as
we can for the Lord, ere we're called to suffer for Him. Thou tookest
my message to Master Commissary, Doll?"
Dorothy Denny murmured something which did not reach the ear of Mrs
Wade.
"Speak up, woman! I say, thou tookest my message?"
"Well, Mistress, I thought--"
"A fig for thy thought! Didst give my message touching Johnson's
children?"
"N-o, Mistress, I,--"
"Beshrew thee for an unfaithful messenger. Dost know what the wise King
saith thereof? He says it is like a foot out of joint. Hadst ever thy
foot out o' joint? I have, and I tell thee, if thou hadst the one foot
out of joint, thou wouldst not want t'other. I knew well thou wert an
ass, but I did not think thee unfaithful. Why didst not give my
message?"
There were tears in Dorothy's eyes.
"Mistress," said she, "forgive me, but I will not help you to run into
trouble, though you're sore set to do it. It shall serve no good
purpose to keep your name for ever before the eyes of Master Commissary
and his fellows. Do, pray, let them forget you. You'll ne'er be safe,
an' you thrust yourself forward thus."
"Safe! Bless the woman! I leave the Lord to see to my safety. I've no
care but to get His work done."
"Well, then He's the more like to have a care of you; but, Mistress,
won't you let Dorothy Denny try to see to you a bit too?"
"Thou'rt a good maid, Doll, though I'm a bit sharp on thee at times; and
thou knows thou art mortal slow. Howbeit, tell me, what is come of
those children? If they be in good hands, I need not trouble."
"Ursula Felstede has them, Mistress, till the Black Nuns of Hedingham
shall fetch them away."
"Ursula Felstede! `Unstable as water.' That for Ursula Felstede.
Black Nuns shall not have 'em while Philippa Wade's above ground. I
tell thee, Dorothy, wherever those little ones go, the Lord's blessing
'll go with them. Dost mind what David saith? `I have been young, and
now am old; and yet saw I never the righteous forsaken, nor his seed
begging their bread.' And I want them, maid,--part because I feel for
the little ones, and part because I want the blessing. Why, that poor
little Cicely 'll be crying her bits of eyes out to part with `Father.'
Doll, I'll go down this even, if I may find leisure, to Ursula Felstede,
and see if I cannot win her to give me the children. I shall tell her
my mind first, as like as not: and much good may it do her! But I'll
have a try for 'em--I will."
"Folks saith, Mistress, the prisoners be in as good case as may be:
always reading and strengthening one another, and praising God."
"I'm fain to hear it, Dorothy. Ah, they be not the worst off in this
town. If the Lord were to come to judge the earth this even, I'd a deal
liefer be one of them in the Moot Hall than be of them that have them in
charge. I marvel He comes not. If he had been a man and not God, He'd
have been down many a time afore now."
About six o'clock on a hot July evening, Ursula Felstede heard a tap at
her door.
"Come in! O Mistress Wade, how do you do? Will you sit? I'm sure
you're very welcome," said Ursula, in some confusion.
"I'm not quite so sure of it, Ursula Felstede: but let be. You've
Johnson's children here, haven't you?"
"Ay, I have so: and I tell you that Will's a handful! Seems to me he's
worser to rule than he used. He's getting bigger, trow."
"And Cicely?"
"Oh, she's quiet enough, only a bit obstinate. Won't always do as she's
told. I have to look after her sharp, or she'd be off, I do believe."
"I'd like to see her, an't please you."
"Well, to be sure! I sent 'em out to play them a bit. I don't just
know where they are."
"Call that looking sharp after 'em?"
Ursula laughed a little uneasily.
"Well, one can't be just a slave to a pack of children, can one? I'll
look out and see if they are in sight."
"Thank you, I'll do that, without troubling you. Now, Ursula Felstede,
I've one thing to say to you, so I'll say it and get it over. Those
children of Johnson's have the Lord's wings over them: they'll be taken
care of, be sure: but if you treat them ill, or if you meddle with what
their father learned them, you'll have to reckon with Him instead of the
Queen's Commissioners. And I'd a deal sooner have the Commissioners
against me than have the Lord. Be not afraid of them that kill the
body, and after that have no more that they can do but fear Him which
after He hath killed, hath power to cast into Hell. Yea, I say unto
thee, Fear Him!"
And Mrs Wade walked out of the door without saying another word. She
was going to look for the children. The baby she had already seen
asleep on Ursula's bed. Little Will she found in the midst of a group
of boys down by the brook, one of whom, a lad twice his size, was just
about to fight him when Mrs Wade came up.
"Now, Jack Tyler, if thou dost not want to be carried to thy father by
the scuff of thy neck, like a cat, and well thrashed to end with, let
that lad alone.--Will, where's thy sister?"